billc
Youth Player
Posts: 490
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Post by billc on Jan 27, 2020 8:42:11 GMT
A Concentration Camp Survivor in Abbey Hulton 1984
One of the books that I read at University was the German Political Philosopher Hannah Arendt’s book on the trial of Adolf Eichmann a leading Nazi for crimes against Jews during the Third Reich. She coined the phrase “banality of evil” to describe the sheer ordinariness of people like Eichmann Her thesis was that Eichmann was an extremely average person who relied on clichéd defences rather than thinking for himself and was motivated by professional promotion rather than ideology. I chanced on an account from a Stoke on Trent Council estate which rather proved Arendt’s hypothesis.
I came across a concentration camp survivor in the most unlikely of places on Abbey Hulton council estate in the early summer of 1984. The address was on Newhouse Road towards the Bucknall side. I was working in the Education Welfare service and was using the school holiday to check up on free school meal claimants on the estate. The woman was looking after her grandson who was attending one of the local Catholic schools. She spoke with a central European accent which I must have picked up upon. She was born in Vienna in the 1920s in a working class quarter of the city. In her childhood she witnessed heavy fighting in the February 1934 uprising which saw Socialists and Fascists at each other’s throats and in which several hundred other people died. After the forced union between Austria and Germany( Anschluss) which happened 4 years later the family split between those who were strongly in favour of Hitler and her branch of the family who remained strongly Catholic and suspicious of the Nazis.
This came to a head in the early years of the Second World War when an uncle achieved a high rank in the SS and demanded utter devotion to the Third Reich from his extended family. He did not get it from the women’s parents and consequently they found themselves for a period in a concentration camp, a forced labour camp at Lenzig a camp designed specifically for women. They were released from the camp after some negotiations between the Nazis and senior figures within the Austrian Catholic Church.
The uncle came to a sticky end when he was assassinated by Yugoslav partisans in Croatia in 1943. The woman married a British Tommy and came to England after the war.
The existence of evil is one that has always perplexed me and came to me in a particularly raw moment in March 1996 when Thomas Hamilton shot down a class of 7 year olds in Dunblane before turning the gun on himself. A day or so afterwards when everyone was in an intense emotional state the Nobel Peace prize winner Josef Rotblatt a nuclear scientist and peace advocate was at Keele University giving a talk. In the question and answer session I asked him about the existence of evil which he doubted.
I recall the late British historian and biographer of Hitler Alan Bullock reacting to the claims of scientism and the non existence of evil by exclaiming vociferously: "If he isn't evil, then who is? ... If he isn't evil the word has no meaning."
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Post by lordb on Jan 27, 2020 8:51:40 GMT
There was a German ex POW in Bradwell in the 1970's/80's called Adolf
For years I assumed it was an hilarious nickname but later found out that was actually his given name.
He wasn't evil mind
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Post by bathstoke on Jan 27, 2020 9:22:21 GMT
We’re all on the evil spectrum🧬
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Post by zerps on Jan 27, 2020 12:03:58 GMT
What’s the difference between Abbey Hulton and a concentration camp?
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Post by bigjohnritchie on Jan 27, 2020 12:38:23 GMT
On international holocaust remembrance day
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billc
Youth Player
Posts: 490
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Post by billc on Jan 27, 2020 12:59:44 GMT
National Holocaust Memorial day which is why the post. Not so long ago local Cllr Stephen Batkin was denying it happened.
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Post by Goonie on Jan 27, 2020 13:15:57 GMT
On international holocaust remembrance day As Bath has already stated, we're all on the spectrum of good and evil and our position varies daily: an unkind word here, a fear of the unknown alien there, a smile to a stranger or even a kind word For people to show real courage (like the chap in the video) you have to face risk and fear and still do the right thing by one's morality. Its is the altruistic selflessness of sacrifice that is inspirational in that it allows the human to become transcendent of our mortal form. The problem with evil is it's easier to be driven by fear and hate through violent acts than to transcend them with love. Ideology is what often justifies evil acts such as Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot and Stalin |
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Post by bathstoke on Jan 27, 2020 14:12:55 GMT
On international holocaust remembrance day That’s making my eyes burn... |
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Post by supersimonstainrod on Jan 27, 2020 15:33:22 GMT
National Holocaust Memorial day which is why the post. Not so long ago local Cllr Stephen Batkin was denying it happened. I find the concept of 'evil' truly fascinating. When contemplating the Holocaust,I always return to the oft quoted fact that of the 15 attendees of the infamous Wansee conference,at least 8 (maybe more?) held phd's. Ūber-intelligence it seems,is no guaranteed bulwark against the human capacity for evil deeds,indeed it can facilitate their enactment with a greater ingenuity. |
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