Since the 1990s scholars have focused heavily on the perpetrators of the Holocaust, and have presented a complex and diverse picture of perpetrators. This book provides a unique overview of the current state of research on perpetrators. The overall focus is on the key question that it still disputed: How do ordinary people become mass murderers?

'Ordinary People as Mass Murderers is an extraordinarily felicitous book which

ought to be regarded as an important enrichment to the academic and even to

the political discussion. It offers complex, detailed and sophisticated analyses

in every single one of its difficult subjects, and at the same time it is inspiring

and well readable. The editors doubtlessly succeeded in offering a supremely

objective and factual contribution on this urgent, extremely challenging and

delicate theme.'

• Wolfgang Benz, Center for Research on Anti-Semitism, Technical University of Berlin, Germany

Taterforschung (perpetrator research) is dominated by German scholars, and much of the sophisticated, detailed and empirically rich work has yet to find its way into English. This short collection of essays is thus very welcome as a contribution to the English-language scholarship on perpetrators...the book ranges widely, and the quality of the chapters is uniformly high, combining readabilty and up-to-date research. The book will be ideal for teaching at higher undergraduate or postgraduate levels...' - Dan Stone, Journal of Genocide Research

Autorentext
ANDREJ ANGRICK Researcher, the Foundation for Science and Culture in Hamburg, Germany DONALD BLOXHAM Reader in History, the University of Edinburgh, UK GERD HANKEL Researcher, the Hamburg Institute of Social Research, Germany IRMTRAUD HEIKE Historian and author, Hanover, Germany CHRISTINA HERKOMMER Research Assistant and Lecturer, the Free University, Berlin, Germany OLAF JENSEN Lecturer in Holocaust Studies, University of Leicester, UK THOMAS KÜHNE Professor of History, Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA CLAUS-CHRISTIAN W. SZEJNMANN Reader in Modern European History, the University of Leicester, UK JAMES E. WALLER Edward B. Lindaman Chair and Professor of Psychology, Whitworth University, Spokane, Washington, USA HARALD WELZER Director of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Memory Research, the University of Witten/Herdecke, Germany

Inhalt
List of Photographs List of Tables and Figures Preface Notes on Contributors Glossary Introductory Thoughts and Chapter Overview; O.Jensen PART I: PERPETRATORS OF THE HOLOCAUST Perpetrators of the Holocaust: A Historiography; C-C W.Szejnmann Male Bonding and Shame Culture: Hitler's Soldiers and the Moral Basis of Genocidal Warfare; T.Kühne The Men of Einsatzgruppe D.: An Inside View of a State-Sanctioned Killing Unit in the Third Reich; A.Angrick PART II: FEMALE PERPETRATORS OF THE HOLOCAUST Women under National Socialism: Women's Scope for Action and the Issue of Gender; C.Herkommer Female Concentration Camp Guards as Perpetrators: Three Case Studies; I.Heike PART III: PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACHES The Ordinariness of Extraordinary Evil: The Making of Perpetrators of Genocide and Mass Killing; J.E.Waller On Killing and Morality: How Normal People Become Mass Murderers; H.Welzer PART IV: PERPETRATORS AND GENOCIDE The Organisation of Genocide: Perpetration in Comparative Perspective; D.Bloxham International Law after the Nuremberg Trials and Rwanda: How Do Perpetrators Justify Themselves?; G.Hankel Index