Documentation of names

*(2.15 minute read)

It isn't a Nazi thing - to document everything. One must understand the German character. We're talking about a very work disciplined ethics type culture based on appearance. When the Germans work, they work; no fraternizing until the work gets done; play, relax and lounge to one's content with family, work colleagues, and pub buddies; be happy, be merry, all that good stuff, at night after the productive day.

This is still true of the work ethos mentality of Germans today - with the Nazi ordeal being a haunting memory. Point is, recording, labeling everything, taking even the most detailed notes, organizing and coordinating is a very German thing, a culture of builders.

The Nazis, despite being Nazis, were not stupid. They quickly realized they could game the system and fool companies like the Red Cross and other institutions into thinking they were really cool guys (lots of people followed them too). One such example is the seemingly "cozy" middle-class Jewish ghetto/concentration camp in the land of Bohemia, present-day Czech Republic, Theresienstadt, a stopping point on the way to the extermination camps.

On just appearance alone, one would not expect anything sinister or shady going on because everyone looked like they were simply confined to restricted areas under watch. Nothing looked suspicious or out-of-the ordinary.

One of the Jewish "prisoners", Viktor E. Frankl, author of "Man's Search for Meaning", which details his experiences in the Nazi death camps, who would survive The Holocaust and advocate the practice of logotherapy, a psychological therapy aimed in suggestive thought, a technique now as controversial as the man himself after new details have emerged over the last few decades indicating he bought himself time and life by using his talents in assisting the Nazis, aided in preventing suicide at the hybrid waystation.

How, you might be asking, is preventing suicide a part in helping his Nazi captors? For one thing, a person taking their own life means the Nazis now have a deceased person who will be harder to hide from other curious authorities (again, Red Cross) whose job is to ensure things are being humane, which these Nazi concentration camps aren't (when were they?), being dressed up as something else.

Plus, the Nazis were very reluctant to want to fudge the records since everything had to be as accurate as possible so everything could go according to plan (rounding up Jews in the ghettos, genocide would come later on a separate matter).

Basically, dead bodies being the result of choice made things messy and harder to keep undisclosed. Without record keeping, the big Nazi plan would fail due to not looking normal to others.

For additional reading on Viktor E. Frankl, here's this reference that details some of his controversies.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/authoritarian-therapy/201604/the-case-against-viktor-frankl

The idea of a victim becoming a perpetrator to save their own skin, forsaking others yet saving lives at the same time, is a major moral dilemma, and one all of us should never hope we have to face. Had Frankl been more honest from the beginning, in my opinion, his reprehensible actions would have been more forgivable and less self-serving when becoming a face for Holocaust survivors.

It's hard to distinguish lavishing the spotlight selfishly for oneself and one who advocates for the vulnerable when the integrity of that person's character is shown to be not being completely honest. No doubt that his experience messed up his mind though.

An old Yiddish saying goes:
A goy zugt a vertl

In English, it translates to:
"As the peasant says..."

Quote is from Jane Yolen's "The Devil's Arithmetic" historical fiction novel of the same name as the film.

A condensed free online version of the novel. Highly recommended.
https://www.gradesaver.com/the-devils-arithmetic

Last EDITED:
August 18, 2019

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