War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust

Bergen is committed to exploring the nuances of the Holocaust and World War II; she interrogates the aims, beliefs, and motivations of persons who committed evil acts while still staunchly condemning them. She invokes Hannah Arendt’s concept of the banality of evil, which posits that atrocities are usually committed and perpetuated by “normal” people, as opposed to single-minded monsters: “Most of the people involved in mass killing—as perpetrators, onlookers, and beneficiaries—were not crazed maniacs but ordinary people with familiar motivations” (123). One example of this principle in action is the social effects of “divide and conquer” strategies in occupied Poland:

There were Polish peasants who deplored German brutality but willingly took the property of Jews forced into ghettos. There were ethnic German families who moved into homes from which the Polish owners had been evicted and eagerly accepted the booty for themselves. Such people did not necessarily initiate destruction, but they profited from it and developed a stake in its continuation (123).

Many of the individuals committing crimes against Jews were not doing so out of bigotry. Some were motivated by greed, while others were motivated by self-preservation.

The firsthand accounts Bergen presents help flesh these complexities out further.