A journey into a dark period for humanity
Once in a while, maybe just a couple of occasions in your lifetime, you get to see a place that will always stay with you. This year I happened to visit one such place.
Tucked away in a corner of Poland, it is not on a tourist trail. But going there transforms you and changes how you think about history, about humanity. It's a place, a couple of kilometres from the town of Oswiecim- the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex. This was the place where the Nazis killed over 1.5m people, predominantly Jews, during the years 1940-45.
We have all heard about the concentration camps, but the sheer size, the industrialisation of the process, and the modus operandi hits you. Auschwitz- Birkenau was the largest of such complexes. It was in Auschwitz that the Nazis experimented with mass killing using Cyclone B (Zyklon-B in German) gas pellets- they would drop these pellets into a basement room from hatches above, and these pellets would release the poisonous gas on interaction with air, leading to the death of people. They then industrialised the process of killing Jewish people and cremating them- and became an 'extermination' camp. People would come in trains, and in most cases, they would be sent straight to the gas chambers and killed within hours of coming to the camp. It was spine chilling. For more details, and to understand things better, please visit the website Auschwitz-Birkenau .
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I was reflecting on what made people commit these kinds of ghastly acts. How did they dehumanise a whole race? Why didn't anyone from the Nazis question this? The Shutzstaffel (or SS- the elite corps of the Nazi party who ran the show, selected from among the army) had tremendous powers- wonder why no one questioned them? How could they, in cold-blooded fashion, kills millions of women, children and old people without any qualms? The SS Commandant had his family quarters nearby- how could he live with his family in the evening after killing children in the morning? A whole group of people was vilified and put to such unimaginable hardship.
There are lessons for all of us students of the human behaviour. The Milgram experiments showed us that people still listen to authority- even when they are told to do unpleasant things. Read more about it here Milgram Experiment: Summary, Results, Conclusion, & Ethics (simplypsychology.org) There is another research on 'in-group' vs 'out-group' focus that gives clues to how cults are born.
The world has changed over these 80 years. But these are lessons that we as humanity should never forget. Thankfully, we are more aware now of such dangers. As we bid good- bye to 2022 and move to the New Year, I guess it is important for all of us to continue to work together for the larger good of humanity, pursuing simple values of openness, humility, equity, respect and being inclusive.
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1 年I had similar experiences in Cambodia and Vietnam. So much inhumanity you almost can’t bear it, and a deep realisation of how vigilant we need to be in our collaboration for a better world
Psychologist | Author | ICF Certified ACC Coach | Founder at LetsDRIVE | Certified BPS Level 1 & 2 Test User | Advocate of Cognitive Diversity & Total Inclusion
1 年Krish Shankar, thank you for sharing this. It is truly important to remember these lessons. It reminded me of the book, ‘The boy in stripped pyjamas’ by John Boyne, which is also made into a movie. The atrocities meted out is unimaginable. It is mind boggling to understand the mental status of those who carried out these inhuman acts. A link to a study for those interested - https://minds.wisconsin.edu/bitstream/handle/1793/66549/PieperSpring2013.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y
Country Head Infosys Germany / Gesch?ftsführerin / Executive Board Member Infosys Germany Holding GmbH
1 年Thank you Krish Shankar , it is so important that we never forget this horrible part of history, to learn from it, so that it will never happen again. Important to teach our children and grandchildren. And while this almost seems in some far away distance now, the #ukraine ???? war happens right next door, today, and every day people get killed on both sides. It is our responsibility to learn from the mistakes others make, from the mistakes we make…and to share compassion and love, solidarity and hope every day of our lives.
XLRI graduate with experience in HR Leadership roles in GCC and India. Helping nurture talent and capabilities.
1 年Krish –well-written and thought-provoking. As a student of Human behavior, I think Hitler might have managed to slowly express his unconscious bias against Jews and found many Germans at that point in time resonate with his biases. This might have further emboldened him to explicitly state his dislike and biases toward Jews.?This might have led to capturing the imagination of a section of the German population at that time to commit these atrocities.? Suppose the leader is able to foster the underlying unconscious biases of a significant section of his team. In that case, he manages to direct them to commit such atrocities. Tribal warlord killings in Africa, religious minorities being killed, or the Britishers in India managing to commit gruesome atrocities in India with help of Indian soldiers are all examples of such exploitation of human biases. ?In organizations, too leadership biases slowly cascade down and slowly impact the organizational culture. Instances of such negative leadership biases may have to be watched out for.?
Experienced CXO with multi industry and multi geography experiences. Recognised by ETHR among the 2022 Top 50 HR Thought Leaders in India
1 年Thanks for sharing Krish. It’s a good reflection to learn that much can stay the same way if we don’t question. Often it is just one question that can change this dynamic positively. Appreciate the share.