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“…betrayal of the human spirit…’
Finished reading: The Ascent of Man by Jacob Bronowski 📚ISBN-10 : 1849901155 An excellent read and the most relevant quote for me is :
”… There are two parts to the human dilemma. One is the belief that the end justifies the means. That push-button philosophy, that deliberate deafness to suffering, has become the monster in the war machine. The other is the betrayal of the human spirit: the assertion of dogma that closes the mind, and turns a nation, a civilisation, into a regiment of ghosts – obedient ghosts, or tortured ghosts.“
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Sonderkommando as witnesses
“It is another world here, if you will; it is Hell, but Dante’s Hell is outrageously funny in comparison to this reality, and we are the witnesses who are not permitted to live.” - Handschriften von Mitgliedern des Sonderkommandos (1996) The so-called Sonderkommando (special detachment) of Auschwitz-Birkenau were the closest Jewish witnesses to mass murder. The SS isolated them from other Häftlinge (captives) and forced them to work the gas chambers. As witnesses they were killed. Some managed to record their testimony and buried them near the crematoria.
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“It is said that science will dehumanise people and turn them into numbers. That is false.. Look.. This is… Auschwitz. This is where people were turned into numbers.” - Bronowski, Jacob
Is this dehumanisation manipulation, political or otherwise or part of a cycle of violence?
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