Hitler's Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields

Irme Grese

Although a female perpetrator is central to The Reader, we haven't discussed that aspect of the gender question very much. In fact, the vast majority of the perpetrators who were prosecuted were men. Are these kinds of atrocities typically masculine? The product of patriarchy?

Wendy Lower has written a new book called Hitler's Furies, which delves into the history of women who participated in the Holocaust. This review in The Daily Mail will give you a taste of her fascinating research.

On the left is Irme Grese, a concentration camp guard who was among the few women to be held accountable for her part in the murder of the Jews. She was hanged, at age 22, in 1945.

Hermine Braunsteiner Ryan, known as the "Mare of Majdanek," is sometimes considered a model for Hanna. Braunsteiner was convicted, sentenced to prison time in Austria, given amnesty, and moved to America. The Simon Wiesenthal Foundation tracked her down in 1964, but it took 9 years for the extradition to go through. The trial didn't begin until 1975 and took 8 years. Finally in 1981, she was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences. She was released for reasons of health in 1996, and died in 1999. Her full story here.

Romania Confronting Past Human Rights Abuses

Romania is coming to terms with the abuses committed under the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu, who was deposed in 1989. An 88 year old former prison commander, remembered as a "brutal sadist" by inmates, is the first person to be charged. The article in the New York Times brings up many points similar to the discussion that we've been having about The Reader: the national amnesia after the atrocities were committed, the continuity between the old and new elites after the dictatorship was ended, the excuses made by perpetrators ("I was just doing my job").

What Is Love?

"What is love?" 

A centuries old question asked by Shakespeare, Haddaway, and today also by the students of Clark University. 

The University libraries are adorned with phrases and ideas open to interpretation that students contribute to as time passes. Someone wrote, "What is love?" and the accumulated responses included:
"When your subconscious is attracted to another person's subconscious, subconsciously."
"Sex+Comfort+Time"
"Baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me, no more."
"it's holding hands even if your palms are sweaty"
"Oxytocin" (and its chemical structure)

So why bring up this familiar-yet-so-unfamiliar concept and question of love when reading The Reader?
In the book, 15-year-old Michael Berg enters his first serious relationship with 35-year-old Hanna. The relationship is unconventional and fiery, and Michael's passions run high. But the question of whether Michael is actually in love with Hanna is debatable. 
I came across the "What is love?" diagram while I was studying in the library and it made me think deeply about Michael's experience. Since Michael is only 15 and has never been seriously entangled with another lover in the past, it is natural to be cautious when using the word 'love' to describe what he is experiencing. I considered that Michael is seriously bewitched by Hanna and lusts her. Hanna, with her experience and allure, is intoxicating and addictive. Straining away from the poetic meaning of those two words, 'intoxicating' and 'addictive' are words that also describe a chemical change in the body that makes a person feel or react a certain way. This BCC article explains the chemical processes involved in love, such as the chemical oxytocin drawn in the diagram. This made me think whether Michael is addicted to Hanna or loves Hanna, or if addiction–to an extent–is one of the many components of love. If he loves her, does he love her without being IN love with her, or is he in love with her without loving her? Deborah Anapol, Ph.D, of Psychology Today makes the differentiation between sex and love, and may offer some insight on where the two overlap or do not overlap.

Thinking about love in the book might get you to reach a deeper understanding of the text, as well as maybe the idea of love in your own life. Who knows, maybe you will discover that there is a very think line between love and lust, or that true love means loving someone while being in love with them at the same time. Your peers at Clark are certainly thinking about it at as well!

The Invisible War

I went to see the screening of The Invisible War, a documentary about sexual assault in the US military, and I saw a lot of connections between the movie and The Reader. In the film, different women and men were interviewed about their experience with sexual assault in the military and all state the fact that the bureaucracy makes it almost impossible to bring their attackers to justice. They would often go to report the crime and people would either not believe them, attempt to cover the crime up, or simply twist the situation in order to make it seem that the assault was the victim’s fault. Defending itself in civilian court in 2011, the Pentagon argued that sexual assault is an “occupational hazard” in the military. The US military is one of the most trusted institutions in America (along with the Supreme Court) yet many people are unaware that they have this history of attempting to cover up sexual assault. I saw the people who put this film together almost akin to Michael in a way when he contemplated whether or not he should bring to light Hannah’s “lifelong lie” because some people want to remain almost blind to the atrocities in the world around them. Is it our right to bring things to light which may negatively affect the world around us, or is it better to allow people to keep their blinders on?

UN Millennium Goals

During recent UN talks about the Millennium Development Goals, many people have displayed their concerns that human rights have not been an issue which is of the utmost importance. In this article, many world leaders in the UN state that if basic human rights for people in poverty are not improved, the wealth gap around the world will continue to increase. In the search for improved industrialization and agri-business, many countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas have increased forced evictions of citizens who live in slums. Though countries are making these economic deals which can aid them in meeting Millennium Goal 8 (develop a global partnership for development) they in turn encroach upon the rights of more economically marginalized groups by simply taking the land that the slums were located in order to make room for various businesses.

 

The Secretary General for Amnesty International Salil Shetty even stated, “Any development agenda agreed by world leaders cannot leave the poorest, most marginalized and excluded people behind. Unless world leaders commit to placing human rights at the heart of the development agenda, we cannot achieve real change. It is time for world leaders to deliver.”

Hannah Arendt and Human Rights

The political theorist Hannah Arendt has an extremely interesting stance on the idea of human rights. As a German Jew in the early 20^th century, Arendt was well acquainted with anti-Semitism and other atrocities which occurred during the Holocaust. People were very critical of her views during the Nuremberg Trials due to the fact that she stated that the crimes that the Nazi’s committed were banal due to the fact that their actions were accepted, and she even went on to state that their crimes were simply a failure to think. Here are some excerpts of Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, and The Origins of Totalitarianism where she argues that traditional documents like The Declaration of the Rights of Men which set out a basis for rights have lost their validity and advocating for human rights only brings attention to their feebleness which can inadvertently lead to their abuse. Do you think that Arendt’s views on human rights were reflective on her environment or do you agree with her views on the discontents of human rights? 

 

Frankenstein as Explained by Science

Since I relate more to science (namely biology) than English, I found this research paper written about how childhood neglect and abuse by parents or guardians relates to 1. Higher psychopathic tendencies and 2. Much, much higher rates of violent behavior.  Even though I can't directly compare the novel and the scientific study (simply by nature of the type of each work), I think it's safe to say that Victor's abuse (by way of neglect) of the monster contributed to the monster's destructive behavior.

Human Rights and Honduras

Here is an interesting article on the stance of human rights in Honduras. The article talks about how leaders such as  Bertha Cáceres and Tomás Gómez  fighting for the rights of the indigenous people, are dealing with unfair punishment due to the government's lack of involvement in Human Rights. People fighting for human rights in Honduras are being treated unfair to the point where some fighting leaders are being severely harassed or even shot to death, and barely anything is being done about it. 

This image shows the peaceful rally resisting a hydroelectric project where Tomas Gomez got shot.

Here is a rather humorous allusion to Frankenstein. In this video (from the popular television show Adventure Time), the character Lemongrab expresses feelings almost identical to those of the monster. He, too, was an experiment gone wrong. He expresses his feelings of aloneness, his frustration with being misunderstood, and his resentment towards his creator for making him that way. In later episodes, Lemongrab becomes much more destructive as a result of his misery (he even murders someone), just like the monster.

Article: "India Gang Rape Case: 4 Men Sentenced To Death"

Here is the article about the men in India who have been sentenced to death for so brutally raping a woman that it led to her death. The woman was a college student and was attacked while riding a bus with her friend home from seeing the film Life of Pie. I found the situation particularly disturbing because this young woman was around our age, getting an education like we are, and on her way home from enjoying a movie like we may do; it just goes to show that anyone could meet this horrific fate if something is not done about rape, and violence in general, throughout the world. Fortunately, the men's sentence reflects that the Indian government and Indian society are refusing to accept such actions.

The Lottery

Here is a link to an online version of the short story, The Lottery. This short story raises a lot of questions about the roll that society plays in forming ideas about human rights. Our class discussion of the death penalty and how our opinions can change about it based on how it effects us made me initially think of this story. Hope you enjoy it! 

Snowden: A Human Rights Hero?

According to this article in The New York Times, Edward Snowden has been nominated for the Sakharov Prize for the Freedom of Thought, given by the Subcommittee on Human Rights of the European Parliament.

This major human rights award that has been given to such luminaries as Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and Nelson Mandela.

Representatives of the Green Parties of France and Germany said Mr. Snowden “deserves to be honored for shedding light on the systematic infringements of civil liberties by U.S. and European secret services."

Recent polls suggest that the vast majority of young Americans also think that Edward Snowden did a good thing. Do you think that he's a human rights hero?

Frankenstein and Freud

I found this really interesting article that you guys might want to check out! The writer talks about the story of Frankenstein through the perspective of Freud, like we had briefly discussed in class. I just thought she had some fascinating points, and the article ties together both the lecture we went to and the book we are reading very well.

"The Duty to Protect": Human Rights Hawks in Syria

Michael Ignatieff, professor of practice at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, published this piece on "the duty to protect" in The New York Times last Friday.

Ignatieff, who was one of the many liberals who supported the Iraq War, argues that an important aspect of preserving human rights is the obligation to intervene, even militarily, when human rights are threatened, which he believes is the case with the indiscriminate use of chemical weapons in Syria.

Samantha Power, currently the ambassador of the United States to the United Nations, is another strong proponent of United States military action to defend human rights. As a journalist, she witnessed the horrors of the civil war in the Balkans as Yugoslavia disintegrated, and believes that military action helped end the human rights abuses there. She was also a major supporter of the recent United States intervention in Libya.

This article is very interesting because it contains links to sites that contain information that will enrich your understanding of Frankenstein. I have always found it helpful to incorporate outside sources while I am reading a book like this because they help me to make conclusions and think about things that I would have never originally thought of.
While some of the sources that are linked to this article are more for the purposes of using a teacher to teach the book, I found that a couple of them were very helpful. For example the link that goes into explains the potential outcomes of DNA manipulation was very interesting and just provided some background information on a topic I know very little about!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqyQKEKpdDY

This is the trailer for Danny Boyle's production of Frankenstein.  Not only is it true to the book, but most of the story is from the monster's perspective, which I find much more interesting.  I don't know where you can find it, but I recommend watching it.

Mary Shelley's Parents: Political Radicals

Both of Mary Shelley's parents were political radicals, devoted to the cause of human rights.

Mary Wollstonecraft (1749-1797) was the author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). She is often considered one of the earliest feminists. She died as a result of her pregnancy with Mary Shelley.

Mary Shelley's father was William Godwin (1756-1836), who was also a political radical. He and Mary Wollstonecraft objected to the institution of marriage for ideological reasons, only marrying after the birth of young Mary to grant her legitimacy.

The British Romantics In Italy

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley acquired her last name through marriage to the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, a British Romantic poet, whose politics were as radical as his poetry. This is a view from the Keats-Shelley House in Rome, a lovely museum built in the apartment where Shelley's friend John Keats died.

The Keats-Shelley House is featuring a major exhibit on the women of the Romantic movement, especially Mary Shelley.

 Keats died of tuberculosis. His friend and roommate Joseph Severn drew this portrait of him on his deathbed.