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Book cover

Ordinary People as Mass Murderers

Perpetrators in Comparative Perspectives

  • Book
  • © 2008

Overview

Editors:
  1. Olaf Jensen

    1. School of Historical Studies, University of Leicester, UK

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  2. Claus-Christian W. Szejnmann

    1. Loughborough University, UK

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

Part of the book series: The Holocaust and its Contexts (HOLC)

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Table of contents (10 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xviii
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  2. Introductory Thoughts and Overview

    1. Introductory Thoughts and Overview

      • Olaf Jensen
      Pages 1-21

  4. Female Perpetrators of the Holocaust

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 97-97
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    2. Women under National Socialism: Women’s Scope for Action and the Issue of Gender

      • Christina Herkommer
      Pages 99-119

    3. Female Concentration Camp Guards as Perpetrators: Three Case Studies

      • Irmtraud Heike
      Pages 120-142

  5. Psychological and Sociological Approaches

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 143-143
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    2. The Ordinariness of Extraordinary Evil: the Making of Perpetrators of Genocide and Mass Killing

      • James E. Waller
      Pages 145-164

    3. On Killing and Morality: How Normal People Become Mass Murderers

      • Harald Welzer
      Pages 165-181

  7. Back Matter

    Pages 221-228
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Keywords

About this book

Since the 1990s scholars have focused heavily on the perpetrators of the Holocaust, and have presented a complex and diverse picture of perpetrators. This book provides a unique overview of the current state of research on perpetrators. The overall focus is on the key question that it still disputed: How do ordinary people become mass murderers?

Reviews

'Ordinary People as Mass Murderers is an extraordinarily felicitous book which

ought to be regarded as an important enrichment to the academic and even to

the political discussion. It offers complex, detailed and sophisticated analyses

in every single one of its difficult subjects, and at the same time it is inspiring

and well readable. The editors doubtlessly succeeded in offering a supremely

objective and factual contribution on this urgent, extremely challenging and

delicate theme.'

- Wolfgang Benz, Center for Research on Anti-Semitism, Technical University of Berlin, Germany

Taterforschung (perpetrator research) is dominated by German scholars, and much of the sophisticated, detailed and empirically rich work has yet to find its way into English. This short collection of essays is thus very welcome as a contribution to the English-language scholarship on perpetrators...the book ranges widely, and the quality of the chapters is uniformly high, combining readabilty and up-to-date research. The book will be ideal for teaching at higher undergraduate or postgraduate levels...' - Dan Stone, Journal of Genocide Research

Editors and Affiliations

  • School of Historical Studies, University of Leicester, UK

    Olaf Jensen

  • Loughborough University, UK

    Claus-Christian W. Szejnmann

About the editors

ANDREJ ANGRICK Researcher, the Foundation for Science and Culture in Hamburg, Germany DONALD BLOXHAM Reader in History, the University of Edinburgh, UK GERD HANKEL Researcher, the Hamburg Institute of Social Research, Germany IRMTRAUD HEIKE Historian and author, Hanover, Germany CHRISTINA HERKOMMER Research Assistant and Lecturer, the Free University, Berlin, Germany OLAF JENSEN Lecturer in Holocaust Studies, University of Leicester, UK THOMAS KÜHNE Professor of History, Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA CLAUS-CHRISTIAN W. SZEJNMANN Reader in Modern European History, the University of Leicester, UK JAMES E. WALLER Edward B. Lindaman Chair and Professor of Psychology, Whitworth University, Spokane, Washington, USA HARALD WELZER Director of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Memory Research, the University of Witten/Herdecke, Germany

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