Ellie Wiesel, Viktor Frankl, Primo Levi. These names are synonymous with Holocaust Memoirs.. The “Heroes” who experienced the horrors of history’s most evil men and lived to tell the tale. There are many others. Holocaust memoir is a genre unto itself. A genre, rightfully dominated by Holocaust survivors. But these memoirs are perhaps only half the story. There are millions of stories that will never be told by those who unnecessarily lost their lives during the holocaust, but what of the perpetrators? What is their story?
It may seem best to simply write the Nazis off as evil-born order takers, operating out of pure malice, and we may also rush to silence this evil in an attempt to stamp it out of existence, there are those who have stopped to ask: Why did this happen?
We cannot readily find the answers to those questions in the stories of those who survived, no matter how important and powerful their stories are. Instead we must look evil men in the eye and patiently listen. No easy task, but one that journalist Gitta Sereny, boldly took on in 1971 as she interviewed former SS Kommandant of Treblinka, Franz Stangl.
“no man’s actions can be judged in isolation from the external elements that shape and influence his life.”
If you believe that the Nazis were the embodiment of pure evil, then what you find in Stangl’s story may shock you. In our modern (American) discourse, the term “Nazi” or “fascist” is thrown around too easily, though, many among us today would have fallen in line with Nazi politics had we been alive then. True evil is not found in the insignia of a red arm band, but instead in seeds of intolerance inside the hearts of men, that when watered will fully bloom into unspeakable violence.
Despite his high rank, Stangl likely never even took another human life, a fact that he, and many other SS men used as armor in defense of their consciousness. Whether the likes of Hitler, and other high ranking Nazis conditioned thousands of men intuitively or intentionally, they ultimately succeeded in exploiting the fragility of the human mind and its susceptibility to find justification for the most malignant behavior.
“Intelligence, of course, is not necessarily equated to morality; indeed can become perilous if applied to nefarious purposes.”
Sereny’s efforts of journalism cannot be overstated in this work. Starting with her interviews with Stangl while he was imprisoned after his trials in the 1970s in Germany, Sereny traveled the globe to corroborate or refute his story. Gitta also stood strong as an impartial interviewer in order to get the true story out of this monstrous character.
While it’s impossible to completely remove oneself from the narrative as an interviewer, Sereny does well to only interject her thoughts when necessary, and to be forthright with any bias she may be feeling. While some have accused Gitta Sereny as someone who’s giving evildoers a platform, she is travelling into a realm few are willing to go in order to find the answers the world needs. If we know not how or why the holocaust happened, how then can we see the signs when the winds of racism and anti-Semitism begin to again brew.
Sereny’s tenacity of research, fearlessness in questioning and tranquility as she listened to evil men make excuses for their deplorable behavior should be commended, as this vital piece of history demonstrates how razor thin the margin is for something of this nature happening all over again.