Alfred Rosenberg ialah tokoh penting dalam pembentukan ideologi Nazi dan dalam kepimpinan Nazi. Walaupun beliau tidak begitu berpengaruh dari segi politik, karya asasnya, Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts (Mitos Abad ke-20), menyajikan strategi dehumanisasi yang menyeluruh dan luas, yang menyebabkan beliau mendapat nama buruk. Di akar pandangan dunia Sosialisme Nasional terdapat suatu visi sejarah tentang dunia baharu, pandangan dunia yang meletakkan kefahaman diri manusia sebagai dicirikan oleh bangsa dan perjuangan untuk penguasaan etnik. Buku itu menerangkan:

Alfred Rosenberg was an important character in the formation of Nazi ideology and within the Nazi leadership. Though he was not so politically relevant, it was his seminal work, Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts (The Myth of the 20th Century), which came to present a thorough and far-ranging strategy of dehumanisation for which he earned his disrepute. At the root of the worldview of National Socialism is a historical vision of a new world, a worldview that positioned human self-understanding as characterised by race and struggle for ethnic domination. The book describes:

"Masa kini dan masa lalu tiba-tiba kelihatan dalam cahaya yang baharu, dan akibatnya kita mempunyai misi baharu untuk masa depan. Tindakan sejarah dan masa depan tidak lagi bermakna perjuangan kelas atau peperangan antara doktrin Gereja, sebaliknya konflik antara darah dan darah, bangsa dan bangsa, rakyat dan rakyat. Dan ini bermakna pertempuran antara nilai-nilai rohani."64

“Present and past are suddenly appearing in a new light, and as a result we have a new misson for the future. The actions of history and the future no longer signify class struggle or warfare between Church dogmas, but rather the conflict between blood and blood, race and race, people and people. And this means combat between spiritual values.”64

Karya Rosenberg membentuk gambaran tentang orang Yahudi sebagai "parasit", dengan mendefinisikan mereka sebagai "anti-bangsa" yang tidak sepenuhnya manusia dan tidak dapat menjadi sebahagian daripada identiti sosial Jerman, malah identiti sosial global. Beliau berhujah bahawa orang Yahudi juga tidak mempunyai dimensi metafizikal dan budaya, dan oleh itu tidak boleh digolongkan dalam bangsa manusia, sebaliknya menjadi seperti haiwan. Oleh sebab itu, orang Yahudi sering dibandingkan dengan tikus dalam propaganda Nazi, termasuk karya seni, poster, ucapan dan filem. Imejan haiwan yang serupa juga lazim di Rwanda, apabila orang Tutsi dipanggil "lipas", dan begitu juga hamba kulit hitam di Amerika, yang dipandang sebagai haiwan yang kurang daripada manusia. Menariknya, dalam semua contoh tersebut, kita dapati corak merujuk kepada haiwan yang kebanyakannya ditakuti, seperti ular, tikus dan cicak. Penyisihan atau "Othering" inilah, iaitu menganggap orang lain sebagai entiti yang boleh dibuang dan kurang daripada manusia, yang bukan sahaja membolehkan tetapi juga mempercepatkan perkembangan kecenderungan genosid. Istilah untermenschen bagi Nazi bukanlah gambaran bagi mereka yang seperti entiti submanusia, tetapi gambaran bagi mereka yang memang submanusia. Pendakwa raya utama Telford Taylor dalam perbicaraan 1946

Rosenberg’s work formed an image of the Jewish person as a “parasite”, defining them as an ‘anti-race’ who were not fully human and could not be part of a German or even global social identity. Jews were furthermore devoid, he argued, of a metaphysical and cultural dimension and could not be prescribed to a human race, rendering them instead animal-like. Jews were henceforth often compared to rats in Nazi propaganda - including art pieces, posters, speeches and films. The same kinds of animalistic imagery were prevalent in Rwanda when Tutsis were called “cockroaches” and so too were black slaves in the Americas, viewed as subhuman animals. Interestingly, in all the aforementioned instances, we observe a pattern of referencing animals that are mostly feared, such as snakes, rats and lizards. It was this Othering, such a castigating of others as disposable and less-than-human entities that both made possible and accelerated the development of genocidal tendencies. The untermenschen for the Nazis was not a description to describe those who were like subhuman entities, but to describe those who were subhuman. Principal prosecutor Telford Taylor of the 1946

Perbicaraan doktor-doktor di Nuremberg dibuka dengan kenyataan ini:

Nuremburg doctors’ trial opened with this statement:

"Defendan dalam kes ini didakwa dengan pembunuhan, penyeksaan dan kekejaman lain yang dilakukan atas nama sains perubatan. Mangsa jenayah-jenayah ini berjumlah ratusan ribu orang. Hanya segelintir yang masih hidup; beberapa orang daripada mangsa yang terselamat akan hadir di dalam mahkamah ini. Tetapi kebanyakan mangsa yang malang ini telah dibunuh secara langsung atau mati semasa menjalani penyeksaan yang dikenakan ke atas mereka ... Bagi pembunuh mereka, orang-orang yang celaka ini sama sekali bukan individu. Mereka dibawa dalam kumpulan besar dan dilayan lebih teruk daripada haiwan."65

“The defendants in this case are charged with murders, tortures and other atrocities committed in the name of medical science. The victims of these crimes are numbered in the hundreds of thousands. A handful only are still alive; a few of the survivors will appear in this courtroom. But most of these miserable victims were slaughtered outright or died in the course of the tortures to which they were subjected ... To their murderers, these wretched people were not individuals at all. They came in wholesale lots and were treated worse than animals.”65

Dua ayat terakhir itu menyerang dasar dehumanisasi Jews dalam Holocaust oleh Nazi. Program pemusnahan yang begitu canggih tidak dapat dijelaskan secukupnya dalam beberapa perkataan atau dengan merujuk kepada seorang arkitek tunggal. Ia adalah pemikiran yang berubah dalam skala perindustrian, yang menetapkan agenda tindakan, serta pemikiran tentang manusia sebagai kurang daripada manusia yang membuka jalan bagi kekejaman tidak terkata yang diterangkan oleh Taylor. Apabila orang Jews dan Gypsies, dalam pemikiran umum, menjadi untermenschen, dan dengan itu dikecualikan daripada sistem hak moral normal yang mengikat manusia bersama. Orang ramai telah dikondisikan untuk berfikir bahawa orang Jews dan Gypsies tidak lagi manusia, sebaliknya tikus berjangkit yang pembuangannya merupakan keperluan sosial.

The last two sentences strike at the horrific policy of Nazi dehumanisation of Jews in the Holocaust. Such a sophisticated program of extermination cannot however be adequately explained in a few words or with reference to a single architect. It is a changed thinking on an industrial scale that sets the agenda for action, and the thinking of humans as less than human that paved the way for the unspeakable atrocities that Taylor described. Once the Jews and Gypsies became, in the public mind, the untermenschen, and thus excluded from the normal system of moral rights that bind humans together. People had been conditioned to think that Jews and Gypsies were no longer human but infected rats whose disposal was a social necessity.

Oleh yang demikian, adalah amat penting bagi seorang Muslim untuk mempunyai kefahaman sejarah yang baik tentang kaum-kaum yang dia berhubung dengan. Mengetahui peristiwa yang mempunyai kepentingan sosio-sejarah yang besar bagi sesuatu kaum boleh membuka ruang kepada empati dan kefahaman yang lebih baik. Latar belakang sejarah kita jelas memberi kesan kepada sikap kita terhadap dunia dan terhadap orang lain; ia membentuk sebahagian daripada watak dan keperibadian kita. Memahami kesakitan yang telah ditanggung oleh orang lain dapat memudahkan pengambilan perspektif dan menumbuhkan penghargaan. Banyak pengajaran diperoleh daripada Perbicaraan Nuremberg mengenai psikologi "pengasingan" (Othering) dan proses menyahmanusiakan mangsa Holocaust, serta psikologi para pelaku. Penyalahgunaan kuasa yang melampau tergambar dalam keterangan pelaku Nazi yang bersikeras mengamalkan dasar merendahkan martabat orang Yahudi sebagai dasar sosial. Perbuatan merendahkan itu merupakan komponen asas yang menjadikan apa yang bermula sebagai sikap tidak bertoleransi dan penganiayaan berkembang menjadi pengasingan yang meluas, yang akhirnya memuncak kepada pembunuhan besar-besaran.

In light of the above, it is very important for the Muslim to have a good historical understanding of the peoples with who he or she engages. Knowing of events that have immense socio-historical importance for people can open avenues for empathy and better understanding. Our historical contexts have an obvious bearing on our attitudes towards the world and towards others; they form part of our characters and personalities. Understanding the pain that others have endured can better facilitate perspective taking and harness appreciation. Much was learnt from the Nuremburg Trials about the psychology of Othering and dehumanising of the Holocaust victims, as well as the psychology of the perpetrators. The gross abuse of power is reflected in the testimonies of Nazi perpetrators who had insisted on a policy of debasing Jews as a matter of social policy. Their degrading was a fundamental component of eliciting what began as intolerance and abuse into a widespread othering, culminating in their mass murder.

Dalam perbicaraan, Gitta Sereny bertanya kepada Stangl, "Jika mereka akan dibunuh juga, apa gunanya semua penghinaan itu, mengapa kekejaman itu?" Stangl menjawab, "Untuk membentuk mereka yang sebenarnya harus melaksanakan dasar-dasar itu. Supaya mereka dapat melakukan apa yang mereka lakukan."66

In the trials, Gitta Sereny asked Stangl, “if they were going to kill them anyway, what was the point of all the humiliation, why the cruelty?” Stangl replied, “To condition those who actually had to carry out the policies. To make it possible for them to do what they did.”66

Apa yang didedahkan oleh pengawal Nazi ialah identiti kemanusiaan mangsa mereka perlu dipadamkan. Mereka perlu dijadikan 'tidak manusiawi', 'seperti haiwan', dan tingkah laku mereka perlu sesuai dengan karikatur yang telah mereka sebarkan dalam persekitaran sosial mereka – dalam media, di sekolah dan di kalangan orang awam. Dasar tersebut juga mendedahkan naluri semula jadi yang sedia ada, iaitu rasa jijik terhadap pembunuhan. Membunuh secara besar-besaran di peringkat perindustrian bukanlah perkara yang mudah, maka minda perlu diprogramkan dan dikondisikan untuk percaya bahawa muncung senjata hanya diarahkan kepada seekor tikus, perosak, dan bukan kepada seorang manusia yang setara.

What the Nazi guards revealed was that the human identity of their victims needed to be effaced. They needed to become ‘unhuman’, ‘animal-like’ and their behaviour needed to fit the caricature they had promulgated in their social environment – in the media, in schools and among the lay population. What the policy further reveals is the natural, innate abhorrence to murder. It was not so easy to commit murder on such an industrial scale and so the mind had to be programmed, conditioned to believe that the barrel points only at a rodent, a pest and not at an equal human being.

Adalah penting bagi seorang Muslim untuk menyedari konteks-konteks yang lebih luas dalam sejarah manusia, untuk mengetahui bila dan di mana perlu bersikap peka, serta bagaimana memahami sesuatu keadaan tertentu dengan mengambil kira kesannya yang lebih meluas. Agak mudah, dalam mana-mana hubungan, termasuk hubungan sesama Muslim, untuk kadangkala melampaui apa yang dituntut dan melanggar batas-batas kesopanan dan apa yang diterima. Apabila kita gagal membezakan antara orang-orang, kita berisiko melakukan karikatur terhadap mereka secara menyeluruh dan dalam istilah yang sangat umum, sehingga kita melihat orang lain sebagai yang pada asasnya dan selamanya dianggap sebagai "orang lain", walaupun mereka berkongsi agama yang sama. Dengan minda yang sedemikian, interaksi dengan orang lain menjadi bermasalah, kerana kita terjatuh ke dalam masalah yang sama seperti yang dihadapi orang lain terhadap umat Islam, iaitu melihat orang lain sebagaimana mereka telah dididik dan dibiasakan untuk melihat kita.

It is essential for the Muslim to be aware of the broader contexts of human history, to know when and where to be sensitive and how to understand a specific context in light of its broader resonances. It is quite easy, in any relational context, including one between Muslims, to sometimes go beyond what is required and to overstep the boundaries of what is decent and acceptable. In our failing to make distinctions between people, we can run the risk of caricaturing them completely and in very general terms to the point where we see others as inherently and permanently Othered despite belonging to the same faith. With such a frame of mind, engaging with others is problematised since we fall into the same problem that others have of Muslims - of seeing others as they have been indoctrinated and conditioned to see us.

Kisah dua orang anak Adam itu memberi petunjuk bukan sahaja tentang dorongan yang mungkin menggerakkan seseorang untuk membunuh, tetapi juga tentang apa yang boleh dirasai oleh pembunuh itu, dan apa yang dikatakan oleh hati nurani ketika jenayah itu dilakukan. Kajian dan karya Milgram, Obedience to Authority, memberi kita pemahaman yang baik tentang hubungan antara melakukan perbuatan jahat dengan ketaatan, serta hubungan antara melakukan kekejaman dengan sikap tidak peduli. Salah seorang peserta dalam kajian ketaatan Milgram mengingatkan: "Anehnya, anda benar-benar mula lupa bahawa ada seorang lelaki di sana, walaupun anda dapat mendengarnya. Untuk masa yang lama, saya hanya menumpukan perhatian pada menekan suis dan membaca perkataan-perkataan itu."67

The story of the two sons of Adam is revealing not only for what it describes of the impulse that might drive a person to murder, but also about what that murderer can feel, what the conscience speaks as the crime is committed. Milgram’s study and work Obedience to Authority provides us with a good understanding of the relationship between committing acts of evil and of obedience, as well as the relationship between the committing of acts of cruelty and of indifference. One of the participants in Milgram’s obedience studies recalled: “It’s funny how you really begin to forget that there’s a guy out there, even though you can hear him. For a long time, I just concentrated on pressing the switches and reading the words.”67

Medan kognitif antara pelaku dan mangsanya menjadi sempit, sehingga perasaan terasing dan acuh tak acuh membuat perbuatan itu kelihatan kurang keji dan lebih boleh diterima.

The cognitive field between the perpetrator and his victim is narrowed and so feelings of detachment and indifference enable the act to appear less heinous and more acceptable.

Sebaliknya, apabila terdapat kedekatan antara mangsa dan pelaku, pelaku lebih sedar akan kod-kod pengenalan manusia – kesakitan, darah, rasa tidak selesa, dan perasaan takut. Dia dapat melihat dan memerhatikan mangsanya, dan pada diri mangsa itu dia boleh mula mengaitkan dirinya dengan sebahagian daripada dirinya sendiri – tempat lahirnya empati. Perkara ini digemakan oleh Kolonel Barry Bridges dalam kenyataan berikut:

Contrastingly, when there is proximity between victim and perpetrator the latter is more conscious of human codes of recognisability – pain, blood, unease, and feelings of fear. He can see and observe his victim and in him he can begin to relate to some of himself – the breeding ground of empathy. This is echoed by Colonel Barry Bridges in the following statement:

"Saya akan membuat satu perbezaan antara menjadi juruterbang tempur dan menjadi seseorang yang berperang menentang musuh secara bersemuka di darat. Dalam persekitaran udara, ia sangat klinikal, sangat bersih, dan tidak begitu peribadi. Anda melihat sebuah pesawat; anda melihat sasaran di darat – anda tidak berhadapan muka dengan peluh dan emosi peperangan, jadi ia tidak menjadi begitu emosional bagi anda dan tidak begitu peribadi. Dan saya rasa ia lebih mudah dilakukan dalam erti kata itu – anda tidak terkesan."68 (Kolonel Barry Bridges, Tentera Udara Amerika Syarikat)

“I would draw one distinction between being a combat aviator and being someone who is fighting the enemy face-to-face on the ground. In the air environment, it’s very clinical, very clean, and it’s not so personalized. You see an aircraft; you see a target on the ground – you’re not eyeball to eyeball with the sweat and the emotions of combat, and so it doesn’t become so emotional for you and so personalised. And I think it is easier to do in that sense – you’re not affected.”68 (Colonel Barry Bridges of the U.S. Air Force)

In relation to what a perpetrator might feel when such crimes are committed at close quarters, and the effect this has on a human conscience, Christopher Browning explores this in his very revealing study of what changed in the ordinary Germans who made the Holocaust happen, Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland (London, 1992). What changed in the hearts of tens of thousands of ordinary soldiers and policemen, businessmen, truck drivers, writers and teachers, only a minority of whom were members of the Nazi party? These were people who rounded up and methodically executed millions of Jews. Browning describes the rounding up of 1,800 Jews in the village of Józefów, in east-central Poland. In the operation, Jews of working age were to be sent to a camp in Lublin, while the women, children and elderly were to be shot on the spot. Many refused the order that day. Lieutenant Heinz Buchmann was one of them. He had joined the Nazis in 1937 and by 1942 was commander of the First Platoon of First Company. On hearing of the impending massacre of civilians, Buchmann protested that he "would in no case participate in such an action, in which defenceless women and children are shot."69

In relation to what a perpetrator might feel when such crimes are committed from proximity and the bearing this has on a human conscience, Christopher Browning explores in his very revealing study about what changed in the ordinary Germans who made the Holocaust happen, Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland (London, 1992). What changed in the hearts of tens of thousands of ordinary soldiers and policemen, businessmen, truck drivers, writers and teachers, only a minority of who were members of the Nazi party? These people who rounded up and methodically executed millions of Jews? Browning describes the rounding up of 1,800 Jews in the village of Józefów, east-central Poland. In the operation, Jews of working age were to be sent to a camp in Lublin whilst the women, children and elderly were to be shot on the spot. Many refused the order that day. Lieutenant Heinz Buchmann was one of them. He had joined the Nazis in 1937 and by 1942 was commander of the First Platoon of First Company. When hearing of the impending massacre of civilians, Buchmann protested that he “would in no case participate in such an action, in which defenceless women and children are shot.”69

Beberapa sepuluh hingga dua belas orang lelaki lain turut menyerahkan senapang mereka, sedozen orang daripada 500 orang. Arahan pada hari itu ialah menembak mereka yang terlalu lemah untuk berjalan ke pasar dan sesiapa sahaja yang cuba bersembunyi, walaupun dalam banyak kes lelaki-lelaki itu berasa keberatan untuk menembak bayi semasa operasi tersebut. Menyedari kengerian suasana itu dan rasa bersalah yang mendalam, seorang anggota polis berkata bahawa "…dalam kalangan orang Yahudi yang ditembak di kawasan kami tidak ada bayi atau kanak-kanak kecil. Saya ingin mengatakan bahawa hampir semua orang secara diam-diam menahan diri daripada menembak bayi dan kanak-kanak kecil." Seorang anggota polis yang lain turut menyatakan bahawa "…secara diam-diam, penembakan bayi dan kanak-kanak kecil dielakkan oleh hampir semua lelaki yang terlibat. Sepanjang pagi itu saya dapat memerhatikan bahawa ketika dibawa pergi, ramai wanita mendukung bayi dalam pelukan mereka dan menuntun kanak-kanak kecil dengan tangan."70

Some ten to twelve other men also turned in their rifles, a dozen men out of 500. The orders that day were to shoot those too frail to walk to the marketplace and anyone trying to hide, though in many cases men shied from shooting infants during the operation. Alert to the ghastliness of the scene and emotional guilt, one policeman said that “…among the Jews shot in our section of town there were no infants or small children. I would like to say that almost tacitly everyone refrained from shooting infants and small children.” Another policeman likewise noted that “…tacitly the shooting of infants and small children was avoided by almost all the men involved. During the entire morning I was able to observe that when being taken away many women carried infants in their arms and led small children by the hand.”70

Seorang anggota polis mengaku bahawa dia mendapati tiada seorang pun mangsa – wanita, warga tua, orang sakit, bayi – yang akan pulang ke rumah hidup-hidup pada hari itu. Orang lelaki tidak campur tangan. Namun, sesetengah daripada mereka kesal kerana tidak menolak lebih awal, dan menggambarkan pembunuhan itu sebagai "menjijikkan."71 Ada yang merayu bahawa mereka juga bapa yang mempunyai anak dan tidak mampu meneruskan. Ada lagi yang cuba mengelak pada hari itu. Pegawai bukan tauliah yang bersenjatakan senapang mesin ringan dikenali kerana "tersasar" daripada mangsa mereka.72 Semasa operasi itu, sesetengah lelaki bersembunyi di taman seorang paderi Katolik, manakala yang lain berlegar di pasar kerana keengganan mereka untuk menghimpunkan orang Yahudi; ada juga yang melambatkan penglibatan mereka dengan menghabiskan masa tambahan menggeledah rumah supaya mereka dapat mengelak daripada pasar tempat mereka akan terlibat dalam pasukan penembak. Seorang pemandu yang ditugaskan membawa orang Yahudi ke hutan hanya membuat satu perjalanan sebelum dia meminta untuk digantikan. Ramai lelaki mengadu pada hari itu bahawa mereka tidak sanggup menembak wanita dan kanak-kanak, dan akibatnya ramai yang dibebaskan daripada operasi itu. Seorang askar, Walter Niehaus, diarahkan menembak seorang wanita tua dan tidak mampu meneruskan selepas pembunuhan itu, "saraf saya benar-benar hancur akibat satu tembakan ini." Yang lain menyatakan, "Saya menjadi begitu sakit sehingga saya tidak lagi mampu"; "keseluruhan urusan ini kini begitu menjijikkan bagi saya sehingga saya kembali kepada ketua platun saya dan memberitahunya bahawa saya sakit dan meminta untuk dibebaskan."73

One policeman confessed to finding that none of the victims – women, elderly, sick, infants, would return home alive that day. The men did not intervene. Some however regretted not having refused earlier, describing the killings as “repugnant.”71 Some pleaded they too were fathers with children and were unable to continue. There were others still who sought evasion on that day. Non-commissioned officers armed with submachine guns were known to have “shot past” their victims.72 During the operation, other men hid in a Catholic priest’s garden, others hung around a marketplace, because of their reluctance to round up Jews; others delayed their participation by spending additional time in the searching of houses so they could avoid the marketplaces in which they would participate in the firing squads. A driver assigned to take Jews to the forest made only one trip before he asked to be relieved. Many men complained that day that they could not shoot at women and children, and consequently many were relieved from the operation. One soldier, Walter Niehaus was instructed to shoot an elderly woman and was unable to continue after her murder, “my nerves were totally finished from this one shooting.” Others decried, “I had become so sick that I simply couldn’t anymore”; “the entire business was now so repugnant to me that I returned to my platoon leader and told him that I was sick and asked for my release.”73

Salah satu kisah yang paling menggugah yang dikutip oleh Browning menceritakan tentang Franz Kastenbaum, yang kemudian mengaku atas keterlibatannya yang memberatkan bersama Batalion Polis Simpanan 101.

One of the most evocative accounts cited by Browning describes Franz Kastenbaum who confessed later to his damning participation with Reserve Police Batallion 101:

"Penembakan ke atas lelaki-lelaki itu begitu menjijikkan bagi saya sehingga saya terlepas sasaran pada lelaki keempat. Saya sudah tidak mungkin lagi membidik dengan tepat. Tiba-tiba saya berasa mual dan lari meninggalkan tempat penembakan itu. Saya telah menyatakan diri saya dengan salah sebentar tadi. Bukan begitu, saya sudah tidak dapat membidik dengan tepat, sebaliknya pada kali keempat itu saya sengaja tidak mengenainya. Kemudian saya lari masuk ke dalam hutan, muntah, dan duduk bersandar pada sebatang pokok. Untuk memastikan tiada sesiapa berdekatan, saya memanggil dengan kuat ke dalam hutan, kerana saya mahu bersendirian. Hari ini saya boleh katakan bahawa saraf saya benar-benar telah hancur. Saya rasa saya kekal bersendirian di dalam hutan selama kira-kira dua atau tiga jam."74

“The shooting of the men was so repugnant to me that I missed the fourth man. It was simply no longer possible for me to aim accurately. I suddenly felt nauseous and ran away from the shooting site. I have expressed myself incorrectly just now. It was not that I could no longer aim accurately, rather that the fourth time I intentionally missed. I then ran into the woods, vomited, and sat down against a tree. To make sure that no one was nearby, I called loudly into the woods, because I wanted to be alone. Today I can say that my nerves were totally finished. I think that I remained alone in the woods for some two or three hours.”74