Desk killers: the psychology of committing crimes against humanity
HistoryExtra podcast
00:00
The Cognitive Dissonance of the Holocaust
When Eichmann was on trial in 1961, and someone accused him of murdering, he was furious at this accusation because he hadn't physically killed anyone with his own hands. And yet he was one of the key people at the Swansea conference who was sat there making those decisions about death camps and transportation. It's quite astonishing that psychological lead. We can very clearly see it with perpetrators often, but there's these so many ways of deflecting personal responsibility.
Play episode from 32:07
Transcript
