Modernity and the Holocaust

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Writing to Remain Human in Inhuman Conditions: From the Wartime Diaries of Janina Bauman’ – Lydia Bauman Between Structure and Event: Slow Catastrophe in Bauman’s Modernity and the Holocaust’ – Jonathon Catlin (Princeton University) Since the turn of the millennium, his books have tried to avoid the confusion surrounding the term "postmodernity" by using the metaphors of "liquid" and "solid" modernity. In his books on modern consumerism, Bauman still writes of the same uncertainties that he portrayed in his writings on "solid" modernity; but in these books he writes of fears becoming more diffuse and harder to pin down. Indeed, they are, to use the title of one of his books, "liquid fears" – fears about paedophilia, for instance, which are amorphous and have no easily identifiable reference. [35]

In a 2011 interview in the Polish weekly Polityka, Bauman criticised Zionism and Israel, saying Israel was not interested in peace and that it was "taking advantage of the Holocaust to legitimize unconscionable acts". He compared the Israeli West Bank barrier to the walls of the Warsaw Ghetto, where thousands of Jews died in the Holocaust. The Israeli ambassador to Poland, Zvi Bar, called Bauman's comments "half truths" and "groundless generalizations." [13] Modernity and the Holocaust in the light of Bosnia and Rwanda’ – Prof. Arne Johan Vetlesen (University of Oslo) Following the logical consequences of these debates, Stone examines race science and its impact on the Holocaust. Although it fully benefitted from the ‘respectability’ cast by academic race science onto the mystical theories about the Jews, the Nazi regime started to distance itself from it, as its empirical findings, classifications and distinctions – such as that between ‘race’ and ‘ Volk’ – threatened to undermine the Nazi racial-mystical propaganda.Gerlach, Alf; Hooke, Maria Teresa Savio; Varvin, Sverre (27 April 2018). "Psychoanalysis in Asia". Routledge. ISBN 978-0-429-91781-3 . Retrieved 24 April 2020. a b c Postone, Moishe (1992). "Review of Modernity and the Holocaust". American Journal of Sociology. 97 (5): 1521–1523. doi: 10.1086/229934. ISSN 0002-9602. JSTOR 2781448. S2CID 146976361. Lo siguiente que genera impacto es su crítica a la sociología, por su trato al tema del Holocausto y la Segunda Guerra Mundial, como se ha había quedado corta en su abordaje y conforme con la explicación simple de los buenos contra los malos, de barbarie versus civilización. Aunque creo que la antropología también le ha hecho falta esforzarse en el mismo camino. Y lo tercero, en lo que es claro Bauman, es en quitarle el monopolio del Holocausto a los judíos, dejando claro que fue una tragedia de varios grupos sociales y el más conocido de estos son los judíos. Leeds professor rejects Polish award over antisemitic slurs", The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 9 January 2017.

Shaun Best, Zygmunt Bauman on Education in Liquid Modernity, London, Routledge, ISBN 978-1-138-54514-4 Revisiting Modernity and the Holocaust is an essential contribution both to contemporary debates on the Holocaust and to the understanding of Bauman’s thinking.' – Anca Bălan, Holocaust. Studii şi cercetăriMoishe Postone reviewed the book for the American Journal of Sociology in 1992. He called the book "important and thought-provoking", although he also argued that "several aspects of [Bauman's] book are problematic" or "puzzling". He concluded that despite some issues, the book "represents an important contribution to contemporary sociological thought". [1] The Social Thought of Zygmunt Bauman before 1968: from the "Mechanistic" to the "Activistic" Version of Marxism". JSTOR 24919798. Modernidad y holocausto me encantó, desde el estilo de escritura hasta los detalles académicos, que no entran en el ámbito de lo especializado o intelectual. Z zagadnień współczesnej socjologii amerykańskiej [Questions of Modern American Sociology]. Warszawa: Książka i Wiedza.

During World War II, Bauman enlisted in the Soviet-controlled First Polish Army, working as a political instructor. He took part in the Battle of Kolberg (1945) and the Battle of Berlin. [5] In May 1945, he was awarded the Military Cross of Valour. [6] After World War II he became one of the Polish Army's youngest majors. [7] Michael Hviid Jacobsen, Poul Poder (eds.), The Sociology of Zygmunt Bauman: Challenges and Critique. London: Ashgate; ISBN 0-7546-7060-0.The people who went out of their way to save Jews from being murdered were the “freaks” of German society. They broke the law and transgressed every norm and value that they had been taught, betraying the world that raised them in the process, as well as their friends and colleagues. Baumann argues that the existence of people like this even in a totalitarian society like Nazi Germany suggests an inherent moral compass in human beings that even the most effective bureaucracy will struggle to completely eradicate. It reminds me that when Chelsea Manning revealed a video of innocent people being murdered by laughing U.S. soldiers in Baghdad, many people genuinely believed that Manning was the one who had committed the moral transgression in this situation. Jump, Paul (3 April 2014). "Zygmunt Bauman rebuffs plagiarism accusation". Times Higher Education . Retrieved 3 April 2014.

a b Moses, A. D. (2008-06-28). "Modernity and the Holocaust". Australian Journal of Politics & History. 43 (3): 441–445. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8497.1997.tb01398.x. Modernity and the Holocaust and Concentrationary Memories’ – Prof. Max Silverman (University of Leeds) At the same time, Stone refers often to the necessity of ‘modernizing’ the ‘victim research’ – still predominantly descriptive and insignificantly influenced by the terms of recent cultural history (pp. 277–83); he brings to the reader’s attention the few historic-cultural studies of victims and salutes them as innovatory applications of cultural theory and anthropology, able to provide insights into many traumatic dimensions of the horror. Yet, he stresses, They were not just considered as racially inferior (like Romanies), deviants (like homosexuals), or enemy nationals standing in the way of German colonial expansion (like Slavs). In the Nazi Weltanschauung (world view), history was understood as the struggle between good and evil, represented by the ‘Aryan’ and ‘non-Aryan’ races, in particular Germans and Jews… They were not mere Untermenschen (sub-humans) to be contrasted with the Nazi dream of the Übermensch (‘overman’ or superman), but were regarded as a Gegenrasse, a ‘counter-race’, that is to say, not really human at all (p. 2). Palese, E. (2013). "Zygmunt Bauman. Individual and society in the liquid modernity". SpringerPlus. 2 (1): 191. doi: 10.1186/2193-1801-2-191. PMC 3786078. PMID 24083097.

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I think I'm going to break off here and finish up, because... well, you could just go on forever. The only final thing I will mention is the one point at which Bauman recommends something: he believes that pluralism is the social character best suited to prevent the kind of social distance, depersonalization, and moral deconstruction that the totalitarian state wields to accomplish its ends. I tend to agree. Rather than trying eliminate the political or racial Other, we ought to assume some form of that Other needs to be a present, countervailing pressure so that various parties and pressure groups are held in tension. We should assume our own group can get out of hand and oppressive just as soon as any other could, and those whose party gets its way rarely find themselves in the driver's seat getting exactly what they want, and are often subjected to violent power dynamics within their own party, ones they find odious, and perhaps even regret working with in the end. Lo más inquietante, es reconocer lo correcto del planteamiento de Bauman, si el Holocausto es la extensión y consecuencia lógica de la modernidad, el Holocausto no fue un fenómeno sui generis, fue el primero, pero no será el último. ¿Cuantas veces en nuestra vida no hemos visto fenómenos similares? ¿Ruanda? ¿los Balcanes?