Victims’ Reactions Shaped Behaviour of Perpetrators – Witch Hunting, Gulag, Holocaust, Milgram Study
During witch-hunting, virtually all people, including majority of alleged witches themselves, believed that witches were indeed guilty in bad weather, food spoilage, misfortune, natural disasters, and other effects and phenomena. It was presence and gradualism of torture that was one of the factors that made most witches convinced in being possessed by evil spirits. Hence, witch-hunters could get more confidence, when witnessing how “witches” exposed their “real nature” and admitted being possessed. This uniform belief was one of the key factors in longevity of mass witch-hunting that spread for about 3 centuries with large numbers of witches being burned or killed (up to about 100,000 victims according to many sources). In such conditions, there were very few, if any, cases, when a witch-hunter could get insight (”Aha!” experience) and realize absurdity of their own behaviour.
During Nazi’s Holocaust, some Jews could believe in their own inferiority. However, most of them were still not convinced, even after spending months or years in concentrations camps, that they were inferior in relation to the Arian race. Hence, behaviour of Holocaust victims was characterised by resistance and preservation of their original beliefs. Similarly, other nations did not buy the idea about one super race on Earth. Uncooperative behaviour of Holocaust victims and other nations undermined the spirit of Nazis so that it existence was limited by about 13 years. Resistance of Jews, disapproval of Nazism by other nations, and public trials (like Nuremberg process) made many Nazis grasp their heads in the astonishment and shock in relation to their past actions.