Show what Is explanation of nazi atrocities professor says german government remains at primitive tribal level IP HE nazi atrocities of this war have occurred because the ger man state is not a century government but a primitive form of tribal culture theodore abel professor of sociology at columbia university ver sity declares if we are puzzled by german conduct it is not because of its existence but because it exists in the century and is practised practiced by a nation which ranks very high in intellectual tel and cultural achieve bents professor abel points out it is the anachronism which disturbs us to wage aggressive warfare to desire the subjugation of other people to live under an authoritarian regime all this seems to be out of tune with modern times in which tendencies are toward individual freedom growing pen dence of nations and the need for internationalism there is no single item on the list of german horrors that is uniquely german according to professor abel nor does history show us that germany has been more aggressive than other nations every nation has persecuted with the exception of holland every nation of which part of its population consisted of jews persecuted them at one time or another the records of england in the century of spain in the and of russia in the are as black as the german record of the the sadism of the concentration camps finds its match in the sadism of the spanish inquisition and innumerable other cases of mass torture throughout the ages the comparative percentages of years at war from the irth to the century for the countries of europe as compiled by professor of harvard show that spain heads the list with 67 per cent closely followed by poland england and russia at the bottom of the list is germany with 28 per cent in the wars of 1400 to 1800 england trance france and S spain p ain who were the aggressor nations displayed the same qualities of desire for conquest and treacherous dealing that modern germany has evinced the failure of germany to develop as a modern civilized state forms the core of the german enigma professor abel finds at the close of the middle ages two lines of social development were possible for the nations of europe he explains first a nation could break with the past discard traditional values develop new institutions this possibility was thoroughly realized by france and england secondly a nation could retain its old values and institutions merely adapting them to changed conditions this possibility has been most thoroughly realized by germany germany is not actually backward in its development it is different where the western nations eradicated feudalism dethroned dethroner nobility and the clergy made the bourgeoise the ruling class embraced capitalism and laissez faire as their economic doctrine and the four freedoms as their social theory germany never had a social revolution 44 rule by barons the german state carried over feudalism from the middle ages to the and centuries the ruling class did not change the political doctrine of this class aued al barons in modern garb is the state based on allegiance to a dynast or fuehrer and an all pervading hierarchy its economic doctrine is a patrimony the benevolent state with economic interest subordinated to the political interest of the state its social doc trines brines are authority duty honor and the dictum that the individual is the servant of the state this state of affairs has in turn produced many forms of adjustment peculiar to germany professor abel says the most characteristic te are 1 preoccupation with status conditioned by the hierarchical arch ical structure of german society y 2 subservience su ence and political ignorance of the masses fostered by the authoritarian nature of the german regime and 3 a strong ethnocentrism induced by a sense of isolation which accompanied the divergence of germany from the trend ot of social development devel in western 1 europe under the tension of war such ethnocentrism becomes extreme i non germans are considered a dif J ferent species from the master race and this permits their being s without the restraint of moral moral dobli aull 1 lations gat ions here we witness ewt apt merey ly IY a case of the survival of feudal ism but a return to the forms of tribalism |