Abstract
Many prominent Holocaust historians agree that during the Nazi era Germany was, relative to certain other European nations, an only mildly antisemitic society. If true, Russell ponders a perplexing question: why did an only mildly antisemitic society attempt to exterminate the European Jews? To date, this question remains unanswered. Based on a new interpretation of American social psychologist Stanley Milgram’s Obedience to Authority research, Russell presents the main aims of this two-volume book. The first aim is to provide the reader with a theory that attempts to explain Milgram’s mysterious findings (Volume 1). The second aim is to utilize this theory in an attempt to illustrate how only mildly antisemitic Germans were so quickly transformed into willing executioners (Volume 2).
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Russell, N. (2018). Introduction. In: Understanding Willing Participants, Volume 1. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95816-3_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95816-3_1
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