The Gestapo and German Society: Political Denunciation in the Gestapo Case Files

Gellately, Robert

doi:10.1086/600440

Cited by 19 publications

(9 citation statements)

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“…Citizen compliance with Nazi policy was not simply the product of state-sponsored terror (Gellately 1991). Political repression, even in a totalitarian regime such as the Third Reich, does not operate exclusively from top to bottom.…”

Section: Providing Denunciationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition to traditional criminal matters, it concerned itself with political crimes involving resistance to the regime (including "malicious gossip") and with violations of various antisemitic policies (including "racial mixing" or "race defilement," i.e., social and sexual relations across appropriate ethnic lines). Historical constructions using Gestapo case files indicate a high proportion of unsolicited informing by the German public (Gellately 1988;Weyrauch 1986). Mann estimates that a minimum of 26 to 33 percent of the cases were initiated by citizens (cited in Gellately 1988).…”

Section: Providing Denunciationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Historical constructions using Gestapo case files indicate a high proportion of unsolicited informing by the German public (Gellately 1988;Weyrauch 1986). Mann estimates that a minimum of 26 to 33 percent of the cases were initiated by citizens (cited in Gellately 1988). In race-related cases in particular, Gellately (1988) reports that 57 percent of the cases were initiated by citizens.…”

Section: Providing Denunciationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Mann estimates that a minimum of 26 to 33 percent of the cases were initiated by citizens (cited in Gellately 1988). In race-related cases in particular, Gellately (1988) reports that 57 percent of the cases were initiated by citizens. At times the Gestapo was so flooded with false accusations that government officials had to issue a warning not to misuse denunciations for personal gain.…”

Section: Providing Denunciationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, someone might denounce an cconomic competitor, a neighbor with whom they had quarreled. or a spouse from whom they wished to obtain a divorce (Gellately 1988).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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The “Banality of Evil” Reframed: The Social Construction of the “Final Solution” to the “Jewish Problem”

Berger

1993

The Sociological Quarterly

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Research on the Nazi Holocaust against the Jews has arguably been dominated by historians. Yet many historians remain confounded by the Holocaust's major paradox: the “banality of evil” that occurred during the Nazi regime. In this article I argue that understanding of the “banality of evil” paradox can be advanced by reframing previously unsynthesized research in terms of a constructionist theory of social problems. I view the “Jewish problem” and its “final solution” as having a “natural history” that is characterized by the development and unfolding of claims about problems and the formulation and implementation of solutions to problems. I trace the construction of the “Jew” throughout history and as it was identified, acknowledged, and applied in a particular sociocultural and political context. By providing the first application of constructionism to a genocidal event, I show that the social processes that construct genocide parallel those that construct other social problems, and that it is precisely this correspondence that makes the construction of the “Jewish problem” and its “final solution” banal.

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Section: Providing Denunciationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Providing Denunciationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Providing Denunciationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Providing Denunciationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, someone might denounce an cconomic competitor, a neighbor with whom they had quarreled. or a spouse from whom they wished to obtain a divorce (Gellately 1988).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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