Milgram experiment

...

Jewish Holocaust. In fact, the experiments began in July 1961, three months after the start of the trial of German Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann (a German Nazi SS and one of the major organisers of the Holocaust). Milgram started his psychological study to answer the popular question at that particular time: "Could it be that Eichmann and his million accomplices in the Holocaust were just following orders?”

Adolf Eichmann

4) CRITICISM

The main criticism that has been made in the experiment of Milgram is its relevance in the context of the Holocaust. In fact, James Waller, Chair of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Keene State College, expressed the opinion that Milgram experiments do not correspond well to the Holocaust events for mainly four reason:

“No permanent physical damage would result from the actions of the teachers, however, the Holocaust perpetrators were fully aware of their hands-on killing and mutilation of the victims”.

“The laboratory subjects themselves did not know their victims and were not motivated by racism. On the other hand, the Holocaust perpetrators displayed an intense devaluation of the victims through a lifetime of personal development”.

“Those serving punishment at the lab were not sadists, and often exhibited great anguish and conflict in the experiment, unlike the designers and executioners of the Final Solution, who had a clear "goal" on their hands”.

“The experiment lasted for an hour, with no time for the subjects to contemplate the implications of their behavior. Meanwhile, the Holocaust lasted for years with ample time for a moral assessment of all individuals and organizations involved”.

5) In a nutshell

In a nutshell, the results of the experiment have caused a kind of trouble for humans, we discovered the dark side of Men that we would never have expected to find, pure cruelty, pure barbarism. Milgram has found one of the saddest truths about Men through a simple experiment based on deception.