Why do ordinary individuals participate in mass violence perpetrated against civilians? That is the question I will attempt to answer in the following paper. I consider these men ordinary to the extent that the majority was not socially deviant. Looking at the case of Nazi Germany, two groups stand out as good case studies: the SS Einsatzgruppen and the SS cadres in the Death camps. The following analysis will focus on the motivations of these men to commit mass murder. I argue for a causal sequence of action, beginning with the onset of Nazi ideology, further followed by the dehumanization of the victim and the brutalization of the perpetrator. I will demonstrate how the ideology present during German interwar society influenced these men into participation. Dehumanization and brutalization are complimentary factors that push these men into action.

Tolkien may not have intentionally created his fictive nations to mirror real nations, but his world certainly bears the scars of his experiences of war. The World Wars heightened his fear of losing everything that he loved about his local culture through literal obliteration or assimilation into another culture in the event of England’s losing. Tolkien saw the nation as a social construct that potentially could minimize losses, if not wholly protect local culture from the forces that threatened to destroy it. Yet he also perceived the nation’s limitations in its ability to protect culture. A nation could grow too large for itself, becoming obsessed with consuming other nations. For Tolkien, national property-amassing leads to a loss of the cultural identity that nationhood aims to preserve. When the forces threatening individual nations become overwhelming, those nations often need to join forces to prevent being taken over by other, more powerful countries. An examination of Tolkien’s fiction and numerous other sources, including essays and personal letters, suggests that he felt that separate nations should co-exist without imposing on one another, and that the nation taking over others would lose its own identity, whether gradually or suddenly. Despite Tolkien’s efforts to distance himself from what he felt modernity represented, his fiction (whether consciously or not) grapples with the mid-twentieth century ideological conflicts surrounding the nation. The resulting sense of loss and powerlessness underlies much of Tolkien’s fiction and leads him to a concept of the nation as an imperfect protector of culture, tempered by its need to rely on other nations.

Anselm Kiefer was born in Germany, 1945—the year of Adolf Hitler’s suicide, and subsequently, the end of World War II. His own beginnings were shrouded by a national “repression” of history. This repression was at odds with Kiefer’s needs to establish his own origin. For this reason, the spirituality in his earlier work is often overshadowed by its subject—Nazi Germany. This thesis will look back on Kiefer’s work through the lens of mythology in an effort to re-evaluate his earlier art within the context of his works since 1990. From the 1970s to the present, Kiefer has drawn from mythology to find links between personal and universal human experience. We begin by examining Kiefer’s controversial Attic Paintings of 1973. In the Attic Paintings, German and Christian mythology helped Kiefer understand his origin as a post-war German artist. Kiefer then turned his attention to myths from outside cultures throughout the 1980s. We will look closely at three paintings from the 1980s that incorporate Greek, Judaic, and Egyptian mythology in an effort to understand Kiefer’s larger goals in broadening his mythological base. Following this discussion, we will examine two paintings from the 1990s and his 2007 permanent installation at the Louvre Museum. These selected works serve to illustrate how Kiefer presented his own cultivated, personal mythology under the stars in his still ongoing cosmic series. The 1990s mark Kiefer’s broadest expansion yet; in a sense, he went from “the attic to the universe” over the course of three decades.

Why do ordinary individuals participate in mass violence perpetrated against civilians? That is the question I will attempt to answer in the following paper. I consider these men ordinary to the extent that the majority was not socially deviant. Looking at the case of Nazi Germany, two groups stand out as good case studies: the SS Einsatzgruppen and the SS cadres in the Death camps. The following analysis will focus on the motivations of these men to commit mass murder. I argue for a causal sequence of action, beginning with the onset of Nazi ideology, further followed by the dehumanization of the victim and the brutalization of the perpetrator. I will demonstrate how the ideology present during German interwar society influenced these men into participation. Dehumanization and brutalization are complimentary factors that push these men into action.

Vergleich der Nachkriegsverhältnisse nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg in (West-)Deutschland und Italien am Beispiel von vier Mittelstädten

James A. Mackay was a decorated World War II veteran, who returned to Georgia in 1945, determined to make a difference in the segregated world of Georgia politics. He was a staunch opponent of Georgia’s county unit system that entrenched political power in rural counties. From 1950 through 1964 he was a state house member who fought to keep Georgia public schools open in the face of political opposition to desegregation. Elected to Congress in 1964, he was one of two deep-South congressmen who voted in favor of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. In 1967 he co-founded the Georgia Conservancy. For the next 25 years he was Georgia’s leading environmentalist. This thesis explores Mackay’s life from 1919-1950 and the significance of his parents, his experiences at Emory University, World War II, his legal challenge to the county unit system, and his role in writing Who Runs Georgia?

ABSTRACT James A. Mackay was a decorated World War II veteran, who returned to Georgia in 1945, determined to make a difference in the segregated world of Georgia politics. He was a staunch opponent of Georgia’s county unit system that entrenched political power in rural counties. From 1950 through 1964 he was a state house member who fought to keep Georgia public schools open in the face of political opposition to desegregation. Elected to Congress in 1964, he was one of two deep-South congressmen who voted in favor of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. In 1967 he co-founded the Georgia Conservancy. For the next 25 years he was Georgia’s leading environmentalist. This thesis explores Mackay’s life from 1919-1950 and the significance of his parents, his experiences at Emory University, World War II, his legal challenge to the county unit system, and his role in writing Who Runs Georgia?

Under andra världskriget vidtogs i Sverige ett antal åtgärder som gick på tvärs mot den traditionella svenska pressfriheten. Ett inslag i denna politik var inrättandet av Statens Informationsstyrelse, SIS, med uppgift att bland annat leda och övervaka den svenska pressen. Informationsstyrelsen har i efterhand blivit mest känd för de så kallade ”grå lapparna”, förtroliga meddelanden till tidningarnas redaktörer om vad som inte fick publiceras. Under kriget utkom på Gotland tre dagstidningar. Gotlänningen som ägdes av bondeförbundsintressen, konservativa Gotlands Allehanda vars huvudägare C E Ekman även var tysk konsul och tidningen har betraktats som mycket pronazistisk samt socialdemokratiska Gotlands Folkblad som framställts som ytterst anti-nazistisk. Utifrån SIS arkiv beskrivs SIS styrning av tidningarna genom de grå lapparna och påpekanden av överträdelser. Vidare har undersökts om SIS vidtog några åtgärder mot de gotländska tidningarna och om det i så fall var Gotlands Folkblads påstådda antinazism och/eller Gotlands Allehandas påstådda tyskvänlighet som SIS reagerade på. Resultatet visar att de allra mest som SIS reagerade på i de gotländska tidningarna var rena nyhetsartiklar. Inte i något enda fall klandrade SIS någon kommenterande artikel. / During World War II a number of actions were taken contrary to the traditional  Swedish freedom of the press. One of these actions was the establishment of “Statens Informationsstyrelse”, SIS,  the Gouvernment Board  of Information. SIS hade rhe task of managing and monitoring the Swedish press. It has subsequenly become known for the so-callade “grey notes”, cinfidential message to newspaper editors about what was not allowed to be published. There were three newspapers in Gotlands during World War II. “Gotlänningen” represented the farmer´s party. The right-wing Gotlands Allehanda, whose principal shareholder C E Ekman was also the German consul, was often portrayed as very pro-nazi. The social demofratic “Gotlands Folkblad” was, on the other hand, potrayed as anti-nazi. Based on the SIS archive, a review has been done about how SIS controlled the newspaperes and ruled through the greynotes and reprimands in case of transgressions. Furthermore an analysis has been done on the different reprimands SIS took aginst the Gotland newspapers and if the reprimands were taken in response to the alleged anti-nazism of Gotlands Folkblad or the allegeds pro-nazism of Gotlands Allehanda. The result show thar the vast majority of the articles SIS responded to in the Gotland newspapers were pure news articles. In no single case did SIS respond to a commentary article.

This study examines the relationship between British and American officials and the fifty-five Wehrmacht general officers who were held as prisoners of war in the United States during World War II. This relationship transformed as the war developed and new national security concerns emerged in the immediate postwar era. As largely evidenced by the records of the United States War Department and the British War Office, the transformation of this relationship illustrates two important points. First, despite some similarities, the respective priorities of British and American authorities regarding their POW general officers differed significantly. British officials consistently interrogated and eavesdropped on all of their senior officer prisoners, primarily seeking operational and tactical intelligence to aid the Allied war effort. By contrast, American officials initially had little regard for the value of Wehrmacht general officer POWs. Second, by the end of the war, admiration for the prowess of German officers and the German military tradition in particular, coupled with anxiety about Soviet intentions and the strength of the Red Army, drove Washington into a collaborative relationship with many of the Wehrmacht general officers in its custody. The evolution of America's national security concerns in the years immediately following the end of World War II impacted its policy governing the treatment of high-ranking prisoners of war.

Engaging a determined enemy across a broad range of conditions, the U.S. Army in World War II's Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA) played an important role in the defeat of Japan. How units fought and learned in SWPA and how they adapted to the evolving challenges of their environment is the focus of this dissertation. The subject remains largely unexplored, especially in contrast to the attention the European theater has received. An examination of the 112th's performance not only illuminates an understudied area in the historiography of World War II but also offers relevant lessons for contemporary military organizations. Mining a rich collection of primary sources, this study analyzes the development of the 112th Cavalry Regiment and sheds light on how American units in SWPA prepared for and conducted combat operations. A National Guard unit federalized in 1940 and sent to the Pacific theater in 1942, the 112th performed garrison duties on New Caledonia and Woodlark Island and eventually fought in New Britain, New Guinea, and the Philippines. Before deactivating, the regiment also served in Japan during the first months of the occupation. Concentrating on one unit illustrates the extent to which ground forces in SWPA were driven to learn and adapt. The 112th had mixed success when it came to carrying out its assigned missions effectively. The same was true of its efforts to learn and improve. The unit's gradual introduction to combat worked to its advantage, but learning was not simply a matter of building on experience. It also involved responding to unexpected challenges. Experience tended to help, but the variety of circumstances in which the cavalrymen fought imposed limits on the applicability of that experience. Different situations demanded that learning occur in different ways. Learning also occurred differently across the organization's multiple levels. Moreover, failure to learn in one area did not, as a matter of course, undermine advancement in all. Much depended on the presence of conditions that facilitated or disrupted the learning process, such as the intricacy of the tasks involved, the part higher headquarters played, and the enemy's own responses to the changing environment.