Lidé nejsou mravenci

Between 1938 and 1939, the psychologist Bruno Bettelheim was imprisoned in the concentration camps at Dachau and Buchenwald. In order to survive and preserve his humanity, he began to analyse the behaviour of prisoners and guards, which he describes with chilling factuality. Humans are not ants to always willingly submit to the system. However, the extreme conditions in the Nazi camps, purposefully created by technologically precise procedures, can make a person renounce his humanity for the sake of survival. Only a minority managed to retain their integrity, and rather than give it up, they willingly went to meet their death. There is also an analysis of pre-war Germany and possible answers to the oft-asked question: How could a great cultural nation submit to such a monstrous ideology? With this detailed analysis of life in a concentration camp and the pressures of a totalitarian state, we can better understand how a person reacts in such an extreme situation, what can rob him of his autonomy and integrity and lead to his depersonalization and loss of identity.

Czech edition