Perils Of Obedience By Adolf Eichmann: An Analysis

The Holocaust was the systematic murder of six million Jews, and five million Roma Gypsies, mentally and physically disabled people, homosexuals and etc. These groups were targeted because the Nazis believed that Germans were the superior race and anyone who didn’t represent their perfect race was seen as a threat and inferior. There were many people responsible for the horrible crimes that occurred during that time, but only a few were tried for their crimes. One of those responsible was Adolf Eichmann, he was charged because he played a major part in the deportation of the Jews from Germany and other parts of Europe to death camps. "Perils of Obedience" a study that psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted to see the lengths people will go to obey authority, even if they're harming another person. (630-643). In "Group Minds" by Doris Lessing, she states people will violate common sense and moral codes in order to be an accepted

member of a group(652-654). In The Third Wave it documents how Ron Jones turned his class into obedient Nazis with his teaching experiment (1-12). During Eichmann's trial, he denied the crimes he was accused of. And Milgram, Lessing and Jones’ statements are proven true.
After World War II, Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann fled from Austria and made his way to Argentina where he lived under the name Ricardo Klement. In May 1960, the Israeli Security Service captured Eichmann in Argentina and took him to Jerusalem for trial. Eichmann organized the deportations of Jews from Germany and other areas of Europe to killing centers. “Working with other German agencies, he determined how the property of deported Jews would be seized and made certain that his office would benefit from the confiscated assets.”(Eichmann Trial) And he arranged for the deportation of thousands of Roma Gypsies. For those and other charges, Eichmann was found guilty and sentenced to death on June 1, 1962, Eichmann was executed by hanging.
During his Eichmann expressed that he was surprised at being hated by Jewish people, saying that he had merely obeyed orders, and obeying orders could only be a good thing. In his jail diary Eichmann wrote “The orders were, for me, the highest thing in my life and I had to obey them without question.”(Obedience to Authority) Eichmann was declared sane by six psychiatrists, he had a normal family life and observers at his trial described him as very average. So there was nothing that appeared to be off or unusual about Eichmann, it is possible that his behavior was the aftermath of the social situation he found himself in, and that under the right circumstances anybody can be capable of doing horrible acts.
In The Perils of Obedience, Stanley Milgram expresses his findings of an experiment he conducted trying to prove the lengths people will go to be obedient to authority. The first experiments included a group of undergraduates from Yale. The experiments involved three subjects: the experimenter, the “teacher” and the “learner”. The teacher would read off a series of words. The learner, who is strapped to an electric chair, would be required to remember the words associated with one another. If the learner did not correctly respond the teacher would be required to administer an electric shock ranging from 15 to 450 volts (632). Before the experiments, Milgram wanted predictions about the results from psychiatrists, college sophomores, middle-class adults, graduate students and faculty in behavioral sciences. All thought the teachers would refuse to obey the experimenter. The majority of the teachers would show concern once the learners began showing signs of discomfort. However, 60 percent of them followed the orders until the end, administering shocks to the learner up to 450 volts (634). The findings were dismissed as having no relevance to “ordinary” people considering the subjects used were students of Yale. Colleagues of Milgram claimed that these students were highly aggressive and competitive when provoked (634-635). The second set of experiments included professionals, white collar workers, unemployed persons, and industrial workers. Although Milgram’s colleague asserted the outcome would be different when performed with “ordinary” subjects, the outcome was very much the same. The experiments were also conducted in other countries around the world and scientists found that the level of obedience was actually somewhat higher (635).
Doris Lessing’s “Group Minds,” explains the human nature of belonging to groups. Humans, especially those in Western societies do not like to be loners, but rather enjoy being part of a like-minded group. Lessing discusses the view most people of western society have about their individuality. She also explains how people are put in uncomfortable situations due to that urge. The fact that people have lots of information about them, but do not use that information to improve them. Also people from the West tend to think of themselves as free people able to do as they please. This type of thinking is a result of the general atmosphere. Lessing then describes humans as “group animals.”(652) Humans want to belong to a group, they even join groups that are not very well defined. Most people do not like to be alone, and those who do are made out to be outcasts. People want to be around others that think the same way they do. Even though humans tend to be around those who think similarly, there can be differences that arise between an individual’s opinion and the general opinions of the group. Lessing describes how people feel bad when they go against the group and members of that group even suppress their own beliefs, and say that “black is white” just because the group does (653).
The Third Wave was an experimental social movement created by high school history teacher Ron Jones to explain how the Germans could accept the actions of the Nazi during WWII.

While he taught his students about Nazi Germany during his “World History" class, Jones found it difficult to explain how the Germans could accept the actions of the Nazis, and decided to create a social movement as a demonstration of the appeal of fascism. Over the five days, Jones conducted exercises in his classroom highlighting discipline and community, to model certain characteristics of the Nazi movement. As the movement grew outside his, Jones felt that the movement had spiraled out of control. He convinced the students to attend a rally where he claimed the announcement of a Third Wave presidential candidate would be televised. Upon their arrival, the students were presented with a blank channel. Jones told his students of the true nature of the movement as an experiment in fascism, and presented to them a short film discussing the actions of Nazi

Germany.
The three sources prove that Adolf Eichmann isn’t innocent for the crimes he has committed because the overview the sources is that people will obey to authority if it’s easy or they’ll fit in. In my own research on obedience to authority I agree people tend to obey, if they’re pressured. To go in depth obedience “is a form of social influence that involves performing an action under the orders of an authority figure” (Obedience). It’s completely different from conformity which involves changing your behavior in order to go along with the rest of the group.
For example, obedience involves changing your behavior because a figure of authority told you to. Obedience involves an order while conformity involves a request. Obedience is when someone is following the order of someone with a higher status but conformity usually involves going along with people of equal status. And obedience relies on the authority figure having social power and conformity based on the need to be socially accepted.
In Conclusion, Obedience isn’t always a good thing to do because in Adolf Eichmann’s case he had to take responsibility for just following orders because those orders resulted in the deaths of many people. To restate Milgram’s experiment shows how any person with any background can be capable of doing horrible things. Lessing explains how people can change their views or opinions if it makes it easier to be accepted. And Ron Jones conducted that experiment for his class to show how the German people were able to obey Hitler even though disagree with him.