Genocidation of serial mass killings Saving the concept of civil society from racist social movements

Abstract

Die Studie verweist zunaechst auf die Gemeinsamkeiten von Genoziden und Pogromen: In beiden Faellen erfolgt die Wahl Opfer nach Zuschreibungen bzw. askriptiven Merkmalen (Rasse, Geschlecht) oder im Fall des Nationalsozialismus nach ethnischer oder religioeser Zugehoerigkeit (Zigeuner, russische Kriegsgefangene, koerperlich und geistig Behinderte und die Eliten der besetzten Laender). Jedoch gibt es einen entscheidenden Unterschied zwischen den beiden Formen: der Genozid erfolgt im Rahmen einer Vorbereitung durch 'Schreibtischtaeter' und im Kontext einer organisatorischen 'Implementation', waehrend Pogrome gleichsam 'wildwuechsig', d.h. ohne organisatorische Vorbereitungen in Ethnien, Mobs, Cliquen oder sozialen Bewegungen 'ausbrechen'. Die Studie untersucht insgesamt die Eskalation und die Transformation dieser Formen schwerer Menschenrechtsverletzungen ineinander (Genozidierung) und macht deutlich, wie sich eine Zivilgesellschaft vor der Erosion ihrer moralischen Standards schuetzen sollte. (ICA)'Theory: Genocides and pogroms as incidents of serial mass killing have something in common: victims in both cases are choosen by ascriptive (p.e. racist or sexist) criteria (p.e. in 1939-1945 Poland: because they were jews, gypsies, russian prisoners of war, handicapped or ill or belonging to the non jewish polish elite). However there is one main difference used: genocide perpetration is attributed to organizations (and maybe to its members too), whereas pogroms are Said to be perpetrated without organizational participation (by individuals constituting a 'mob', 'groups', 'cliques', 'movements' and other collectivities). Civil society as a concept of utopian communication (and sometimes of reflective theory) is an asymmetric construct: phenomena labeled belonging to civil society are preferred to those outside civil society. Organizations are in their vast majority excluded from the realm of civil society, a possible exception being social movement organizations. The question is: how does society (communication)manage to exclude perpetrators of pogroms from civil society, the realm of the good? Hypothesis: In observing observers of pogroms five schemas can be found by means of which serial mass killings by ascriptive criteria are attributed to non civil society-organizations. Methods: In a research design involving multiple and most dissimilar cases of 19th and 20th century pogromized incidents from Europe, Asia, and Africa the occurence of schema-based observation is observed by means of content analysis of sources like mass media and historiography using itself mass media content, testimony or official records. Results: In all cases genocidation, i.e. attribution of pogroms to organizations is observed, the use of attribution schemata ranging from one to five per case. The more communication is produced on the murderous incidents the more of the schemata are observed.' (author's abstract)German title: Die Genozidierung von seriellem Massenmord: die Rettung des Konzepts der Zivilgesellschaft vor rassistischen sozialen BewegungenAvailable from UuStB Koeln(38)-20010107737 / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman