Radical Evil 2013
Distributed by Film Platform
Produced by Wolfgang Richter
Produced by Wolfgang Richter
DVD , color, 52 min. and 93 min. versions
College - General Adult
Antisemitism, Civil Rights, Crimes Against Humanity, Criminal Justice, Ethics, European History, Human Rights, Jewish Holocaust, Propaganda, Social Behavior, Social Psychology, Violence, War Crimes, World War II
Date Entered: 02/18/2016
Reviewed by Andrew Koval, MSLSRuzowitzky’s Radical Evil features a case study of Nazi soldiers on the Russian front committing genocidal acts against the Jewish people. The primary focus is determining why psychologically healthy people commit horrific acts under certain social circumstances. Archival footage, file photos as well as readings suffused with reenactments taken from the journals of Nazi soldiers are showcased as a qualitative analysis.
Disquieting accounts of dehumanization, rape and murder are utilized to support a variety of established psychological behaviors and experiments like the Stanford Experiment, the Ash Conformity Experiment and the By-Stander Effect. Experts in psychology, history and law give cogent theoretical explanations for these underlying rationalizations without divesting the soldiers of their moral accountability for their actions. Reasons for these justifications include triumphalism, propaganda promoting Jews as subhuman coupled with Hitler’s cultural biomedical vision, sub-speciation, token economy through military rank and extreme wartime peer-pressure. Nazi soldiers here are depicted as humane people committing inhumane acts which provide an uncommon perspective for this subject matter.
A companion piece is The German Doctor (2013) as the main antagonist demonstrates similar rationalizations in his cruelty toward his ethnically dissimilar patients. Libraries with collections supporting the research needs of critical thinkers particularly in the fields of psychology, history and sociology will benefit from acquiring Radical Evil.