Vessels of Evil: American Slavery and the Holocaust

230 Pages·1993·28.56 MB·English

by  Laurence Mordekhai Thomas

Vessels ofE vii
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VESSELS OF EVIL
I I
,
American Slavery and the Holocaust
LAURENCE MORDEKHAI THOMAS
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Philadelphia
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Temple Universiry Press, Philadelphia 19122
Copyright © 1993 by Temple Universiry. All rights reselVed
Published 1993
Printed in the United States of America
@ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements
of American National Standard tor Information Sciences-Permanence
of Paper tor Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Thomas, Laurence, 1949-
Vessels of evil : American slavery and the Holocaust / Laurence
Mordckhai Thomas.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 1-56639-100-8
I. Slavery-United States. 2. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
I. Title.
E44I.T47 1993
940.53' 18'0973-dc20 93-12386
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To Shimon Brand-a mensch
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Contents
Preface IX
Part I: On Becoming an Evil Self
1. Two Faces of Evil: An Introduction 3
2. The Human Condition 14
1. Good and Bad 14
2. Immoral Rapprochement 26
3. Understanding Obedience to Authority 34
4. Obeying Authority and Becoming Morally Sullied 39
3. The Moral Community 44
5. Common-Sense Morality 45
6. Moral Drift 56
7. The People of Le Cham bon 65
4. Characterizing Evil 73
8. Acts of Evil 74
5. The Psychology Of Doubling 92
9. The Problem 92
10. Doubling and Multiple Personality Disorder 97
II. The Psychology of Doubling 102
12. Moral Disassociation 108
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viii Contents
Part II. The Institutions
6. American Slavery and the Holocaust 117
13. The Conception of the Victims 1I8
14. The Institutions 125
7. Murderous Extermination and Natal Alienation 148
IS. Doing Justice to the Difference 148
16. Ultimates in Evil: Alienation and
Extermination 160
17. Self-Hatred 163
Part III. Surviving into the Future
8. After the Ashes 169
18. Jews 170
19. Blacks 174
20. Historical Contexts 179
21. Group Autonomy 182
9. The Fate of Blacks and Jews 190
22. The General Problem of Cooperation 190
23. Neither Coercive nor Affirming Cooperation 192
24. Cooperation and Having a Narrative 197
25. Blacks and Jews 201
Name Index 207
Subject Index 209
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Preface
Since my early teenage years, I have thought about the experi
ences of blacks and Jews. My thoughts developed over the years,
but I generally kept my opinions to myself. I probably never
would have written this book but for an invitation I received
from Alan Rosenberg and Gerald E. Meyers to contribute to
their collection, Echoes from the Holocaust (Philadelphia: Temple
University Press, 1989).
My aim in this book has been to paint with a broad brush a
picture of the hostile experiences of blacks and Jews-taking the
Holocaust for Jews and American Slavery for blacks as water
shed historical experiences. My aim has not been to say anything
new about the history and experiences of either Jews or blacks,
but simply to make sense of what is unshakably there. More
precisely, my concern in this work has been to articulate with
both sensitivity and rigor the differences between the hostile ex
periences of Jews and blacks. This book, then, is not a historical
work; for, as I have said, it assumes what is unshakably there. To
revisionists, I have nothing to say, anyway. What could be said?
On the other hand, this book is very much a philosophical
work, though traditional philosophical issues are not explicitly
taken up here. But nothing has more animated my thinking
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