Genocide Quote by Thomas Keneally
““Even among Sedlacek's own small cell, his Viennese anti-Nazi club, it was not imagined that the pursuit of the Jews had grown quite so systematic. Not only was the story Schindler told him startling simply in moral terms: one was asked to believe that in the midst of a desperate battle, the National Socialists would devote thousands of men, the resources of precious railroads, and enormous cubic footage of cargo space, expensive techniques of engineering, a fatal margin of their research-and-development scientists, a substantial bureaucracy, whole arsenals of automatic weapons, whole magazines of ammunition, all to an extermination which had no military or economic meaning but merely a psychological one.””
About This Quote
Source Novel: “Schindler’s Ark” (also known as “Schindler’s List”), 1982
The Holocaust’s bureaucratic efficiency turned genocide into a systematic, industrial process, defying typical war logic.
In simple terms: Nazi extermination was a massive, organized effort.
Key Takeaway
Recognize the danger of bureaucratic dehumanization.
Themes
history
bureaucracy
genocide
war
ethics
Mood
somber
reflective
Type
historical
educational
When to use this quote
- education curricula
- human rights training
- policy analysis
Key Concepts
systemic evil
industrialized killing
Questions to Reflect On
- How does bureaucratic structure enable atrocities?
- What safeguards prevent such systems today?
A Different Perspective
May simplify complex historical causes.
![“It is also understandable that in such a context the National Socialists would score their first big successes among the university students. “Students in brown shirts and swastika armbands were a normal sight in classes well before 1932.”[243]” quote by Stephen R.C. Hicks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/96b/stephen-r-c-hicks-12692_swastika_it-is-also-understandable-that-in-such-a_2401169.jpg)
![“He [Rabbi Menasha Levartov] was one of those men who, even in the years of peace, would have advised his congregation that while God may well be honored by the inflexibility of the pious, he might also be honored by the flexibility of the sensible.” quote by Thomas Keneally](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/2aa/thomas-keneally-10113_peace_he-rabbi-menasha-levartov-was-one-of-tho_342049.jpg)
