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The Order of Terror
During the twelve years from 1933 until 1945, the concentration camp operated as a terror society. In this pioneering book, the renowned German sociologist Wolfgang Sofsky looks at the concentration camp from the inside as a laboratory of cruelty and a system of absolute power built on extreme violence, starvation, "terror labor," and the business-like extermination of human beings.
Based on historical documents and the reports of survivors, the book details how the resistance of prisoners was broken down. Arbitrary terror and routine violence destroyed personal identity and social solidarity, disrupted the very ideas of time and space, perverted human work into torture, and unleashed innumerable atrocities. As a result, daily life was reduced to a permanent struggle for survival, even as the meaning of self-preservation was extinguished. Sofsky takes us from the searing, unforgettable image of the Muselmann--Auschwitz jargon for the "walking dead"--to chronicles of epidemics, terror punishments, selections, and torture.
The society of the camp was dominated by the S.S. and a system of graduated and forced collaboration which turned selected victims into accomplices of terror. Sofsky shows that the S.S. was not a rigid bureaucracy, but a system with ample room for autonomy. The S.S. demanded individual initiative of its members. Consequently, although they were not required to torment or murder prisoners, officers and guards often exploited their freedom to do so--in passing or on a whim, with cause, or without.
The order of terror described by Sofsky culminated in the organized murder of millions of European Jews and Gypsies in the death-factories of Auschwitz and Treblinka. By the end of this book, Sofsky shows that the German concentration camp system cannot be seen as a temporary lapse into barbarism. Instead, it must be conceived as a product of modern civilization, where institutionalized, state-run human cruelty became possible with or without the mobilizing feelings of hatred.
Based on historical documents and the reports of survivors, the book details how the resistance of prisoners was broken down. Arbitrary terror and routine violence destroyed personal identity and social solidarity, disrupted the very ideas of time and space, perverted human work into torture, and unleashed innumerable atrocities. As a result, daily life was reduced to a permanent struggle for survival, even as the meaning of self-preservation was extinguished. Sofsky takes us from the searing, unforgettable image of the Muselmann--Auschwitz jargon for the "walking dead"--to chronicles of epidemics, terror punishments, selections, and torture.
The society of the camp was dominated by the S.S. and a system of graduated and forced collaboration which turned selected victims into accomplices of terror. Sofsky shows that the S.S. was not a rigid bureaucracy, but a system with ample room for autonomy. The S.S. demanded individual initiative of its members. Consequently, although they were not required to torment or murder prisoners, officers and guards often exploited their freedom to do so--in passing or on a whim, with cause, or without.
The order of terror described by Sofsky culminated in the organized murder of millions of European Jews and Gypsies in the death-factories of Auschwitz and Treblinka. By the end of this book, Sofsky shows that the German concentration camp system cannot be seen as a temporary lapse into barbarism. Instead, it must be conceived as a product of modern civilization, where institutionalized, state-run human cruelty became possible with or without the mobilizing feelings of hatred.
368 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
About the author
Wolfgang Sofsky
27 books6 followersWolfgang Sofsky, geboren 1952, lehrte als Professor für Soziologie an den Universitäten Göttingen und Erfurt. Seit 2001 arbeitet er als Privatgelehrter, Autor und politischer Kommentator. 1993 erhielt er den Geschwister-Scholl-Preis für »Die Ordnung des Terrors. Seine Essays sind regelmäßig in der deutschsprachigen Presse zu lesen und im Rundfunk zu hören.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 13, 2019
We had the opportunity of reading the majority of this book in a University class on the sociology of power, and I need to say it is one of the best ones I’ve ever read on WW2 and Holocaust in general. Excellently researched, the data and schemes are not overused and serve as an illustration of depicted theories. The book offers a sociological view on the emotionally discussed topic, distancing itself at the same time from pop cultural discourses – thanks to that, the readers become a glance into the complex structures of dependences and relationships inside the total institution of a concentration camp.
October 7, 2026
Libro denso, ma come ammette lo stesso autore a un certo punto in uno degli ultimi capitoli, ambisce sì a spiegare, anche nel dettaglio più minuto, la meccanica del lager nazista, ma resta del tutto fuori come ai lager ci si è arrivati e cosa ha permesso che, da centri di prigionia, alla fine siano diventati centri di sterminio di massa.
In queste pagine si impara molto sul come, ma quasi nulla sul perché, che forse è l'interrogativo più importante da fare, ma anche quello a cui è più arduo rispondere, forse anche perché le rispose sono poco piacevoli.
In queste pagine si impara molto sul come, ma quasi nulla sul perché, che forse è l'interrogativo più importante da fare, ma anche quello a cui è più arduo rispondere, forse anche perché le rispose sono poco piacevoli.
December 19, 2018
Very Sobering Good Read.
February 12, 2020
Standardwerk
January 25, 2012
This books presents a sociological study of the system of the camps. The style is quite academic and without a formal background in sociology I struggled a little with some of the concepts. The central tenet of the book is the concept of absolute power and terror.
There are sections dealing with the history of the camps, the ordering of space and time, the social structures, labor and work, and the death factories.
There are few personal accounts, but the facts remain harrowing and disturbing to read, particularly the latter chapters on the forced labor, selection and murder of the prisoners.
I have visited Auschwitz-Birkenau - the appalling truth is hard to comprehend even when you see it with your own eyes. This is an important book, to be read and not forgotten.
"The corpses are not lying scattered around the room, but are piled high one on top of
the next. That’s easy to explain: the Zyklon B tossed in from outside develops its
deadly fumes first near the ground, spreading gradually to the higher levels of air. So
the poor victims trample over one another, one person climbs over the next. The
higher they are, the longer it takes for the gas to reach them....I can see infants,
children and the aged at the bottom, the stronger men are lying above them. There
they lie, their limbs intertwined, their bodies lacerated from scratches, bleeding from
the nose and mouth. Their heads are bloated and blue, disfigured beyond recognition.
Nonetheless, the men of the Sonderkommando often spot their relatives among the
bodies."
There are sections dealing with the history of the camps, the ordering of space and time, the social structures, labor and work, and the death factories.
There are few personal accounts, but the facts remain harrowing and disturbing to read, particularly the latter chapters on the forced labor, selection and murder of the prisoners.
I have visited Auschwitz-Birkenau - the appalling truth is hard to comprehend even when you see it with your own eyes. This is an important book, to be read and not forgotten.
"The corpses are not lying scattered around the room, but are piled high one on top of
the next. That’s easy to explain: the Zyklon B tossed in from outside develops its
deadly fumes first near the ground, spreading gradually to the higher levels of air. So
the poor victims trample over one another, one person climbs over the next. The
higher they are, the longer it takes for the gas to reach them....I can see infants,
children and the aged at the bottom, the stronger men are lying above them. There
they lie, their limbs intertwined, their bodies lacerated from scratches, bleeding from
the nose and mouth. Their heads are bloated and blue, disfigured beyond recognition.
Nonetheless, the men of the Sonderkommando often spot their relatives among the
bodies."
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews