SES 0408827 Michael Allen, Independent Scholar "Auschwitz's Techno-Scientific Core: The Holocaust and the Political Religion of Science and Technology"
This project proposes a new history of the techno-scientific core of the Holocaust at Auschwitz. Although previous studies have focused upon the crematoria and gas chambers for the factory-like extermination of the European Jews, scholars have done so without any foundation in science and technology studies (STS). In consequence, existing histories are unconvincing and even distorted. In particular, they have operated under the implicit assumption that a "technological determinism" caused the unique dynamism of the Holocaust at Auschwitz. They rely upon what the PI labels a "technocratic" interpretation. This holds that engineers and scientists were unaware of the implications of their work and remained in ignorance due to engrossing petty technical detail or opaque large, hierarchical bureaucracies. In consequence, the Holocaust at Auschwitz slowly evolved under their hands without any intent upon their part for it to do so. This is readily believable only if one concedes that technocrats routinely lack the intellectual capacity or freedom of inquiry to discern what they are doing or why. But if Auschwitz truly was a modern techno-scientific bureaucracy, which it surely was, this seems unlikely. The PI proposes to introduce new sources and new approaches drawn from STS to Holocaust Studies and German history. The PI will apply the more sophisticated approaches to science, technology, politics, and ideology developed within STS. Conversely, a history of the techno-scientific core of the Holocaust at Auschwitz will advance the sustained interest in STS in interactions between ideology, science and technology. The PI will investigate the substantive ideology of those who built and operated the Auschwitz death camp through a variety of sources including technical and scientific journals as well as institutional records. In addition, by treating the techno-scientific core of the Holocaust at Auschwitz as a large technological system in its entirety, the PI will open up research to the voices of the Holocaust's victims. Technocratic interpretations of Auschwitz can remain tenable only as long as one summarily dismisses the experience and testimony of these highly qualified professionals. Many were compelled to serve within the SS's machinery of extermination as workers, technicians, drafters, doctors, or engineers. Their perspective allows a more accurate assessment of the Holocaust. Not infrequently they possessed training that was equal and even superior to that of their captors. In post-war testimony, they repeatedly related how the responsible engineers and managers of Auschwitz communicated steadily with their fellows throughout Europe during the entire course of the war; and how they were cognizant of the Nazis' quest for mechanical means of killing and expressed enthusiasm for the engineering of genocide.
