Individual and Mass Behavior in Extreme Situations

Bruno Bettelheim

1943

Sensitive Content

This text recounts acts of violence and torture against Jewish people. The text provides insight into Jewish history; however, The Posen Library does not condone or promote violence or oppression of any kind.

[ . . . ] On a terribly cold winter night when a snowstorm was blowing, all prisoners were punished by being forced to stand at attention without overcoats—they never wore any—for hours.1 This was after having worked for more than twelve hours in the open, and having received hardly any food. The prisoners were threatened with having to stand all…

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Creator Bio

Bruno Bettelheim

1903–1990

Bruno Bettelheim was born in Vienna to a secular Jewish family and received his doctorate from the University of Vienna in 1938. He was interned in Dachau and Buchenwald and arrived as a refugee in New York in 1939. Bettelheim was a professor of psychology at the University of Chicago from 1944 until 1973. He was widely known for his work on child psychology, especially his theories about emotionally disturbed children.

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