Animal Studies Bibliography
Patterson, Charles Eternal Treblinka: Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust . New York: Lantern Books, 2002.
Reviewed by Amy Fitzgerald
Part One: A Fundamental Debacle
Chapter 1: The Great Divide: Human Supremacy and the Exploitation of Animals
In this chapter, Patterson discusses the emergence of The Great Divide' between humans and other animals. In the section The Great Leap Forward, he explains that man [sic] only relatively recently became the dominant species. He proceeds to examine some theories of why the great leap forward' of humans occurred. It is hypothesized that the leap took place 40,000 years ago when homo sapiens created and used tools, instruments, art, and began trade and culture. Patterson asserts that many scientists believe that the key factor in the great leap forward of humans was their use of verbal language.
In the next section, entitled The Domestication of Animals, Patterson traces the process of domestication, or what he also refers to as enslavement. He explains that domestication began 11,000 years ago in the Near East. He outlines in detail the procedures undertaken by herders to bring the animals and their reproduction under their control. For instance, most of the male animals were killed or castrated to ensure that only the males with the desired traits reproduced. Patterson points out that castration continues to be the central aspect of animal husbandry today. He outlines various methods of castration (past and present); methods of exploiting animals for milk and keeping their own offspring from using it; and the ways in which herders restrict the movement of animals, such as hobbling.
Then in his section entitled Ruthlessness and Detachment, Patterson argues that the domestication of animals affected the ways in which humans related to these animals and to other humans. Once animals were domesticated, their oppressors adopted mechanisms to distance themselves from their captives, such as detachment, rationalization, denial, and euphemism. Patterson asserts that the main coping mechanism was the adoption of the view that animals are separate from and inferior to humans. Further, he asserts that the domestication of animals created oppressive hierarchical societies and large-scale warfare. He cites historian Keith Thomas, who asserts that the domestication of animals created a more authoritarian attitude, and Jim Mason who asserts that having intensive agriculture as the foundation of society has created a ruthless and detached culture that accepts violence. Patterson concludes that the institutionalization of animal exploitation paved the way for treating humans similarly, as evidenced by human slavery and the Holocaust.
In the next two sections, Human Slavery and Slaves as Domestic Animals, Patterson draws parallels between the enslavement of animals and humans. He draws comparisons between the management of human and animal slaves, such as the castration of males, branding, whipping, and fettering. He again cites Thomas, who argues that the domination of animals legitimized the domination of humans who were likened to animals.
In the section Man's Dominion Over Animals, Patterson examines the speciesism inherent in the religions that emerged in the regions where the exploitation of animals was firmly entrenched. He explains that although the notion of the supremacy of humans is apparent in the bible, there is some indication of the hope for less violent times in the future. In the Hebrew bible, the principle of divinely sanctioned human supremacy is upheld, but its laws against causing animals pain serve to moderate this principle. Patterson argues that there are no such humane sentiments in the texts of the Greco-Roman civilization. He asserts that there are only two instances of the disapproval of cruelty to animals in the Greco-Roman literature. He concludes that Christianity accepted the speciesist views of both the Greeks and the Hebrew bible.
In his next section, The Great Chain of Being, Patterson discusses this concept which was created by Plato, and how medieval Christendom translated this concept into a ladder with God on top and European Christians of the highest rung. This concept created the category of a subhuman being'. Then in The Human/Animal Divide section, Patterson continues tracing the view of human supremacy into the modern period. He explores the views of Francis Bacon, who believed man was the centre of the world, and Renee´ Descartes who viewed animals as machines and claimed that they could not feel pain. Patterson argues that such negative views of animals allowed people to project qualities that they disliked in themselves onto animals, and helped them to define themselves in contrast to animal behavior. Finally, in the Less Than Human section, Patterson concludes that this hierarchical thinking, which is built upon domestication, condoned the oppression of people who are regarded as animal-like. Vilifying people as animals therefore is a prelude to their persecution and even destruction.
Chapter 2: Wolves, Apes, Pigs, Rats, Vermin: Vilifying Others As Animals
In this chapter, Patterson outlines how the domestication of animals laid the groundwork for racial theories that call for the oppression and conquest of lower races'. Simultaneously, vilifying them as animals encourages and justifies their subjugation. Patterson states that calling people animals is always a foreboding sign because it sets them up for exploitation and murder. He then outlines ways in which several populations have been vilified as animals and the consequences.
In the first section of the chapter Patterson discusses the vilification of Africans. European colonists described Africans as beasts and compared their speech to that of animals. He also discusses the use of brain size to measure intelligence by European scientists. The brain size and intelligence of Africans was subsequently likened to that of monkeys. Using brain size as a measure, four groups of lower forms of humans were identified: women, nonwhites, Jews, and the lower classes of the superior' races. He also outlines the claims of various scientists regarding the alleged inferiority of Blacks.
In the next section, Patterson addresses the vilification of Native Americans. He states that they were vilified as un-Christian and therefore close to animals. He outlines accounts of the treatment of Native Americans as animals, such as their slaughter and enslavement. The Native Americans were referred to as beasts, dogs, wolves, swine, pigs, and baboons. Therefore, the extermination of these individuals was made less guilt provoking. Their extermination was also justified as preventing inter-breeding. Patterson points out that while both Native Americans and Africans were viewed as animals, they were viewed as different types of animals: slaves were viewed as livestock, and Native Americans were viewed as wildlife (as both predators and vermin).
Next Patterson examines Injun Warfare' in the Philippines. In the aftermath of the Spanish-American War, the U.S. Army encountered a new set of Indians' that they similarly vilified as savages, gorillas, and rats. In this section he provides accounts of soldiers comparing the killing of the Filipinos to the killing of animals. In the section entitled Yellow Monkeys, Patterson also discuses how the Japanese were vilified as animals, reptiles, and insects during World War II. He points out that Japanese-Americans in the U.S. were also treated like animals in internment camps. They were forced to live in stockyards, stables, and horse and cattle stalls at fairgrounds. Mad dogs' and yellow dogs' were common epithets for the Japanese, and bee, ant, sheep, and cattle images were also employed. The most common animal image used by the western press was of a monkey or ape, and Patterson states that this is because the primate image is the most basic metaphor used by white supremacists. In the following section, Chinese Pigs, Patterson explains that the Japanese also used animal imagery to vilify their enemies, especially the Chinese. They were most popularly depicted as pigs, but were also referred to as sheep, ants, dogs, and cats. Further, in the section Vietnamese Termites and Iraqi Cockroaches, Patterson explains that during Vietnam the Vietnamese were likened to termites, and during the Gulf War fleeing Iraqi civilians were referred to as cockroaches. Patterson concludes that during wartime enemies must be redefined to make killing them easier and nothing assists in this redefinition more than vilifying enemies as animals.
Patterson then proceeds to discuss the Vilification of the Jews. He explains that vilifying Jews as animals dates back to early Christian times, and he provides evidence from the quotes of religious figures. He also provides evidence of scholars comparing Jews to animals. Adolf Hitler promoted this comparison of Jews to animals and germs. Patterson provides examples of Nazi propaganda wherein Jews are likened to animals. Nazi soldiers also described killing Jews like killing animals, and they used animal references in connection with their biomedical research on humans. The favorite epithets for Jews were pig, Jew-pig, and swine. Patterson concludes that the use of animal terms, in combination with the degraded conditions of the camps, made it easier for the Nazis to do their job because treating the Jews like animals made them begin to look and smell like animals.
In the final section of the chapter, Confronting the Holocaust, Patterson cites artist Judy Chicago, author of Holocaust Project: From Darkness to Light , who says that after she began to see the slaughterhouse-like aspects of the Holocaust, she began to see the connection between the industrialized slaughter of animals and that of humans. Patterson apparently approves of this holistic vision of oppression.
Part II: Master Species, Master Race
Chapter 3: The Industrialization of Slaughter: The Road to Auschwitz Through America
The second part of the book examines the ways in which the industrialized slaughter of
animals and humans became enmeshed, and how the American assembly-line slaughter and eugenics took root in Nazi Germany. In the first section of this chapter, Slaughter in the Colonies, Patterson discusses how the colonizers brought livestock to North America, along with their exploitative animal practices. The Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, was the slaughter capital' of North America by the mid-1600s. In the next section entitled City of Pork, Patterson states that in 1818 the first pork factory in the Ohio Valley was established in Cincinnati. In this section he traces the slaughter process and explains that by the mid-1800s some larger plants had begun combining their slaughter and meat packing operations. Since meat is perishable and transportation by road and water was slow, the meat packing business in Cincinnati remained seasonal and limited.
In the following section, Union Stock Yards, Patterson explains that the construction of the Union Stock Yards in Chicago in 1865 made meat packing a major industry, with Chicago as its capital. By 1886 there was 100 miles of railroads around the Yards, bringing more animals in and improving distribution. To handle the increased volume of livestock and the increased demand of the growing population, the conveyor belt was introduced to increase the speed and efficiency. Meatpacking was the nation's first mass-production industry. The meat industry expanded as the markets and the range of its products increased. Meat became a symbol of American middle-class wealth. Patterson explains that Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle after seven weeks on investigation in the Union Stock Yards.
In the section Death on a Monumental Scale, Patterson provides some details from The Jungle regarding the slaughter process. The main character in the novel, Rudkus, learns that the system not only exploits animals, but also the workers. He eventually embraces socialism and sees diseased, rotten meat as a metaphor for the capitalist system. In the following section, Not All That Different, Patterson asserts that there is not much of a difference between slaughter in the early 1900s and today. The main differences are that the line speeds are faster and the volume has greatly increased. Otherwise, the treatment of the animals and the conditions in the slaughterhouses remain mostly the same.
Patterson discusses the work of Sue Coe, who wrote Dead Meat in the following section entitled All in the Family. She conducted research at a small family slaughterhouse in Pennsylvania as well as in larger slaughterhouses. He provides some details from her book about the slaughter process. In the ensuing section, High-Tech Slaughter, Patterson explains that the operations in modern meat packing plants have been aided by modern technology. He cites Coe who states that while conducting her research the Holocaust kept coming to mind. Then in the Recent Developments section Patterson highlights the following developments in the meat packing industry: there has been a shift to fewer but larger slaughterhouses, there has been an acceleration in line speed, the number of slaughtered animals has more than doubled in the last quarter of the 20 th Century, and a high wall of legal protection has been built around the meat and dairy industries.
In the final section of this chapter, Henry Ford: From Slaughterhouse to Death Camp. Patterson asserts that Ford gained the idea for assembly-line production from his visit to a Chicago slaughterhouse. He argues that not only did Ford develop the assembly-line method that the Germans used to kill the Jews, but he launched an anti-Semitic campaign that aided in the Holocaust. Patterson discusses various anti-Semitic articles that Ford wrote and how they were translated and spread throughout the world. Accordingly, Ford was very popular in Germany and Hitler admired him. In fact, in 1938 Ford received the highest honor Nazi Germany could bestow upon a foreigner. Patterson concludes that Ford's high standing with Hitler and his followers, and the use of Jewish slave labor, helped Ford of Germany prosper during the Nazi years.
Chapter 4: Improving the World: From Animal Breeding to Genocide
In this chapter Patterson discusses an additional American influence on the Germans: the American eugenics movement. Patterson argues that eugenics was modeled upon the breeding of domesticated animals. In The Emergence of Eugenics section, he explains that eugenics began with Galton, and by the mid-20th Century the goal of the movement was to sterilize troublesome people. In the following section, American Breeder's Association he explains that this association promoted genetics and heredity research, and the eugenics movement in the US began with the creation of the Committee on Human Heredity. In the American Eugenics Movement section, Patterson traces the development of the American movement. The goal of the movement was to alleviate social problems through sterilizing those who deviated from the norms of society and through a stringent immigration policy that would keep those with poor heredity out of the country. Patterson states that many of the top eugenicists had experience in manipulating animals.
Subsequently, in the section Family Studies there is a discussion of the family studies conducted by eugenicists, notably Goddard's The Kallikak Family: A Study in the Heredity of Feeblemindedness (1912) and Dugdale's The Jukes': A Study in Crime, Pauperism, Disease and Heredity (1877). These studies employed animal and insect imagery to describe the individuals and the implication was that some people should not be permitted to reproduce. In the Compulsory Sterilization section, Patterson traces the implementation of the sterilization programs. He points out that the first method used on male criminals was castration, which is the same method used on farm animals. By 1930, over half of the states had laws authorizing the sterilization of institutionalized individuals. Other countries followed the American lead. For instance, a sterilization law was passed in Germany in 1933.
In the next section, Eugenics in Germany, Patterson provides us more information about the movement there. After WWI eugenics became more influential in German medicine and science. It was known as race hygiene'. Germany was attempting to keep up with eugenics in the US. In fact, German eugenicists feared that if they failed to progress, ...America would become the world's undisputed racial leader (page 90). The first method used by the Nazis for racial cleansing' was sterilization. By the time they started their sterilizations in 1933, the US had already sterilized 15,000 people.
In the ensuing sections, The American-German Partnership, American Support for Nazi Eugenics, and Americans Visit, Patterson outlines the close relationship between the American and German eugenicists. He states that Hitler was impressed by the American sterilization laws, racial segregation, and the immigration restrictions. Further, American eugenicists were proud of the fact that the Nazi sterilization law was based upon California's law. Also, the Nazis also rationalized the use of sterilization by referring to the Family Studies conducted in the US. It is estimated that 300,000-400,000 people were sterilized under the Nazi regime. American eugenicists were the strongest foreign supporters of the race policies of the Nazis. In fact, many American academics visited Germany and praised their sterilization program. Some American scientists even received honorary degrees from German universities.
In the section entitled Himmler, Darre´, Höss, Patterson provides some background information of these Nazi figures, notably their involvement with animal manipulation. Himmler, the head of the SS, ...began his journey to eugenics with animal breeding (page 100). One of his officers later testified that Himmler's background in farming was behind his engrossment with racial breeding. Darre´ was the chief Nazi agricultural expert and was also knowledgeable about livestock breeding. He wanted to improve the Germanic race by eliminating specific elements. Höss was the commander of Auschwitz, and he also had a farming background.
The following section, Germany's T-4 Program and the Invention of the Gas Chamber, contains more specific information regarding the implementation and evolution of the Nazi policies. In 1939, Hitler ordered that the mentally retarded, disturbed, and physically infirm Germans be killed. They began with killing ill' children and then moved on to the adults. The Operation was named T-4 after its headquarters location, 4 Tiergartenstrasse. It is estimated that 70,000-90,000 patients were killed in the T-4 program. The program officially ended in 1941, but continued unofficially. In the final section, From Animal Exploitation to Mass Murder, Patterson explains that after the T-4 program officially ended, much of the equipment and personnel were sent to Poland to operate the concentration camps. They used the same techniques that they had used in T-4. Patterson provides evidence that several of the key T-4/death camp personnel had backgrounds in animal agriculture. He closes the chapter by stating that For T-4 personnel and death camp workers sent to Poland to exterminate the Jews, experience in the exploitation and slaughter of animals proved to be excellent training (page 108).
Chapter 5: Without The Homage of a Tear: Killing Centers in America and Germany
Before they murdered their victims, the Nazis treated them like animals: ...many Nazi practices were designed to make killing people seem like slaughtering animals (page 109). For instance, before they would execute the victims, the Nazis would make them strip naked, like animals, and they would huddle together like a herd of animals. In this chapter, Patterson turns his attention to the similarities between the American slaughterhouse and the German gas chamber. He states that During the 20 th Century two of the world's modern industrial nations - the United States and Germany - slaughtered millions of human beings and billions of other beings. Each country made its own unique contribution to the century's carnage: America gave the modern world the slaughterhouse; Nazi Germany gave it the gas chamber (109-110).
The following are some features shared by the two operations:
(1) Streamlining the process: At the killing centers speed and efficiency are of utmost important. This requires deception, intimidation, physical force, and speed to minimize panic and resistance. Speed and efficiency not only increases the killing capacity, it also keeps the killers from developing consciences. Patterson argues that inspectors now have little power to stop the line in slaughterhouses;
(2) Chute/Funnel/Tube: In both types of operations the victims are taken to their deaths by means variously called chutes, funnels, or tubes. Patterson provides descriptions of these means;
(3) Processing the sick, weak, and injured: Such individuals interfere with the efficiency of the process, so they must be dealt with. The Nazis dealt with the sick and injured by lying to them and telling them that they were going to the infirmary. Instead they were shot. Weak or injured animals are called downers'. The workers generally leave them to suffer and deal with them later;
(4) Killing the young: Animals are killed very young - as soon as there is sufficient meat on them. Even dairy cows and laying hens are killed young, once they pass maximum productivity. Patterson provides evidence that killing young animals is more difficult for workers. Similarly, most Nazis found killing children more difficult, so they enlisted locals to do so. Yet, the children were given no mercy. Himmler had told SS troops that Even the brood in the cradle must be crushed like a swollen toad (page 122).
In the following section, Animals in the Camps, Patterson explains that animals were also killed in the concentration camps. For instance, Auschwitz had a slaughterhouse and butcher's shop, and Treblinka had a stable, pigpen, and henhouse. Treblinka even had a zoo', with birds and foxes. Additionally, the guards also had dogs and trained them to attack the prisoners. At Treblinka, one guard further dehumanized the prisoners by prompting his dog to attack with the command, Man, go get that dog! (page 123). The Germans, however, only liked their dogs, and killed the dogs of Jews. The guards also apparently shot animals for entertainment: Shooting animals was a popular pastime for many of the German Mobile Killing Squad members and death camp personnel. A number of those who spent their working hours killing human beings liked to spend their free time killing animals (page 124). They also killed the livestock on the lands that they conquered.
In the ensuing section, Hitler and Animals, Patterson provides information about Hitler's relationship with animals. Hitler apparently was fond of dogs, especially German shepherds. Patterson states that he enjoyed controlling and dominating them. He carried a dog whip and hit his dog on occasion. Patterson also tackles the issue of Hitler's alleged vegetarianism. He says that Hitler avoided consuming meat due to his nervous stomach', and because he feared getting cancer, as his mother had. However, Hitler never completely gave up meat. Further, ...Hitler showed little sympathy for the vegetarian cause in Germany (page 127). He had banned all vegetarian societies, arrested their leaders, and closed the major vegetarian magazine. Patterson asserts that the myth that Hitler was a vegetarian was promoted by his minister of propaganda as part of Hitler's ascetic image. Patterson states that The alleged fondness of Hitler and other top Nazis for animals, especially their dogs, has been put into perspective by Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno. For certain authoritarian personalities, they write, their love of animals' is part of the way they intimidate others (page 128).
Next, in the section We Live Like Princes, Patterson describes the large volume of animals slaughtered by the Germans. Meat was even shipped to the Germans in occupied territories. According to Patterson, ...the pace of the slaughter became so intense that prisoners from the occupied territories had to be brought in as slave laborers (page 130). [note: interestingly, currently prisoners in some prisons are also used as labor in in-house slaughterhouses]. Patterson provides excerpts from the letters of Nazi soldiers describing how they were feasting on meat and how much they enjoyed it.
In the final section, Humane Slaughter, Patterson begins by saying that One bitterly ironic feature of killing operations is their attempt to make the killing more humane'. By humane' the operatives mean they want the killing to be done more efficiently and to be less stressful on the killers (pages 131-132). Specifically, Hitler and Himmler wanted the eugenic policies to be more humane'. In his Political Testament he wrote the day prior to his suicide, Hitler wrote that he had used a humane' method to kill the Jews. It is also claimed that animals are killed humanely'. In 1958 the US Congress passed the Humane Slaughter Act, which required that animals whose meat was to be sold to the federal government or its agencies must be rendered insensible to pain' before being dismembered. The Act was amended in 1978 to include all federally inspected facilities. Patterson criticizes animal welfare organizations for supporting these laws and not objecting outright to the killing of animals. He quotes Hilberg, whom states regarding the humane' German methods, that The humaneness' of the destruction process was an important factor in its success. It must be emphasized, of course, that this humaneness' was evolved not for the benefit of the victims but for the welfare of the perpetrators (page 135). Patterson is clearly implying here that humane slaughter laws have merely promoted the continued slaughtering of animals.
Part III Holocaust Echoes
Chapter 6: We Were Like That Too: Holocaust-Connected Animal Advocates
In this chapter Patterson profiles survivors and family members of survivors who are animal advocates. He begins by citing Leo Eitinger, a psychologist, who argues that Holocaust survivors tend to be more empathetic. Below are some of their stories:
Anne Muller: Muller's family members were killed in the Holocaust. She and her husband run Wildlife Watch and the Committee to Abolish Sport Hunting. Muller states that Animals are weak, they have no voice, they can't help each other or themselves. We were like that too (page 140).
Marc Berkowitz: Berkowitz lost his mother and sister in the Holocaust and he was forced to undergo experimental spinal surgery. At a meeting to save Canadian geese, he stated that My mother doesn't have a grave, but if she did I would dedicate it to the geese. I was a goose too (page 141).
The Hacker': this survivor activist is a member of the Animal Liberation Front and is known only as the Hacker'. This individual was involved in the 1981 raid of the head injury lab at the University of Pennsylvania, where baboons were being bludgeoned and killed.
Alex Herschaft: Herschaft, who is the founder and president of the Farm Animal Reform Movement, was in the Warsaw ghetto and lost his father. He states: My experience led me to a lifelong pursuit of justice for the oppressed. I soon discovered that the most oppressed beings on earth are non-human animals and that the most numerous and most oppressed among them are farm animals (page 145).
Lucy Kaplan: Kaplan's parents were in the concentration camps. She was the legal counsel for PETA's Investigations Division and also wrote the forward to this book. She says that she has really been haunted by Holocaust images my whole life, and there is no question that I was drawn to animal rights in part because of similarities I sensed between institutionalized animal exploitation and the Nazi genocide (page 146).
Barbara Stagno: Stagno is the North East Director of In Defense of Animals. Her grandparents were killed at Treblinka. She states that the lesson of the Holocaust is That people could do everything and anything to those that they deemed subhuman'. Which is, of course, what we do to animals (page 150).
Aviva Cantor: Cantor, who is a journalist, the Vice President for communications of Concern for Helping Animals in Israel, and the founder of the Jewish magazine Lilith , lost family members in the Holocaust. She states that nowhere is patriarchy's iron fist as naked as in the oppression of animals, which serves as the model and training ground for all other forms of oppression (page 163).
In the ensuing subsection entitled The Odd Couple, Patterson provides information about the backgrounds of Peter Singer and Henry Spira, who were both affected by the Holocaust. Singer, who lost three grandparents in the Holocaust, stated in an interview with Psychology Today that I've noticed that quite a lot of people who are prominent in the animal liberation movement are Jews. Maybe we are simply not prepared to see the powerful hurting the weak (page 161). Spira was six years old when the Nazis came to power and he believed that the fact that so many people allowed it to happen prompted him to become an activist. Singer and Spira met in 1974 when Spira took a course on animal liberation at NYU taught by Singer. Spira became a vegetarian while in the course, and later successfully stopped experiments on cats in the basement of the American Museum of Natural History. This was the first time since the inception of anti-vivisection concerns that an animal experiment was successfully stopped. Spira died in1998.
Chapter 7: this Boundless Slaughterhouse: The Compassionate Vision of Isaac Bashevis Singer
Issac Bashevis Singer (1904-1991) was a Yiddish writer and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1978. While Singer and his brother escaped to the United States during the war, his family remained in Poland and was killed. Patterson provides descriptions of Singer's childhood memories of animal slaughters and markets, and he outlines passages in Singer's books that are reminiscent of these scenes from his childhood. In his journal Singer apparently suggested the creation of an eleventh commandment: Do not kill or exploit the animal (page 172).
In the subsection entitled A Horrid Form of Amusement, Patterson describes Singer's dislike of hunting. In The Slave , Singer connects hunting to greed, gluttony, and cruelty. Further, in Shadows on the Hudson , the main character writes a letter from Israel in which he associates hunting with the seeds of fascism. As long as the other nations continue going to church in the morning and hunting in the afternoon, they will remain unbridled beasts and will go on producing Hitlers and other monstrosities' (page 175).
Patterson also describes how Singer expressed his disdain for the slaughter of animals through his work. He states that In Singer's work this craving for flesh symbolizes corruption and the close relationship between violence against animals and violence against people (page 176). In Singer's short story Blood , a woman has an affair with the ritual slaughterer she hires and she becomes blood-thirsty. She begins slaughtering animals herself and later turns into a carnivorous animal and attacks people. Similarly, in The Slaughterer a rabbi becomes the village slaughterer. He grows increasingly sick with what he is doing and begins to see God as cruel and eventually refuses to continue to serve him. In The Letter Writer Singer describes animal suffering as an eternal Treblinka' (the title of this book). The main character in this story states that They have convinced themselves that man, the worst transgressor of all the species, is the crown of creation. All other creatures were created merely to provide him with food, pelts, to be tormented, exterminated. In relation to them, all people are Nazis; for the animals it is an eternal Treblinka (page 183). Singer also made most of his main characters either vegetarians or at least contemplate vegetarianism.
In his writings, Singer also questions how God could allow this degree of animal suffering. In Shadows on the Hudson one of the characters questions whether God is good, and notes that he certainly wasn't to the Jews or to the animals. Another character states that God himself is the worst murderer (page 190). Additionally, in Enemies, A Love Story , upon seeing a dead pigeon the protagonist questions God: Why did you create her, if this was to be her end? How long will you be silent, Almighty sadist? (page 194). When Singer was interviewed about his Nobel Prize he said that the suffering that animals endure upset hum and sometimes made him angry with God. He argued that peace would not exist as long as humans continue killing animals.
Chapter 8: The Other Side of the Holocaust: German Voices for the Voiceless
In this chapter Patterson presents profiles of German animal advocates. Below are some of their stories:
Dietrich Von Haugwitz: Von Haugwitz was drafted by the Nazis at the age of 15. He was not committed to fighting and quickly surrendered to a British soldier. He says that seeing a bullfight, an animal rights video, and hearing Tom Regan speak opened his eyes. He joined the North Carolina Network for Animals and later became the Education Director. He states that he sees a parallel between the denial of Germans of what was going on to the Jews and the current denial of what is going on to animals.
Liesel Appel: Appel's parents were ardent supporters of Hitler and dedicated her birth to him. After the war her father was charged as a war criminal. Appel protested against apartheid and when it was over she turned her attention to animal advocacy. According to Patterson, she is determined to live as cruelty-free as possible out of a deep need to make up for an unbelievable evil committed by my people' (page 216).
Edgar Kuper-Koberwitz: Kuper-Koberwitz was a vegetarian and conscientious objector, and was imprisoned at Dachau for five years. While there he kept a diary that was later published as the Dachau Diaries . He also wrote Animal Brothers, an essay about his vegetarianism, and he states that everything begins on a small scale everything is learned on a small scale even killing (page 220).
Dr. Helmut Kaplan: according to Patterson, Kaplan is one of the primary animal rights thinkers in Germany. He says that he uses the Holocaust analogy because it is for speciesists as politically provocative as it is ethically sound (page 220).
Crista Blanke: Blanke, who was born in post-war Germany, was a Lutheran pastor. She conducted the first televised church service with animals. However, once she began animal advocacy, the clergy abandoned her. Livestock transport became Blanke's favored cause, because it reminded her of the way that the Jews had been transported. She founded Animals' Angels, which monitors livestock transport in Europe. She sees the following parallels between the treatment of Jews and animals: they are both stripped of their dignity; they are loaded into trucks and trains without respect for bonds of family and friendship; selections of who lives and dies are based on their value; ramps are used; tattoos are used for identification; euphemisms are used; and there is the same mind-splitting' by bystanders. Patterson explains that Blanke says that during the Nazi period many Germans had some kind of pet Jew', the ones who were really nice and not to be mixed up with the ordinary ones'. She says the same thing happens to the animals. They are pets like minipigs and riding horses, not to be confused with slaughter pigs' and slaughter horses' (page 225).
Afterword
In conclusion, Patterson states that In the United States where slavery and the eradication of most of the continent's native peoples are an indelible part of our history, institutionalized cruelty against the weak and defenseless is as American as apple pie (page 231). He points out that although the United States helped to defeat Hitler, his world view continues to live on in the United States in the treatment of animals. He sa
ys that although the abuse does seem hopelessly eternal', there is reason to hope that things will change because an increasing number of people are condemning slaughterhouses.
