The Milgram Experiment In Victor Frankel Mans Search...

In his book Man’s Search for Meaning, Victor Frankel shows how prominently the results of the Milgram experiment prove to be true. By many accounts the Milgram experiment has proven its hypothesis: that a person will follow authority’s command and stick to the rules, even if it could prove detrimental to the subject, but it has never been proven on such a large and deadly scale as the Jewish Holocaust that occurred during World War II. Adolf Hitler’s command over the Third Reich meant suffering for Jews throughout Germany, Poland and Austria, as well as other countries in Europe that Germany would eventually gain control over. These Jews were rounded up, put onto railcars and shipped to concentration camps throughout Germany and Poland.†¦show more content†¦Frankel said that ninety percent of his transport was put to death on the spot. After he was chosen to work, Frankel was commanded to bathe, almost charmed by SS guards looking to steal valuables that he had on his person. After being herded into the bathhouse with the rest of the Jews selected to work, Frankel and his comrades are forced to strip and leave everything behind except their shoes and belt. Once they were completely naked, SS guards began going around and whipping prisoners at random, terrorizing their prisoners just like in the Milgram experiment. One of the main men responsible for the Holocaust, Adolf Eichmann, wrote in his memoir â€Å"It was really terrible but quite necessary. Anyhow the Fuhrer ordered it, and I did not have anything to do with the annihilation. I was not a killer but a man who executed orders†, (Reynolds, 100) restating the remorse that the subject of the Milgram experiment was inclined to feel once they heard the â€Å"student† on the other side of the wall moaning in pain. Frankel’s account of the terror inside of the concentration camps can easily lead a person to believe the application of the Milgram experimentâ€⠄¢s results to the Holocaust, but Frankel’s account breaks away from and exceeds the torture of the Milgram experiment a few times as well. One can easily conclude that many SS guards began their careers in the concentration camps by â€Å"just following orders† but after months of abusing prisoners took their authority to new