Auschwitz's Techno-Scientific Core

项目摘要SES 0408827迈克尔艾伦，独立学者“奥斯威辛的科技核心：大屠杀和科学技术的政治宗教“这个项目提出了一个新的历史的科技核心的大屠杀在奥斯威辛。 虽然以前的研究集中在火葬场和毒气室的工厂一样灭绝欧洲犹太人，学者们这样做没有任何基础的科学和技术研究（STS）。 因此，现有的历史是没有说服力的，甚至是歪曲的。 特别是，他们在一个隐含的假设下运作，即“技术决定论”造成了奥斯威辛大屠杀的独特动力。 他们依赖于PI所称的“技术官僚”解释。 这种观点认为，工程师和科学家不知道他们的工作的影响，并由于全神贯注的小技术细节或不透明的大型层级官僚机构而保持无知。 因此，奥斯威辛大屠杀在他们的手中慢慢演变，而他们没有任何意图这样做。 只有当人们承认技术官僚通常缺乏知识能力或调查自由来辨别他们在做什么或为什么这样做时，这种说法才是可信的。 但如果奥斯威辛真的是一个现代科技官僚机构，这似乎不太可能。 PI建议将STS的新来源和新方法引入大屠杀研究和德国历史。 PI将应用更复杂的方法来科学，技术，政治和意识形态发展的STS。 相反，奥斯威辛大屠杀的技术科学核心的历史将促进对意识形态，科学和技术之间相互作用的STS的持续兴趣。 PI将通过各种来源，包括技术和科学期刊以及机构记录，调查那些建造和经营奥斯威辛死亡集中营的人的实质性意识形态。 此外，通过将奥斯威辛大屠杀的技术科学核心视为一个整体的大型技术系统，PI将向大屠杀受害者的声音开放研究。 只有当人们对这些高度合格的专业人员的经验和证词不屑一顾时，对奥斯威辛的技术官僚解释才能站得住脚。 许多人被迫在党卫队的灭绝机器中担任工人、技术员、绘图员、医生或工程师。 他们的观点使人们能够更准确地评估大屠杀。 他们所受的训练往往与俘虏他们的人相当，甚至比俘虏他们的人还要上级。 在战后的证词中，他们反复讲述了奥斯威辛的负责工程师和管理人员如何在整个战争过程中与他们在欧洲各地的同伴保持稳定的沟通;以及他们如何认识到纳粹寻求机械杀人手段，并对种族灭绝的工程表示热情。

Project AbstractSES 0408827Michael 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.