Essay Comparing The Holocaust And The Stanford Prison Experiment

The Holocaust was a terrible event that will never be forgotten. One of the worst events that happened was the experiments done on Jews. The experiments done on Jews during the Holocaust, such as freezing experiments, genetic experiments, and experiments on organs, were inhumane and unjustifiable.

In part four of ‘The Book Thief’, there is a flashback to when Hans was in World War 1. In the chapter ‘The Accordionist’, Hans, Erik Vandenburg (Max’s father), and many other soldiers were stationed in France. One day, the sergeant asked who the best writer was. Because of the first incident in which a soldier had to clean the restroom with a toothbrush, none of the soldiers wanted to volunteer. Finally, Erik Vandenburg stepped up and proclaimed Hans as the best writer. The sergeant then told Hans he had to write a couple dozen letters, because the captain couldn’t, while the rest went into a battle. None who were involved in the battle came back.

Power, law, and the role of government are necessary and crucial in maintaining justice and promoting growth in a society. But what if the people in power fail to do their role and abuse the given authority for personal interest? Elie Wiesel’s 1956 Holocaust memoir Night documents a dark period in human history where the abuse of power by a few had an irreversible effects on millions of lives. The film ‘Stanford Prison Experiment’ directed by Kyle Patrick Alvarez also displays the influence of power have on people and their ways of treating others. Although Night is a memoir based on true experience and ‘Stanford Prison Experiment’ is a film based on a simulated research experiment, both work expose the truth of unbalanced and misused power within a society and its enormous physical and psychological impacts on individuals of different social status.

Though this was just an experiment many of the test subjects were quickly pushed to their limits and the ones in authority took their roles to the extreme. Eventually, this caused an early shut down of the experiment. There was a total of 9 students who were willing to be the prisoners in this experiment. The study issued that the guards would be forced to give brutal and cruel torture upon the prisoner. The experiment was known as one of the most controversial studies in the history of social psychology because even though it was an experiment, the prisoners went through major psychological changes and one prisoner even succumbed to a short period of insanity. Through deindividualized torture, exploitation and manipulation many of the test subjects underwent the same torture as those who were imprisoned at Abu Ghraib. It was finally shut down by a woman by the name of Christina Maslach but similarly to Abu Ghraib no one was held accountable for the short period of torture. Also like Abu Ghraib, the men who played the role of the guards in The Stanford Prison Experiment underwent psychological changes where they became evil, relentless and manipulative all while blaming it on the fact that they’re “just following orders.” In many cases when a person is given authority, they abuse it

It was surreal feeling to see an experiment like this one.It seemed so easy in the being for them to take the money but they never really knew what they would endure ultimately.When they added the sunglasses the army uniforms they where setting them selfs a part by stating that we have power over you.When the guards stripped them and being demeaning them it had a negative impact on the prisoners.Taking into the consideration the fact they where being degraded yelled at and punished mentally and physically they rebelled as many of us would.This experiment basically turned normal human being into mentally tortured prisons.This Stanford Prison Experiment impact on the criminal justice corrections system I believe has set an example on how not

These experiments were not only full of hate but also used for the advancement of medicine and effective treatment of the patient. Some were just out of fascination and believed they were for the better of the Aryan race. Injecting prisoners with chemicals, raising and lowering body temperature, and comparing the vitals of twins under extreme conditions are just three ways doctors of the Holocaust used prisoners for medical advancement. Since that age and time we have strived to move forward from that period and time and focus more on the patient's well being rather than the

Many brutal atrocities were committed during the Holocaust by the Nazi party against anyone they viewed as “unpure”. This included the Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, Afro-Germans, Slavs, communists, the handicapped, and the mentally disabled. These groups were targeted, stripped away of their rights and citizenship, and then sent to concentration camps. Some of these camps were death camps; created for the sole purpose to annihilate these groups of people, mainly the Jews. At these camps, the prisoners were tortured, starved, brutally killed, and experimented on. In this research paper, I am going to discuss some of the medical experiments that were

Those designated to enact the role of a prisoner, were arrested by the Palo Alto police department, obliged to wear chains and prison attire, and were transported to the basement of the Stanford psychology department, which was transformed into a makeshift prison. Furthermore, various guards became increasingly aggressive, resulting in the experiment becoming uncontrollable. Within six days, riots broke out, psychological distresses were showcased by certain prisoners, and unruly punishment was given to the prisoners. These irrational and disreputable incidents, caused the experiment to end abruptly.

The prisoners were emotionally and mentally harmed during the experiment. The prisoners started to lose their identity, and instead started identifying themselves as their number. One participant even went on a hunger strike for the time that he was in the prison. Another participant had to leave the study because he became excessively disturbed as time went on. After the study was done, people had trouble separating what the people did in the study to how they were in real life, which caused a problem when they all had to meet after the trial was over. This ethical violation is very apparent because Dr. Zimbardo did have to end the study before the two weeks was done.

When put into the position of complete authority over others people will show their true colors. I think that most people would like to think that they would be fair, ethical superiors. I know I would, but learning about the Stanford Prison Experiment has made me question what would really happen if I was there. Would I be the submissive prisoner, the sadistic guard, or would I stay true to myself? As Phillip Zimbardo gave the guards their whistles and billy clubs they drastically changed without even realizing it. In order to further understand the Stanford Prison experiment I learned how the experiment was conducted, thought about the ethical quality of this experiment, and why I think it panned out how it did.

The year was 1971 and no one was ready for the results that the study, known as the Stanford Prison Experiment would conduct (Whitbourne). A test subject’s fate was determined by the flip of a coin, twelve prison guards and twelve prisoners (Zimbardo). Now that Zimbardo knew he had test subjects, he assembled a team to begin construction of the “Stanford County Jail.” With the help of a former imprisoned convict, the prison was built to be as realistic as possible. Zimbardo said, “The Prison was constructed by boarding up each end of a corridor in the basement of Stanford’s psychology department building (Zimbardo). That corridor was the ‘yard’ and was the only outside place where prisoners would

This torture began with stripping the prisoners of their clothes, shaving all the hair on their bodies, and giving them a tattoo on their forearm. The disgusting living quarters were also a part of this torturous treatment and was so bad even animals shouldn’t have been living that way, but not only were the living conditions bad, but the way the “prisoners” were inflicted with such maltreatment was terrible. All of this treatment happened because of one man named Adolf Hitler who was a Nazi and wanted power, and the more he could get, the better. “It is easier to tell kids about those who escaped (the survivors and their rescuers) than to focus on the millions who were victims and perpetrators and bystanders.”Rochman, Hazel. "The Holocaust Survivors." Booklist, 15 Sept. 1998, p. 216. Literature Resource Center, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A55052619/GLS?u=j036903001&sid=GLS&xid=8a0341bf. Accessed 19 May 2018.Thousands of innocent people were killed in the cattle cars on the way to the camps because they were either killed by the Nazi’s or died from heat or malnutrition. Those who survived the trip and made it to the concentration camps were forced to work, and if they didn’t work “properly” or according to the Nazi’s standards, then they would be killed, whether it be from gas chambers also known as “showers”, being shot

When put into an authoritative position over others, is it possible to claim that with this new power individual(s) would be fair and ethical or could it be said that ones true colors would show? A group of researchers, headed by Stanford University psychologist Philip G. Zimbardo, designed and executed an unusual experiment that used a mock prison setting, with college students role-playing either as prisoners or guards to test the power of the social situation to determine psychological effects and behavior (1971). The experiment simulated a real life scenario of William Golding’s novel, “Lord of the Flies” showing a decay and failure of traditional rules and morals; distracting exactly how people should behave toward one another. This

In 1971, the Stanford Prison Experiment proved dehumanization naturally exists in human nature. The experiment gave prison guards an abundant amount of power over prisoners, and the guards abused their abilities to rule. Prisoners were beaten, stripped naked, and starved. Similarly, dehumanization occurred in the Holocaust in 1941. In the autobiography Night, by Elie Wiesel, Elie describes his horrific experiences during the Holocaust.

Dehumanization can be broken down quite simple, ironically. The Nazi’s tore down people by taking away their unwritten rights as people. People tend to identify themselves in many ways, such as “that who they are”. The Nazi’s were able to take this part away the fastest. As soon as the prisoners got taken to the concentration camps, they were given a shower, stripped of their clothing, given ill-fitting, worn down clothes, shaved their heads, took their