I agree to a greater extent that the ideological and infrastructural framework of Nazi violence
was also part of the general culture of imperial democracies.
To understand why Nazi violence was not so unprecedented, we must go back to the
framework that emerged during the French Revolution, which represented a watershed
moment in the world's violent transformation by introducing new execution techniques.
Let us take a close a look at what technical dehumanization of death was first, it was the
introduction of the guillotine, a type of executing machine that signalled the beginning of
modernity in death culture and customs.1 During the French Revolution, the executioner was
replaced by the guillotine, a new symbol of sovereignty, the Industrial Revolution entered the
domain of capital punishment.2 The Industrial Revolution ushered in a new period in the
history of capital punishment, in which executions were no longer a public spectacle, but
rather a mechanical operation on the death production line, impersonal, efficient, silent, and
swift.3 As a result of this, death became dehumanized, men were slaughtered as if they were
animals after being demoted from the race, now execution began to be a holocaust. 4 This was
the start of a series of massacres thus the invention of the guillotine paved way for the Nazi
violence.
Punishments as disciplinary measures were taken in secret after the mechanization of punitive
procedures. The notion of confinement was now imposed on Western cultures, and jails,
barracks, and factories were established, all of which were dominated by the same principles
of enclosure, imposition of discipline, social hierarchy, rational division, and mechanization
of labour upon time and bodies.5 Each of these organizations was a testament to capitalism's
intrinsic degradation of work and bodies.6 Prisons were a prototype for social control
systems, while factories became a systematic elimination of workers' living conditions. 7
Prisons maintained authoritarian rationality of factories and barracks, but they had a different
purpose but they were no longer regarded as a source of profit, but as a punishment and a
technique of torture, repressive methods resulted in a significant increase in the number of
people dying in jail across Europe.8 In the early 19th prisons, human labour was conceived
1
Enzo Traverso, The Origins of Nazi Violence, Trans. Janet Lloyd (New York: The New Press, 2003), 21
2
Ibid, 23
3
Ibid, 24
4
Ibid
5
Ibid, 28
6
Ibid
7
Ibid
8
Enzo Traverso, The Origins of Nazi Violence, Trans. Janet Lloyd (New York: The New Press, 2003), 30-31
was also part of the general culture of imperial democracies.
To understand why Nazi violence was not so unprecedented, we must go back to the
framework that emerged during the French Revolution, which represented a watershed
moment in the world's violent transformation by introducing new execution techniques.
Let us take a close a look at what technical dehumanization of death was first, it was the
introduction of the guillotine, a type of executing machine that signalled the beginning of
modernity in death culture and customs.1 During the French Revolution, the executioner was
replaced by the guillotine, a new symbol of sovereignty, the Industrial Revolution entered the
domain of capital punishment.2 The Industrial Revolution ushered in a new period in the
history of capital punishment, in which executions were no longer a public spectacle, but
rather a mechanical operation on the death production line, impersonal, efficient, silent, and
swift.3 As a result of this, death became dehumanized, men were slaughtered as if they were
animals after being demoted from the race, now execution began to be a holocaust. 4 This was
the start of a series of massacres thus the invention of the guillotine paved way for the Nazi
violence.
Punishments as disciplinary measures were taken in secret after the mechanization of punitive
procedures. The notion of confinement was now imposed on Western cultures, and jails,
barracks, and factories were established, all of which were dominated by the same principles
of enclosure, imposition of discipline, social hierarchy, rational division, and mechanization
of labour upon time and bodies.5 Each of these organizations was a testament to capitalism's
intrinsic degradation of work and bodies.6 Prisons were a prototype for social control
systems, while factories became a systematic elimination of workers' living conditions. 7
Prisons maintained authoritarian rationality of factories and barracks, but they had a different
purpose but they were no longer regarded as a source of profit, but as a punishment and a
technique of torture, repressive methods resulted in a significant increase in the number of
people dying in jail across Europe.8 In the early 19th prisons, human labour was conceived
1
Enzo Traverso, The Origins of Nazi Violence, Trans. Janet Lloyd (New York: The New Press, 2003), 21
2
Ibid, 23
3
Ibid, 24
4
Ibid
5
Ibid, 28
6
Ibid
7
Ibid
8
Enzo Traverso, The Origins of Nazi Violence, Trans. Janet Lloyd (New York: The New Press, 2003), 30-31
