Chapter 5 Relevant Associations in Understanding Meaning and Identity in Dehumanisation through Non-Human Codes in the Testimonies of Holocaust Survivors
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Abstract
Dehumanisation is an often cited phenomenon linked to perceptions, moral disengagement in violence, and propaganda in texts about inter-group conflict. Terms referencing animals to describe, label, and stereotype others are prominent in the literature on the subject from the perpetrators’ perspective. Rarely does the literature explore it in detail from the perspective of the survivors, making what is known about it incomplete. To address that gap, the current chapter reviews a study conducted by the author where dehumanisation in survivors’ accounts was explored. Using qualitative content analysis, the animal terms – interchangeably referred to as ‘codes’ throughout the chapter – in 451 anecdotes from 74 archived Holocaust survivor interview transcripts, where non-human terms were applied to humans or their experiences, were analysed. The initial findings of the study are overviewed and expanded by detailing additional discourse ones. The discourse findings were found to be complementary to the descriptive and thematic ones. They cover what can be learned about dehumanisation from a code through its background, the figurative language types it can be linked to, verbs, and other elements of discourse. The findings reflect the relational and subjective nature of dehumanisation embedded with multiple experiential, social, and structural meanings. These meanings shape and, in turn, are shaped by individual and group definitions and boundaries in identity re/formulation and enhancement. The results are combined into a model that can help to understand and question dehumanisation when the starting point of analysis for it is the non-human code.