Michel Foucault writes in Discipline and Punishment that “the panopticon presents a cruel, ingenious cage. The fact that is should have given rise, even in our own time, to so many variations, projected or realized, is evidence of the imaginary intensity that it has possessed for almost two hundred years,” (72) and further clarifies that “the panoptic scheme makes any apparatus of power more intense: it assures its economy (in material, in personnel, in time); it assures its efficacy by its preventative character, its continuous functioning, and its automatic mechanisms. (73)
On Thursday, we are going to discuss further how Foucault uses the idea of the panopticon and expands it to different institutions and systems. Please read for our class the selected excerpts from The Last Jew of Treblinka, in which the holocaust survivor Chil Rajchman describes his remembrance of the death camp Treblinka, the uprising, and his escape. In your blog post, I would like you to reflect upon the portrayed political system, surveillance apparatus, and community in Rajchman’s work. What kind of political system is in place? What different forms of surveillance do we encounter in the camps? Think about the different degrees of complicity in the surveillance system? Describe the different communities portrayed in the memoir and their purposes? Who is part of which community and who can determine who is excluded and included? In which ways does the panopticon support our understanding of the portrayed political system, whose consequences show in The Last Jew of Treblinka – what are the potential conceptual limitations of the panopticon?
Please write a response around 250 words-length, which focuses on two of the above-mentioned questions. Incl. at least two quotes from The Last Jew of Treblinka to back up your arguments and reasoning. Your blog response needs to comment, respond, or critically engage with your classmates’ blog entries. Consider this blog to be our conversation starter. We will continue the discussion in class on Thursday!
In The Last Jew of Treblinka, we encounter forms of surveillance that are still used to this day. While surveillance as a whole has gotten more complex by the use of technology, we see examples of it in the book that will never change. The most prominent form of surveillance we encounter in the camps is physical- the guards are physically standing over the victims, constantly watching their every move. On page 20 Rajchman states. “I straighten up for a few minutes and suddenly one of the bandits approaches and starts to whip me without stopping” (Rajchman 20-21). The guards have complete control of them through the fear of constant surveillance and violence. These people are literally not even allowed to stand up straight without being beaten. They are constantly being watched and they have to live like in fear all of the time.
The panopticon supports our understanding of the surveillance system in The Last Jew of Treblinka by showing how prisoners of the guards are under constant watch. “The murderer screams at me like a stuck pig- You dog, the bundle is too small!” (Rajchman 13). These victims are running back and forth and cannot escape the gaze of the guards while doing so. While the victims know they are being watched all of the time, the prisoners in the panopticon do not. They know that there are guards hired to consistently watch them but they don’t know when. Some potential conceptual limitations of the panopticon is the whole idea that once prisoners are freed they will become “better people”. While reading about the panopticon, one of the main ideas of it is that once prisoners are out, they will still live like they are being watched all of the time. While this theory may be true for some, we shouldn’t rely on this when releasing. Most people will take their freedom and run with it disregarding the fact that they might be watched.
To answer Dr Koellner’s questions on our reading in The Last Jew, there are many forms of survillance that we encounter among the community. Initially we have the “murderes which Rajchman refers to throughout the story. In a certain scene, Rajchman refers to the camp chief “the camp chief often hides in a corner to observe how long people are sitting in the toilet and if the Toilet Supervisor is admitting only those who have numbers” (Rajchman 121-122). This is only one example of how the people are constantly watched by the murderes, SS men, and the chief. Another example of the type of surveillance would be the people watching other people. When Rajchman in the beginning stands straight, he is wipped and his neighbor tells him that in order to not be wipped he must bend over. Although it is not an obvious form of surveillance, they learn from each others actions by watching them. There are many different communities in Treblinka which I feel like is what makes Treblinka interesting. The woman and children are seperate from the men which makes up their own separate communities. Each man who is not killed, has their own occupation which makes Treblinka almost city like because everyone contributes to the “town”. Rajchman starts off as a barber, which saves him from dying, then has to carry bodies, and before his escape is a dentist. Rajchman explains the outline of Treblinka, “Treblinka is built in a professional way. … On the left side of the platform stand several wooden structures, among them the kitchen and the workshops. Opposite these are the sleeping quarters. Nerby are the barracks where the SS men live” (Rajchman 10). Although the quote is a smaller verison of the bigger discription of Treblinka, the reader can easily note that Treblinka is not only a train station but in a way a self sufficient town.
I agree with Ava when she says that we still see similar uses of surveillance today. For example, the guards are always watching and standing over the victims. Obviously, the guards had complete control of the people by using violent surveillance. “Every few minutes the murderers come with whips in their hands and shout- Faster. Get moving!”(21.) The guards use fear, death, intimidation, etc, as their power over the prisoners and that’s how they control them. In the previous quote, we see that the guard uses such terrifying, painful, violence in order to get the prisoners to speed up and move faster.
In the panopticon, a guard has is always able to see the prisoners and so it supports our understanding of the portrayed political/surveillance system in The Last Jew of Treblinka because the Nazi guards have complete control over the prisoners and are constantly watching and surveilling the prisoners just like in the panopticon. I think that there are many different types of communities. One being, the guards and within that are different levels of power. The prisoners are another community and they are split up as well. There are women and children who are separated from the mean so those two groups make up their own communities. Within each community, everyone has different responsibilities and has to do different things. “The murderer leads me to another place and orders that we be given shoes. Each of us grabs a pair of shoes and quickly puts them on. We are then led to another place where Jews are sorting parcels and are ordered to stay there and sort. When a new transport arrives, we are to be released, since we are intended for barbering”(18.) Each group has different responsibilities which will affect other groups.
I agree with Ava that the prisoners of the camp are constantly being watched. The camp is very controlling. The Jewish people are watched in a number of ways. Upon arrival, Rajchman describes how “along the way guards are posted, arms linked in a human chain, so that no one will escape the whips” (12). The SS men watch the Jewish with whips constantly. When eating, the Jewish have to stand in groups of five as another method of control. Another example of surveillance mentioned in the memoir is when the brothers from the separate camp are allowed to meet. There was an “SS man [who] stood between each brother and… they were only permitted to speak German” (121). By controlling what language the Jewish people can speak, there is a greater sense of power of the SS.
There are two main obvious communities in the memoir. The first is the Jewish community who is constantly under attack. The second are what Rajchman calls the murderers, the SS and the Ukrainians. The SS forced the Jewish people to make a comedic show of Passover. They are allowed to perform the Seder but under the watch of the SS who “poke fun at this comedy and after a few minutes they leave the barracks” (122). Additionally, more communities are formed after they start to plan the revolt. There are the people who know of it, and those who are kept in the dark. Finally, there are the communities of who arrives and will live, and who will die. The women and children all belong to the community that will die, as do the hundreds of men not selected for work.
I agree with Ava, Phillip, Elizabeth, and Beth in terms of the constant surveillance. I don’t know if you could call a Nazi concentration camp a political system, to an extent it could resemble modern-day society by how the camp is run by Jews and other minorities and controlled by the Nazi soldiers. Just like in today’s society the people work the small jobs so that the government officials can make the rules for us to live by. Surveillance within Treblinka is somewhat of a constant, however instead of security cameras, the surveillance consists of soldiers carrying whips to use whenever they please. There’s no rule book for the soldiers in charge, they have no law to abide by their only concern is to inflict as much pain and misery on those transported there. Rajchman recalls his time under the hand of the murderer “The murderer screams at me like a stuck pig-You dog, the bundle is too small!” (13), and in that instant, his humanity is stripped just like that.
The different degrees of complicity in this political/surveillance system is quite disturbing but I wouldn’t call it being complicit; the fact that Jews are forced to shave the hair off of their brothers and sisters before being gassed, and that they are then forced to rummage through the deceased and pluck out any gold teeth is a horror that no human being should have ever endured. The communities within the camp ranged from the Nazi soldiers and the Jews. However, taking those two communities and just dividing the Jews up you have the barbers and the ones assigned to search the deceased for valuables, and those with no job, the ones with jobs insured that their life was somewhat of value within the camp. It’s clear that Rajchman disassociated himself even after his life in Treblinka, “As if his destiny of living through so much death cuts him off from his prior existence” (XIV). As I stated before the included and excluded within the camp comes from whether or not you had a job that the soldiers deemed too little of a role for themselves for instance barbers. The only difference between these concentration camps and Benthams panopticon model is that these “prisoners” aren’t actually criminals and that the layout of the camp isn’t set up like a theater with a center stage. These people were detained for no reason, only with the intent of wiping out an entire religion because a madman deemed them a burden to society.
Surveillance in Treblinka was near constant, physical, and the efficiency of the camp depended on it. The Murderers kept careful watch over the camp, even recording minutes spent using the toilet. If any prisoner was seen disobeying orders they would be severely whipped. I agree with Michael, the reason this surveillance was so violent was because of the traditional, physical, nature of it. Because of this, a culture of fear was pervasive. The power of this fear draws on some ideas of the Panopticon – even when one is not being surveilled, fear forces one to behave as they were being watched. This use of surveillance allowed the massive amounts of death to occur. However, this was not the only surveillance at Treblinka. The prisoners utilized counter-surveillance, when planning their uprising. “Our conversations take place in the corners of the barracks, and there is always a guard consisting of our own people to keep an eye out in case one of the murderers comes into the barracks.” (pg. 119)
Just from this quote, the existence of communities in Treblinka is evident. Rajchman describes one he is in by saying “of our own people”. The two most evident communities are the Murderers, who exist to efficiently murder, and the prisoners forced to work the camps. You could venture to say the others that are immediately put to death are a community, but truly they are murdered too soon to form one. Longevity is important to forming trust, which is integral to forming a community – “…workers have remained with us for longer than before … We have begun to trust one another more and to think about the possibilities of escape…” (pg. 119). This quote also enlightens us to the community’s purpose. They exist to help one another not only bear the weight of this cruel existence, but also to attempt to leave it. However, as Elizabeth, Lily and others articulated, even within this community, there still exists divisions, in/out groups – such as Camp 1 and 2, those that were unaware of the revolt up until that very day, the different jobs, ect.
Dear all,
the last post pushes the discussion in a broader direction, which I would encourage you to further pursue. Please, think about the function of Treblinka within the broader political landscape of Europe in 1942-1943. Think about Treblinka not as a political system itself, but as a consequence of the one-party Nazi-dictatorship and its devastating expansion in the East (take note, that Treblinka is located in contemporary Poland). Let us further discuss how we define “to be complicit” – think about complicity in broader terms of society, what is needed for someone to become complicit – agency?
During the 20th century, in general, modern surveillance was already becoming widespread throughout Germany and other parts of the world. After reading excerpts from “The Last Jew of Treblinka,” I agree with Ava that multiple types of surveillance used in Treblinka and the Holocaust are in place today, just more advanced. Hitler used contemporary surveillance to detect large groups of Jews in Germany and Poland, much like the modern FBI identifies certain drug cartels and terrorist groups. In the camp, the guards or SS men, use traditional surveillance instead to observe the Jews in Treblinka, requiring them to remain close. The short visual range necessary to traditionally survey the concentration camp increases the amount of violence practiced. The Jews were hovered continuously by the SS men, leading to brutal beatings out of craving and proximity. Chil Rajcham describes the punishment the Jews in Treblinka would endure for literally doing what was asked of them. On page 13, Rajcham mentions, “We run back and forth several times with the bundles with whips falling on us every step of the way.” Taking from the fact that the SS men had no restriction for the amount of trauma they could inflict demonstrates their complicit behavior perfectly. On page 12, Rajchmam describes how “along the way, guards are posted, arms linked in a human chain so that no will escape the whips,” revealing how the guards enjoy any act of stripping humanity from Jewish men, women, and children. The Nazi Soldiers were in full support of the immoral and unjust mass killings of jews. They were more than eager to comply with Hitler’s demands and perform gruesome deeds with enjoyment.
I strongly agree with Ava, and especially Lily. The Nazi concentration camp shows that everyone is constantly surveilled and watched over. However, I wouldn’t call it a political system because at the end of the day, as Moyn describes in the preface, “The Nazi project of extermination reached its most terrible extremity in Treblinka…” (Moyn xii). We can’t forget the gruesome killings that happened there every day for no reason.
Treblinka is a direct result of the devastating expansion of the one-party Nazi dictatorship to the east. When comparing concentration camps in the west vs the east, one can see a dramatic difference. In the west, camps only became lethal in the last few months of the war. In the east however, jews were put to extinction upon arrival from the beginning unless you were in the lucky 0.01% and assigned to operating the “extinction” machinery, and somehow not killed along the way.
There aren’t many different communities described. It’s fairly simple, really. Rajchman recounts a fellow jew saying, “Brother, you have been saved from the death!” (Rajchman 18) after he was chosen to be a barber. For the jews: you’re either killed or kept alive (but still beaten bloody) as a barber. The only other community in this awful place are the SS officers who have complete control, and can do whatever they want without repercussion.
I agree with many of my classmates; I, too, think that traditional surveillance is used in the Treblinka camp. The SS men and Ukrainians must be within close enough reach to whip the individuals who do not follow the unwritten protocols, and “no one will escape the whips” (Rajchman 12). I also noticed that not all of the surveillance is carried out by those who necessarily have more power within the society. Other prisoners are made to carry out rules made by the guards. Even though they have some inherent control over their fellow prisoners, they remain a cog in the killing machine that is the death camp. For example, the “toilet supervisor is admitting [fellow prisoners] that have numbers” (Rajchman 122). He has the power to choose who goes to the restroom and for how long. However, he is still a prisoner and is mocked by the guards who “constantly [give the supervisor] something new to wear so he will look even funnier”(Rajchman 122). This smaller group of SS men and Ukrainian guards control the society deciding what rules to enforce and how violently. It can be considered in a way a very violent and corrupt Oligarchy- “a structure in which power rests with a small number of people. These people may be distinguished by… corporate,…political, or military control”. Similarly to the Panopticon, the prisoners of the camp feel the overwhelming “power of the gaze” that teaches them unwritten rules and leaves them with an overwhelming sense of fear and dread-similar to what Ava has said. The Panopticon was also surveilled by one or more guards, even though its overarching goal differs to that of the camp.
Surveillance in mid 20th century, was growing and major adjustments have modernized because of it. I agree with Lily when saying the nazi-run concentration camps are not political systems. Just like modern day, surveillance was not taken lightly and all eyes were on you even without the use of security cameras. Instead, nazi soldiers were in close contact with them and carried weapons. The nazi soldiers at the camp used traditional surveillance, while hitler used contemporary surveillance to oversee people in countries like Poland. The traditional surveillance resulted in much violence and death because it was hands on, not looking at a monitor with cameras everywhere. However, every concentration camp was different especially the ones in the east compared to the ones in the west. Rajchman explains “Unlike in the West, the victims in the east were dealt immediate extinction on arrival, and died as Jews targeted as Jews by the regime” (Rajchman xii). The east concentration camps were new and only about .01% made it out alive. There are different communities involved in the concentration camps, it is not just jews and nazis. In the concentration camps, you had the people who were killed, but you also had intense laborers. “I run over to them and announce I am a barber” (Rajchman 18). You were lucky if you made it out alive, but being a barber you were still beaten and malnourished like the rest. The Nazi soldiers were its own community because the kept watch over the camp and could literally do whatever they wanted to the prisoners.
In agreeance with many of my classmates, Treblinka is an obvious result of the Nazi political system branching into Eastern Europe. Differing from western camps, which only became deadly in the last few months of the war, the eastern camps were deadly from the beginning In the camps, the prisoners have totally lost their freedoms and are subjugated to the horrors of the guards. “No one will escape the whips” (Rajchman, 12). This quote showcases one of the many ways that the SS guards would punish those who didn’t follow the unwritten rules of the camp. Another power move by the guards was to force prisoners to observe and punish other prisoners. This distribution of surveillance powers was essentially a form of entertainment for the guards because they would always look for new ways to humiliate the prisoner in charge. As an example, the prisoner that was in charge of supervising the toilets had the power to determine who could go to the restroom and for how long (Rajchman 122). Despite his new “power,” the guards still make him wear funny things to embarrass him. This smaller group subsequently controls the society even more, deciding what rules they want to enforce and how they enfore them. This system mimics an extremely corrupt oligarchy, where a small number of people hold the most power. Similar to the Panopticon, the prisoners constantly feel the “power of the gaze” and the pressure to follow the unwritten rules of the system they are in. This pressure puts an overwhelming sense of fear in prisoners.
Systems of a “Pure Community” and exclusion is the main type of political system we see in The Last Jew of Treblinka, in which the holocaust survivor Chil Rajchman accounts for the horrors that were endured during this time. The reader can see this type of exclusionary political system when in the preface Samuel Moyn recalls “the victims in the east were dealt immediate extinction on arrival, and died as Jews targeted as Jews by the regime.” (xii). However, as a result of this extreme exclusion these two groups of workers were put into the same barracks and as Rajchman states “we have been able to get to know each other better… and to think about the possibilities of escape from here.” (pg. 119) that as a result of them getting more time together, they have formed a bond. Although they were excluded in this camp, being in an excluded group gave these men the courage to revolt. Because of this overwhelming fear of being beaten to death was being presented to these men daily, they were complying with what the SS officers were telling them to do up until the revolt. The constant fear of being watched and patrolled was what made these men complacent, the threat of death was always present if they did not do what they were told. I do agree with Ava’s statement that the main form of surveillance is physical, and with the main form of surveillance being physical it continues to reinstall that reoccurring extreme exclusion. It does this by having certain people watch over the prisoners, such as the SS and Ukrainian men, but also having the prisoners keep each other “in check” for fear of being beaten.
I’m agreeing with all of my classmates. Ava made a good point about how surveillance back then is still happening today. The example she gave us was the use of technology and I totally agree with her. Also all the “murderers” that we’re mentioned throughout the story. As someone else mentioned, we see in today’s society that guards have all the power and have control over the people. A small number of Jewish men who were not killed immediately upon arrival became members of its sonderkommando whose jobs included being forced to bury the victims’ bodies in mass graves. prisoners are made to carry out rules made by the guards. Even though they have some control over their prisoners. For example, the “toilet supervisor is admitting [fellow prisoners] that have numbers” (Rajchman 122). He has the power to choose who goes to the restroom and for how long. However, every concentration camp was different. the ones in the east compared to the ones in the west. Rajchman said “Unlike in the West, the victims in the east were dealt immediate extinction on arrival, and died as Jews targeted as Jews by the regime” (Rajchman xii).
I also agree that they said that the nazi concentration camp shows that everyone is constantly surveilled and watched over because as they mentioned in the story how every sudden move they made they got beat for it. Over all we can see that they were more than please to do what hitler demand them to do. The nazi soldiers were all in and supporting everything that was happening.
In the Last Jew of Treblinka, there is a pretty obvious and simple form of surveillance being used by the “monster” or SS and Ukrainian officers. The monsters use physical surveillance, they listen to and watch the Jewish prisoners with their own eyes and ears. “The murderers are standing around and whoever cuts slowly is badly beaten.” (20 Rajchman) This sentence is evidence that the soldiers are watching the prisoners and very closely if they can find out who cuts slowly. The guards also delegate supervision to some prisoners but even those prisoners are still supervised like the “rabbi” that watched the toilet to make sure they only took 2 minutes. If he was caught giving someone more time he was also beaten. The camp that the prisoners are in is very similar to an Oligarchy, a small group of people “ruling” over many. “I hear one of the murderers, an SS man, shout-Which of you is a barber? … He orders us… “(17-18 Rajchman). This is just one of the many soldiers who manage the camp and he orders people around.
The panopticon supports our understanding because all prisoners are openly under surveillance allowing them to be controlled by the oligarchy the soldiers form and help with the physical surveillance because the prisoners are always in the view of the soldiers and can be seen and heard. The limitations to the panoptican can be most things not physical or involve a physical aspect.
For me it is hard to read how people lived under such surveillance in The Last Jew of Treblinka. Being in these camps alone is hard enough and bringing them even more hardship is how much they were watched and controlled. For instance, “the camp chief often hides in a corner to observe how long people are sitting in the toilet” (Rajchman 121). This as well as many other examples is very dehumanizing. Even know I don’t live in a life where I had to bear these hardships like they did, I believe that surveillance back then is very similar to surveillance now just in different forms. In The Last Jew of Treblinka people are constantly being watched by guards and being controlled directly but now days we aren’t constantly being watched by guards, but through technology, at any point in time we can be watched and tracked. I believe we are also controlled indirectly through being watched and influenced in the media and various online platforms. This makes it to where there are different political communities. Mainly in this topic, there are the people that are being watched and there are people that are doing the watching. These two communities stem from a bigger political system. For example at a much greater scale during the times represented in The Last Jew of Treblinka, the Nazi political system in Eastern Europe was the direct cause of these smaller political communities and the people high up in the Nazi political system got to decide who was a part of each community. I agree with Ava where in today’s times this still occurs, just in different forms mostly through our modern technology. Looking in at our country, there are the people that sit high in our government and society who watch us and indirectly control us, being able to place us in different political communities. It’s honestly kind of scary how much control and power there is behind our technology these days while at the same time I am blessed to have not experienced surveillance that others did back in the day.
The answer to the form of what government is in place is fascism, which is a sort of statist supremacy typically where minorities or certain religious groups are put at the will of the state. The affected groups are under so much surveillance that they have little to no contact with the outside world or even their family members who are in the camps with them. People in the camps would be forced to work extremely long hours and, in very harsh conditions with little to eat. “Once, when I straighten up, I am beaten till I bleed. I no longer know where I am in the world.” (PG 17 ln 2-3) During the night they would be in cold confined decrepit buildings with little blankets or even beds. This dehumanizing practice was primarily occurred during World War Two in Germany and all their occupied territory. I agree with Michael Buck that Surveillance advanced because of the camps. Watchtowers and new building techniques were improved upon to ensure the captive people did not escape. The Jewish people kept in the camps we forced to work with other camps leading to escape plans form multiple camps. “In January of 1943, 15 workers from camp 1 are brought to us. It often happens that instead of shooting people in camp one they are brought to us to work with the corpses, which amounts to the same thing … a swift in certain death.” (PG 120, LN 1-5) The people kept in the camps were forced into a primitive survival like state where every minute counts.