"The smaller genocide develops the technology , personnel (medical units), and institutional structure (killing centers) for the large genocidal act. But the prior event does more: it provides a shared sense, notably among the elite, that it can be done, that one can move from relatively amorphous imagery of victimization and triage for the act of total murder; and that it seems to work - a problem is solved.
There is a sense of achievement, a movement towards health."...
..." The rest of the population is not deemed ready for full knowledge; there is an ambivalence between secrecy tinged with shame and pride of achievement as the genocidal radius moves outward into an increasingly enveloping system of order and policy, of bureaucratic and technological arrangement. "
The Psychology of Genocide
Extracted from Robert J. Lifton book:
The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing And The Psychology Of Genocide. New York: Basic Books Inc. Publisher.
