In 1939 Max Ernst resided in France. He was placed pm the nazi occupation in an internment camp near Aix-en-Provence and later in 1939/40 he was arrested again. His eventual emigraton to America was assisted by his close friend Peggy Guggenheimer. (Bischoff,1991)

“The robing of the bride”, with blatant imagery far surrealism, depicts a nazi officer, represented as an eagle man penetrating a woman. Her aide looks wistfully to the reflection on a cell wall of the same image, except this image, which is completely enrobed, bears a phallus. I believe this to represent the dehumanising Reich and overarching masculine nazi culture of dominance and repression, which raped' nations. Ernst witnessed this first hand. It is impossible to know of the lasting effect on his life and work, but later work recurrently portrayed stark landscapes and birdman images.

In 1938 a conference was held in the Swiss town Of Evian, termed 'rhe Evian conference'. At this meeting several representatives of nation states met to discuss the emigration question from Germany, including SS officers. In an agreement of non-intervention with regard to refugee questions, the 'organised world' ratified the autocracy of nazi Germany and Its policies of ethnic cleansing. (Breesheeth et.al., 1994, Schleunes,1990)

It is my intention in this assignment to reflect on the nature of the Reich from their early intervention in Germany circa.1933 and onwards , to question whether national socialism was oligarchic IE a small group protecting its interests or autocratic with one charismatic individual ruthlessly dominating the state. In this process of examining the institution of Nazism, I will reflect on some of the actions forming anti-Semetism. In conclusion I will examine the refugee and asylum seeker issues of today seeking some Comparison and evaluation of political, cultural and social issues and of the imperatives for social work with refugees and other oppressed and marginalised groups in out modem world.

An Oligarchic state?

In questioning if National Socialism was based on oligarchy1 it is essential to establish whose interests were being served by the state and it's moral imperatives. Economically, the militarist aim was mobilisation for war (Breesheeth et.al.,1994) The country was in financial crisis following reparation payments from the First World War. The perceived threat, which legitimised entrenching power interests was the Jewish state, seen to have too much control in too many spheres of German life. In gathering support following the publication of the fervent anti-semetic Mein Kampf:

"Hitler curried the favour of institutions usually serving as targets Of revolutionary wrath The bureaucratic structure was preserved. Military circles were courted rather than overthrown. German industry , which-given the Nazi ideology should have been fearful , demonstrated its support for the so-called revolution when it agreed to in January 1932 at a secret meeting in Dusseldorf to lend financial aid to Hitler's presidential campaign against Hindenburg." (Schleunes,1990,p63)

As Schleunes argues, this does not follow any normal pattern of revolutionaries. Hitler and other anti-semetic propagandists allied business interests to the ‘Judenrein’ party. Corporations were later to profit frorn cheap labour in work-camps, for instance the presence of Siemens in one camp (Breeshneeth,et.al.,1994) with the protestant work ethic as motto above the entrance 'arbeit macht frei' work makes you free.

The National socialist party self-proclaimed themselves to be doing the lords work', this was supported by some church leaders Their moral imperative thus was to some extent informed by divine command exacerbated by a belief system that promulgated ethical utilitarianism. It was for the good of the nation, god, country and business that Germany became Jew ridden.

Arguably, it was Hitler's individual egoism that drove the Reich to its sociopathic success. An egoism driven by insecurity and a constant need for validation. Carsten (1976) proffers that Hitler's propositions were universally acceptable because of an appeal to the collective unconscious need for security. He was: "the quintessential embodiment of Germany's and Austria's many defeat shattered uprooted 'little men' , craving for the security of belonging ,for the restoration of power and glory and for vengeance. He gave expression to a state of mind existing in millions of people, not only in Germany” (Carsten,F.L.,1976,p7O)

He goes further offering a Marxian analysis, paraphrasing Bauer,to suggest that the nazi party ware in a time where them was temporary equilibrium between bourgeoisie and proletariat. In This no-win situation, balance was only to be restored to the bourgeoisIe by both acceding to another power.(lbid:471)

Hitler abolished collective bargaining Of the proletariat replacing it with lead managerial control, the principle of leadership: 'What saved the Coca-cola GmbH from being crushed by Germanies fascist rulers was that its corporate structure and advertising philosophy came naturally close to the Nazis' totalitarian ideas of a brave new world. The case of Coca-cola thus goes beyond mere collaboration: before Hitler decreed the Principle of Leadership (Fuehrnprinzip) in industry, which replaced collective bargaining by handing dictatorial powers to company directors, the Coca-Cola GmbH was already dominated by its own authoritarian leader. Company and government interests subsequently overlapped: the Nazis regarded mass-production and mass-consumption as crucial building blacks of their new society. Coca-Cola's modern means of producing a uniform product could have only impressed them." http://xroads.virginia.edu/%7eCLASS/coke/coke2.html

In mobilising the collateral of legitimate industry with esteem amongst the nation Hitler was seeking an accord with society, positioning himself as an industrialised man that through dynamic change would rebuild Germany. Berlin (1981) ascribes outsider status to Hitler, a native of Austria , reflecting that throughout history, all those that live on the border of territories yearn for stability and centralism that is not present in their lives:

"They are liable to develop either exaggerated resentment of, or contempt for, the dominant majority, or else over-intense admiration or indeed worship for it ,or,at times, a combination of the two , which leads both to unusual insights and - born of overwrought sensibilities - a neurotic distortion of the facts"

(Berlin,I.,1981 ,p258)

Rogers corroborates this viewpoint in depicting the fundamental discrepancy between conceived values and actual experiencing:

'A common aspect of modem life is living with absolutely contradictory values We calmly discuss the possibility of dropping a hydrogen bomb an Russia, but then find tears in our eyes when we see headlines about the suffering of one small child. Because he has relinquished the locus of evaluation to others and lost touch with his own valuing process, he feels profoundly insecure and easily threatened in his values. If some of these conceptions were destroyed then what would take their place? This threatening possibility makes him hold his value conceptions more rigidly or more confusedly or both" (Rogers,1964,pp 75-178)

In idealising superiority, it is possible that Hitler was extemalising his own inferiority complex, projecting a need for uniform consensus. Whilst collective belonging is an universal human need, his instability coupled with a powerful ideology that appealed to the business sensibility of modernisation; emerging from fordism in America and the perceived value of corporatism was one which won the support and backing from several figures of influence in the church and industry. The further Hitler relinquished his values within institutions, the easier ft became for him to deny any truth other than his own.

It is arguable that, in his immaturity, he gave voice to the needs of adolescents. In an oral history with regard to the Hitler youth: "Basically, ft's the same type of thing that attracts young people (these are real young kids) to Boy Scouts. They went out on hikes and they went marching in rank and file and stuff like that. Very few kids can resist playing with guns and things like that. Give them broomsticks and they will put them on their shoulders and march around like soldiers. And isn't it wonderful? That was the basic start. I can't tell you about the indoctrination because I wasn't involved with that." (Odenheimer,1989,p1)

The indoctrination of youth and culture went beyond stability through uniformity. The Reich was influenced by esoteric philosophies of a new age, an age of evolutionary theory and cultural renaissance following the economic depression of the First World War. Nietzsche's Social Darwinism, an appeal to the evolution of man beyond god became central to the purpose of the Reich. In the moral tale Of Zarathustras discourses, Nietzsche hypothesises a warrior nation built on self-sacrifice nihilism, destruction and the birth of a 'superman':

"many too many are born . the state was invented for the superfluous...just look at theses superfluous people! They steal for themselves the works of inventors and the treasures of the wise : they call their theft culture - and they turn everything to sickness and calamity. Avoid this bad odour leave the idolatory of the superfluous! Avoid this bad odour leave the smoke of these human sacrifices. The earth still remains free for great souls"

(Nietzche,1961,ppW-51)

The oligarchy of the Reich appealed to universalism through production and consensus, however it is doubtless that it was the vision of one sociopathic autocrat who valued 'purity' of himself and Germanic heritage and singular value beliefs above other cultural systems, that informed the denial of rights and anti-semitism through the course of the thirties that culminated in policies of ethnic cleansing.

The pogroms: threat and difference

This began with a boycott of German Jewish business in 1933. In an incitement of racial hatred by Goebbels, Jewish culture was pathologised for libel to other nations regarding the behaviour of Gennan citizens 'volksgenossen':

“They lie about Jewish females who have supposedly been killed, about Jewish girls allegedly being raped before the eyes of their parents” (Goebbels,1933 in Berenbaum,1997,p3)

In a series of measures that are too numerous to list, Goebbels called the party to action, to boycott business and restrict Jewish rights to education and professional conduct.

The Nuremberg race laws of 1935 strictly forbade partnership between Jewish German citizens and volkegenossen . In these years segregation heightened and the Jewish cuflure was dehumanised and disintegrated from normal society. Amongst the atrocities between 1933 and i938, concentration camps were established , books were publically burned , Jews were dismissed from the civil services and pope plus Xl ineffectively issued a statement against racism and nationalism.

"Most Jews initially thought Hitler would not gain much support. When he became Germanies leader in 1933, some Jews were alarmed enough to leave the country, but the vast majority stayed. They thought Hitlers regime would collapse a people rejected his false ideas and divisive racism. And, after all, Germany was their country too" (Sherrow,V., 1998,pl 2)

Fifty years earlier , Russia had imposed anti-semetic measures on its 5. million Jewish population, under Alexander III (Thompson,1986)

"Severe legal restrictions were re-imposed in 1882, and irksome discrimination forced large numbers to migrate with the rise of Zionism at the end of the century and violent outbreaks of Jewish persecutions in Bessarabia the cause of Jewish nationalism emerged as yet another element in the kaleidoscope of eastern separatisms”

(Thompson,D,1966,p82)

Perhaps Jewish culture perceived it impossible that such devastation would return again. Perhaps as a result of the 'normality’ in the buerocracy of the processes in the holocaust. Berenbaum (1997:25) comments that in the formation of the Nuremberg laws, Zionists hoped that a firm legal basis for Jewish life would be established. Certainly though, Zionist factions attempted further emigration to a place of safety for preservation of culture as new separatism and apartheid was introduced. However, many German Jews were to remain ‘internally displaced' as a result of both international cowardice and ‘civilised' holocaust.

The systematic destruction of Jewish professions, institutions and the denial of civil rights during these years culminated in Krystallnacht in 1938, the night of the broken glass. A night in which civil order regulated by the police, fire brigade and other protectors of the state was demolished, to be replaced by totalitarian control. Instructions to regional offices were full of insane irony:

"places of business and apartments belonging to Jews may be destroyed but not looted. The police are instructed to supervise the observance of this order end to arrest looters. . the appropriate concentration camps are to be contacted immediately for the prompt accommodation of the Jews to the camps. Special care is to be taken that the Jews arrested in accordance with these instructions are not ill-treated"

(Heydrich SS grupenfuhrer in Berenbaum , 1997,p546)

Perhaps the rationale in the Reich's issue of these orders was to quell rebellion in the civil services by providing a hint of order. Habermas: "analytically separable types of opposition can be represented by the same group. For this reason, laying claim to the “labor power of participation" (Nasehold) is an extreme and, for the administration, risky means of meeting legitimation deficits."

It is feasible that outside places of centralised power state police , fire and emergency services continued to treat Jewish German citizens with the respect of humans. Thus, systematic regimental planning incorporated tactical elements designed to create more legitimation for the Reich in their horrific actions.

Crystal night comprised a two day destruction of synagogues and culture. Berenbaum: “Within forty eight hours , 1300 synagogues were burned , along with their Torah scrolls, bibles and prayer books; 30 000 Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps; 7000 businesses were smashed and looted; and 230 Jews were killed. Jewish cemeteries, hospitals schools and homes were destroyed" (Berenbaum,1997,p40)

A few months prior to this, the Evian conference had taken place. A conference in which the organised world refuted Jewish refugees (bar the Dominican republic). Berenbaum (1997) makes the link clear between this global denial of refugee issues and the ensuing destruction at crystal night, citing the American vice president Wafter Mondale:

"At stake at Evian were both human lives - and the decency and self respect of the civilised world . If each nation at Evian had agreed on that day to take in seventeen thousand Jews at once , every Jew in the Reich could have been saved.. At Evian , they began with high hopes but they failed the test of civilisation. Let us not re-enact their error. Let us not be heirs to their shame"

(Mondale,W.,1979 in Bemnbaum,1997,p33)

It is Literally impossible to surmise the abject fear that German Jewish citizens were living under, denied as humans by both their country and the outside world. Perhaps 'denizens' is a better juncture, historically , by 1938, purely as their existence was subordinate to every party. However denizen implies some legal and legitimate rights as an 'alien' residing in another country. The question was of internal displacement with no-one place to be safe and following crystal night, no surety that a friend could be trusted:

'The Jewish community in the ghettos was in general terrified of a strategy of resistance. It was seen as suicidal, given the overwhelming armed might of the Nazi farces. In a number of cases the Judenrat leader forced the Jewish underground leadership to surrender so as not to endanger the mst of the community" (Breesheeth,et.al.,1994,pl 17)

In addition to the cold brutality of Krystallnacht, an atonement fine was imposed for the damage on Jews (Breesheeth,1994) , Jewish citizens were now in an position of absolute poverty i.e. denied physiological needs and relative poverty I.E. denied the right to participate in social institutions. (cf. Townshend 1993)

By December 1938 , approximately 130 000 Jews had fled as refugees to other European countries and approximately 200 000 Jews had been taken as refugees in non-European nations (sherrow,1998). The number arriving in Palestine between 1933 and 1938 was small, a figure of 33 399.

Prior to the Evian conference , Hitler has considered emigration as a way to free the nation of Jews reaching an agreement with the Zionist community of emigration as long as wealth stayed within the country. He imposed a flight tax of 50% and later following Evian, additionally seized property. An agreement was reached between Zionists and The Reich to exchange Jewish for German goods, breaking outside trade embargoes and further stabilising the German economy. (Breesheeth,1997) For Hitler , anything that met his tripartite aims of freeing the world of Jews , strengthening his economy for war and purifying the Aryan super race was wholly legitimate.

Two issues strike me as global learning needs from the devastation of the holocaust. The question of deprivation and exploitation of labour in other countries and the question of asylum and refugee issues across the word, in particular mechanisms to assuage internal displacement.

The link between denial of social and civil rights, poverty , corporatism cultural repression and global intervention is present in modern society. In a recent parliamentary debate on the role of the world trade organisation, the exploitation of labour markets overseas by transnational companies was challenged . A question arises - to what extent should our culture intervene in the measures of other countries? The answer is surely simple that with any imposition of modem production techniques so also should there be an imposition of modem civil and employment rights. Companies investments in some countries are for material wealth within these countries, but also sometimes for the acquisition of cheaper labour that can undercut the cost of labour elsewhere as was the case In nazi Germany. The question of non-intervention cannot be attributed to an attitude of being against cultural imperialism when through the process of globalisation, mechanised and industrialised culture has ! already established itself on the shores of other lands. For Germanies Jewish citizens, global intervention arrived too late.

In the UK the Asylum and Immigration Act (1999) has structurally imposed stigma on all refugees arriving in this country . In removing access from social institutions such as national assistance refugees are labelled as subhuman. In denying local authorities the power to intervene in refugee issues and Instead regulating this by home office power, refugees can become estranged from each other on their arrival here. Currently the only immediate statutory protection is in the shape of The Childmn Act (1989). Positively .20 000 new flats for asylum seekers have been provided under the new rules of the home office, however there is no choice in area to live under the rules and if people do not choose to stay where they are put then akin to the regulations of The Housing Act ,they am deemed 'intentionally homeless' and immediately not entitled to any further provision.

Global protection, in years following the Evian conference was put in place in the form of inter-governmental consultations on asylum. Germanys quota of asylum seekers was close to 200 000 in 1990 and is about half that now , five times the quotas of other countries. This is perhaps due to political ownership as a result of its horrific past. (IGC,2000) . Asylum seekers are fleeing from oppression racial hatred and murder. The origin of 'ethnic cleansing' was in the killing teams of National Socialism, 'the einsatzgruppen' . Murder was. abstracted to: "special actions,speciaI treatment,executive measures ,cleansing,resettlements,liquidation,finishing off, appropriate treatment” (Benenbaum,1997,p113)

Again in an Rogerian analysis this distanced the actors from immediate experiential knowledge . as Berenbaum (1997) later comments it was the breakdown of this grouping that lead to a cleaner and morn efficient methodology for 'the final solution.'

The question for social workers and welfare workers in complex reflecting the mulitiplicitous nature of human response to stress and crises. On the one hand community development is needed to combat racism at a local level. On the other intervention is needed in the form of interpretation for refugees and negotiation with other parties. On the left foot, it is possible that therapy is needed for post traumatic stress disorder, on the right foot it is possible that integration work is necessary in combating social exclusion. Overall , given the restrictions by policy, there is a need for advocacy and engaged voluntary sector work. Hutterer et.al. (1996) describe a process-experiential approach to post traumatic stress disorder, a creative combination therapy of narrative resolution , empty chair work and other participative task completion. A case is cited of a 29-year-old man , raised in a third world country who is granted political asylum in the United States. He has been beaten at his place of employrnent, a supposed benefactor has raped his wife. Additionally, he has just fled from a military dictatorship. Through attenuation and exploration of trauma the therapist was able to heal a split and:

"explore his own need for a rational sense of power in his present and future life" (Hutterrer et al., 1996,p251)

Empowerment strategies am essential for refugees and asylum seekers fleeing the irrational. National Socialism created people as criminals and vermin , other parties and leaders continue to deny human dignity. In European policy, there is a strong suggestion that countries cannot afford to engage with refugees, Instead they are fielded from 'fortress Europe'. Contrary to this, the observer recently reported that refugees are vital to maintaining a worker to elderly ratio, for maintainance of the system.

Accepting more than one set of 'truths' is about extreme tolerance , on which all the principles of anti-discriminatory practice are built. One can never truly understand and be congruent with all of the multi-varied aspects of other cultures and belief systems that inform any given cultural discourse. However, one can immerse oneself in the immediate experience of it. Cultures that live as a part of our own often participate in a dualistic dialogue. For example Asian women approaching sexual health issues in the 'open' UK fashion, worry about the impact this may have on their 'closed' community. Whilst it is always tempting to ascribe negative vajues to concepts that are alien or unfamiliar, successful Work with other communities involves a deference and understanding of their systems and avoidance of homogeneity. In social work with refugees and asylum seekers personal autonomy, structural participation, and cultural inclusion remain the most essential principles to work to ! for an inclusive society.