stephen fry: the language of nazi germany

“…and in each one of these genocidal moments, or attempts at full genocide— each example was preceded by language being used again and again and again to dehumanize the person that had to be killed in the politcal eyes of their enemies.”

“…and lice, and insects. And if you start to characterize week after week after week after week 

you start to think of someone, you’ll slightly sullen and you like very much anyway. You’re constantly getting the idea that they’re not actually human, then it seems it becomes possible to do things to them that are, we would call, completely unhuman, inhuman…”

”[…] but the moment we begin to use special language for special people […] — we can see it very clearly and history demonstrates it time and time again that’s when ordinary people are able to kill.”