Ordinary Men: Perpetrator Memory in Spanish Culture

A binary between virtuous victims and malign perpetrators of the Spanish Civil War and the Franco Dictatorship has largely defined Spanish memory culture. This conference seeks to transcend these binaries and to introduce a more nuanced vision of the perpetrator as 'ordinary men', individuals who are active participants in acts of extraordinary violence and atrocity but may be considered ordinary and morally unremarkable in other contexts. In his book on the phenomenon of perpetrators, Becoming Evil, James Waller (2002) makes the observation that most of those who perpetrated the Holocaust were not evil but ordinary everyday men. Waller argues that situational factors such as peer pressure, obedience to authority, and socialisation within a culture of violence can override individual moral inhibitions, leading otherwise ordinary individuals to commit acts of genocide. This reality is unsettling because it counters our general mental tendency to relate extraordinary acts to correspondingly extraordinary men (Waller 2002: 8). Hannah Arendt controversially described Adolf Eichmann as an ambitious functionary. Christopher Browning´s Ordinary Men: Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland explored how a group of average policemen were motivated by conformity and group dynamics to murder Jews.

These works form the basis of the 'Ordinary Men' thesis, which is based on the idea that the perpetrator is a comprehensible human being and that perpetration can be due to complex combination of agency and structural forces, the prosaic motives of greed, ambition as well as the desire for conformity. They occupy what Primo Levi termed 'the grey zones' of perpetration, which are defined as ambiguous moral decisions that defy the victim-perpetrator binary. The Spanish Civil War era witnessed the emergence of paramilitary groups, political militias, and partisan factions, all vying for control and advancing their respective agendas through violence. In such an environment, ordinary individuals, motivated by allegiance to their cause, fear of reprisals, or a sense of duty, could readily become active participants in acts of brutality against perceived enemies. During the Francoist Dictatorship, otherwise normal individuals engaged in violence against their neighbours, motivated by fear of reprisals and a desire for conformity. Others may simply not have intervened but profited from the reconfigurations of power during the Francoist Dictatorship. This conference aims to critically reflect on the 'ordinary men' thesis as a compelling framework for understanding the behaviours of individuals implicated in perpetrating violence during the Spanish Civil War and the Franco Dictatorship. While the 'Ordinary Men' thesis originated from Holocaust studies, its core principles offer valuable insights into the dynamics of perpetration as revealed in Spanish cultural texts and historical scholarship.

The categories of 'bystander' and 'implicated witness' further challenge the dominant victim-perpetrator binary. Bystanders can be defined as individuals who witness events but do not actively intervene, particularly in situations like violence or harassment. Michael Rothberg’s book, The Implicated Subject: Beyond Victims and Perpetrators, challenges the categories of perpetrator, victim, and bystander, and proposes a new understanding of implication as a multidirectional position in relation to injustice, as opposed to a static identity. Rothberg describes implication as either 'diachronic', which refers to the perpetrators’ successors, or bystanders who continue to benefit from historical legacies of inequality or violence, or as 'synchronic', which can be applied to enablers and 'perpetuators' of these instances in the present. However, these categories are not mutually exclusive; instead, individuals may occupy multiple positions of implication in relation to multiple conflicts.

This conference welcomes papers on topics including, but not limited to, the following:

1. 'Ordinary Men' in Spanish literature, film, photojournalism and history
2. The 'bystander' in all of the above
3. The 'implicated subject' in all of the above
4. Holocaust studies and Spanish memory culture
5. The representation of the perpetrator in Spanish cultural texts focusing on the Holocaust
6. The representation of the perpetrator in Spanish cultural texts focusing on conflicts and wars abroad, e.g., the Balkans war

We welcome all forms of participation, including but not limited to the following:

1. Lightning talks (10 minutes in duration)
2. 20-minute standard academic paper
3. Roundtable discussion
4. Theoretical considerations of perpetrator memory, the bystander, the implicated subject, or the relationship between Holocaust studies and Spanish memory culture 

Paper Submission

• Deadline for a 200-word abstract, and a 150-word biographical note: 8 October 2025

Please send to Dr Lorraine Ryan and Prof. Susanne Zepp-Zwirner at the following e-mail addresses:

• lorraine.ryan(at)college-uaruhr.de
• susanne.zeppzwirner(at)uni-due.de

There will be no conference registration fee, and refreshments will be served as part of the conference.

The conference languages are English and Spanish.

More information about the project 'Ordinary Men: Perpetrator Memory in Contemporary Spanish Culture':
www.college-uaruhr.de/fellowship/tandem-projects/ordinary-men-perpetrator-memory-contemporary-spanish-culture

Convenors

Prof. Susanne Zepp-Zwirner (University of Duisburg-Essen), Dr Lorraine Ryan (Senior Fellow, College for Social Sciences and Humanities)