The ‘strange Mr Kastner’ – Leadership ethics in Holocaust-era Hungary, in the light of grey zones and dirty hands

Abstract

As the leader of a group of rescue activists in Holocaust-era Budapest, Rezso 00 Kasztner saved the lives of large numbers of Jews through negotiations with Nazi officials. This activity coincided with the deportation of thousands of others, and after the war Kasztner was considered by some to have made a Faustian bargain: his silence in return for the lives of the few. The ethics of this case have been approached from a variety of theoretical vantage points, none of which have the analytical power and pertinence to render justice to an existential challenge of this magnitude. The article therefore draws upon dirty hands as an alternative. Sustaining a dirty hands argument in this case relies on retaining a measure of skepticism with regard to established narrative framing, acknowledging the incidence of grey zones and replacing the implicit norm of agency in studies on Holocaust-era leaders with context focus.

Leadership in the ‘Wicked’ Problem of Bosnia’s civil war: A case study examining ethical decision making under duress

“…It will draw on a real world context situating the narrative in the ethnographic tradition (Fetterman, 2009). Through the exploration of this ‘wrong wrong’ dilemma as a case study it hopes to examine the role of ethics when leading Wicked Problems: a case study in leading within the grey zone (Levi, 1986; Sanders, 2016) of extreme moral ambiguity. Yin (2009) describes case study as the examination of a real life contemporary phenomenon and cautions on the use of multiple sources of evidence.…”

“…Kamm’s (2007) principle of permissible harm, where harm is an aspect of the greater good, supported the Utilitarian position, harm to one group might be permissible for the greater safety of a larger group. The Critical Problem drew on the Acting Battalion Commander’s Virtue Ethics (Crisp and Slote, 1997) as the lack of time for rational analysis required an intuitive response to the crisis, itself enmeshed in the Wicked Problem, possibly developing the idea of duress ethics (Sanders, 2016: 5). Virtue Ethics places the focus on the individual character of the person as the locus for ethical thinking or action rather than the act itself (Deontology) or the consequences (Utilitarianism/Consequentialism).…”

“…Sanders contends that leadership, in such 'moral grey zones' has to engage with the specific challenges of duress ethics and the theorem of dirty hands rather than conventional ethical theories. The paper will draw on Sanders' (2010Sanders' ( , 2016 ethical framing of Wicked Problems and duress ethics and offer additional insights for the notion of duress ethics and examples of the communication contradictions inherent in double effect or double bind theory (Bateson, 1972;Bateson et al, 1956;Gibney, 2006). Double effect or double bind theory underpins the idea of dilemmas based on contradictory communication and resultant demands being placed on an individual leading to a response construed as incorrect: dammed if you do, doomed if you don't.…”

“…In an examination of leadership ethics within an ethical conundrum set in Holocaust-era Hungary, Sanders (2016: 6) argues, ‘ high stake existential emergencies have a tendency to render conventional ethics approaches, such as utilitarianism and deontology inoperable. ’ Sanders contends that leadership, in such ‘moral grey zones’ has to engage with the specific challenges of duress ethics and the theorem of dirty hands rather than conventional ethical theories.…”

The interplay of the Dirty Hands of British area bombing and the wicked problem of defeating Nazi Germany in the Second World War – A lesson in leadership ethics

“…This, of course, does not correspond to the reality of duress, which seldom grants the luxury of obtaining straightforward best-case solutions. Dirty Hands applies to wrong/ wrong dilemmas where all existing options for action are unpalatable; and where the point is how to choose the lesser evil (Sanders, 2016;Watters, 2017). This focus on obtaining a net negative is not consistent with utilitarianism, which it reduces to absurdity.…”