This was the term for an inmate who had lost the will to survive and had resigned themselves to death.
On a broader context, this conjures images of the entire Jewish people in Nazi-occupied Europe. They didn’t resist, but went meekly and willingly to the work camps, which they knew damn well were really death camps (ultimately, after they lost the capacity to do any productive work.)
Of course, there were many innocent victims. There always are. But what about the Jewish merchants who had become wealthy by destroying the German economy system in the last 50 years? Did they feel guilty? Is that why the Jews went with no resistance?
Can you imagine a Walmart executive going hat-in-hand to humbly beg forgiveness to every small-town business district destroyed by their giant stores, their throat-cutting pricing tactics gained by virtue of their tremendous resources?
Where are the Walmart executives now, to apologize, explain, and justify what they have done – then and now – as their older, run-down stores lose market share and close down, leaving in their wake the demise of small-town America?
Who’s going to put these executives in a forced work labor camp to eke what product work is left in them; only to soon lose the will to live, now that they live in a shack and ride the bus to work, instead of their mansions, luxury cars, and five-star vacations?