Alice Orlowski

Alice Orlowski was a German citizen and member of the Nazi party, as well as an infamous figure in the SS Aufseherinnen (female camp guards). She was stationed in numerous concentration camps in the duration of the war, such as Majdanek and Krakow-Plaszow, and regarded as one of the most brutal of the female guards. Her actions varied from whipping them across the eyes to forcibly throwing children atop other prisoners being sent to gas chambers via truck transport.

As the war in Germany came to a close, she began to empathize with and act more humane towards the Jewish prisoners, tending to their needs, providing water and company.

Situational Attribution
Alice Orlowski's case shows that her victimizing of the Jewish prisoners might not have been actions of her own accord, but of her status. In the position of a prison guard, with ample opportunity to abuse and terrorize numerous individuals, while maintaining a position of rank and status - the plausibility of her mindset valuing the availability of being the ideal 'guard' (as compared to being morally aligned) is substantially high.

However, at her realization of the war's end, with the sudden proposal that she might be stripped of her assumed power, her behavior can be explained by the change of her situation. The adjustment of Orlowski's morals and priorities stemmed from the pointlessness of her brutality, and the meaninglessness such actions would hold for her in the future. Combined, those two factors stripped her of the position she held amongst the Nazi camp guards, and of her personality as an infamous perpetrator. Which, initially, spawned from the social norms of the Aufseherinnen and the nationalistic Nazi party - both of which began to decline rapidly.