Stanley Milgram Life - World of Biography

Family History

Stanley Milgram is known all over the world as a great psychologist whose ideas sometimes generated considerable controversy, but taking a look at his background might reflect his motives for conducting his experiments. He was born in relative peace compared to the horror and terror his parents had to face before they managed to make it to America.

Stanley's father was Samuel Milgram and his mother was Adele Israel. Samuel and Adele both were born and brought up in eastern Germany, though Samuel was of Hungarian origin and Adele of Romanian. There is reason to believe that both the families' ancestors had migrated over the centuries across German Austria into Eastern Germany and settled over there.

Life before the Nazi Regime had been prosperous and relatively peaceful for the Jewish family. Samuel had inherited a bakery from his father. The Milgram family was in the upper class of the society and the bakery was quite famous in the whole of town.

After the end of First World War, like the evil head of a terrible monster rearing its head, the Third Reich came into formation in Nazi Germany. Hitler came to power. The Nazis, as is well known, had a belief that they were a super race, and so they took up the task of exterminating races that they felt were inferior. Jews were non-Aryans, and so the Nazis targeted them. A sort of hatred was spread across the whole of Germany for the Jews. The Nazis were propagating pure Aryan theory among the people of Germany. This hatred spread like a wild fire across all the major cities, towns and villages. Jews were victimized and killed, while their houses were plundered. The bloodshed was not to leave the little town where the Milgram family was residing peacefully. The Germans staged demonstrations against the Jews. In the darkness of night, the Gestapo, the military police, would come and the Jews would either be killed or taken as prisoners and sent to torture camps. Most of Samuel Milgram's close friends and associates became the victims of the Swastika. As it was just the beginning and the Milgrams were in good position in the society, they were not immediately targeted.

Escaping the Oppression

But the mayhem was not to elude them for long. One dark night their bakery was looted and razed to ground. Samuel decided to flee Germany along with his wife. The conditions of their miraculous escape are not quite clear, but they collected whatever possessions they could take along and one autumnal night, with many other refugees who had been such targets as themselves. They waved their good-byes to Germany as they left on a fishing trawler for the new Promised Land, America.

It took them a few weeks across the cold Atlantic, living in harsh conditions on the trawler to arrive at New York Harbor. Their trawler arrived on the coast of New York on a cold winter morning. Samuel Milgram, along with his wife and other refugees, felt jubilation on seeing the sunlight dawn on the new Promised Land and a loud cheer rang among all of them. They landed on a clear cold winter day, amidst great revelry and back thumping, at New York harbor.

Soon, Samuel established his family at a small one room quarter in the Jewish locality of the Bronx. He decided to find a vocation that he was best suited at, and so he got himself a job as an assistant baker in a bakery in downtown New York's east 52nd street. In the beginning, Samuel had to struggle a lot as most of their family valuables were left behind in Germany. They had fled with very little money, most of which had been used up for their safe passage to America from Germany. Most of the time Samuel used to work double shifts at the bakery. His wife Adele used to sew clothes for the neighborhood children to help her husband with the savings.

Slowly Samuel stabilized the condition of his home. They moved too much bigger and better quarters in the same Jewish neighborhood. The Milgrams were very friendly and helpful to their neighbors and were liked by all. As they had to leave Germany in abnormal conditions, other well-established Jewish families gave a generous helping hand to the Milgrams.