Post by kungfuzu on Mar 25, 2021 18:18:29 GMT -8
Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder
Bloodlands, published in 2010, is the most detailed account of the intentional slaughter of millions of civilians which took place in the area between the Third Reich and the Russian Soviet Republic between 1932-33 and 1946-47.
Synder reckons that during this period, something like 14 million people were intentionally starved to death, shot, gassed or otherwise murdered by the Soviets and Nazis. This number does not include soldiers who died in battled or civilians who were killed due to the normal calamities of war, which are always encountered.
The slaughter starts with Stalin's intentional starvation of Ukrainians in 1932-33. By Synder's reckoning, almost 3.5 million Ukrainians died as a result of this policy.
The slaughter continued in the Mass Terror 1936-38 in which almost 700,000 Soviets citizens were executed in one way or another. The mass murder then stopped for about a year.
The next impetus for mass murder came with the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Treaty, which was signed in the summer of 1939. This treaty contained a secret clause which, in effect, agreed the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany would conduct a mutual invasion of Poland, which they would then split in two.
In less than a month after signing this treaty, Nazi Germany invaded Western Poland and unleashed the fury of the Wehrmacht upon the Polish people. The Soviet Union waited 17 days before invading Poland from the East.
Strangely enough, before his invasion of Poland, Synder estimates that Hitler had killed only about 10,000 people, in contrast to Stalin, who had already starved or shot over 4 million. Once WWII started, the Nazis quickly caught up with the Communists and soon passed them.
Synder goes into some detail to explain that the "Final Solution" was a concept that developed along the way. The original idea was to rid all of Germany and its occupied lands of the Jews. There were a couple of ways which were thought possible. One was to export all the Jews in their grasp to Madagascar. This became untenable once it was clear that Great Britain, who had a much more powerful navy that Germany, was not going to be easily defeated. Another idea was to deport all Jews in German-occupied areas to the Soviet Union. Stalin demurred, so this idea fell through. Another possibility was to confine Jews to an area in what had been Poland. There they would be allowed to work themselves to death for the greater glory of the Reich.
Once Hitler invaded the USSR, the meaning of the Final Solution changed. Hitler's plan had always to expand German power to the East for what was called "Lebensraum." When he invaded the USSR, the Wehrmacht rolled over Soviet forces. Over three million soldiers were taken prisoner and later starved to death.
Behind the Wehrmacht came Einsatzgruppen (Special forces) which proceeded to murder hundreds of thousands. These groups were aided by local people in each country which the Nazis occupied. In fact, it was only possible to murder so many people because of the collaboration of natives. While the Jews were targeted for death, they were not the only ones to be slaughtered. Like the Soviets, the Nazis wanted to completely destroy the upper-classes of any country they invaded. Military officers, professors, teachers, intellectuals and basically anyone who was successful has to be eradicated. Only in that way, would the Nazis have a complacent herd which they could then easily rule.
The Jews were perhaps a broader target due to the belief that Bolshevism/Communism was a creation of the Jews. As Hitler had clearly stated that he wanted to eradicate Communism from the earth, the murder of the Jews was self-understood. Since the Jews had, to his mind, created Communism, if one killed a Jew, one killed a communist and vise-a-versa.
As per Synder, the Final Solution, as complete extermination, became the obsession of the Nazis only toward December 1941. By that time, Moscow was still in Soviet hands and Stalin still sat in the Kremlin. It was clear that the Nazis were not going to win the war as Hitler had planned. In order to somehow gain some type of win in a war which was going badly, the aim of the war changed from creating a colonial empire to the complete destruction of all Jews in Europe. This goal was largely achieved by 1944. The majority of those Jews who were murdered during WWII had already been killed before that year. Half had been shot by Einsatzgruppen and other governmental troops. The other half had been gassed in the Death Camps such as Treblinka, Belzec, Sobibor and Chelmno.
Auschwitz had originally been an industrial concentration/labor camp in which prisoners worked. The main purpose had been to make goods for the Reich. It was only later expanded to included the Birkenau location, which was a death camp. There, like in other death camps, the majority of people were murdered upon arrival.
The British and Americans had encountered concentration camps, which they believed showed the Nazis at their worse. In fact, they were nothing near as horrible as the death camps which had performed most of their work by 1944. It was mainly Hungarian, West European and a number of Polish Jews who were murdered after that. Synder puts the number of Jews murdered by the Nazis at about 5.4 million.
While the Jews suffered the most under Nazi rule, Slavs and Roma were also crushed. According to Synder, about 200,000 Poles were shot by the Nazis and Soviet forces in 1939-41. 4.2 Soviets (mainly Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians were starved by the Germans between 1941-1944. About 700,000 civilians were shot by the Germans as reprisals, between 1941-1994. These were mainly in Poland and Belarus.
I could go on, but suffice it to say that Poland suffered the greatest number of murders, and Belarus suffered almost as much as it was the main area of conflict between the Wehrmacht and Red Army over the course of 1941-1944. The deaths did not end with the war. Thousands died in the mass movements of people from one country to another after 1945.
"Bloodlands" is not a fun read, but it is a very informative book which will give the reader an idea of the grim possibilities which reside in the human heart. These are always present, just waiting for the right (wrong) combination of people and events to unleash them once again.
Bloodlands, published in 2010, is the most detailed account of the intentional slaughter of millions of civilians which took place in the area between the Third Reich and the Russian Soviet Republic between 1932-33 and 1946-47.
Synder reckons that during this period, something like 14 million people were intentionally starved to death, shot, gassed or otherwise murdered by the Soviets and Nazis. This number does not include soldiers who died in battled or civilians who were killed due to the normal calamities of war, which are always encountered.
The slaughter starts with Stalin's intentional starvation of Ukrainians in 1932-33. By Synder's reckoning, almost 3.5 million Ukrainians died as a result of this policy.
The slaughter continued in the Mass Terror 1936-38 in which almost 700,000 Soviets citizens were executed in one way or another. The mass murder then stopped for about a year.
The next impetus for mass murder came with the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Treaty, which was signed in the summer of 1939. This treaty contained a secret clause which, in effect, agreed the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany would conduct a mutual invasion of Poland, which they would then split in two.
In less than a month after signing this treaty, Nazi Germany invaded Western Poland and unleashed the fury of the Wehrmacht upon the Polish people. The Soviet Union waited 17 days before invading Poland from the East.
Strangely enough, before his invasion of Poland, Synder estimates that Hitler had killed only about 10,000 people, in contrast to Stalin, who had already starved or shot over 4 million. Once WWII started, the Nazis quickly caught up with the Communists and soon passed them.
Synder goes into some detail to explain that the "Final Solution" was a concept that developed along the way. The original idea was to rid all of Germany and its occupied lands of the Jews. There were a couple of ways which were thought possible. One was to export all the Jews in their grasp to Madagascar. This became untenable once it was clear that Great Britain, who had a much more powerful navy that Germany, was not going to be easily defeated. Another idea was to deport all Jews in German-occupied areas to the Soviet Union. Stalin demurred, so this idea fell through. Another possibility was to confine Jews to an area in what had been Poland. There they would be allowed to work themselves to death for the greater glory of the Reich.
Once Hitler invaded the USSR, the meaning of the Final Solution changed. Hitler's plan had always to expand German power to the East for what was called "Lebensraum." When he invaded the USSR, the Wehrmacht rolled over Soviet forces. Over three million soldiers were taken prisoner and later starved to death.
Behind the Wehrmacht came Einsatzgruppen (Special forces) which proceeded to murder hundreds of thousands. These groups were aided by local people in each country which the Nazis occupied. In fact, it was only possible to murder so many people because of the collaboration of natives. While the Jews were targeted for death, they were not the only ones to be slaughtered. Like the Soviets, the Nazis wanted to completely destroy the upper-classes of any country they invaded. Military officers, professors, teachers, intellectuals and basically anyone who was successful has to be eradicated. Only in that way, would the Nazis have a complacent herd which they could then easily rule.
The Jews were perhaps a broader target due to the belief that Bolshevism/Communism was a creation of the Jews. As Hitler had clearly stated that he wanted to eradicate Communism from the earth, the murder of the Jews was self-understood. Since the Jews had, to his mind, created Communism, if one killed a Jew, one killed a communist and vise-a-versa.
As per Synder, the Final Solution, as complete extermination, became the obsession of the Nazis only toward December 1941. By that time, Moscow was still in Soviet hands and Stalin still sat in the Kremlin. It was clear that the Nazis were not going to win the war as Hitler had planned. In order to somehow gain some type of win in a war which was going badly, the aim of the war changed from creating a colonial empire to the complete destruction of all Jews in Europe. This goal was largely achieved by 1944. The majority of those Jews who were murdered during WWII had already been killed before that year. Half had been shot by Einsatzgruppen and other governmental troops. The other half had been gassed in the Death Camps such as Treblinka, Belzec, Sobibor and Chelmno.
Auschwitz had originally been an industrial concentration/labor camp in which prisoners worked. The main purpose had been to make goods for the Reich. It was only later expanded to included the Birkenau location, which was a death camp. There, like in other death camps, the majority of people were murdered upon arrival.
The British and Americans had encountered concentration camps, which they believed showed the Nazis at their worse. In fact, they were nothing near as horrible as the death camps which had performed most of their work by 1944. It was mainly Hungarian, West European and a number of Polish Jews who were murdered after that. Synder puts the number of Jews murdered by the Nazis at about 5.4 million.
While the Jews suffered the most under Nazi rule, Slavs and Roma were also crushed. According to Synder, about 200,000 Poles were shot by the Nazis and Soviet forces in 1939-41. 4.2 Soviets (mainly Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians were starved by the Germans between 1941-1944. About 700,000 civilians were shot by the Germans as reprisals, between 1941-1994. These were mainly in Poland and Belarus.
I could go on, but suffice it to say that Poland suffered the greatest number of murders, and Belarus suffered almost as much as it was the main area of conflict between the Wehrmacht and Red Army over the course of 1941-1944. The deaths did not end with the war. Thousands died in the mass movements of people from one country to another after 1945.
"Bloodlands" is not a fun read, but it is a very informative book which will give the reader an idea of the grim possibilities which reside in the human heart. These are always present, just waiting for the right (wrong) combination of people and events to unleash them once again.