Hitler's Death Squads: The Logic of Mass MurderIn the preparations for the German invasion of the Soviet Union, special units known as the Einsatzgruppen were formed with the special charge of executing Jews, communists, and members of other targeted groups. Drawn from the S.S., the S.D., and the Gestapo, members of the Einsatzgruppen had the reputation of being the most cold-blooded of all Nazi killers. After the war, the German government investigated 1,770 former Einsatzgruppen members and brought 136 of these men to trial. Helmut Langerbein has systematically examined the trial evidence in search of characteristics shared by these mass murderers. Using a much broader data base than earlier studies had access to, Langerbein identifies a number of factors that could explain their actions, illustrating each with a particular person or group of officers. Particular traits and degrees of anti-Semitism, self-aggrandizement, sense of duty to obey superiors, and peer pressure may have played a role in the cases of individual officers, but Langerbein concludes that the only characteristic common to all his subjects was the war itself. It was the extraordinary circumstances and brutality of the Eastern Front that shaped their behavior. Given the extent of its database, its detailed analysis, and its careful conclusions, Hitler’s Death Squads: The Logic of Mass Murder will push historians and psychologists toward a reappraisal of the Nazi killing machine, the behavior of the men behind the battle lines, and the overwhelming power of circumstances. Langerbein’s chilling conclusions challenge the leading theories explaining why people commit mass murder and will be of intense interest to those concerned with World War II, the Holocaust, Eastern Europe, warfare, war crimes, genocide, and human behavior. |
Contents
15 | |
2 THE CONFIRMED KILLERS | 51 |
3 THE OFFICERS FROM THE EASTERN BORDERLANDS | 76 |
4 THE SPECIALISTS | 103 |
5 THE ACQUITTED | 128 |
6 THE OFFICERS WHO OBEYED | 153 |
7 ATYPICAL MEN EXTRAORDINARY SITUATIONS | 181 |
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Common terms and phrases
According action activities addition already anti-Semitism army August authorities Battalion became behavior believed Berlin career certainly charge command committed court crimes criminal decision direct duties early eastern Einsatzgruppen officers Einsatzkommando elimination established European evidence execution Final Solution finally forced former German Gestapo grave helped Heydrich Himmler Hitler Holocaust human important individual initially Jewish Jews joined judges July June killing Koblenz later leader leadership least Lieutenant Lukys Major March mass massacres Matschke military motivation murder Nazi Nazi Party never November obedience operations orders organization participation perpetrators political position possible prisoners punishment rank reason received Reich Security Main remained responsible returned School Security Main Office Security Police Security Service sentenced served shoot shot situation Sonderkommando Soviet Union specialists superior tasks territories tion took transferred trial unit usually victims Wehrmacht Weiss Wiechert witness
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Page 11 - Today I will once more be a prophet. If the international financiers inside and outside Europe should again succeed in plunging the nations into a world war the result will not be the Bolshevization of the earth and thus the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation (Vernichtung) of the Jewish race throughout Europe.
Page 8 - Obedience, as a determinant of behavior, is of particular relevance to our time. It has been reliably established that from 1933-45 millions of innocent persons were systematically slaughtered on command. Gas chambers were built, death camps were guarded, daily quotas of corpses were produced with the same efficiency as the manufacture of appliances. These inhumane policies may have originated in the mind of a single...
Page 14 - I myself do not believe that the Fiihrer needs to be asked again in this matter, especially since at our last discussion with regard to the Jews he told me that I could proceed with these according to my own judgement'.57 This judgement had already, in fact, been to recommend to Himmler the 'special treatment' (that is, killing), of 100,000 Jews in the Warthegau - the start of the 'final solution...
Page 11 - Europe should succeed in thrusting the nations once again into a world war, then the result will not be the Bolshevization of the earth and with it the victory of Jewry, but the...
References to this book
The Sociology of Zygmunt Bauman: Challenges and Critique Professor Michael Hviid Jacobsen,Professor Poul Poder No preview available - 2012 |