Ostkrieg: Hitler's War of Extermination in the East by Stephen G. Fritz

 Ostkrieg: Hitler's War of Extermination in the East by Stephen G. Fritz -640pages

The author is a history professor at East Tennessee State University, and wrote this book to give a complete picture of the eastern front in one volume. It clearly explains the racist ideological and desperate material motivations of the Nazi regime to attack the Soviet Union and Poland. It also details how the invasion impacted tens of millions of people who were starved, enslaved, or murdered in areas overrun by German forces. Readers interested in how the Holocaust and World War II shaped today's Ukraine and Russia will find it informative. 

Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally

Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally - 397 pages

This book defies classification.  Why?  While considered fiction, it really isn't.  It's an excellent blending of fact and fiction in one book based on a collection of papers held by a Schindlerjuden (as the rescued Jews called themselves). Keneally's style in writing this book more closely resembles a traditional history book with long narratives and little dialogue.

As most may know from the Oscar-winning movie, Oskar Schnidler was a Czechoslovakian industrialist in World War II whom through his work managed to rescue over a thousand Jews from ultimate destruction by employing them at his factory in Plazkow, Poland.  Once he learned of the Final Solution's upcoming last big push, he managed to move his entire factory-workers and equipment-back to his native land where the Nazi's had slightly less influence.  However, that is not the full story.  The book covers what went on in the background to make these plans work, including collaborating with the Jewish Underground and how Schindler used his contacts to further his cause.  Also, we learn a bit more about the concentration camp commandant, Amon Goeth, and how Schindler "played" him.

Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland by Christopher R. Browning

Ordinary Men:  Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland by Christopher R. Browning - 271 pages

As mentioned yesterday, after finishing Hitler's Furies by Wendy Lower I planned to go back and reread Ordinary Men.  This classic of Holocaust literature was the first book that attempted to explain the action of the men who committed the crimes without focusing on the fact the men were following orders.  Police Battalion 101 serves as the basis of this study because when the unit was tried for war crimes in the 1960s all surviving members were subjected to a detailed interrogation.  It points out that the men committed the crimes despite being offered a way out of doing so. 

I know I started my summary with the overarching themes and observations.  Let me backtrack and explain a bit about the unit's actions.  Police Battalion 101 was one of many behind-the-lines units charged with carrying out ghetto evacuations and mass killings to make Eastern Europe Judenfrei, or free of Jewish people.  Attention was paid to the mass killings, especially the unit's first at Józefów, Poland, as it set the tone for the rest of the unit's term of service and provided the best evidence for the men's actions. 

Hitler's Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields by Wendy Lower

Hitler's Furies:  German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields by Wendy Lower - 288 pages

Following in the tradition of Christopher Browning's Ordinary Men, Lower looks at the role of ordinary citizens in the Holocaust.  In this case it is the females, a often overlooked category.  While many were direct participants, most were never tried as war criminals.  The book follows approximately a dozen well-documented cases often using surviving Nazi records, war crimes trial transcripts, and memoirs of several of the women to demonstrate their participation.

Most women were in one of three categories: nurses, secretaries (and sometimes also lovers) of top Nazis, or wives of top Nazis.  As the book demonstrates, nurses often participated directly in euthanasia programs and at the gas chambers.  Secretaries often served as desk murders when writing and transmitting orders.  Other times they were observers who did nothing to help the victims.  Nazi wives, especially those with husbands in the SS, often directly killed Jews as sport.

At the book's end, besides completing each woman's story, Lower offered some psychological insights to why these women acted as they did both during and after the war (most denied involvement).  In all, reading this reminded me strongly of Browning's research on the men I read during a college-level Holocaust course and while this book is fresh in my mind I plan to reread that book.  Like Browning's work, I think Hitler's Furies is destined to become a classic of Holocaust scholarship.

A Concise History of Slovakia

 

A Concise History of Slovakia

By Elena Mannova

Pages 352

Slovakia is a country in Eastern Europe.  In broad terms, the Kingdom of Hungary followed the fall of Great Moravia. The northern area of the Kingdom of Hungary made up modern Slovakia. After World War I, present day Slovakia was a section of Czechoslovakia. Then finally Slovakia became an independent country in 1989.

There are several publications on the history of Slovakia. However, this book includes not only the political and economical changes of the country over time, but also the social aspect of every day life. I was partially interested in the social history of the peasant. 

The feudal system in Slovakia began to crumple in 1848, after a failed revolution. The end of urbarium serfdom was “legislatively regulated by the March Patent of 1853.” However, other categories of non-urbarium serfdom continued until the 1890s.