Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning (49 page)

The
Einsatzgruppen
killed about
Heydrich quotation: Mazower,
Hitler’s Empire
, 69. On the combination of intentions and accidental discoveries in the German progression from Austria through Czechoslovakia to Poland, Mazower’s account is pioneering and persuasive. On the transition to stationary police, see Biskupska, “Extermination and the Elite.”

The first fragmentation
Soup and bread: Sauerland,
Polen
, 90.

Much of Poland’s west
More freedom of action: Mazower,
Hitler’s Empire
, 227. For the pidgin German and other examples, see Epstein,
Model Nazi
.

In the annexed zones
Property and professions: Salmonowicz, “Z problemów,” 49; Salmonowicz, “Tragic Night,” 13; Engelking and Grabowski,
Przestępczość
, 14.

The creation of ghettos
Urynowicz, “Stosunki,” 555; Klukowski,
Zamojszczyzna
, 135. On property acquisition and hostility: Staub, “Origins and Evolution of Hate,” 52. Rape: Böhler,
Der Überfall
, 19; Löw and Roth,
Juden in Krakau
, 27–30. On ghettos, cf. Michman,
Emergence
, 95. It is worth considering Arendt’s discussion of colonialism in Africa in this light:
Origins
, 206.

For most Poles, the ghettoizations
Löw and Roth make similar points in
Juden in Krakau
, 19, 27.

The Jews sent to the ghettos
See generally Trunk,
Judenrat;
also Löw and Roth,
Juden in Krakau
, 16.

New Jewish police forces
Szeryński: Friedländer,
Extermination
, 156. Revisionists: Trunk,
Judenrat
, 490; this was the case in Lithuania as well, according to Dieckmann,
Deutsche Besatzungspolitik
, 2:1056. Duties: Engelking and Leociak,
Warsaw Ghetto
, 204, 207. Informers: Finkel, “Victim’s Politics,” 192.

Then that order changed
Hempel,
Pogrobowcy
, 24, 20, 38, 43, 85, 87, 168, 170, 183, 184, 435. Thirty thousand: Curilla,
Judenmord
, 837. On the siege of Warsaw, see Biskupska, “Extermination and the Elite.” Racialization: Seidel,
Deutsche Besatzungspolitik
, 184ff. No punishment of Germans: Browning,
Ordinary Men
, 170.

Jews, not seen as a race
Rickshaws: Engelking and Leociak,
Warsaw Ghetto
, 108. Tourism: See Harvey,
Women
, 131. There was a Baedeker guide to the General Government.

The Nazi racial policy
See Rutherford,
Prelude
, 56–88.

In practice, Himmler
Figures from Rutherford,
Prelude
, 9. Heydrich: Brandon, “Deportation,” 77–78, 86. Eichmann: Polian, “Hätte der Holocaust,” 3, 4, 19.

The ghettos became
Eichmann: Husson,
Heydrich
, 253. Cf. Müller,
Der Feind
, 107–10.

This was the latest surprise
Planning for Madagascar: Kershaw,
Fateful Choices
, 447.

When Hitler understood that
Quotations: Lukacs,
Last European War
, 105; Mazower,
Hitler’s Empire
, 133. 31 July 1940 preparations for attack on USSR instead: Müller,
Der Feind
, 216–21; Megargee,
War of Annihilation
, 22.

During the war
Arendt,
Eichmann
, 240; see also Arendt,
Origins
, 22. It is interesting to note that the scholars who were most influential in the foundation of Holocaust studies did not themselves use east European languages, including Yiddish. Hilberg’s parents spoke Polish but he did not. Friedländer hails from Prague but does not use Czech. No major historian of the Holocaust learned an east European language after 1989, even as a vast wealth of sources became available and new secondary literatures emerged. Some of the consequences of this are the subject of my “Commemorative Causality.”

Like succeeding historians
Arendt,
Origins
, 447. See also Bloxham,
Final Solution
, 283.

In 1939, when Hitler
On state destruction by proxy, cf. Stein,
Adolf Hitler
, 99. Hitler on Soviet practices:
Mein Kampf
, 320. On Himmler: Kühnl,
Der deutsche Faschismus
, 329.

The Germans found the conditions
See Levin,
Lesser of Two Evils
, xi. A body of sociological literature supports the kindred thesis that strong local institutions prevent crime. See Lafree, “Social Institutions,” 1349, 1367.

When the Germans and the Soviets
Numbers from Morris, “Polish Terror,” 759. This subject is treated in Snyder,
Bloodlands
, chaps. 2 and 3. See also Gurianov, “Obzor,” 202; Nikols’kyi, “Represyvna diial’nist’,” 337–40; Martin, “Origins.”

In 1938, Stalin
In the Ukrainian NKVD, for example, sixty of the ninety ranking officers were Jewish in 1936. Zolotar’ov, “Nachal’nyts’kyi sklad,” 326–31. Other figures from Gregory,
Terror
, 63. Stalin achieved here one of his great political successes, the consequences of which are still felt today. Ethnic operations that he ordered were blamed on Jews, because Jews were among the officers who carried them out; but immediately thereafter Jewish officers were purged from the NKVD. Thus, people who oppose communism but do not wish to oppose Stalin, the Soviet Union, or Russia can always combine it with antisemitism; this opportunity for National Bolshevism or east European fascism was opened then, and remains open today.

It was this NKVD
See Gross,
Revolution from Abroad
, 37–44, and Carynnyk, “Palace,” 266–67; and for primary sources HI, Anders Collection, 209/1/4835; 209/6/5157; 209/6/2411; 209/6/4724; 209/7/4112; 209/7/799; 209/7/6601.

Against this backdrop
Calm after chaos as policy: “Komandiram, Komissaram, i Nachpolitorganov Soedinenii,” 24 September 1939, CAW, VIII. 800.7.15; as experienced: HI, Anders Collection, 209/13/3960. Majorities: Głowacki,
Sowieci
, 292; Khlevniuk,
Gulag
, 236.

Unlike the Germans
Total figure from
Deportatsii pol’skikh grazhdan
, 29. 139,794 and percentages: Hryciuk, “Victims 1939–1941,” 184, 191; Wnuk, Z
a pierwszego Sowieta
, 13, 372.

One of the individuals
Herling,
World Apart
, 39, 65, 131, 132. On spontaneity, see Arendt,
Origins
, 438.

From the Soviet perspective
Quotations: Cienciala, Lebedeva, and Materski,
Katyn
, 118, 140.

In April 1940
For Strasman: Korboński, “Unknown Chapter,” 375. For the Engelkreis, Brandwajn, and Proner families, see Spanily,
Pisane miłością
, 49, 112, 387.

With one exception
Social background and Blokhin: Cienciala, Lebedeva, and Materski,
Katyn
, 25, 124. Deportation of families: Goussef, “Les déplacements,” 188; Jolluck,
Exile
, 15 and then passim on the experience of women; Cienciala, Lebedeva, and Materski,
Katyn
, 173–74. Strasman: Korboński, “Unknown Chapter,” 375. Jewish neighbor helps: Spanily,
Pisane miłością
, 187. Janina Dowbor, a daredevil glider and parachutist, was the one woman. She trained as a pilot in 1939, and enlisted in the Polish air force reserve. Her plane was apparently shot down by the Germans. After parachuting to safety, she was arrested by the Soviets as a Polish second lieutenant. On 21 or 22 April 1940, she was shot at Katyn, and buried along with 4,409 men.

There was also continuity
On the Great Terror in Moscow: Schlögel,
Terror und Traum
, 602; Baberowski,
Der rote Terror
, 195.

The Soviets, at least some
Moral sublimity: Fest,
Das Gesicht
, 162. For further reflections on similarity and difference, see Snyder,
Bloodlands
.

In western and central
Frank quotation: Longerich,
Unwritten Order
, 47.

An empire on Nazi principles
Prison to power: HI, Anders Collection, 209/1/10420, 209/1/2660, 209/1/3571, 209/1/3817/19, 209/1/3517, 209/1/6896 (Dubno County); 209/3/6238 (Horochów); 209/6/5157, 209/6/2376, 209/6/2652, 209/6/4303, 209/6/4284, 209/6/9083 (Kostopol); 209/11/4217, 209/11/3887, 209/11/4049, 209/11/3238, 209/9/6105 (Krzemieniec); 210/14/10544, 210/14/4527, 210/14/2526 (Zdołbunów); 209/13/2935, 209/13/8034 (Luboml); 210/12/1467, 210/12/9728, 210/12/5945.

The Soviet decapitation
See Danylenko and Kokin,
Radians’kyi orhany
, 233–55, for examples of agents at work. See also Wnuk,
“Za pierwszego Sowieta”;
Nowak-Jeziorański, “Gestapo i NKVD”; revealing though on a later period: Burds, “Agentura.”

After the obligatory
Butchers: Margolin,
Reise
, 14.

The Soviets behaved
RAF: Moorhouse,
Devils’ Alliance
, 154–55. Song: Kuromiya,
Freedom and Terror
, 258.

In putting an end to capitalism
Revisions: HI, Anders Collection, 310/14/4908. Cygielman: HI, Anders Collection, 210/9/4061. Kovel shops: HI, Anders Collection, 209/7/4775. Arms searches: HI, Anders Collection, 210/12/8117.

The end of the Polish
On the rapid change in property regime, see Gross,
Revolution
, 37; Sauerland,
Polen
, 72. Szef: HI, Anders Collection, 210/1/5331.

The massive scale of Soviet
Gunpoint: HI, Anders Collection, 209.

Most Jews in eastern Poland
Volhynia figures from 1937 in “Omówienie wydawnictwa Wołyńskiego Urzędu Wojewódzkiego p. t. ‘Wołyń,’ ” June 1937, CAW, I.371.2/A.100. Abolition of the złoty and generally: Bender,
Jews of Białystok
, 60–62, 70, 83.

In altering the character
Cf. Mędykowski,
W cieniu
, 243.

In other ways Soviet policy
For a theoretical reflection on the Polish historiography of double occupation, see Shore, “Conversing with Ghosts,” 5–28.

Even as Soviet power
Excellent examples in Wnuk,
‘Za pierwszego Sowieta’;
see also Gross,
Sąsiedzi
, 35.

In the Ukrainian case
See Martin,
Affirmative Action Empire;
and Snyder,
Sketches
.

That said, the Ukrainian
Ideological confusion: Dowództwo Okręgu Korpusu II, “Sprawozdanie o ruchu komunistycznym na terenie DOK. Nr. II za czas od dn. 15 VI do 15 × 1933 r.,” 13 November 1933, CAW, I.371.2/A.91; Dowództwo Okregu Korpusu II, “Sprawozdanie o ruchu komunistycznym na terenie DOK. Nr. II za czas od dn. 15 × 1934 do 15 I 1935 r.,” CAW, I.371.2/A.92; “Nastroje wśród oddziałów 13 D.P,” Równe, 14 April 1937; CAW, I.371.1.2/A.103. Szprynger and “Hitler”: Dowództwo Okregu Korpusu II, “Sprawozdanie o ruchu komunistycznym na terenie DOK. Nr. II za czas od dn. 15 VII 1937 do 15 × 1937 r.,” CAW, I.371.2/A.92. This is a subject of Snyder,
Sketches
.

The Soviet invasion of eastern
Destruction of legal parties and UNDO: Danylenko and Kokin,
Radians’kyi orhany
, 214–18, 251. Every village: Il’iushyn,
OUN-UNP
, 17.

During the first few months
Jewish mayors: Levin,
Lesser of Two Evils
, 44. On collectivization and changing attitudes: “Meldunek specjalny—Sprawa Ukrainíska,” 25 November 1941, SPP, 3/1/1/1/1. For an example, see Shumuk,
Perezhyte i peredumane. Revolution from Abroad
is the title of Gross’s classic study.

All in all, Soviet occupation
Arrests of Zionists: “Calendar of Pain,”
Sefer Lutsk
. Begin: Shilon,
Menachem Begin
, 25, 29; Shindler,
Military Zionism
, 218. NKVD and Irgun: Hrynevych,
Nepryborkane riznoholossia
, 296.

Betar was quickly powerless
Letter of 27 December 1939, NA, KV/2/2251/7a. See Lankin,
To Win
, 40; Bell,
Terror Out of Zion
, 52; Weinbaum,
Marriage of Convenience
, 140.

Of the three European states
Shamir’s hope: Shamir,
Summing Up
, 54.

The appeals sent by Jewish
Stern’s proposal: Yisraeli, “ha-Raikh,” 315.

Stern assumed that Hitler
See Bell,
Terror Out of Zion
, 69.

Every method of changing
See Heller,
Stern Gang
, 19. Jabotinsky was simultaneously urging the British to accept the inevitable wave of Polish-Jewish refugees (without success). See, for example, Jabotinsky to MacDonald, 5 September 1939, NA, CO/733/368/5/9.

These Jewish and Ukrainian
See Mallmann and Cüppers,
Halbmond und Hakenkreuz
.

In 1940, the application
A boy called Joseph remembered that his family fled the German zone after laughing Germans had burned down the synagogue. His father had decided to flee east and take refuge with a friend. He did not want to take Soviet passports because he wanted to be able to return home after the war. The family was deported to the Gulag. First Joseph’s brother died, then his parents. Gross and Gross,
War Through Children’s Eyes
, 221.

In the first half of 1940
NKVD: Hrynevych,
Nepryborkane riznoholossia
, 299.

With the wider world unattainable
Quotation: Rabin,
Vishnivits: sefer zikaron
, 315. See Melnyk, “Stalinist Justice,” 231.
The Lesser of Two Evils
is the title of Levin’s classic work.

Before the consecutive
Dieckmann,
Deutsche Besatzungspolitik
, 1:87, 95, 127, 128. On absence of pogroms see Sirutavičius and Staliūnas, “Was Lithuania,” 146–50.

By the standards of Europe
23,000: Dieckmann,
Deutsche Besatzungspolitik
, 1:144. 1,500: Łossowski,
Kraje bałtyckie
, 145–47. Lemkin: See his
Totally Unofficial
, 29.

As a result of the German-Soviet
On the pogrom, see Dieckmann,
Deutsche Besatzungspolitik
, 1:142.

In late 1939 and early 1940
Quotations: Levin,
Lesser of Two Evils
, 198; Klarman to Levin, 8 November 1939, NA, KV/2/2251/4a; NA, KV/2/2251/1a. Zionists: Bender,
Jews of Białystok
, 66; also the memoir of Good, “ ‘Jerushalayim,’ ” 13–14. Base: Hrynevych,
Nepryborkane riznoholossia
, 294. On the Lithuanian-Polish question in Vilnius, see Snyder,
Reconstruction of Nations
, chaps. 1–4.

The position of Jews
Ezergailis,
Holocaust in Latvia
, 63, 69, 83. Angrick and Klein,
Final Solution
, 12. On the Agudat movement see Bacon,
Politics of Tradition
.

The subsequent and rapid
Weiss-Wendt emphasizes humiliation in his account of Estonia (
Murder Without Hatred
, 39), as does Plavnieks in his fine dissertation “Nazi Collaborators,” 41. Dieckmann favors the notion of shame:
Deutsche Besatzsungspolitik
, 1:114.

The political resource included
Repatriation: MacQueen, “White Terror,” 98. Lithuanians: Dieckmann,
Deutsche Besatzungspolitik
, 92–95. Weiss-Wendt estimates at least 1,821 Latvians (and 2,055 Estonians; Estonia will be discussed in a later chapter).
Murder Without Hatred
, 36.

The timing of the Soviet
Dieckmann gives a range of 16,989 to 17,500:
Deutsche Besatzungspolitik
, 1:152. A Soviet report gives the figure of 9,817 shot in prison, 1,439 shot on the convoys, and another 1,059 who died on the convoys for an unspecified reason. Vladimirtsev,
NKVD-MVD
, 67–68.