Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning (50 page)

“The epoch of statehood”
In his famous
Der Begriff des Politischen
of 1932, discussed in Jureit,
Das Ordnen von Räumen
, 358. It is true that Schmitt was criticized from within the party for being too attached to the conventional state. But what he meant by a “total state” is not an ever larger one, but rather one that is defined by the animal, pre-political energy of the racial party, which is to create a “total revolution.” See Faye, “Carl Schmitt,” 164, 171.

Beyond manipulation itself
Quotations: Schmitt, “
Grossraum
Order,” 105, 124, 101. See Gross,
Carl Schmitt and the Jews
, 147–49, and Nunan, “Translator’s Introduction.” Cf. Sternhell,
Les anti-Lumières
, 618.

Schmitt believed that the
Infection: Schmitt, “Eröffnung,” 15. Jurists: Chapoutot, “Le loi de sang,” 310–12. Seyss-Inquart quotation: Liulevicius,
German Myth
, 171.

Frank, Hitler’s personal
Frank quotations: Frank, “Einleitung,” 141–42; Frank, “Ansprach,” 9. Theft of silver: Snyder,
Red Prince
, chap. 9. His wife’s robbery of the ghetto: Löw and Roth,
Juden in Krakau
, 27.

Lawyers were extremely
Mallmann,
Einsatzgruppen
, 23.

Germany at war remained
This argument from politics is influenced by Longerich’s
Politik der Vernichtung;
what seems crucial is to extend political argument beyond the borders of the prewar Reich to the lands where the Holocaust took place, and beyond German actors to those with whom they interacted.

As the
Einsatzgruppen
followed
Churchill quotation: Saviello, “Policy,” 24.

The Holocaust has
Calculation of one million: Brandon, “First Wave.” See Benz, Kweit, and Mathäus,
Einsatz
, 33. In March 1941, Heydrich proposed to Göring a plan for the deportation of Jews to Siberia. Gerlach,
Kalkulierte Morde
, 747; Kay,
Exploitation
, 109.

Sometimes the
Einsatzgruppen
who followed
Basic task is state destruction: Husson,
Heydrich
, 310.

Antisemitism cannot fully
Benz, Kweit, and Mathäus,
Einsatz
, 73. See Angrick,
Besatzungspolitik
.

Even the most hidebound Nazis
This nazified line of reasoning is resonant today. I try to explain why in Snyder, “Commemorative Causality.” On Lithuanian pogroms: Dieckmann,
Deutsche Besatzungspolitik
, 2:1512 and passim.

After the war, Soviet
On the postwar campaigns against Ukrainian and Lithuanian nationalists, which form the backdrop for these arguments, see Snyder,
Reconstruction
.

It is tempting to imagine
The most useful synthesis is now Polonsky,
Jews in Poland and Russia
, vol. 3. Cf. Longerich,
Davon
, 161; Ezergailis,
Holocaust in Latvia
, 13–15.

The commencement of mass killing
What is meant is not the rationalities involved in what Foucault calls governmentality, but rather the deliberate destruction of government in a traditional sense in the name of biology and in the expectation that biology can then reassert itself. This destruction does not end politics but does create a new setting in which a new kind of politics emerges. See
Naissance de la biopolitique
, 316.

In a dark irony
German beliefs: Benz, Kweit, and Mathäus,
Einsatz
, 34.

To a degree
The important notion of double collaboration was introduced by Gross in
Sąsiedzi
and has since figured in local studies such as Snyder, “Causes”; Brakel,
Unter Rotem Stern und Hakenkreuz
; Penter,
Kohle;
and Weiss-Wendt,
Murder Without Hatred
. It should be the topic of detailed empirical study.

The Soviet system was not
See Mędykowski,
W cieniu
, 160.

What local people expected
An Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) informer on OUN intelligence cooperation with Germany: “Komunikat Informacyjny,” 3 June 1932, AAN, MSW/1040/50–57.

As Ukrainian nationalists
Propaganda inside Germany: Longerich,
Davon
, 159. Himka makes the point about ethnicization in “Ethnicity and Reporting.” The case of Oleksandr Kohut: Kachanovs’kyi, “OUN(b),” 220, 223. On the calculation of shooting prisoners: Carynnyk, “Palace,” 280–81.

In Lwów on July 25, 1941
Kill one Jew: Prusin,
Lands Between
, 158. Mizoch: HI, Anders Collection, 210/14/7746; HI, Anders Collection, 210/14/3327. On Mizoch in the Soviet period, see ŻIH, 301/1795.

By reducing actual Ukrainian
Klevan: ŻIH, 301/1190, Abraham Kirschner. Dubno: ŻIH, 301/2168, Pinches Fingerhut; Adini,
Dubno: sefer zikaron
, 698–701. On German confusion in Dubno: Carynnyk, “Palace,” 293. On police continuity: Bauer,
The Death of the Shtetl
, 64. For development of the double collaboration theme, see Snyder, “Causes,” 208–9.

Jews were ordered
This recounting draws from Curilla,
Judenmord
, 246–51; and Bender,
Jews of Białystok
, 90; see also Matthäus, “Controlled Escalation,” 223; Machcewicz, “Rund um Jedwabne,” 73–74. Ten men in small synagogue: FVA, 2903, Leon F.

In those days of late June
Heydrich on 29 June:
“Spurenlos auszulösen, zu intensivieren wenn erforderlich und in die richtigen Bahnen zu lenken, ohne dass sich diese örtlichen ‘Selbstschutzkreise’ später auf Anordnungen oder auf gegebene politische Zusicherungen berufen können.”
Cited in
Justiz und NS-Verbrechen
, vol. 43, 2010, Lfd. Nr. 856, 177–78. Score settling political but not ethnic: Machcewicz, “Rund um Jedwabne,” 72–73. The same was true in Romania; this will be discussed in a later chapter.

If Heydrich’s order
Presence of Himmler with Kurt Daluege, the head of the
Ordnungspolizei
in Białystok on 8 July: Bender,
Jews of Białystok
, 94. Himmler’s disappointment: Rossino, “Violence,” 6. Himmler, Heydrich, Göring interest: Dmitrów, “Die Einsatzgruppen,” 127, 145, 155.

The presence and preferences
Police units: Dmitrów, “Die Einsatzgruppen,” 112–27; Machcewicz, “Rund um Jedwabne,” 75.

The Germans were learning
The empirical argument is in Kopstein and Wittenberg, “Intimate Violence,” chap. 4. Local polarization seems to have general explanatory power: see Croes, “Holocaust in the Netherlands,” 484.

The most notorious pogrom
Conditions: Kopstein and Wittenberg, “Intimate Violence,” chap. 4; Bikont,
My z Jedwabnego
; also Gross,
Sąsiedzi
, 29. Traitor: Gross,
Sąsiedzi
, 35; Sauerland,
Polen
, 83.

The scenography
Flag: Gross,
Sąsiedzi
, 12. Cf. Cała,
Antysemitizm
, 433.

In northeastern Poland
Machcewicz, “Rund um Jedwabne,” 65, 69, 70, 72.

The Jedwabne method
Sauerland,
Polen
, 66; Machcewicz, “Rund um Jedwabne,” 86.

The presence or absence
About 1,100 of the Jews murdered in Lithuania were killed in pogroms: less than one percent of the total number killed. Dieckmann, Deutsche Besatzungspolitik, 2:1512.

The Germans understood
According to Łossowski,
Kraje bałtyckie
, 164, some 50,000 people left Lithuania as Germans during the Soviet period, of whom one-half returned.

The Lithuanian activists arrived
Business figures from Levin,
Lesser of Two Evils
, 69.

The politics of mass killing
In June 1941, the Lithuanian Communist Party was almost 40 percent Russian, about 46 percent Lithuanian, and 13 percent Jewish. The communist security police was about 46 percent Lithuanian, 36 percent Russian, and 17 percent Jewish in 1940. So in both cases Jews were considerably overrepresented by comparison to their share of the population but about a third as numerous as Lithuanians. Dieckmann,
Deutsche Besatzungspolitik
, 1:165–69.

Actual political experience
Dieckmann,
Deutsche Besatzungspolitik
, 1:248–53; see also Lower, “Pogroms,” 224. Communist youth: Eidintas,
Jews
, 257.

Double collaboration
Wette,
Karl Jäger
, 82; Dieckmann,
Deutsche Besatzungspolitik
, 1:297.

The Germans never did
Dieckmann,
Deutsche Besatzungspolitik
, 1:534. Knyrimas and Baranauskas: Eidintas,
Jews
, 256.

Vilnius, the Jerusalem
On the Polish-Lithuanian-Jewish question in wartime Vilnius, see Snyder,
Reconstruction
, chap. 4.

This innovation took place
Dieckmann,
Deutsche Besatzungspolitik
, 2:906, 1511. Hitler, Goebbels, marking of Jews: Longerich,
Davon
, 165–68. On perceptions in the field about the course of the war, see inter alia Römer,
Kommissarbefehl
, 204.

If the Soviet Union
Ingrao,
Believe
, 236. Cf. Fritzsche, “Holocaust and the Knowledge,” 603. In Germany: Longerich,
Davon
, 160–61. Filbert and translation: Kay, “Transition to Genocide,” 413–25; see also Ingrao,
Believe
, 81, 158–59; Ingrao “Violence de guerre,” 236–37; Römer,
Kameraden
, 410, 414, 448, 462.

Their hesitations about
Kay, “Brothers.”

The Nazi conviction
Large numbers of Latvians return: Ezergailis,
Holocaust in Latvia
, 48; see also 155, 165–66. Liberation from the Jews: Dieckmann,
Deutsche Besatzungspolitik
, 1:513. See also Silberman, “Jan Lipke,” 87.

By now Stahlecker
Naturally: Breitmann, “Himmler,” 436. Channeling: Wette,
Karl Jäger
, 78.

The Arājs
Kommando
On Arājs and his commando, see
Justiz und NS-Verbrechen
, vol. 43,
2010
. Lfd. Nr. 856, 173–83; Kaprāns Vita Zelče, “Vēsturiskie cilvēki,” 169–70, 173–74; Plavnieks, “Nazi Collaborators,” 41–49, 72–85; Vīksne, “Members of the Arājs Commando,” 189–202; Angrick and Klein,
Final Solution
, 74 and passim; Ezergailis,
Holocaust in Latvia
, 177, 183, 188. Russians: Kudryashov, “Russian Collaborators,” 3. Looting: Bender,
Jews of Białystok
, 95.

The
Einsatzgruppen
were a hybrid
Quotation: Ezergailis,
Holocaust in Latvia
, 206. See Bloxham,
Final Solution
, 130.

Aside from the
Einsatzgruppen
12 August: Kruglov, “Jewish Losses,” 275.

Jeckeln’s innovation
See Pohl, “Schauplatz Ukraine,” 142–44; Angrick and Klein,
Final Solution
, 130.

The easternmost part
Segal, “Beyond,” 5–9, quotation at 5; Jelinek,
Carpathian Diaspora
, 234. See also Mędykowski,
W cieniu
, 287. Between 1867 and 1918, the Habsburg domains were a dual monarchy known as Austria-Hungary. The government in Budapest was sovereign in its domestic affairs. The king of Hungary was the same person as the emperor of the entire realm, Franz Josef.

Hungary made Jews stateless
Vladimir P.: FVA, 2837. Béla Kun: Ingrao,
Believe
, 153.

If the Judeobolshevik
Breitmann, “Himmler,” 433–44. Thirty-three thousand: Kershaw,
Fateful Choices
, 456. Letter home: Schneider,
Auswärts eingesetzt
, 215. More than EG: Lower, “Axis Collaboration,” 186. See also Pohl,
Herrschaft der Wehrmacht
, 152; Curilla,
Judenmord
, 851.

On September 28, 1941
Pohl,
Herrschaft der Wehrmacht
, 259; Pohl, “Schauplatz Ukraine,” 147; Pohl, “Ukrainische Hilfskräfte,” 213. Rape and party: Schneider,
Auswärts eingesetzt
, 465, 471. Already bloodied: Dina Pronicheva, “Stenogramma,” 24 April 1946, TsDAVO, 166/3/245/115–34; see also Dina Pronicheva, Darmstadt, 29 April 1968, IfZ, Gd 01.54/78/1758–76. For a description of the experience from Jewish perspectives, see Berkhoff,
Harvest of Despair
, 61–68; and Berkhoff, “Dina Pronicheva’s Story.”

Many of the aged and infirm
More research is needed on the pogroms in the prewar Soviet Union in 1941. On Kyiv see Melnyk, “Stalinist Justice,” 230, 238.

At the end of 1941
Angrick and Klein,
Final Solution
, 114.

“The East belongs to the SS!”
Wasser,
Himmlers Raumplanung
, 51. See generally Gerwarth,
Heydrich
.

Organized massacres involving
Percentages derived from Arad,
Holocaust
, 521, 524. For examples of collaboration, see the cases below. On the NKVD, see Kuromiya,
Freedom and Terror
, 268.

The Germans reached
The Estonian case will be discussed at greater length in the next chapter.

The prewar Soviet Union
Bemporad, “Politics of Blood,” 4–5, 8.

In an unhappy sequence
Three hundred thousand estimate: Pohl,
Herrschaft der Wehrmacht
, 119. Denunciations: Reid,
Leningrad
, 125. Ideological interval: Hrynevych,
Nepryborkane riznoholossia
, 111–20; Moorhouse,
Devils’ Alliance
, 130. Kyiv example: Schneider,
Auswärts eingesetzt
, 462; Prusin, “Community of Violence,” 1.

The Judeobolshevik myth
Rabin,
Vishnivits: sefer zikaron
, 300.

In doubly occupied western
Valuable on the entire period and on the question of nationalism beyond western Ukraine is Berkhoff,
Harvest of Despair
.

In Zhytomyr, the major city
On the terror in Zhytomyr, see chapter 2. Leaflets: Lower,
Nazi Empire-Building
, 34.

When war came to Zhytomyr
For the exchange see Lower, “German Colonialism,” 22. See also Lower,
Nazi Empire-Building
, 34–35.

Kharkiv was the major city
Terror and bread and salt: FVA, 3272, Pyotr Borisovich L.

In any large Soviet city
Gangsters: Radchenko, “Accomplices,” 445.

When the Kharkiv
Radchenko, “Accomplices,” 443–58; details about the march from FVA, 3270, Lydia G.

The mass shooting of the Jews
Lower, “German Colonialism,” 26; Radchenko, “Accomplices,” 443–58, trash quotation at 454.

No matter where the Germans arrived
Tyaglyy, “Nazi Occupation,” 127, 141.

Because Army Group South of the Wehrmacht
On the Gypsies, see Holler,
Völkermord
, 68–69.

In Stalino, as elsewhere
Penter,
Kohle
, 270–81; Kuromiya,
Freedom and Terror
, 263–88.

The initial German policy
Pripiat: Matthäus, “Controlled Escalation,” 225;
Der Dienstkalender Heinrich Himmlers
, 189. Nebe: Gerlach,
Kalkulierte Morde
, 544, 549, 567. See Mędykowski,
W cieniu
, 231. Belarusians and Poles: Dean, “Service of Poles.”

With less local collaboration
Beorn,
Marching into Darkness
, 73.

Not long afterwards Ibid.
, 97.

By October 1941
Megargee,
War of Annihilation
, 99.

Unlike Operation Barbarossa
Quotation: Gerlach,
Kalkulierte Morde
, 588.

Once Operation Typhoon
Beorn,
Marching into Darkness
, 7, 60, 62, 73, 120, 133.

In Minsk
7 November and other symbolic dates in Minsk: Rubenstein and Altman,
Unknown Black Book
, 238, 245, 251, 252. Communists: Rein, “Local Collaboration,” 394; see also Brakel,
Unter Rotem Stern und Hakenkreuz
, 304. On Soviet Jews in Minsk, see Bemporad,
Becoming
.

With the advance of Operation
Identification of Jews with partisans, beginning September 1941: Gerlach,
Kalkulierte Morde
, 566.

The policy of mass
Vans: Gerlach,
Kalkulierte Morde
, 1075. The “black crow” reference is ubiquitous; see, for example, USHMM, RG-31.049/01, Evgenia Elkina. The killing with vans was also an extremely grisly business; some Germans preferred shooting. See Prusin, “Community of Violence.”

By the end of 1941
Rasch: Lower, “German Colonialism,” 24.

Whereas the Germans
Kudryashov, “Russian Collaboration,” 4–5, 15; Penter,
Kohle
, 275; Reid,
Leningrad
, 125. The Germans murdered Gypsies in the outskirts of Leningrad as well; with what degree of local cooperation remains to be seen. See Holler, “Nazi Persecution,” 157.

In the cities of Soviet Russia
Cohen,
Smolensk
, 64, 68, 78, 79, 122.

In nature, thought Hitler
German starvation policies are covered in Snyder,
Bloodlands
, chapter 5.

The German invasion
Quotation: Arnold, “Die Eroberung,” 35. Dieckmann develops the idea of the distribution of scarcity; see
Deutsche Besatzungspolitik
, 1:536, 579–83.

Like the politics of Judeobolshevism
Cf. Gerlach, “Wannsee Conference.” I agree that December was a turning point and am inclined to see it as Hitler’s decision to announce an intent to eliminate all Jews rather than an explicit order to kill them all, but taken at a time when killing them was proving to be easier than deporting them. In early 1942, Heydrich and others were still discussing deportations to Siberia, which would have been senseless had there been an explicit order to murder; the failure of German offensives and Heydrich’s assassination must have made such a deportation seem unrealistic. The technique of fixed gassing facilities then developed in Poland was not initially meant as a total solution, but it proved more feasible than anything else, and was pursued to the end. In my understanding, Hitler’s determination from the beginning was to eliminate the Jews from the planet; it was a matter of indifference whether this was achieved through murder or through deportation to some inhospitable place. What is chilling is not a diabolical plan that was followed to the letter; there was no such thing. What is chilling is a worldview in which individuals are defined as a supernatural collectivity such that their removal is seen as ethical and the method of removal makes no moral difference.

The autumn of 1941
FVA, 368, Iurii Israilovich G.

The battle for Kaluga
Stieff cited after Edele, “States,” 374.

That very day
Common front: Herf,
Jewish Enemy
, 132 and passim. Hitler’s 12 December speech as recorded by Goebbels: Mazower,
Hitler’s Empire
, 376; see also Witte et al.,
Der Dienstkalender Heinrich Himmlers
, 289. Cf. Friedlander,
Extermination
, 281. Once the United States was in the war it had to be presented by Hitler not as a distant model but as a fragile enemy, “half Judaized and half negrified”: Fischer,
Hitler and America
, 37.

In the occupied zones
Pity quotation: Mazower,
Hitler’s Empire
, 376. Reckoning of the number of Jews killed by the end of 1941: Brandon, “First Wave.”

The lessons of the USSR
Some 1,500 Poles were among the collaborating police forces in the territories that are now Belarus. The Germans sought to reduce this number when they could, favoring Belarusians. See Dean, “Service of Poles,” 6. The main collaborating Polish formations were the 107th and the 202nd
Schutzmannschaft
Battalions. In general, Poles were recruited to such formations in times and places where Ukrainian policemen deserted in 1943 to form a Ukrainian partisan army. In some cases Poles joined such formations to avenge ethnic cleansing by Ukrainian nationalists. See Snyder, “Origins,” and Snyder,
Reconstruction of Nations
.

On January 30, 1942
Hillgruber, “Grundlage,” 286. Arendt noticed the problem with prophecy; see
Origins
.

That same month
Quotation:
Table Talk
, 235. Leningrad estimate: Reid,
Leningrad
, 231. Estimate of about a million: Pohl,
Herrschaft der Wehrmacht
, 181; similarly Arad,
Holocaust
, 311. Africa and hunger motivation: Kuwałek,
Vernichtungslager
, 110–11. See also Madajczyk, “Generalplan Ost,” 17. Askaren: Black, “Askaris,” 279; Sandler, “Colonizers,” 8. The Germans said “Askaren”; in English “Askaris.”

No one had to say
October: Heydrich,
Husson
, 437. See also Rieger,
Globocnik
, 60–61 and 103, where he dates the meeting to late September. For a list of the sites of oppression in the district, see Poprzeczny,
Hitler’s Man
, 208.

In the occupied Soviet Union
Wasser,
Raumplanung
, 61, 77; Schelvis,
Vernichtungslager Sobibór
, 32, 41; Arad,
Reinhard
, 14; Tooze,
Wages of Destruction
, 468; Black, “Handlanger der Endlösung,” 315. For the ethnic groups, see Black, “Askaris,” 290. Some western and Polish historians inexcusably follow the ethnicizing Soviet propagandistic and current Russian nationalist practice of referring to the Trawniki men as “Ukrainians.” Ukrainians were certainly among these people, but so was everyone else whom the Germans asked, including of course Russians.

From the west
Poprzeczny,
Hitler’s Man
, 163, gives the figure of 94 staff from T-4; Berger, in the now-standard
Experten
, gives 120. Kuwałek in
Vernichtungslager
gives a total staff count of 453.

The program of mass killing
On the process, see Arad,
Reinhard
, 44, 56; Młynarczyk,
Judenmord
, 252, 257, 260; Pohl,
Verfolgung
, 94.

The practice of extermination
Rieger,
Globocnik
, 115.

Many Jews yielded
Productive: FVA, 147, David L. Ten people: FVA, 404, Marion C.

Most likely there was never
February 1942: Witte et al.,
Dienstkalender Heinrich Himmlers
, 353. See Pohl,
Verfolgung
, 95; Friedländer,
Extermination
, 343, 430. The foundational study of Operation Reinhard is Arad,
Belzec
. I provide descriptions of the murder at Treblinka in
Bloodlands
.

In Warsaw in late December
See Moczarski,
Rozmowy
, 200. The course and suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising is discussed at greater length in Snyder,
Bloodlands
, chap. 9. See especially Bartoszewski,
Warszawski pierścień;
Ringelblum,
Polish-Jewish Relations;
Engelking and Leociak,
Warsaw Ghetto;
and, for a sense of how much work remains to be done on the subject, Libionka and Weinbaum,
Bohaterowie
.

The man who suppressed
Quotation: Kershaw,
Final Solution
, 66.

That winter, Jews
Orpo: Curilla,
Judenmord
, 837. Lange: Kuwałek,
Vernichtungslager
, 49. Stars of David: Gerlach,
Kalkulierte Morde
, 686. See Mallmann, “Rozwiązać,” 85–95; Friedländer,
Extermination
, 314–18.

In the General Government
On the Łódż ghetto, see Löw,
Juden im Getto Litzmannstadt
. Main task and dogs: Grabowski,
Judenjagd
, 9, 59.

In 1943 and 1944
Orpo responsibility: Browning,
Ordinary Men
, 121. Masses: Engelking and Grabowski,
Przestępczość
, 195.

There was a politics
Markiel and Skibińska, Z
agłada domu
, 23, 48. Posters: Cobel-Tokarska,
Bezludna wyspa
, 90. See also Skibińska, “Self-Portrait,” 469–71; Engelking,
Losy Żydów
, 162, 188; Grabowski,
Judenjagd
, 24.

Poles were not always
Krosno: Rączy,
Pomóc Polaków
, 44. Żbikowski, “Night Guard,” 513, 515, 517, 520, 524; Grabowski,
Judenjagd
, 82. Chronicle of collective reprisals: Madajczyk,
Hitlerowski terror
, 9 and passim.

Sometimes Poles in the countryside
Order: Engelking and Grabowski,
Przestępczość
, 194–95. Engelking gives the example of a Polish policeman who refused to shoot a seven-year-old who begged for death, and instead rescued the boy.
Losy Żydów
, 198. Examples of help in Rączy,
Pomóc Polaków;
and Hempel,
Pogrobowcy
.

In these conditions
Grabowski,
Judenjagd
, 11, 69. The notion of the privatization of power, an Arendtian argument developed by Gross in
Revolution from Abroad
, might be useful applied in other settings.

Wherever the state
Some Dutch Jews were sent to Sobibór, which is one more way that the Dutch situation resembles the Polish one. Almost all of the other victims of Sobibór were Polish Jews. Most Dutch Jews were sent to Auschwitz.