Black Earth(165)

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.





8. The Auschwitz Paradox


Auschwitz has been a relatively See Longerich, Davon, 222 and passim; on property: Aly, Hitler’s Beneficiaries.

For similar reasons Cf. Veidlinger, In the Shadow.

Auschwitz was one of the few See the final chapter of Snyder, Bloodlands.

In the history of the Holocaust More than two hundred thousand Polish Jews were murdered at Auschwitz; they were the second largest victim group, after Hungarian Jews. The third largest was non-Jewish Poles.

Auschwitz arose Steinbacher, Auschwitz, 27; Steinbacher, “Musterstadt,” 275, 293.

The purpose of Auschwitz On the development of the camps and death facilities at Auschwitz, see Dwork and Van Pelt, Auschwitz, 166, 177, 219, 240, 275, 290, 293, 313, 326, 351.

Intuitions fail See Valentino, Final Solutions, 234 and passim; and Croes, “Holocaust in the Netherlands,” 492; in another setting, Straus, Order of Genocide, 128. The level of antisemitism, insofar as this can be ascertained, does not seem to correlate with Jewish death rates; what does strongly correlate is the degree of state destruction. Helen Fein developed an asynchronous argument similar to the one here in her valuable study Accounting for Genocide. Where she writes of “the lack of counterauthorities resisting” German plans (90), I have sought in previous chapters to describe the process and consequences of the destruction of those authorities as one of the causes of the Holocaust as such. State destruction created opportunities for innovation, decapitated and perverted existing institutions, and left fragments that could be deployed for other purposes. But my findings certainly confirm her general case. As in so many other matters the suggestion for further research was to be found in Hilberg, Destruction, 2:572–99. See also Birnbaum, Prier, 130.

Estonia shared the fate Fate of leaders: Kaasik, “Political Repression,” 310. Fate of ministers: Paavle, “Estonian Elite,” 393. See also ?ossowski, Kraje ba?tyckie, 46–55.

Soviet law was applied Penal code: Maripuu, “Political Arrests,” 326; Maripuu, “Deportations,” 363. 10,200: Weiss-Wendt, Murder Without Hatred, 40.

Double collaboration Weiss-Wendt, Murder Without Hatred, 131.

Former employees Ibid., 115–16.

In Estonia, as everywhere Ibid., 132. Lithuanian policemen and POW camps: Dieckmann, Deutsche Besatzungspolitik, 1:525.

The German occupation of Denmark Quotation: Haestrup, “Danish Jews,” 22. Vilhjálmsson and Blüdnikow, “Rescue,” 3, 5, 7. Wiking: Wróblewski, Dywizja, 143–47. A field surgeon in that unit was a certain German physician named Joseph Mengele. Alongside Estonians: Strassner, Freiwillige, 15.

When the Final Solution Haestrup, “Danish Jews,” 23, 29.

There was a will A sober accounting of these events is Herbert, Best, 360–72.

Denmark’s neighbor Sweden German stance: Dwork and Van Pelt, Holocaust, 327. In custody: Haestrup, “Danish Jews,” 52.

Jews who were Danish Vilhjálmsson and Blüdnikow, “Rescue,” 1, 3.

These lists of actions and absences Antisemitism in the states at war with Germany and in the neutral states probably worsened rather than improved during the war; Americans, according to one public opinion poll, considered Jews during the war a greater enemy than the Germans or the Japanese. Nirenberg, Anti-Judaism, 457–58.

Citizenship is the name See chaps. 5 and 6 of Snyder, Bloodlands.

In states allied with Germany Frank’s decree of 15 October 1941 in Paulsson, Secret City, 67. Compare to Moore, “Le context du sauvetage,” 285–86. In the Rzeszów region of the General Government in occupied Poland, some two hundred Poles were executed for sheltering Jews. See R?czy, Pomóc Polaków, 61.

Compare the fates of Victor Klemperer On Jews permitted to live in Nazi Germany, see Longerich, Davon, 252–53. Quotation from Kassow, Rediscovering, 13.

Because Klemperer was Kassow, Rediscovering, 360. Bartoszewski makes the point about Anne Frank: “Rozmowa,” 16. Cf. Fein, Accounting for Genocide, 33.

Legal discrimination On Schmid, see Wette, Feldwebel, 67.

Citizenship in modern states Soviet bureaucracy might seem to be an exception. But it is in fact an exception that proves the rule. First, the Soviet state was not, constitutionally or in practice, a traditional state bound by law. It was subordinate to the communist party, and thus in the end to the subjective reading of history by party leaders. Second, in times of massive state terror, such as 1937–1938, conventional Soviet legal practices were set aside in favor of a state of emergency.