Empire of Destruction: A History of Nazi Mass Killing

Description

The first comparative, comprehensive history of Nazi mass killing – showing how genocidal policies were crucial to the regime’s strategy to win the war Nazi Germany killed approximately 13 million civilians and other non-combatants in deliberate policies of mass murder, mostly during the war years. Almost half the victims were Jewish, systematically destroyed in the Holocaust, the core of the Nazis’ pan-European racial purification programme. Alex Kay argues that the genocide of European Jewry can be examined in the wider context of Nazi mass killing. For the first time, Empire of Destruction considers Europe’s Jews alongside all the other major victim groups: captive Red Army soldiers, the Soviet urban population, unarmed civilian victims of preventive terror and reprisals, the mentally and physically disabled, the European Roma and the Polish intelligentsia. Kay shows how each of these groups was regarded by the Nazi regime as a potential threat to Germany’s ability to successfully wage a war for hegemony in Europe. Combining the full quantitative scale of the killings with the individual horror, this is a vital and groundbreaking work. Cover page Title page Halftitle page Copyright page Dedication Epigraph CONTENTS ILLUSTRATIONS ABBREVIATIONS NOTE ON PLACE NAMES AND CONVENTIONS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Map INTRODUCTION Part I SUMMER 1939–SUMMER 1941 CHAPTER 1 KILLING THE SICK IN THE GERMAN REICH AND POLAND CHAPTER 2 DECAPITATION OF POLISH SOCIETY Part II SUMMER 1941–SPRING 1942 CHAPTER 3 HOLOCAUST BY BULLETS CHAPTER 4 MURDER OF PSYCHIATRIC PATIENTS AND ROMA IN THE SOVIET UNION CHAPTER 5 STARVATION POLICY AGAINST THE SOVIET URBAN POPULATION CHAPTER 6 EXTERMINATION OF CAPTIVERED ARMY SOLDIERS CHAPTER 7 PREVENTIVE TERROR AND REPRISALS AGAINST CIVILIANS Part III SPRING 1942–SPRING 1945 CHAPTER 8 HOLOCAUST BY GAS CHAPTER 9 THE GATES OF HELL CHAPTER 10 GENOCIDE OF THE EUROPEAN ROMA CHAPTER 11 DECENTRALISED ‘EUTHANASIA’ IN THE GERMAN REICH CHAPTER 12 SUPPRESSION OF THE WARSAW UPRISING CONCLUSION APPENDIX I VICTIMS OF NAZI MASS-KILLING CAMPAIGNS APPENDIX II COMPARATIVE RANKS FOR 1942 ENDNOTES BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX