"THE JEWS ARE BEING COMPLETELY EXTERMINATED"*
'THE GERMAN WAR'
Nicholas Stargardt Bodley Head 2015
I
In 1943, as allied bombing of German cities reached ever greater
levels of intensity, including the near complete destruction of Hamburg, Nicholas
Stargardt in The German War describes how there was the widespread conclusion
that this was revenge ‘for what we have done to the Jews!’ As he points out, with
the prevalence of this belief, ‘people inadvertently disclosed something which
till then had been half concealed – their own knowledge that all the abstract Nazi
rhetoric about the exterminating the Jews had been literally accomplished.’ [1]
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| German 'Atrocity Tourists |
Ever since the invasion of Poland in 1939 a steady stream of
information had been flowing back into Germany about atrocities being committed
in the East. German soldiers, ‘atrocity tourists’-to adopt Stargardt’s term –
were positively snap happy and sent back pictures back to Germany of hangings,
mass shootings, and reprisal killings.[2]
Whilst in letters home they frequently commented on the treatment of Jews,
including systemised murder. The ‘we never knew’ fiction, already widely
discredited, is here given the coups de grace by Stargardt, along with that of the
‘clean Wehrmacht.’
The German War is a major contribution to Second World War
historiography, providing fresh insights into how the war was perceived by
ordinary Germans and why they continued to fight despite defeat staring them in
the face.
Ideologically committed Nazi’s are rare in Stargardt’s book,
most of the correspondents he quotes are ordinary people trying to make sense
of their lives and of the war that has now engulfed them. There are also few
fervent anti-Nazi’s to sweeten what is otherwise bleak and depressing reading.
The book is testimony to the fact that human beings can adapt to most
circumstances, including those in which mass murder and the persecution of
former fellow citizens has become the norm.
If any German Jew expected the Christian Churches to step in
to protect them or protest their treatment, they were to be sorely
disappointed. The performance of the Christian Church, particularly its
Catholic wing, reads like the all too predictable history of an institution
with a long record of turning its back upon, or indeed colluding, in torture
and murder. As the Jews were murdered, they knew, but said nothing. The same
was true, though with the added dimension of a strong pro-Nazi element, of the
protestant churches. Even when the war was over, and in the face of growing
evidence of atrocities committed by the German army, clerics continued to
defend the Wehrmacht: -
“We want to deeply
thank our Christian soldiers too, those who in good conscience of doing right
have risked their lives for the nation and fatherland and who, even in the
hubbub of war, kept their hearts and hands clean of hatred, plundering and
unjust acts of violence.” Bishop Galen of Munster June 1945. (The German
War p559)
The ordinary Polish, Ukrainian or Russian citizen might tell
a different tale, though when they did the good Bishop of Munster didn’t want
to hear it. After the war other clerics regularly interceded in favour of
convicted war criminals. [3]
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| German Reprisals Ukraine |
To say that Christianity comes out of this book badly would
be to dramatically understate the rottenness of an institution that had completely
lost its moral compass. If indeed it
ever had one.
Denazification, most widely implemented in the US Zone of
Occupation, where for example people were corralled and forced to visit the
newly liberated concentration camps, was a dismal failure. Germans not only
refused to accept, the admittedly questionable idea, of collective guilt, but
refused to admit, let alone seek to atone for their own complicity in Nazi barbarism.
Instead of self-examination many Germans sought refuge in
victimhood, seeing in their own suffering a Quid pro quo. After all, had not
Germany suffered ‘terror bombing’ and the forced resettlement of millions of
Germans from the East to make way for Poles, Czechs and Ukrainians, as Poland’s
borders were readjusted and the Czech’s took back control of the Sudetenland?[4]
There was also the issue of German POW’s still held by the Russians, numbers
that were both deliberately and inadvertently exaggerated. (Many German
soldiers killed in the East during the chaos of the last months of the war were
simply listed as missing, then presumed to be prisoners in the Soviet Union. The
numbers killed in the bombing of Dresden were similarly inflated).
A post war survey found 37% agreeing with the following proposition,
‘the
extermination of the Jews, Poles, and other non-Aryans had been necessary for
the security of Germans.’ (The German War p564)
II
I have a whole shelf of books on the Holocaust and having
read them all. I am however no closer to understanding the industrial scale
murder of a whole section of society in a sophisticated modern state like
Germany. Famously Hannah Arendt in describing Eichmann drew attention to what she
perceived to be ‘the banality of evil.’ She has been widely criticised ever
since, but terrible as her conclusions are she is surely closer to the truth
than those who see, or want to see, only wholly inhuman monsters being capable
of such unimaginable bestial cruelty. True the Eichmann’s, Mengele’s, Heydrich’s,
and Himmler’s of this world are thankfully rare, however, for every Eichmann,
there turned out to be literally thousands willing to do the dirty work, often
enthusiastically. Some would write home to wives or lovers describing what they
had participated in or witnessed. A few of their letters can be found in Stargardt’s
book.
Those who objected to Bruno Ganz’ portrayal of Hitler in ‘Downfall,’-
gently patting his dog, being kind to his secretary, - seem to me to have
missed the whole terrible message of the portrayal, for they are still looking
for monsters.
This is a book about so much more than the holocaust, that
said I think I learnt more about the mentality that created it than many other
books specifically addressing the issue. And, as I say it did not make for
comfortable reading. This is a very important book indeed, and should be read
by anyone wishing to develop their understanding of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust.
III
On the 26th October Konrad Adenauer addressed the German parliament on the subject of German Prisoners of war still held captive by the Soviet Union.
On the 26th October Konrad Adenauer addressed the German parliament on the subject of German Prisoners of war still held captive by the Soviet Union.
[Whether], “ever
before in history millions of people have been sentenced with such chilling
heartlessness to misery and misfortune.” [5]The
German War P556.
He is speaking not of the mass murder of German Jews but of
the continued incarceration of some 20 to 30,000 prisoners held in the Soviet
Union, a country which Germany, unprovoked, had invaded and carried out a
policy of indiscriminate slaughter and mass starvation.
If you want to gain a greater understanding of the holocaust you could start
with that sentence and work backwards.
[1]
Or even if they were unaware of the extermination process itself they knew of
the treatment meted out to Jews in Germany and occupied Europe.
[2]
One pauses to reflect that those working in photograph processing labs were the
first people outside the killing zones to witness the scale of the criminality
being practised by the SS, Einsatzgruppen and Wehrmacht. There appears to be no
evidence of anyone working in this industry alerting either neutral states or
the allies. Imagine the girl behind the counter at Boots handing back to you
the developed pictures of men, women and children being shot? “Number seven is
overexposed, too much direct sunlight. Would you like any enlargements?”
[3]
Galen and the equally disgusting Konrad von Preysing of Berlin were, and one is
tempted to add ‘of course,’ elected to the College of Cardinals, greatly
enhancing their international standing.
[4]
Certainly this process was undertaken with great deliberate cruelty and
considerable violence.
[5]
Adenauer had not, one suspects, ever reflected on the treatment of Soviet
prisoners of war.
*Hermen Gieschen, former shopkeeper and now reserve Policeman in the German army writing home to his wife Hanna from Riga following the German invasion of 1941. "Please don't think about it," he added, "that is how it has to be.
