A new history focuses on the collaborators in the Holocaust

From The Economist:

One day in June 1941, in the Lithuanian city of Kaunas, a local man—soon to be known as the “death-dealer”—picked up a crowbar and waited for his first victim. The city had just been captured by the Nazis and a German soldier recorded what happened next. Several dozen Jewish men were brought out one by one and beaten to death in turn. After each murder, the crowd, including women and children, clapped. They also sang the Lithuanian national anthem.

In his illuminating study of aspects of the Holocaust and its aftermath, Dan Stone recounts the slaughter in Kaunas to demonstrate the important role played by enthusiastic locals. The director of the Holocaust Research Institute at Royal Holloway, University of London, Professor Stone is the author of numerous works on the Nazi genocide. The four key themes of his new book are “trauma, collaboration, genocidal fantasy and post-war consequences”. He writes with authority and an eye for the human story not always evident in Holocaust historiography. The first-hand testimonies he cites underscore the suffering of victims and survivors and the savagery of the perpetrators.

Like every historian of this period, he faces the question of whether to write a broad account covering as much as possible, or to focus on a single country or episode that embodies a particular theme. He chooses the panoramic approach and his narrative traverses wartime Europe: from the now-familiar names of death camps such as Auschwitz to lesser-known aspects of the Holocaust. These include the round-up of 532 Jews in Oslo by Norwegian policemen in November 1942, most of whom were gassed in Auschwitz, and the horrific fate of the Jews of Transnistria. Incarcerated in pigsties, many of them froze to death or went mad with hunger, eating twigs, leaves and human excrement.

The book’s main strength is its comparison of different countries, their authorities and their willingness to collaborate with the Nazis or slaughter local Jews themselves. The chapter on the death marches, when inmates were moved between concentration camps, and the eventual liberation of those camps and its aftermath, is especially strong, perhaps because Professor Stone has already written a book on this specific area.

. . . .

Like every historian of this period, he faces the question of whether to write a broad account covering as much as possible, or to focus on a single country or episode that embodies a particular theme. He chooses the panoramic approach and his narrative traverses wartime Europe: from the now-familiar names of death camps such as Auschwitz to lesser-known aspects of the Holocaust. These include the round-up of 532 Jews in Oslo by Norwegian policemen in November 1942, most of whom were gassed in Auschwitz, and the horrific fate of the Jews of Transnistria. Incarcerated in pigsties, many of them froze to death or went mad with hunger, eating twigs, leaves and human excrement.

The book’s main strength is its comparison of different countries, their authorities and their willingness to collaborate with the Nazis or slaughter local Jews themselves. The chapter on the death marches, when inmates were moved between concentration camps, and the eventual liberation of those camps and its aftermath, is especially strong, perhaps because Professor Stone has already written a book on this specific area.

Link to the rest at The Economist

PG didn’t include some criticisms of the book in the full review published by The Economist.

That said, Mrs. PG and her husband have been enjoying a well-written series of fiction focused on the members of a British family during World War II. PG hasn’t seen any errors or misstatements in this series of well-researched books.

The series title is After Dunkirk.