Black
Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning by Timothy Snyder
Misperceptions, misconnections, and missed observations
are just some of the issues that Timothy Snyder raises in his book, Black Earth, concerning the
Holocaust. Snyder, no stranger to the
frontlines of scholarship on the Holocaust, with his previous book Bloodlands,
that concerns the land from Hitler to Stalin, takes a look at the Holocaust
from new sources and new avenues of thought.
How did some nation-states survive relatively unscathed from Nazi persecution
while others, notably Jewish populations, succumb to a wave of killings? Also, what was the role of the Soviet Union
in the war and how did Stalin effect changes in the Final Solution? These questions are only two of the many that
Snyder answers in his detailed account of the Holocaust.
One of the best chapters was entitled The Auschwitz
Paradox. Generally when the public
thinks about the Holocaust, we think of Auschwitz first or at the top of our
mental map. Snyder writes, “The word “Auschwitz”
has become a metonym for the Holocaust as a whole. Yet the vast majority of Jews had already
been murdered, further east, by the time that Auschwitz became a major killing
facility. Yet while Auschwitz has been
remembered, most of the Holocaust has been largely forgotten (207).” It isn’t that Auschwitz isn’t an important
point in Holocaust discussion, but “The mass murder of Jews was known and
discussed in Germany, at least among families and friends, long before
Auschwitz became a death facility.”
Three years leading up to the construction and installation of
Auschwitz, Jews were routinely executed and killed east of this dreadful
killing site.
A second aspect of the book that shows evidence of the
systematic nature of Germany as state destroyers is seen in the country of
Poland. “The Polish central government
was destroyed, Polish law was abolished, and the Polish state was declared to
have never existed…There were no longer ministries and there were no longer
citizens. Instead, local authorities were
made personally responsible for the implementation of German racial
policies. They oversaw the deportation
of Poland’s Jews and the distribution of property not taken by the Germans
(110).” One of the major goals for
Hitler’s eradication of the Polish nation was to take down the Polish elites,
so that the governing and respected authorities would no longer influence the
masses. A dreadful fear cast its ugly
shadow on the Polish people and for many it was follow these horrendous policies
or be killed.
This was an extraordinary book to say the least. Snyder helps the reader understand how such
Final Solution policies could slowly but surely cover vast nation states by
looking at their implementation. I think
all who are interested in how the Holocaust took place and what ways nation
states act similarly should read this book.
Thanks to Blogging for Books for the copy of this book
in exchange for an honest review.
Comments
Post a Comment