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Kalkulierte Morde: Die deutsche Wirtschafts- und Vernichtungspolitik in Weissrussland 1941 bis 1944
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November 12, 2020
when we try to understand the motivation for the genocidal policies of the nazis in eastern europe, the murder of millions of people is often explained in terms of irrational racism, eliminatory antisemitism, national chauvinism ect. these are essential elements of nazi rule and policies, but they don't explain everything. Gerlachs achievement lies in the further contextualisation of these mass murders by examination of economic policies and war planning. The irrational hatreds mixed inseparably with a "rationality" devoid of humanity that saw only so-called objective necesseties and created the destructive dynamic of occupation politics in belarus, where during 3 years almost one fourth of the population was exterminated. The perpetrators, not just SS and police but army, civil administration and nazi ministerial bureaucracy on almost all levels were not simply monsters driven by pathological hatred. they were also highly motivated functionaries driven by a deeply perverted rationality.
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