Drunk on Genocide: Alcohol & Mass Murder in Nazi Germany

Battlegrounds: Cornell Studies in Military History

by Edward B. Westermann

In Drunk on Genocide, Edward B. Westermann reveals how, over the course of the Third Reich, scenes involving alcohol consumption and revelry among the SS and police became a routine part of rituals of humiliation in the camps, ghettos, and killing fields of Eastern Europe.

Westermann draws on a vast range of newly unearthed material to explore how alcohol consumption served as a literal and metaphorical lubricant for mass murder. It facilitated "performative masculinity," expressly linked to physical or sexual violence. Such inebriated exhibitions extended from meetings of top Nazi officials to the rank and file celebrating at the grave sites of their victims. Westermann argues that, contrary to the common misconception of the SS and police as stone-cold killers, they were, in fact, intoxicated with the act of murder itself.

Drunk on Genocide highlights the intersections of masculinity, drinking ritual, sexual violence, and mass murder to expose the role of alcohol and celebratory ritual in the Nazi genocide of European Jews. Its surprising and disturbing findings offer a new perspective on the mindset, motivation, and mentality of killers as they prepared for, and participated in, mass extermination.

Published in Association with the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World War II, War, Holocaust, European History

312 pages, Hardcover

Published March 15, 2021

About the author

Edward Westermann received his PhD from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 2000. He was a Fulbright Fellow at the Free University of Berlin, a German Academic Exchange Service fellow on three occasions, as well as a fellow at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. He has published three books and numerous articles and book chapters on topics dealing with military history, the Holocaust, and air power history. He is also a retired US Air Force Colonel with 25 years of service.

Reviews

[Marsha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not an easy book to read but it is an important one for any reader interested in learning more about how ordinary people can be transformed into mass murderers. The author argues that extreme alcohol use was a key component of that transformation. The author demonstrates how Nazi killing units transformed mass murder, torture and rape into toxic-masculine bonding parties. While the author's references are many, he sometimes makes sweeping statements that are not adequately backed with data.

A good reference book? Yes. But readers shouldn't assume killers were less culpable because they were drunk

[Clay Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Drunk on Genocide" by Edward B. Westermann is a disturbing yet insightful exploration of the role alcohol played in the Nazi genocide of European Jews during World War II. The book highlights the intersections of masculinity, drinking rituals, sexual violence, and mass murder, exposing how alcohol consumption facilitated and even celebrated the atrocities committed by the SS and police forces in the ghettos, camps, and killing fields of Eastern Europe.

Westermann draws from a vast range of newly unearthed materials, including personal accounts, official records, and eyewitness testimonies, to reveal the pervasive presence of alcohol in the rituals of humiliation and violence perpetrated against Jewish victims. He argues that contrary to the common perception of the SS and police as cold-blooded killers, they were often intoxicated with the act of murder itself, fueled by excessive drinking and celebratory rituals.

One of the book's central arguments is that alcohol consumption served as a literal and metaphorical lubricant for mass murder, facilitating what Westermann calls "performative masculinity" – a toxic expression of masculinity explicitly linked to physical or sexual violence. Scenes of drunken revelry and alcohol-fueled sadism became routine in the camps and killing fields, with SS and police officers celebrating at the grave sites of their victims, often in a state of inebriation.

Westermann's research exposes the disturbing reality that alcohol played a significant role in the mindset, motivation, and mentality of the perpetrators as they prepared for and participated in mass extermination. The book challenges the notion of the Nazi killers as cold, calculating individuals, instead portraying them as intoxicated participants in a horrific celebration of violence and genocide.

While "Drunk on Genocide" offers a compelling and well-researched analysis of the role of alcohol in the Nazi genocide, some readers may find the graphic descriptions of violence and sadism difficult to stomach. However, Westermann's unflinching approach is necessary to fully comprehend the depths of depravity and the role that alcohol played in enabling and normalizing such atrocities.

The book's writing style is academic yet accessible, with Westermann skillfully weaving together historical accounts, personal narratives, and scholarly analysis to create a comprehensive and thought-provoking work. His arguments are well-supported by the extensive research and primary sources he has uncovered, lending credibility to his disturbing yet important findings.

Overall, "Drunk on Genocide" is a significant contribution to the study of the Holocaust and genocide, offering a unique and unsettling perspective on the mindset and motivations of the perpetrators. While the subject matter is undoubtedly difficult, Westermann's work is a valuable addition to our understanding of the darkest chapters of human histxory.

[James Hallmark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dr. Westermann is a history professor at A&M San Antonio and I have befriended him over the years. Ed spent a year or so as a fellow at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., and Becky and I visited him there where he arranged for a most interesting insiders “tour” of the library and archives. And of course, I read his book that resulted from his research there. Ed warned me that it is brutal, and he was not wrong. It was really too much for me. I’ve read plenty of books on the atrocities of WWII, I’ve been to Auschwitz twice, toured other infamous sites where inhumanity reigned. Still, this book wears on you after a bit. I could only read it in brief portions, not because of the writing but because one can only handle so much debauchery. Ed did a good job with this very difficult topic. It needed documented, but it is difficult to read. For those who need a reminder of the brutality of the Nazi’s, those who read much on this topic, those who study it: Dr. Westermann wrote an excellent scholarly monograph.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

An important contribution to Holocaust literature (this is reflected in the work winning The Yad Vashem International Book Prize for Holocaust Research in 2023). This book is a challenging read given the nature of the material presented, however, it does an excellent job identifying and exploring the use of alcohol in Nazi celebrations of mass murder and the implications of it's use.

[Colin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very meandering and unfocused.

[Ionia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even for someone who spends a lot of time reading books about the atrocities of WWII, this was still a difficult book to get through, emotionally speaking. There were times when I had to close my eyes for a moment and re-center myself. The author does not hold back when it comes to giving the straight facts about what happened to people, and the torture they suffered at the hands of their tormentors.

This is one of those uncomfortable to read and yet important books. Not only because it deals with the darker side of humanity that many of us would rather pretend doesn't exist, but because it deals with other issues as well, such as alcohol abuse. The connections the author makes between comradeship, group hypermasculinity and both literal and metaphrical intoxication are interesting. As much as one can say they enjoyed a book of this nature, I suppose I did. I learned a lot of things that are valuable to my own research and personal knowledge.

I would recommend this book to others looking to know more than just what is breezed over in the history books and popular historical accounts.

This review is based on a complimentary copy provided by the publisher through Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

[W. Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is great as a reference book, but isn’t easy to just sit and read from start to finish for a couple of reasons. First, the content is brutal and repulsive. I am a Holocaust historian who has researched this history for 15 years. I thought I had already learned the worst stories from this history. This book proved me wrong. It’s a 208 page litany of disgusting violence, torture, humiliation, rape, and murder that shocked me even after all these years of study. I appreciate that the author used so many headings and subheadings throughout. That increases the book’s usefulness as a reference text. Second, the thesis of the book isn’t particularly new for scholars in Holocaust Studies, and the reassertion of the thesis in the chapters and sections becomes repetitive. However, don’t let that detract from the contribution of the book. It is important that these horrors be documented and made available to readers. And this book is well documented. Citations and bibliography make up almost 1/3 of the pages.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Westermann is a well-known and respected scholar of the Holocaust. This important work provides further context around the title issue; however, at times is dense and provides, perhaps, too many examples.

[Zaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard to read and not exactly what I was looking for going in but a thorough analysis of the alcohol and masculinity culture's role in the Nazi killing fields. Grim to read but worth thinking about the implications.

[Warbotter · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well written but the overall idea comes to no conclusion that truly makes the sometimes gory details worth it, Feels like slight academics are scattered around the worst of the holocaust.

[Tomasz · Rating 2 out of 5]

After a promising introduction and first chapter, the book slews into lazy atrocity porn, without a discernible line of argument, but with many debatable (OK, let's be blunt - poor) decisions taken on the way to the finish line. The author apparently does not realise that Lvov, Lwów, and Lemberg are the same city, he ascribes the same quote to two different people, he feels the need to explain what NCOs are (and he does it badly), but at the same time he introduces abbreviations for Police Battalions and Einsatzkommandos that the readers have to deduce for themselves, he misspells the names of authors he quotes, as well as that of Hjalmar Schacht... and that's just technical errors. Far worse is that, after the first chapter, the following ones are mostly indiscernible from each other, as the random incidents called up by Westermann could be used to illustrate any of the points he's supposedly making. A waste of an interesting subject, mostly.