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L'impero della distruzione: Una storia dell'uccisione di massa nazista
La Germania nazista uccise circa tredici milioni di civili e altri non combattenti con deliberate politiche di omicidi di massa, soprattutto durante gli anni della guerra. Quasi la metà delle vittime furono ebree, sistematicamente annientate dall’Olocausto, fulcro del programma paneuropeo di purificazione razziale messo in atto dai nazisti. Alex Kay sostiene che è anche possibile esaminare il genocidio degli ebrei europei inserendolo nel contesto più ampio delle uccisioni di massa naziste. Per la prima volta, L’impero della distruzione considera gli ebrei europei insieme a tutti gli altri principali gruppi di vittime: prigionieri dell’Armata Rossa, popolazione urbana sovietica, civili inermi vittime di terrore preventivo e rappresaglie, disabili psichici e fisici, rom europei e intellighenzia polacca. Ciascuno di questi gruppi era considerato dal regime nazista come una potenziale minaccia alla capacità della Germania di condurre con successo una guerra per l’egemonia in Europa. Un’opera fondamentale e innovativa che associa i numeri complessivi dello sterminio con la ricostruzione di singoli casi di orrore quotidiano.
446 pages, Paperback
Published September 6, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 25, 2024
This is an essential text to understand the severity of what the Nazis represented. I think anybody who tries to downplay the Nazis by comparing them to the Soviet Union, or by even daring to entertain the idea that "the allies also committed war crimes so actually..." should be slapped across the face with this book.
It's not that the Nazi mass killings were solely unique in history in terms of barbarity and rhetoric (although, they were definitely a few levels above many other instances of mass killings), but it's the way that nowadays a lot of the more unpleasant aspects of Nazism is downplayed in popular media and education under the assumption that the public is "sick of" or "already understands" how bad the Nazis were.
The truth is that we don't because World War II has been sanitized in order to appeal to general audiences and bored schoolchildren. It isn't a coincidence that most media focuses on what happened on the Western Front of the war, and that the darker aspects, which took place primarily on the Eastern Front, are forgotten as a result. (There's also the horrors of what the Japanese did, but this review focuses on the European theatre.) Even Holocaust media is focused on the extermination camps, often not even mentioning the 'Holocaust By Bullets' on Soviet-territory and the Balkans.
I find it regrettable that I did not take better notes (I will do a reread in the future), as this book is overflowing with specific details and individual personal accounts, but there are nonetheless a few aspects I want to highlight on discussing.
We don't talk enough about how the Nazis were obsessed with murdering children. There's an important date during Operation Barbarossa in 1941 where the Nazi troops were ordered to murder Jewish children (and women) alongside the men, as the mass killings began to turn to deliberate genocide. But before that, the Nazis were already murdered disabled children in their own territory as well as burning entire buildings of disabled orphans alive.
The murder of children, especially toddlers and younger, are particularly brutal, being more gory and painful than the murder of adults and adolescents. It is a common theme for babies' heads to be smashed forcefully against walls and tables. For newborns, who have literally have been alive for only a few hours, to be ripped from their mothers and stomped to death. Newborns being thrown into the air and shot in the face. An instance of a newborn being sliced to death with a spade. To be torn apart by hand. We often have the idea that even the most evil people will have a "soft spot" for innocent - literal newborns. This was not the case in the slightest here.
Say what you will about Stalin, but this simply did not happen on a mass scale in the Soviet Union. This was not celebrated or seen as a form of entertainment. After reading these accounts, there can be absolutely zero debate on which 20th century regime was worse. It is also very important to remember this: we stopped Nazi Germany. We didn't stop the Soviet Union. Nazi Germany was not anywhere close to being finished in its plans for genocide and mass killings.
If there was ever a companion piece to this book, I would have to recommend The Kindly Ones. It is a book that I've been looking back on more fondly, a direct contrast to my very dramatic and negative initial review. The Kindly Ones is the only book that captures in fiction the severity of the Nazis and how truly disgusting what they did was. Together, I think they go well as a counterpoint to much of popular World War II media as they refuse to shy away from the truth.
It's not that the Nazi mass killings were solely unique in history in terms of barbarity and rhetoric (although, they were definitely a few levels above many other instances of mass killings), but it's the way that nowadays a lot of the more unpleasant aspects of Nazism is downplayed in popular media and education under the assumption that the public is "sick of" or "already understands" how bad the Nazis were.
The truth is that we don't because World War II has been sanitized in order to appeal to general audiences and bored schoolchildren. It isn't a coincidence that most media focuses on what happened on the Western Front of the war, and that the darker aspects, which took place primarily on the Eastern Front, are forgotten as a result. (There's also the horrors of what the Japanese did, but this review focuses on the European theatre.) Even Holocaust media is focused on the extermination camps, often not even mentioning the 'Holocaust By Bullets' on Soviet-territory and the Balkans.
I find it regrettable that I did not take better notes (I will do a reread in the future), as this book is overflowing with specific details and individual personal accounts, but there are nonetheless a few aspects I want to highlight on discussing.
We don't talk enough about how the Nazis were obsessed with murdering children. There's an important date during Operation Barbarossa in 1941 where the Nazi troops were ordered to murder Jewish children (and women) alongside the men, as the mass killings began to turn to deliberate genocide. But before that, the Nazis were already murdered disabled children in their own territory as well as burning entire buildings of disabled orphans alive.
The murder of children, especially toddlers and younger, are particularly brutal, being more gory and painful than the murder of adults and adolescents. It is a common theme for babies' heads to be smashed forcefully against walls and tables. For newborns, who have literally have been alive for only a few hours, to be ripped from their mothers and stomped to death. Newborns being thrown into the air and shot in the face. An instance of a newborn being sliced to death with a spade. To be torn apart by hand. We often have the idea that even the most evil people will have a "soft spot" for innocent - literal newborns. This was not the case in the slightest here.
Say what you will about Stalin, but this simply did not happen on a mass scale in the Soviet Union. This was not celebrated or seen as a form of entertainment. After reading these accounts, there can be absolutely zero debate on which 20th century regime was worse. It is also very important to remember this: we stopped Nazi Germany. We didn't stop the Soviet Union. Nazi Germany was not anywhere close to being finished in its plans for genocide and mass killings.
If there was ever a companion piece to this book, I would have to recommend The Kindly Ones. It is a book that I've been looking back on more fondly, a direct contrast to my very dramatic and negative initial review. The Kindly Ones is the only book that captures in fiction the severity of the Nazis and how truly disgusting what they did was. Together, I think they go well as a counterpoint to much of popular World War II media as they refuse to shy away from the truth.
April 20, 2023
I had to read this book for a class, and, though the content is extremely dark, I’m glad I was given the chance to read it. I’m not typically interested in military history, but I think Kay does an amazing job chronicling the history of the Holocaust from its inception in mental institutions in Germany to the ‘gates of Hell’ that was Auschwitz. Definitely a very hard book to read, so before delving in just make sure you’re mentally prepared. Overall very informative and necessary to understanding one of the darkest periods in human history.
December 15, 2021
The book highlights the unremitting catalogue of horrors perpetrated by the Nazis. Mass killings of Jews, Russian POWs, Roma, Slavs, the peoples of Eastern Europe. Wherever the Nazis went, mass killings began. Kay doesn't hold back on the details and it can be a tough read; there are passages here that will haunt you. Kay also points out that while there were certainly sadists who enjoyed the cruelty and murder, the vast majority of those who carried out unspeakable crimes were ordinary people who simply carried out orders. It is much harder to understand those who were willing to do such things yet, at least to begin with, were more like you and I than the monsters they became.
December 9, 2021
This book starts with a warning that the contents can be upsetting, as is to be expected, it is also true. The Nazis committed mass violence on a grand scale and each of those violent acts is repelling. This book recounts them and gives a new and interesting insight into mass killings.
August 18, 2023
This is a very thorough recount of the mass killing perpetrated by the Third Reich. It is a difficult to read because Alex J. Kay does not hold back on the details.
However, I do recommend this book if you want to get a better understand of the absolutely massive scale of the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime.
However, I do recommend this book if you want to get a better understand of the absolutely massive scale of the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime.
October 28, 2024
The Germans (and their non-German accomplices) deliberately killed millions of non-combatants (and not just Jews) before, during, and even after the end of WWII. This books describes how and why they did it.
January 30, 2022
Participação no projecto #Hol77 e #maisnãoficção
June 9, 2023
Pulling together all mass killing programs in the Third Reich into one volume - demonstrating the wider process of demographic reconstruction and racial politics in Nazi ideology
May 14, 2025
An exhaustive unpacking of the story of how they killed more than 13 million human beings. From a policy of starvation, to shooting, gassing, and euthanasia. Notable in its explanation of just how many victims were Soviet prisoners of war, as well as the development of plans to kill so many children. The conclusion briefly considers the *why*, with perhaps surprising results: desire for expanded territory, anticommunism, antisemitism, and racial purity were motivations cited by participants -- in that order of frequency.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews