Descent into Darkness: The Local Participation of the Wehrmacht in the Holocaust in Belarus, 1941-2

This study examines how and why the German army become involved in the murder of Jews in the Soviet Union in the context of the Holocaust. Focusing on the involvement of the Wehrmacht in genocide in six local areas, this work details a progression of complicity from improvised participation to the internalization of anti-Jewish measures. Moreover, it explains in detail the myriad ways in which German soldiers aided in and benefited from the murder of Jews in Belarus. This work highlights the critical importance of unit culture and the complex interaction between situational factors, values, and social-psychological forces. It also demonstrates that the antipartisan war (or threat thereof) was intentionally and successfully mobilized to increase the participation of the German Army in the Holocaust. Finally, this dissertation examines in detail the many different relationships between German soldiers and Jews that occurred in the context of the Nazi genocidal project in the East

Perpetrators, Presidents, and Profiteers: Teaching Genocide Prevention and Response through Classroom Simulation

Perhaps the most difficult aspect of genocide studies to impart to students is that of genocide prevention and response. However, without a critical understanding of these issues, our future leaders and policy makers may be at a disadvantage when faced with very real genocides. This article explores the benefits and challenges of teaching this topic through classroom simulation at the university level by discussing in-depth one simulation created and used by the author

Repairing the World: Sam Fried, Holocaust Survivor

A speech by Jim Fried to the Rotary of Omaha about his father, and Holocaust survivor, Sam Fried. Forward by Waitman Wade Beorn

Negotiating murder: Wehrmacht soldiers and participation in atrocities, 1941-1942

How did ordinary German soldiers confront atrocities and their complicity in them? This study investigates the complexities of participation and non-participation in spontaneous acts of violence in one unit on the eastern Front. It begins by examining what kinds of propaganda soldiers were exposed to and what kinds of beliefs and worldviews they expressed in letters home. In September 1942, the 4th Panzer Signal company murdered thirty to forty Jews in the tiny Soviet town of Peregruznoje, apparently on the initiative of the unit commander. A case study of this unit illuminates a twisted terrain of choices, pressures, norms, and organizational culture that helps explain why some men (and units) killed and others did not. This work argues that the kinds of “perpetrators” among Wehrmacht soldiers fall along a continuum of response: an activist core led by the commander, followers who went along, and others who evaded participation

Ordinary Soldiers: A Study in Ethics, Law and Leadership

Ordinary Soldiers uses a World War II case study as the basis for educating, training, and inspiring current and future officers through critical consideration of leadership and ethics. The resource prompts discussion of the legal and ethical standards U.S. military professionals are expected to meet, the challenges military leaders face in making consistently legal decisions in a combat theater, and the consequences of failure to meet these standards. Ordinary Soldiers has been designed in a modular format that can be adapted depending upon time available, lesson objectives, and class sizes ranging from just a few students to nearly 100. It is used at military academies, by the Reserve Officer Training Corps, and in other professional military education venues

Killing on the Ground and in the Mind: The Spatialities of Genocide in Belarus

In the late summer and fall of 1941, a Holocaust was taking place across the Soviet Union.¹ This was not the Holocaust of popular memory. There were no gas chambers, no train journeys, no barbed This was a “holocaust by bullets,” an intimate iteration of the Nazi genocidal project in which Jews were murdered at home, by killers who found themselves acting in the closest proximity to the victims.² If Auschwitz has come to symbolize the industrial, assembly-line face of the Holocaust, the murder of approximately one and a half to two million by the Einsatzgruppen (EG) mobile killing squads..

Walking in the Footsteps of the Vanished: Using Physical Landscapes to Understand Wehrmacht Participation in Einsatzgruppen Killings in Belarus

On an overcast thursday afternoon in september 1941, the jews of Krupki in central Belarus wound their way out of town, across the highway. One of the German soldiers driving them to their deaths was twenty-year-old Private Walter Kartelmeier. He noticed a small child whose pants had fallen down around his ankles. Though his mother tried to help him keep up, the child was in danger of being trampled by those behind. Kartelmeier pulled the mother and child out of line and allowed her to pull up his pants. They then rejoined the column and were soon shot in an..

Last Stop in Lwów: Janowska as a Hybrid Camp

The Janowska camp complex in Lwów, which was responsible for the murder of at least 80,000 Jews, has received relatively little academic treatment. The camp is of particular interest due to its hybrid nature as slave labor camp, transit camp, and dedicated killing site. Using a wide variety of source materials and approaches, this article details and analyzes these connected functions, arguing that this unique combination of activities reveals many new insights into our typology of camps as well as the role of Janowska in the Holocaust in Galicia