Empire of destruction [Elektronische Ressource] a history of Nazi mass killing

**The first comparative, comprehensive history of Nazi mass killing – showing how genocidal policies were crucial to the regime’s strategy to win the war** Nazi Germany killed approximately 13 million civilians and other non-combatants in deliberate policies of mass murder, mostly during the war years. Almost half the victims were Jewish, systematically destroyed in the Holocaust, the core of the Nazis’ pan-European racial purification programme. Alex Kay argues that the genocide of European Jewry can be examined in the wider context of Nazi mass killing. For the first time, __Empire of Destruction__ considers Europe’s Jews alongside all the other major victim groups: captive Red Army soldiers, the Soviet urban population, unarmed civilian victims of preventive terror and reprisals, the mentally and physically disabled, the European Roma and the Polish intelligentsia. Kay shows how each of these groups was regarded by the Nazi regime as a potential threat to Germany’s ability to successfully wage a war for hegemony in Europe. Combining the full quantitative scale of the killings with the individual horror, this is a vital and groundbreaking work. The first comparative, comprehensive history of Nazi mass killing – showing how genocidal policies were crucial to the regime’s strategy to win the war

Nazi Germany killed approximately 13 million civilians and other non-combatants in deliberate policies of mass murder, mostly during the war years. Almost half the victims were Jewish, systematically destroyed in the Holocaust, the core of the Nazis’ pan-European racial purification programme.

Alex Kay argues that the genocide of European Jewry can be examined in the wider context of Nazi mass killing. For the first time, Empire of Destruction considers Europe’s Jews alongside all the other major victim groups: captive Red Army soldiers, the Soviet urban population, unarmed civilian victims of preventive terror and reprisals, the mentally and physically disabled, the European Roma and the Polish intelligentsia. Kay shows how each of these groups was regarded by the Nazi regime as a potential threat to Germany’s ability to successfully wage a war for hegemony in Europe.

Combining the full quantitative scale of the killings with the individual horror, this is a vital and groundbreaking work. Cover page 1 Title page 2 Halftitle page 4 Copyright page 5 Dedication 6 Epigraph 8 CONTENTS 10 ILLUSTRATIONS 12 ABBREVIATIONS 15 NOTE ON PLACE NAMES AND CONVENTIONS 17 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 19 Map 21 INTRODUCTION 24 Part I SUMMER 1939–SUMMER 1941 40 CHAPTER 1 KILLING THE SICK IN THE GERMAN REICH AND POLAND 42 CHAPTER 2 DECAPITATION OF POLISH SOCIETY 64 Part II SUMMER 1941–SPRING 1942 78 CHAPTER 3 HOLOCAUST BY BULLETS 80 CHAPTER 4 MURDER OF PSYCHIATRIC PATIENTS AND ROMA IN THE SOVIET UNION 122 CHAPTER 5 STARVATION POLICY AGAINST THE SOVIET URBAN POPULATION 139 CHAPTER 6 EXTERMINATION OF CAPTIVERED ARMY SOLDIERS 169 CHAPTER 7 PREVENTIVE TERROR AND REPRISALS AGAINST CIVILIANS 192 Part III SPRING 1942–SPRING 1945 228 CHAPTER 8 HOLOCAUST BY GAS 230 CHAPTER 9 THE GATES OF HELL 248 CHAPTER 10 GENOCIDE OF THE EUROPEAN ROMA 274 CHAPTER 11 DECENTRALISED ‘EUTHANASIA’ IN THE GERMAN REICH 289 CHAPTER 12 SUPPRESSION OF THE WARSAW UPRISING 302 CONCLUSION 317 APPENDIX I VICTIMS OF NAZI MASS-KILLING CAMPAIGNS 329 APPENDIX II COMPARATIVE RANKS FOR 1942 330 ENDNOTES 331 BIBLIOGRAPHY 373 INDEX 393 Nazi Germany killed approximately thirteen million civilians and other noncombatants in deliberate policies of mass murder, overwhelmingly during the war years. Almost half the victims were Jewish, systematically destroyed in the Holocaust, the core of the Nazis? pan-European racial purification program. Alex Kay argues that the genocide of European Jewry can also be examined in the wider context of Nazi mass killing. For the first time, Kay considers Europe's Jews alongside all other major victim groups: captive Red Army soldiers, the Soviet urban population, unarmed civilian victims of preventive terror and reprisals, the mentally and physically disabled, the European Roma, and the Polish intelligentsia. He shows how each of these groups was regarded by the Nazi regime as a potential threat to Germany's ability to successfully wage a war for hegemony in Europe. This groundbreaking work combines the full quantitative scale of the killings with the individual horror The first integrative history of Nazi mass killing—showing how policies of mass murder were crucial to the regime’s strategy to win the war