Scan barcode
A review by clairealex
Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning by Timothy Snyder
4.0
A blurb or review said that Black Earth is a sequel to Bloodlands, and I can see that. Whereas Bloodlands enlarged the Holocaust beyond the German killing sites that we have come to associate with it by documenting shooting deaths--Jewish and non-Jewish--in the Soviet Union by Russians and Germans, Black Earth turns the focus to Jews and their varied experiences. Snyder undoes some familiar tellings of the tale with plentiful detail.
The first to go is the motive of antisemitism. Snyder shows states that were more antisemitic did less killing, and vice versa. He shows conquered states collaborating not out of antisemitism, but out of political opportunity and for some, necessity. A few examples. The states that had been under the Soviets had citizens who had collaborated with the Soviets. They could, by turning blame to Jews, exonerate themselves of that collaboration. Another motive was nationalism: killing Jews was presented as a step toward their own nationalist goals. The result of this rethinking? "When the mass murder of Jews is limited to an exceptional place and treated as the result of impersonal procedures, then we need not confront the fact that people not very different from us murdered other people not very different from us at close quarters" (209).
Not only are the countries' motives questioned, so are Hitler's. Rather than antisemitism, Snyder directs us to Hitler's interest in feeding Germany by extending German territory to gain land and workers. He directs us to Hitler's philosophy that the norm is struggle, and therefore, the weak must be sacrificed--or allowed to die off rather than be helped. He illustrates a Hitler who is less interested in preserving a nation than preserving a people, an ethnicity. Aryans will be elevated as Slavs and Jews are made their slaves in the farmlands. Snyder points out shifts in handling of Jews according to whether Germany needs fewer people to feed or more workers to labor on fields and in factories.
When the "final solution" becomes killing, Snyder gives a nuanced analysis of different types of country and their relation to cooperating in the extermination. He illustrates the different actions of countries made stateless, made into puppet states, or those that retained sovereignty to make diplomatic agreements with other nations and to maintain the citizenship of their Jews.
As you might imagine, challenging received wisdom requires a lot of detail and the detail is abundant and depressing. But then Snyder shifts to the few who rescue Jews at the risk of their own lives and their motives. He finds economic self interest--a farmer needed workers. He finds religious impulses--churches on the margins used to resisting are more helpful than those in closer relation to the state. He finds personal motives in childless couples who want children so rescue Jewish orphans. And there is a whole chapter where he tells of rescues where there is no known motive, pointing out that the memoirs of the Jews who survived narrate their survival more than the motives of the rescuer.
The concluding chapter presents parallels to the present. The beginning leaps to details of hunger and of African and Chinese politics in a move that has not been prepared for. But then the chapter moves to ideas of government that the earlier chapters have prepared for. Snyder challenges the dominant version of the German state, that it is too strong, and the false lessons that have been learned from that stereotype. That view leads to the "solution" of keeping states weak, which affects both the Right and the Left. "On the political Right, the erosion of state power by international capitalism seems natural, on the political Left, the rudderless revolutions portray themselves as virtuous" (337). He reiterates that the worst killing happened in the countries made stateless.
The first to go is the motive of antisemitism. Snyder shows states that were more antisemitic did less killing, and vice versa. He shows conquered states collaborating not out of antisemitism, but out of political opportunity and for some, necessity. A few examples. The states that had been under the Soviets had citizens who had collaborated with the Soviets. They could, by turning blame to Jews, exonerate themselves of that collaboration. Another motive was nationalism: killing Jews was presented as a step toward their own nationalist goals. The result of this rethinking? "When the mass murder of Jews is limited to an exceptional place and treated as the result of impersonal procedures, then we need not confront the fact that people not very different from us murdered other people not very different from us at close quarters" (209).
Not only are the countries' motives questioned, so are Hitler's. Rather than antisemitism, Snyder directs us to Hitler's interest in feeding Germany by extending German territory to gain land and workers. He directs us to Hitler's philosophy that the norm is struggle, and therefore, the weak must be sacrificed--or allowed to die off rather than be helped. He illustrates a Hitler who is less interested in preserving a nation than preserving a people, an ethnicity. Aryans will be elevated as Slavs and Jews are made their slaves in the farmlands. Snyder points out shifts in handling of Jews according to whether Germany needs fewer people to feed or more workers to labor on fields and in factories.
When the "final solution" becomes killing, Snyder gives a nuanced analysis of different types of country and their relation to cooperating in the extermination. He illustrates the different actions of countries made stateless, made into puppet states, or those that retained sovereignty to make diplomatic agreements with other nations and to maintain the citizenship of their Jews.
As you might imagine, challenging received wisdom requires a lot of detail and the detail is abundant and depressing. But then Snyder shifts to the few who rescue Jews at the risk of their own lives and their motives. He finds economic self interest--a farmer needed workers. He finds religious impulses--churches on the margins used to resisting are more helpful than those in closer relation to the state. He finds personal motives in childless couples who want children so rescue Jewish orphans. And there is a whole chapter where he tells of rescues where there is no known motive, pointing out that the memoirs of the Jews who survived narrate their survival more than the motives of the rescuer.
The concluding chapter presents parallels to the present. The beginning leaps to details of hunger and of African and Chinese politics in a move that has not been prepared for. But then the chapter moves to ideas of government that the earlier chapters have prepared for. Snyder challenges the dominant version of the German state, that it is too strong, and the false lessons that have been learned from that stereotype. That view leads to the "solution" of keeping states weak, which affects both the Right and the Left. "On the political Right, the erosion of state power by international capitalism seems natural, on the political Left, the rudderless revolutions portray themselves as virtuous" (337). He reiterates that the worst killing happened in the countries made stateless.