How Did It Happen?

Christoph Dieckmann; Ruta Vanagaite

doi:10.5771/9781538150320

How Did It Happen?

Understanding the Holocaust

1. Edition 2021

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doi.org/10.5771/9781538150320
ISBN print: 978-1-5381-5031-3
ISBN online: 978-1-5381-5032-0
Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham

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Abstract

In this compelling book, Lithuanian author Ruta Vanagaite holds an extended conversation with noted historian Christoph Dieckmann. His exploration of the causes and consequences of the

Holocaust in Lithuania provides the first overview for general readers that considers the perspectives of all the central groups involved—Jews, Lithuanians, and Germans. Drawing on a rich array of sources in all the key languages—Yiddish, Ivrit, Lithuanian, and German—Dieckmann considers not only the Berlin-based orientation of the German perpetrators but also the space where the Shoah took place—Lithuanian society with its Jewish minority under German occupation. He contends that this “space” of mass crimes is always linked with warfare and occupation. The Holocaust was unprecedented, but he makes a powerful case it cannot be isolated from the other mass crimes that took place at the same time in the same space against thousands of Soviet prisoners of war and forced refugees from the Soviet territories.

Dieckmann shows that the Holocaust could not have unfolded throughout German-dominated Europe without the conditional cooperation of non-Germans in each occupied country. Existing antisemitism was radicalized from the 1930s onward, turning Jews, under the enormous stress of unrelenting warfare and often instable conditions of occupation, into what were perceived as deadly enemies. The Holocaust, its history and memory, can only be understood through this broader context. The authors’ searching exchanges illuminate the most profound questions we have as we struggle to understand the Holocaust.

Schlagworte

Šiauliai Nazi occupation SS Ponar Vilnius Final Solution Jewish Germany Ghettoization Holocaust uprising mass murder pogroms Lithuania Lithuanian Fascists Lithuanian Resistance Kaunas

Chapter Expand | CollapsePage
1–16 Preface 1–16
- Contents
- Prologue
- Acknowledgments
17–20 1 Why This Book? 17–20
21–28 2 People Had a Choice 21–28
29–38 3 Germany’s Trauma 29–38
39–44 4 Lithuania’s Trauma 39–44
45–50 5 The Jew Is the Devil 45–50
51–56 6 Small and Radical 51–56
57–66 7 Plans for Mass Murder 57–66
67–70 8 “Blitzkrieg”: Local Helpers Needed! 67–70
71–78 9 Lithuania’s Dream of Independence 71–78
79–80 10 An Easy Occupation 79–80
81–88 11 Controversies of the Uprising 81–88
89–96 12 Enter the SS 89–96
97–104 13 Jews in Panic 97–104
105–110 14 Lithuanian Border Strip: The First Shootings 105–110
111–118 15 Pogroms 111–118
119–128 16 The First Mass Shooting of Jews in Kaunas 119–128
129–146 17 The Road to Ponar 129–146
147–152 18 Vigilante Lithuanian Courts 147–152
153–156 19 Ghettoization in the Provinces 153–156
157–164 20 Robbing the Living 157–164
165–180 21 Lithuanian Fascists Take Over 165–180
181–190 22 “Kill Them All!” 181–190
191–200 23 The “Final Solution” in the Provinces 191–200
201–208 24 The Oral Orders 201–208
209–218 25 The Lithuanian Road Killers 209–218
219–232 26 100,000 Trapped City Jews 219–232
233–248 27 Life in the Ghettos: Hunger, Poetry, Death 233–248
249–254 28 Choiceless Choices 249–254
255–262 29 The Accidental Death of European Jews 255–262
263–282 30 Forgotten Victims: Soviet POWs 263–282
283–290 31 Forgotten Victims: The Soviet Evacuees 283–290
291–298 32 Slavery 291–298
299–306 33 No to the SS Legion 299–306
307–316 34 To Die as Free Fighters 307–316
317–322 35 Survival and Terror 317–322
323–330 36 The End: Vilnius 323–330
331–336 37 The End: Šiauliai 331–336
337–342 38 The End: Kaunas 337–342
343–352 39 The Murdered “Others” 343–352
353–358 40 Burning the Bodies 353–358
359–368 41 To Save a Jew 359–368
369–376 42 The Silence of the Church 369–376
377–386 43 The Brief Story of Lithuanian Resistance 377–386
387–396 Epilogue 387–396
397–402 Selected Bibliography 397–402
403–412 Index 403–412
413–413 About the Authors 413–413

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