Perhaps Mr. Snyder’s most original concept is in re-imagining the context that enabled for millions of Jews to be systematically murdered. Many historians point out how bureaucratic the nature of the tragedy was, but in Black Earth Mr. Snyder shows that the lack of bureaucracy was the Holocaust's chief characteristic. The slaughter started in the places where war destroyed the institutions that characterize Statehood, and remained the worst in places where the Soviets and the Germans together created a no-man’s land of lawlessness where killing became both an ideological end as well as an act unto itself. No matter how evil the ideology of the Nazi’s may have been the web of connections that make up everyday life managed to lessen the number of Jews that were murdered in cities and towns, unlike the tracts of land where the savagery of war engendered a state of barbarism. Mr. Snyder makes his point quite eloquently, comparing the number of death that took place in Poland, the USSR and its satellite territories, with how many took place in France, Denmark and even Germany. Mr. Snyder tells this tale with great sympathy and a comprehensive grasp of the stories behind the cold, hard data, as reasoned a work as this is, it never cedes it’s humanity.
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July 2020
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