Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning (46 page)

Nothing can be known
Space:
Second Book
, 8. “Innere abgeschlossenheit” and desire of nature for races to separate:
Mein Kampf
, 281–82. See Chapoutot,
Le nazisme
, 428; Chapoutot, “Les Nazis et la ‘Nature,’ ” 31. The American consul general Raymond Geist was right to speak of an antisemitic “cosmology”: Husson,
Heydrich
, 121. The argument of this book proceeds from an idea of a planetary Jewish threat to the enabling condition of statelessness by way of the new forms of politics that united the antisemitic idea and the anti-political condition. Sémelin (in
Purifier
, 135) is right that the history of mass killing must be international. But in the special case of the Holocaust, it seems important first to define how its originator understood the planet. Hitler’s scheme of international relations was derivative of his ecology. The ideas do seem to have been fundamentally constant; as Kershaw writes, “Hitler retained at the core an extraordinary inner consistency.”
End
, 281. Burrin speaks similarly of “la consistence et la continuité étonnantes que manifesta cette vision du monde.”
Hitler et les Juifs
, 19.

In Hitler’s world
For English and French thinkers such as Hobbes and Rousseau, an imaginary state of nature is a literary device to enable us to consider human choices about power. We are to imagine, as an exercise, what life must have been like before humans came together to make rules. Then we should think our way through to the structures we actually desire. Hitler’s understanding of nature also had little to do with German traditions of thought. For Kant, perfect knowledge of an external natural world is unattainable, and wisdom consists in striving towards it in full awareness of our limitations. For Hegel, the state of nature was a barbaric stage of prehistory that gave way to institutions that man is constantly perfecting. According to Marx, nature is that which surrounds us and resists us. We know it and ourselves insofar as we work to change it. On Schmitt, see Zarka,
Un détail
, 7, 36. See also Neumann,
Behemoth
, 467.

“Nature knows,” wrote Hitler
Quotation:
Mein Kampf
, 140. Charles Darwin did on one occasion write that empire would eliminate “the savage races.”
Descent of Man
, 1:201. From context it can be seen that his concerns in making this remark were far from political. Darwin, the author of the powerful notion of evolution by natural selection, did not think that races were like species; on the contrary, he held that all humans belonged to a single species capable of applying reason and thereby selecting for survival on grounds other than the biological. See Tort,
L’effet Darwin
, 75–80. I am distinguishing between Marx and Engels, his friend and popularizer, who codified the “scientific” version of Marxism. On the long encounter of second-generation Darwinism with second-generation Marxism, see Kołakowski,
Main Currents
, vol. 2,
Golden Age
.

Yet these liberals
“Feige Völker”:
Mein Kampf
, 103. See Koonz,
Nazi Conscience
, 59. Cf. Sternhell,
Les anti-Lumière s
, 666–67.

Hitler’s worldview dismissed
Daily bread:
Mein Kampf
, 281;
Second Book
, 15, 74. See also Hilberg,
Destruction
, 1:148. Riches of nature and commandment:
Table Talk
, 51, 141. One aim of this presentation is to avoid a problem identified by Arendt: “the failure to take seriously what the Nazis themselves said.”
Origins
, 3. See also Jureit,
Das Ordnen von Räumen
, 279.

Hitler exploited images
Cf. White, “Historical Roots.”

Knowledge of the body
See Engel,
Holocaust
, 15.

When paradise falls
See Valentino,
Final Solutions
, 168, Jäckel,
Hitler in History
, 47. Cf. Sarraute,
L’ère du soupçon
, 77, and Arendt,
Origins
, 242: “The hatred of the racists against the Jews sprang from a superstitious apprehension that it might actually be the Jews, and not themselves, whom God has chosen, to whom success was granted by divine providence.” On wordview as faith, see Bärsch,
Die politische Religion
, 276–77.

Hitler’s presentation
Mein Kampf
, 73. This invocation of divine will, the last sentence of chapter 2 of
Mein Kampf
, was cited by Carl Schmitt as he opened his conference on the struggle of German jurisprudence against the Jewish spirit: “Eröffnung,” 14. Cf. the concept of “redemptive antisemitism” in Friedländer,
Years of Extermination
.

Hitler saw the species
“Unnatur”:
Mein Kampf
, 69. See also
Mein Kampf
, 287;
Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen
, 462–63; Chapoutot, “La loi du sang,” 391; Poliakov,
Sur les traces
, 212, 217; Bauman,
Modernity
, 68; Arendt,
Origins
, 202.

Hitler’s basic critique
On Himmler, see Kühne,
Belonging
, 60; Chapoutot, “La loi du sang,” 374, 405. Cf. Steiner,
In Bluebeard’s Castle
, 45.

If states were not impressive
Hans Frank quotations: “Ansprach,” 8; “Einleitung,” 141. For Schmitt see “Neue Leitsätze,” 516. Cf. Arendt,
Essays in Understanding
, 290, 295.

Insofar as universal ideas
Child:
Table Talk
, 7. For Hitler’s claim that “Jewish” ideas are all the same:
Mein Kampf
, 66 and passim. On Jesus: Bärsch,
Die politische Religion
, 286–87; on Saint Paul: Chapoutot, “L’historicité nazie,” 50. See also Thies,
Architekt
, 29.

Indeed, for Hitler there was
No history:
Mein Kampf
, 291. Always destroys:
Table Talk
, 314, similarly at 248; see also
Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen
, 907; Thies,
Architekt
, 42. No future:
Second Book
, 10. It is true that Hitler calls history his favorite subject in
Mein Kampf
, but what he means is his hazy intuition of the forces behind the facts.

Though Hitler strove to define
Mann cited after Poliakov,
Histoire de l’antisémitisme
, 357. Stein: Self-Portrait in Letters, 9. See Zehnpfennig, Hitlers Mein Kampf, 128; Burrin, Hitler et les Juifs, 23.

For Hitler, the conclusion
Gassing: Husson,
Heydrich
, 41.

Hitler saw both the struggle
“Geistiger Pestilenz”:
Mein Kampf
, 66. Healthy reaction: cited after Govrin,
Jewish Factor
, 7. Entire continent:
Staatsmänner
, 557.

The fall of man
Table Talk
, 314. Cf. Friedländer, “Some Reflections,” 100.

Equating nature and politics
Zehnpfennig’s interpretation is similar:
Hitlers Mein Kampf
, 116. See also Neumann,
Behemoth
, 140.

Hitler accepted that scientists
See Jonas,
Imperative of Responsibility
, 29.

Hitler understood that agricultural
Best case, limit, scientific methods, own land:
Second Book
, 16, 21, 74, 103. “Todgefährliche Gedankengänge”:
Mein Kampf
, 141.

Hitler had to defend
Mein Kampf
, 282–83.

The world’s problem
Anarchic state: Husson,
Heydrich
, 256. “Wohin man die Juden schicke, nach Sibirien oder nach Madagascar, sei gleichgültig,” July 21, 1941,
Staatsmänner
, 557.

Although Hitler’s premise was
See Vincent,
Politics of Hunger
, 126ff; Offer,
Agrarian Interpretation
, 2, 24, 25, 59. These works emphasize moral and political discomfort brought by the blockade. Leonhard estimates 700,000 dead, which is considerably more than Vincent and Offer seem to suggest.
Die Büchse der Pandora
, 518.

The world political economy
Peaceful economic war:
Second Book
, 10. Cf. Offer,
Agrarian Interpretation
, 82, 83, 217.

Hitler understood that Germany
Autarkic economy:
Table Talk
, 73. German peasants:
Mein Kampf
, chap. 2.

The British were to be respected
Division of the world: Hildebrand,
Vom Reich
, 654. Armageddon:
Second Book
, 76. See also
Mein Kampf
, 145.

It was also reassuring
The Japanese, for example, tried without success to persuade Hitler to treat the British rather than the Soviets as the main enemy. See Hauner,
India in Axis Strategy
, 378, 383–84.

America taught Hitler that need
Benchmark:
Second Book
, 21. Cf. Guettel, “Frontier.” Guettel is quite right that the number of references to the United States in
Mein Kampf
is limited, though the passages are very powerfully suggestive. Hitler proclaims, for example, that the United States is the model of the new kind of empire, mastering contiguous territories by racial unity (144). The logic described here is even more apparent in the
Second Book
. And as Guettel himself notes, the treatment of Americans as masters of space was ubiquitous in the rhetoric of German colonialists; Hitler’s references would have been clear. In any case the point is that America defined a global situation in which standards of living were comparative and relative. See also Fischer,
Hitler and America
, 18, 21, 28; Thies,
Architekt
, 50.

Globalization led Hitler
Wildenthal,
German Women
, 177; Sandler, “Colonizers,” 436.

The inevitable presence
Land as limit of science:
Second Book
, 21; also
Mein Kampf
, 282. Hitler made the point directly to Roosevelt in his
Reichstagsrede
of April 28, 1939; Franz Neumann stressed this in his
Behemoth
, 130.

If German prosperity
Bleak:
Second Book
, 105. Racially pure:
Mein Kampf
, 282. Younger and healthier:
Second Book
, 111. For a contemplation of the importance of myths of the soil in the whole history of mass killing and ethnic cleansing, see Kiernan,
Blood and Soil
. On the word
Lebensraum
see Conrad,
Globalisation and the Nation
, 61.

While Hitler was writing
Cf. Arendt,
Origins
, 353, 469; and Smith, “Weltpolitik,” 41.

The twentieth century
See Longerich,
Davon
, 160–61. More beauty: Ziegler,
Betting on Famine
, 263. Goebbels was discussing the goals of the invasion of the USSR: “für einen voll gedeckten Frühstücks-, Mittags-, und Abendtisch.” Cited in Koenen,
Russland-Komplex
, 427. For an admirable comparative history, see Collingham,
Taste of War
.

“One thing the Americans have”
American spaces:
Table Talk
, 707. See Guettel, “German South-West Africa,” 535; Simms,
Europe
, 339, 343.

All that remained
Europe itself:
Mein Kampf
, 145. May:
Table Talk
, 316. See McDonough,
Hitler
, 22; Mosse,
Nationalization
, 196. Cf. Arendt,
Origins
, 183.

In the late nineteenth century
Iliffe, “Effects of the Maji Maji Rebellion,” 558–59. Gerwarth and Malinowski note that the scorched-earth starvation campaign is neglected. “Ghosts,” 283. Military history: Zimmerer,
Von Windhuk
, 43. Numbers of Herero and Nama from Guettel, “German South-West Africa,” 543. See also Chirot and McCauley,
Why Not Kill
, 28. Trotha quotation and conditions on Shark Island: Hull,
Absolute Destruction
, 30, 78; see also Levene,
Rise
, 233. Comparison to American states by Theodor Leutwein and quotation of Bernhard Dernburg from Guettel, “German South-West Africa,” 550, 524. “Vernichtungsoperation” and “Endlösung” and 70 percent figure from Lower, “German Colonialism,” 5, 2.

A famous German novel
Novel: Sandler, “Colonizers,” 162. French:
Second Book
, 144. An extended consideration of the differences and connections is Conrad,
Globalisation
, especially 174, 177, 182. Those who apply Freudian or Girardian arguments to explain the extrusion of German Jews might also consider German relations with Poles.

When Hitler wrote
Kopp, “Constructing a Racial Difference,” 84–85 and passim.

During the First World War
Mein Kampf
, 144. On the Polish question during the First World War, see Niemann,
Kaiser und Revolution
, 25–36; and Rumpler,
Max Hussarek
, 50–55. On the cleansing of border zones, see Geiss,
Der polnische Grenzstreifen
, 125–46. On the politics of the German-Austrian occupation of Ukraine, see Snyder,
Red Prince
.

The complete loss
See Sandler, “Colonizers,” 19, 35, 149–50, and passim; Wildenthal,
German Women
, 172–73.

“The Slavs are born”
Slavish mass: Zimmerer,
Von Windhuk
, 137. Last war: Kay,
Exploitation
, 40. Inconceivable:
Table Talk
, 38. Beads and dance:
Table Talk
, 34, 425. Nazi song: Ingrao,
Believe
, 117. Koch: Dallin,
German Rule in Russia
, 167. See generally the discussion in Lower,
Nazi Empire-Building
, 24–29. Conrad’s
Heart of Darkness
is not actually about Europeans and Africans as races, as its opening passage makes unmistakably clear. Conrad was a Pole from Ukraine.

When German occupation came
Diary: Berkhoff,
Harvest of Despair
. States:
Mein Kampf
, 140. See Jureit,
Das Ordnen von Räumen
, 219.

Some states, claimed Hitler
Foreign intelligentsia and rabbits and leadership in Jewry:
Second Book
, 34, 149, 151. Worldview: Müller,
Der Feind
, 44. See also Mazower,
Hitler’s Empire
, 152.

Communism was the proximate
Control point: Govrin,
Jewish Factor
, 30. Fortunate:
Second Book
, 153. Preparation for domination:
Table Talk
, 126. See also
Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen
, 163. Alexander Stein was making this point in 1936:
Adolf Hitler
, 111.

Hitler’s interpretation
Churchill and Wilson: Cała,
Antysemitizm
, 175; Zaremba,
Wielka Trwoga
, 71.
Times:
Schlögel, “Einleitung,” 15. Destruction of German people (1936): Dieckmann, “Jüdischer Bolschewismus,” 55. Immediately:
Second Book
, 152. Cards and clay: Römer,
Der Kommissarbefehl
, 204. Similar process: Kershaw,
Hitler
, 651.

In this racist collage
Interestingly, the quotation about rivers is often given as “Our Mississippi must be the Volga,” without the final phrase. This alters the meaning and narrows the range of reference quite substantially. See Kershaw,
Hitler
, 650. For a history of the United States that reminds us that Hitler was not wrong in every respect: Mann,
Dark Side of Democracy
, 70–98. The history of the United States also demonstrated that slaves could outnumber free settlers. McNeill,
Global Condition
, 21.

The destruction of the Soviet Union
Mein Kampf
, 73. The fundamental work on the Hunger Plan is Gerlach,
Kalkulierte Morde
. Quotation from Kay,
Exploitation
, 133; see also 162–63. On Generalplan Ost see Madajczyk, “Generalplan Ost,” 13; and more recently Wasser,
Himmlers Raumplanung;
and Aly and Heim,
Vordenker der Vernichtung
.

If the war did not
See Kershaw,
Fateful Choices
, 57.

The Judeobolshevik myth
Cf. Koselleck,
Futures Past
, at 222, where he notes that Hitler distinguished between three levels of secrecy: what he told his immediate circle, what he kept to himself, and what even he himself did not dare to think through.

From the perspective of Berlin
The Bolshevik Revolution is known as the “October Revolution” because it took place, according to the Julian calendar in force at the time in the Russian Empire, in October. By the Gregorian calendar the revolution began in November.

Before the revolutions of 1917
This compresses a long and complex history that is expertly told in Polonsky,
Jews of Poland and Russia
. Lohr estimates that a Jewish subject of the Russian Empire was 184 times more likely to emigrate than a Russian subject of the Russian Empire.
Russian Citizenship
, 86.

Jews inhabited the western
Poliakov,
Histoire de l’antisémitisme
, 379; Lohr,
Nationalizing
, 14, 16, 24, 138, 139, 146. The special feature of the pogroms of 1915 was the direct role of the army: Lohr, “1915,” 41–42. On theft: Wróbel, “Seeds of Violence,” 131. See also Prusin,
Nationalizing
, 42, 55; Wasserstein,
On the Eve
, 309. Two of Marc Chagall’s most famous paintings,
Cemetery Gates
(1914) and
Newspaper Seller
(1917) are associated with the Holocaust; in fact they portray this period.

In the minds of Europeans
Creates a Jewish question: Pergher and Roseman, “Imperial genocide,” 44. Begin: Shilon,
Menachem Begin
, 6; Stern: Heller,
Stern Gang
, 100. Sixty thousand: Budnitskii,
Russian Jews
, 76. See also Stanislawski, “Russian Jewry,” 281. The continuities of violent practice are a major theme of Holquist,
Making War
.

The other side generally
Budnitskii,
Russian Jews
, 90, 176, 213 and passim; Herbeck,
Das Feindbild
, 285–87; Beyrau, “Der Erste Weltkrieg,” 103, 107; Lohr, “1915,” 49; Lohr,
Russian Citizenship
, 122, 130; Lohr,
Nationalizing
, 150; Wróbel, “Seeds of Violence,” 137; Dieckmann, “Jüdischer Bolschewismus,” 59–64. Hitler on the
Protocols: Mein Kampf
, 302. He seems to be aware that they are not authentic, but accepts their logic. The
Protocols
are often described as a forgery. But a forgery is an imitation of something real, and here nothing is real. The
Protocols
were a fiction that enabled life within a fictional world.

Germany backed
Offer,
Agrarian Interpretation
, 50; Golczewski,
Deutsche und Ukrainer
, 240ff. Some Germans found it possible even in 1918 to imagine Ukraine as empty space: see Jureit,
Das Ordnen von Räumen
, 165; but compare Liulevicius,
War Land
. German war aims in the East are still a matter of much discussion. The debate centers around Fischer,
Griff nach der Weltmacht
.

Once Germany was defeated
See Abramson,
Prayer for the Government;
Dieckmann, “Jüdischer Bolschewismus,” 59–61. The association of Jews, Bolshevism, and pogroms reached even the best of minds. Vladimir Nabokov, for example, explained pogroms by the prominence of Jews in the revolution. Schlögel, “Einleitung,” 15–16.

The vanquished adherents
January 1920: Schlögel, “Einleitung,” 15. On the Soviet representative Viktor Kopps and the “destruction” (
unichtozhenie
) of the Jews: ibid., 18. On Scheubner-Richter’s plans for Ukraine and Russia, see Snyder,
Red Prince
, chap. 6. See generally Stein,
Adolf Hitler
, 104–8; Kellogg,
Russian Roots
, 12, 65, 75, 218; Liulevicius,
German Myth
, 176; Dieckmann, “Jüdischer Bolschewismus,” 69–75.

The Judeobolshevik idea
On the adaptation of Christian images to political purposes see Herbeck,
Das Feindbild
, 105–65. For a military history of the Polish-Bolshevik War, see Davies,
White Eagle
. On the European settlement as of 1921 see Wandycz,
Soviet-Polish Relations, 1917–1921
; and Borzęcki,
Soviet-Polish Peace
.

The Judeobolshevik myth seemed
I am instructed by Jäckel’s judgment: “Perhaps never in history did a ruler write down before he came to power what he was to do afterward as precisely as did Adolf Hitler,” in
Hitler in History
, 23. But within Hitler’s two books there is a political logic that must be explicated before the next two problems can be solved: how Hitler could come to power (a minor subject here), and how he could implement his ideas after he came to power (a major subject here). What might seem to be weaknesses in the thought proved to be opportunities in practice, and so the thought must be presented first.

In Hitler’s ecology
Cf. Pollack,
Kontaminierte Landschaften
.

During a death march
Ozsváth,
In the Footsteps of Orpheus
, 203, translation at 207.