Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning

I have all of Timothy Snyder's books.In 'Blood Lands' his account of Nazi and Communist fascism and how the peoples between Berlin and Moscow suffered was good enough for most of us, albeit harrowing. His idea (also echoed in the 'Road to Unfreedom') that both Left and Right use fascist techniques to rule over people and achieve nationalist goals I think is spot on and refreshing.He also keeps Hannah Arendt's flame alive about the concept of the 'banality of evil' - that there exists in any society at any time a portion of the population who are receptive to fascistic manipulation (especially during certain vulnerable circumstances such as when society is destabilised by economic or geo-political shocks for example). And that there are people willing to use fascism to get into political power.In 'Black Earth' however, Snyder digs deeper and looks at the mechanics of fascism - how fascism's practitioners were able to win over normal everyday people and wreak hell upon the earth.This time Snyder focuses on the Nazi's and their persecution of the Jews and others and highlights and examines the methodologies and tactics used to make these unfortunate victims into 'non-people'.First of all, there is the creation of the alien - the person who is not one of us even though they've lived amongst us for years - they are different and not part of our culture and this is repeated over and over again with a fair dose of lies for good measure and faux-science.Upon the 'aliens' will be heaped all sorts of crimes from reducing the sanctity and purity of the blood line to their presence soaking up resources that only genuine non-aliens should be entitled to.Then having convinced everyone that these aliens are not wanted or welcome ( adding a few others to the list to be seen as fair game such as gays, the mentally ill, gypsies etc.,), next begins the excising of these people as citizens from the legal laws of the country - de-citizen-ising them so that they have no legal status and are thus welcome to be treated badly. They're being set up to be got rid of, basically. Therefore the State's institutions also stop seeing them as citizens and offer to recourse or those institutions are destroyed altogether (particularly in the states you invade, allowing these to become killing grounds for the aliens you have created).Once at that level, you have a problem in that there are so many of these 'un-citizens'. So, the next thing the good fascist does is co-opt the nation or whatever countries you have conquered into joining in wiping the aliens out. It's a good way of increasing manpower to get the extermination done.By doing this you are increasing your capacity to get rid of the numbers. But also it has subtle underlying personal political effects too on those press ganged or exhorted to join in. It creates a climate complicity through fear that causes shifting loyalties.Guilt through association is produced and a fear of personal retribution makes it essential to understand that the best way to deal with your complicity is to remove as much evidence as you can - wipe out the witnesses and your victims: burn and bury them and then destroy what you burned and buried them with if you can. Otherwise, you will be next - get them before they get you. This manufactured 'logic' is what drives complicity and denial that such horrors ever happened and effectively closes the door the Nazis opened.And those who helped persecuted peoples and rejected the self-surviving rationality of complicity can be seen as 'irrational' in their humanistic behaviour - it simply turns what being a decent human being is on its head and indicates the perverted twisted world created by fascism can be.Creating such societal pressures (to be seen to be joining in with murder just to prove that you are on the 'right side' for example ) with fascist techniques creates huge moral, ethical and tactical ambiguity for people in order to just survive. And despite all this some did indeed help Jews and persecuted groups - but they were an exception and also extraordinary people for the times. It certainly begs the question to the reader 'What would you have done?'.And Poland - poor Poland - how she has suffered - attacked by both Germany and Russia as allies, then having the largest Jewish population in Europe erased by the Nazis, the rest of its people seen as sub-human until 'liberated' by Russia only for its nationals to be sent to the gulag for daring to say they were Polish. Horrendous.What is fascinating about this book is the final chapter - the conclusion - where Snyder asks if we have really changed since WWII. I also recommend this book because then Snyder does an amazing pivot at the end. He stops looking at history and turns his eye to the now and the future.He brings into play global warming, and looks at its potential geo-political impact which is going to cause a lot of change to happen and links Hitler's desire for more living space for Germany (the driver for the Nazi advance into the East) with the pressures created by nations needing space as the ocean's rise AND the land becomes too hot to live in under the pressure of global warming.Societies – as I interpret Snyder – are at their most vulnerable to fascism when faced with change or other pressures (real or imagined – and we know manufacturing problems is definitely a fascist tactic for Right wing and Left fascists but also global warming is such a real external pressure now). Snyder sees a lot of competition for liveable space in the future as the oceans rise and where we could begin to see mass migration and competition for space between nations.It makes for uncomfortable reading as even here at the end bringing together Nazi history with more recent and forthcoming events there is superb erudition, insight and reflection.Snyder's concern is that fascism is there like an unexploded bomb just waiting to be touched or shaken and that instead of humanity working together to address and get through global warming we will instead be catapulted into another fascist era as we dehumanise and kill each other in pursuit of our own survival. The potential for fascism to turn people against each other (and for nations to dehumanise and de-citizen those who need our help) even as the planet begins to die is simply terrifying to consider. But having read this book, it is I'm afraid entirely possible. I kid you not.So reflecting on the title of the book ' Black Earth' - what did Snyder have in mind when he wrote it? The ashes of the Jews and other Holocaust victims of the Nazis scattered over West and mostly Eastern Europe? The fertile lands between Berlin and Moscow that Hitler wanted for Germany? The mouldering loam of the Nazi execution pits dotted around the East? Or is it the scorched uninhabitable planet made uninhabitable by global warming and a fascist future? Or is it I suspect all of these things?We've been issued with a warning: we had better heed it, otherwise fascist hell will reign once more and not just in Europe this time but globally.Please read it.

Timothy Snyder has changed the way I think about WWII more than any other writer - first Bloodlands and now Black Earth. Snyder's history of the Holocaust identifies three major revisions about Hitler's war in this cross between history and essay.Firstly, he takes Hitler at his word - the war was a race war against the Jews first and foremost, designed to return humanity to a primitive state in keeping with the 'modern idea' of survival of the fittest. The Jews twisted humanity to protect the weak, and this made them a poison for those who believed that the strong deserved what they could take. This was his driving idea - not just a means to justify German expansion.Secondly, he demonstrates how intertwined the German and Soviet Union were in destroying the Jews. Through collaboration with Stalin, the states of Eastern Europe - Belarus, Ukraine, the Baltic States and particularly Poland - were undermined - and thus, the rule of law which protected Jews was eliminated. Where this happened, say in Estonia, the Jews were virtually wiped out. Where this didn't happen, say Denmark, the Jews mostly survived, as the state protected them. No one has ever held the Soviet Union to account for the Holocaust, but their involvement and that of its citizenry, is undeniable.Thirdly, he shows that the predominant form of killing Jews and others was not Auschwitz and camps, but shooting and gassing with carbon monoxide in vans. Only about 1 million were killed in the machine of the camps, but over 4.5 million were killed using these more personal methods. They are forgotten, in his view, so that the everyday citizens of Germany, Poland, the Baltics, Ukraine and Belarus - and the Soviet Union - could escape blame. Pin it all on the Nazis, SS and Hitler - clearly a wrong conclusion.At the end of the book, there is a conclusion and a warning that is worth noting. The end of the Green Revolution, climate change, etc. are making some of the dog eat dog conditions that formed Hitler's views about struggle are re-emerging. Snyder is worried about how this will effect a hungry China, a reckless Russia and a poor Africa. The conditions of the Holocaust are not unique, all they need is events to progress in the wrong way and a Hitler to lead the world into the abyss.Snyder is one of the most impressive deep thinkers in the field, a Yale professor who does the hard research in 11 languages, and writes clearly and concisely. Most importantly, he has a fresh point of view based on his scholarship. If Bloodlands created a new star, Black Earth confirms him as the rising star of WWII historians.Essential reading.

The book reads a little heavy in parts for me, but not so bad that I even entertained the thought of putting it down. Where it discusses the conditions in which the holocaust thrived, and those where it did not, it is a fascinating read. I have read about some of these themes in other books, the role of citizenship for example, but this really picks out the context and nature of the issues. It certainly is the holocaust as history and warning.

I took a look at this after hearing Tim Snyder being interviewed - in conversation his gift to see pattern and clarity was obvious. This is an astonishing book - it shifts your perspective totally whilst at the same time feeling obvious and unarguable. Brilliant and valuable and heartbreaking. The holocaust becomes immediate to today and its lessons current and topical. Hard to see how it could be bettered.

This is an utterly absorbing, thoughtful and erudite work. Not only that, it is an excellent work of prose. I suspect this will be one of the most valuable works written on this subject. Its last chapter is an absorbing and well argued essay on Professor Snyder's opinions developed in the rest of the book. This is one of those rare books that change one's life. Buy it then set some time aside and read it, straight away. If you are interested ,not only in our past but also our future, this work is essential. I would implore any politician to read this work.This is a difficult phrase to write given the subject matter of this work but I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Despite its harrowing subject matter it is a very good read.

Snyder is powerful and relates information with a perspective that forces understanding. Why only 3 stars? The print in this paperback is so faint that I have to sit under a strong light and not vary the angle beyond 90 degrees. I’ll no buy again but the kindle version this time.

Awesome work. Timothy Snyder shows the steps by which such a terrible crime became possible. His knowledge of Central and Eastern Europe of this period is highly impressive. He does not get lost in fine detail, but keeps the big picture in view at all times. It's an excruciating experience reading this, of courseThis is a very rare work of history that has changed the way I look at politics and the world today. I really hope that our current generation of political leaders read this.

This book offers the most original interpretation of the history of the holocaust I have read. It is per suavely argued and well documented. It explains both the geography of where the killing started and the degree of active participation by locals in the twice occupied Baltic states. It interprets Mein Kampf less as a personal venomous antisemitic rant of a disillusioned German Austrian nationalist and more as a perverted extreme Social Darwinist statement, aiming to remove all supposedly "Jewish" ethical restraints and return the world to a an ideal of the war of all races against all . Very much worth reading

Virtually everyone I know who thinks, and who has any interest in understanding our world and the Holocaust , should read “Black Earth”. Prof. Snyder had written the definitive single volume that can enable someone who understands “what” happened in the Holocaust to form some very good ideas—in an understandable vehicle—about “how” and “why” it happened. “Black Earth” disabuses the reader of many of our misconceptions about where the Holocaust happened and who the victims were (e.g., only 3% of Holocaust victims even spoke German)—and that there were clearly discernible “good and bad guys” living in the areas where it happened at the time. For me , this is a great service to European history of the 20th (and, arguably, 21st Century) as I view the Holocaust as the “axial” event of the former, to use his term. (A clever play on the “Axis” powers, whether intended or not.)Prof. Snyder has accomplished this without “merely” writing a history of specific “mass murder.” His purview and conclusions are much much larger and more profound and compelling. (If this isn’t the “job” of a historian, whose “job” is it? ).“Black Earth” allows us to understand the minds of the perpetrators and accomplices , and even question the innate beneficence of humankind. In fact, many “choices” made in the Holocaust were more a question of shades of gray than “Black” or Blood(lands) red. In my view, this approach well serves the memories of the victims of this tragedy, as it explicates their then-incomprehensible (and often shades of gray) universe as the unfortunate product of much more than the simplistic “antisemitism” gone rampant. At least thinking in this way can, hopefully, serve to thwart subsequent “perfect storms” and their havoc, as Snyder urges.“Black Earth” enables a big payoff for intensive reading and some new, big words. Most people interested in trying to comprehend the Holocaust have one book “in them”. This is that “one book” I’ve long sought that I can recommend to attempt comprehend the “how did it happen?” of the Holocaust, for those who know-- or think they know-- “what” happened.

An excellent book on the politics of state and statelessness in the context of the Holocaust, Snyder's "Black Earth" is a critical examination of the ideas and conditions that made Holocaust possible. I would not call it a history of the Holocaust per se, though it does provide a big picture description of that history, but rather the history of the destruction of statehood and institutions and norms that made Holocaust possible to execute.Snyder's key idea advanced in this book is that it was destruction of state institutions (by Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, or both) in Eastern Europe, and stripping away of citizenship, protection by the state, and social norms, that permitted the Nazis to commit the Holocaust often with support by local people and communities. And that the ideology that made it possible did so by viewing politics, nature, and science as one and the same: in service to a mythical idea of endless blood struggle between races.Speaking for myself the most interesting parts of the book for me were Polish-Jewish relations and politics before the Second World War, and the politics of local collaboration with the Nazis in occupied Eastern Europe. That's where I learned the most new things from the book. The weakest part was probably the conclusion in which Snyder tries to draw some parallels between the conditions that made Holocaust possible and climate change. But hindsight from 2026 is easy to engage in.

Era difícil publicar algo verdaderamente nuevo en este tema, aportar algo a la ya extensísima bibliografía sobre este tema. Pero Snyder lo consigue con un enfoque interesantísimo sobre la cuestión. Absolutamente imprescindible para los iniciados en el tema y también muy recomendable para el público en general.

"Black Earth" is one of the most unsettling and intellectually powerful books out there. Rather than treating the genocide as an inexplicable eruption of evil, Timothy Snyder explores the political and ideological conditions that made it possible. His argument that the Holocaust thrived most intensely in regions where states collapsed and people became stateless is both convincing and frighteningly relevant even today. Snyder also examines Hitler’s ecological worldview — the belief that races were locked in a brutal struggle over limited land and resources — which adds a chilling layer to understanding Nazi ideology.The book moves beyond simple memorialization and forces readers to confront how institutions, citizenship, and law protect societies from descending into barbarism. Dense at times, but immensely rewarding and thought-provoking.The book arrived in very good condition — neat packaging, clean pages, and excellent print quality. Overall, a deeply important read and a great purchase.

L'ouvrage, au-delà des polémiques passées et à venir, fait le point, comme Bloodlands, sur la place de l'Etat dans la protection des populations. Les arguments sont forts, tombent souvent juste, mais Tim Snyder ne se gêne pas pour contourner certaines difficultés liées à la difficulté d'avoir, justement, un phénomène européen avec des déclinaisons multiples.Oui, l'Etat absent est souvent synonyme de mortalité record pour les Juifs (polonais, biélorusses, ukrainiens, néerlandais...), mais dans d'autres cas, le déterminisme fonctionne moins bien. Le cas du Protectorat de Bohême-Moravie, où le taux de déportation et de meurtre est très élevé, frappant une communauté bien assimilée, et où un gouvernement tchèque est préservé - fut-il, comme ailleurs, très encadré par des Allemands, y compris des Allemands locaux -, aurait apporté un éclairage intéressant. Or, il n'est pas évoqué, quand les cas croates ou slovaques sont expédiés en une page.Des déceptions et de beaux morceaux pour un ouvrage qui a le mérite de relancer certains débats historiographiques. La bibliographie n'est pas sans intérêt et recense des approches très variées, mais elle n'est pas hiérarchisée et, en définitive, peu exploitée dans le corps du texte, qui ignore les apports de nombreux historiens ou historiens-anthropologues.