Mass murder

History and its woes

How Stalin and Hitler enabled each other’s crimes

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Readers' comments




The sheer numbers of the victims can blunt our sense of the individuality of each one.

"I'de like to call you all by name", wrote the Russian poet Anna Akhmatova in her "Requiem", "but the list has been removed and there is nowhere else to look."

Thank to all the witnesses we have documents.


Vladimir from Moscow, little, very little Russian Chauvinist kids, you don't belong to our civilization - you are just the product of a failed country. Then please go back to your fake studies. Don't come here to pretend that you are an adult, that you have an education because you show us simply how low your country is. You are a shame, one more, of your country.

Joe the Reader

Great, Waltron showed up, there goes the neigborhood.

"Eurodude" Waltron always glorifies Dido no matter what is said on Dido's part, as if he is trying to create a personality cult of Didomyk. Sounds familiar? Do you know who else had a personality cult? That's right, Stalin did.

Waltron writes: "Joe the Reader , this pure Russian Chauvinist, dares to ask us if there is an evidence that Putins is related to Stalin!" ----- It is a valid question to ask, because you said a non-sense without showing any evidence of what you have said. That only undermines your logic and thinking. You remind me of those people in the US that carry banners of George Bush and Obama, equating them to Hitler, without actually naming one single reason why Bush or Obama remind them of Hitler. These people don't even know what Hitler was, yet they compare their presidents to this evil man. So I ask, how did you manage to arrive from Stalin all the way to Putin? Paranoid much?

You also write: "...we are stupid..." ----- I am not going to argue with that, your choice.


Mass killing in Europe is usually associated with the Holocaust, and the Holocaust with rapid industrial killing.

The image is too simple and clean.

At the German and Soviet killing sites, the methods of murder were rather primitive - as always with the Ethnic Russians at least, not with us Germans.

But as said well this Professor of Yale, "of the fourteen million civilians and prisoners of war killed in the bloodlands between 1933 and 1945, more than hald died because they were denied food.

Europeans deliberately starved Europeans in horrific numbers in the middle of the twentieth century."

The two largest mass killing actions after the Holocaust - Stalin's directed famines of the early 1930's and Hitler's starvation of Soviet Prisoners of war in the early 1940's - involved this method of killing.

Starvation was foremost not only in reality but in imagination.

In a Hunger Plan, the Nazi regime projected the death of starvation of tens of millions of Slavs and Jews in the winter of 1941-1942.

After starvation came shooting, and then gassing.

In Stalin's Great Terror of 1937-1938, nearly seven hundred thousand Soviet citizens were shot.

The two hundred thousand or so Poles killed by the Germans and the Soviets during their joint occupation of Poland were shot.

There was little especially modern about the gassing. The million os so Jews asphyxiated at Auscwitz were killed by hydrogen cyanide, a compound isolated in the eighteenth century.

The 1.6 million or so Jews killed at Treblinka,Chelmno, Belzec, and Sobibor were asphyxiated by carbon monoxide, which even the ancient Greeks knew was lethal.

The Ethnic Russian Soviets and the German Nazis relied upon technologies that were hardly novel in the 1930's and 1940's: internal combustion, railways, firearms, pesticides, barbed wire.

No matter which technology was used, the killing was personal.





An excellent review.

Tears to all the people who died.
May all their souls rest in peace.

Prayers to the Lord that never shall the world or any country face such situation(s) again.

Communists, nazis, fascists etc have something in common and that is lack of genuine democracy where people can ask questions. Whereever there is lack of freedom (of thought & action), we often find death/murder etc.

Joe the Reader

Waltron the Dido Worshiper writes: "The only reason I come back here today is to read our friend Didomyk: this guy is so brilliant, so patient with everybody, so polite even with the most stupid, so cultivated, so good writer. He is really an example for all of us of tolerance, of balanced opinion, of style." ----- You guys should get together and talk about stuff. By the way, you said a while ago that I was the patient one, how come it is Dido now? That really hurts you know.

Joe the Reader

Waltron the Peacekeeper writes: "The Russian Chauvinists here - and there are a lot - are trying to repeat Putin's propaganda which a chekist one - which is to present the two agreements München 's one and Ribbentrop-Stalin as the same." ----- OK, let's analyze both Pacts:

Allies agreed to have Hitler invade Czechoslovakia - check
Stalin and Hitler agreeed to invade Poland - check

Innocent people died during both invasions (Munich and M-R) - check

To me and every other person that can analyze and think rationally there is not much difference between these two Pacts. I don't know, perhaps the number of pages in each Pact was different, I figure Allies' version was slightly longer, since they require more paperwork and Molotov's was shorter, just guessing. Or perhaps the color of ink was different, maybe Dido could dig up some stuff on that subject.

Waltron writes and I agree with him on this one: "Of course if was a crime to accept that WITHOUT the government of Czechoslovakia ; and more it was a crime not to protect the territorial integrity and the borders of Czechoslovakia" ---- That's it, stop right there, don't go any further, because this is the whole point - it was a crime indeed and there is no 'BUT's and excuses.


Vladimir from Moscow, the Russian kid pretending to be intelligent, writes this sentence which makes us laugh: "Zorzyk, by no means do I express any opinion, just analysis."

Ah yes what is the difference of Vladimir from Moscow's opinion and 's analysis?

He probably mean that his "analysis" is like ... scientific facts, demonstrations. A theorem perhaps. Or an "historical facts".

Poor Vladimir always ridiculous because ignorant. It's time he goes back to elementary school. Perhaps there he will learn the elementary concepts of epistemology.

You know from the Greek ἐπιστήμη plus λόγος.


kuzmich, old Russian Chauvinists friend! Why are you still coming here? I sit not freezing where you live? me it's still warm - like in summer times in Europe.

How are you? I wish well.

Have you been chosen to be member of the team of the new Moscow mayor? If it's the case I wish you good luck - you will need it.

Or perhaps you want to go to retire in Austria to avoid Moscow pollution. What a strange idea to want to go to to retire in Austria is so so boring and full of nazis! :-) :-)

Have you seen some great Russian films or books or theater plays recently at Moscow?

I love Russian contemporary poetry and novels. I would love to come back to Moscow to see some theater plays - there are so good.

Russian films most of them are boring . I prefer to see again and again the ones of Tarkovski. Andrei was great.

In New York we have great stuff , I find quite good the last David Finscher - in Hong Kong it's alsways a cultural desert. In Beijing is hot - really the best city in the World today.

Paris , London and Berlin as like usual - mixed.

Except London is in pain.

New York again some have a lot of money.

In China it's insane the money that some have. It's incredible time. Come here , we will have fun and we wil forget all these boring discussion about Russia - who cares about Russia today?

us, the poor Europeans, who have still you, as enemies. With your Nuclear Missiles, you stupid post imperialist ideology Russian Chauvinism, etc etc OK I suppose you know the music tone.

I wish you the best

and if you want to read real books , read the ones of Carl Schmitt that is real fun!

This one of this review is also very very good.

It's great to see that you have progress in History.

This guy is almost better than Hannah Arendt.



Marie Claude

I am not sure you are French but probably.

On a little detail of no real importance, I don't think that English and French armies will have not been capable to defeat Hitler armies.

I think the best explanation of the defeat of France was given by the great French historian Marc Bloch in his last book "Strange Defeat".

The equipment of the two sides was almost equivalent even for the aviation. But the way to organize the armies and to manage them were completely different.

De Gaule has written two books , if my memory is correct, in 1934 and in 1938, which were the equivalent of Guderian ones. De Gaulle's conceptions were the opposite of Petain's ones.

Marc Block demonstrated that the main reason of the defeat was the French Etat Major. There is a good scene in Churchill's book about it.

I think that more deeper than that the French society was divided - after WWI and after 1936's political events. The Spanish war has been the sign of these divisions.

Like today in Europe, there is a tendency to think that peace is the best and is the better that we could have.

Churchill said about München's agreement: " they wanted the peace even with a shame agreement; they will have the war and keep the shame."


It is so ridiculous.

In München's agreement it was to agreed that the German population who live in Czechoslovakia could join the Third Reich if they desire.


But this crime of "laisser faire" was not to become allies with Hitler, to invade Czechoslovakia and to kill as Stalin did a great part of the Polish elite. München agreement was not to become the ally of Hitler and to help him to attack others countries - with war raw material essential for Germany.

Why The French government has accepted because first the British one wanted, second because France was divided and the "pacifism" was very strong in France at this moment.

I still remember when President Mitterand came at Bundestag and said: "The pacifist are at the West, the nuclear missiles at the East"

in Germany today there is also this illusion - lot are pacifists due to our constitution. BUt , for me, our enemy is clear: it is this Russian political system - their military doctrine and nuclear capabilities plus their values system make them our natural enemy that we need to defeat - even destroy. and if possible


Sir Walter, are you a part of that Chinese gang that spams the threads since you add your endless unreadable commentaries? Lately you’ve been praising Chinese economy. Feels like Chinese economy takes over the Economist. Your mentor Didomyk’s prophecy of Chinese taking over Siberia is failing. They are taking over Europe. I wish you well too.

succulent pig

Of the 14 million murdered, I wonder how many prayed to their God(s) before meeting death?
I also wonder how many prayers were answered?


kuzmich wrote: "Didomyk’s prophecy of Chinese taking over Siberia is failing."

Who said so ? Vladimir Vladimirovich or Vladimir from Moscow ?
It's much too early to tell when and how fast the Chinese will take over Siberia. It will take time to resettle some 50 million people, provide them with housing, infrastructure, etc. Unfortunately Stalin and his Russian successors have failed to provide rail and road links going north and north-west from the Chinese border, not to mention arable, cultivated land, basic commerce, etc. Remnants of the old NKVD-KGB run gulags-era 'lagers' are totally unsuitable for Chinese resettlement.

Just give the Chinese a decade or so for the first 10 million settlers, a second decade for the next 20 millions, a third for the next 30 millions, etc. If you live that long you will wittness accellerated Chinese resettlement every decade. Needless to say it will coincide will accellerated retreat of the Russians back to their original realm along the Volga river and all the way up north as far as the Solovetsky islands....

No wonder Russian leaders have recently decided to lay claims to at least part of the frozen Arctic ! Just in case when Siberian resources will fall into the Chinese hands, future Russian generations will need to rely on something else for survival !


You seem to have omitted to notice that Stalin killed far fewer ethnic Russians (certainly in proportion) than those of other ethnicities. So, perhaps that was one reason why the Russians (indeed most of the Red Army) fought so tenaciously but you shouldn't ignore the reason which was the major reason why the Germans went on fighting even after they knew that Hitler had led them to the slaughter, namely, that there were a lot of NKVD and SS killers who were quick to shoot anyone suspected of not fighting the enemy with sufficient vigour.


Chinese guys, your advertizing spam nobody reads. Nobody needs your cheap “fashionable” BS.

Joe the Reader

Dido and Walter, can you guys do something about your Asian friends spamming these forums? Walter claims that China is his ally so I want him to be on top of this thing and resolve this issue with spammers ASAP. Although, I find their English skills entertaining - "Q u al i t y is our D i g n i t y; Service is our Lift." - good business strategy. "DELIVERY TO YOU DOOR TO DOOR" - Me no English!


•Hitlers family name was changed. Stalins family name was changed.
•Hitlers father beat him. Stalins father beat him.
•Hitlers mother gave birth to 3 children before Adolf, all died. Stalins mother gave birth to 3 children before Josef, all died.
•Hitler was a sickly child. Stalin was a sickly child.
•Hitlers father virtually abandoned his family. Stalins father virtually abandoned his family.
•Hitler was raised and loved by his mother. Stalin was raised and loved by his mother.
•Hitler very much loved his mother. Stalin very much loved his mother.
•Hitler was a Catholic. Stalin was an Eastern Orthodox (as child).
•Hitlers mother wanted him to be a Catholic priest. Stalins mother wanted him to be an Orthodox priest.
•Hitler attended a Benedictine monastery. Stalin attended Orthodox theological school and the seminary.
•Hitlers father died when he was 13. Stalins father died when he was 11.
•Hitler was an exceptional student at an early age. Stalin was an exceptional student at an early age.
•Hitler developed into an excellent artist in school. Stalin developed into an excellent artist in school.
•Hitler failed to graduate from high school. Stalin failed to graduate from high school.
•Hitler never attended university. Stalin never attended university.
•By age 20 Hitler was a social dropout living on his own. By age 20 Stalin was a social dropout living on his own.
•Fascism fascinated Hitler. Marxism fascinated Stalin.
•Hitler lived in Vienna in 1913. Stalin lived in Vienna in 1913.
•Hitler served time in jail for his political beliefs. Stalin served time in jail for his political beliefs.
•Hitler, born in Austria, moved to Germany to pursue politics. Stalin, born in Georgia, moved to Russia to pursue politics.
•At age 33 Hitler led the revival of the Nazi party. At age 33 Stalin led the revival of the Bolshevik party.
•At age 35 Hitler wrote Mein Kampf outlining Nazi policy. At age 34 Stalin wrote Marxism and the National Question outlining Bolshevik policy.
•At age 42 Hitler was in control of the Nazi regime. At age 42 Stalin was in control of the Communist regime.
•In 1931 Hitlers love committed suicide with his pistol. In 1932 Stalins love committed suicide with his pistol.
•Hitler's love was 22 years younger. Stalin's love was 21 years younger.
•At age 45 Hitler started purges of Nazi party foes. At age 45 Stalin started purges of Communist party foes.


One of the best reviews I've read recently.
They should make this compulsory reading in schools, instead of all the conventional platitudes about the war and the Holocaust ( I'm not belittling the Holocaust, I'm just agreeing with the author that it is part of a (much) bigger problem).
I'm definitely buying the book. Thanks


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