Description
Book SynopsisOn October 10, 1941, the entire Jewish population of the Belarusian village of Krucha was rounded up and shot. This atrocity was the work of footsoldiers in a regular German army unit, acting on its own initiative.
Marching into Darkness paints a searing portrait of the Wehrmacht's descent into ever more intimate participation in genocide.
Trade ReviewWith a level of detail that is chilling to the bone, Beorn demonstrates that during the first phase of the war with the Soviet Union, a time when Germans were euphoric about their results on the front, every single Wehrmacht unit in Belarus contained a core group of men who could be counted on to murder Jews.
Marching into Darkness convincingly shows how and why these atrocities could occur. A major contribution. -- Karel C. Berkhoff, author of
Motherland in Danger: Soviet Propaganda during World War IIBeorn’s meticulously researched work confronts us with Nazi crimes, up close, as they happened. It allows us to see the choices that were available to the perpetrators, and the process by which many ordinary German soldiers gradually turned into willing criminals. In this way, it helps us to understand how such crimes were possible. -- Geoffrey P. Megargee, author of
War of Annihilation: Combat and Genocide on the Eastern Front, 1941
