Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Foreword
- Introduction
- 1 Radicalizing Warfare: The German Command and the Failure of Operation Barbarossa
- 2 Urban Warfare Doctrine on the Eastern Front
- 3 The Wehrmacht in the War of Ideologies: The Army and Hitler's Criminal Orders on the Eastern Front
- 4 “The Purpose of the Russian Campaign Is the Decimation of the Slavic Population by Thirty Million”: The Radicalization of German Food Policy in Early 1941
- 5 The Radicalization of German Occupation Policies: The Wirtschaftsstab Ost and the 121st Infantry Division in Pavlovsk, 1941
- 6 The Exploitation of Foreign Territories and the Discussion of Ostland's Currency in 1941
- 7 Axis Collaboration, Operation Barbarossa, and the Holocaust in Ukraine
- 8 The Radicalization of Anti-Jewish Policies in Nazi-Occupied Belarus
- 9 The Minsk Experience: German Occupiers and Everyday Life in the Capital of Belarus
- 10 Extending the Genocidal Program: Did Otto Ohlendorf Initiate the Systematic Extermination of Soviet “Gypsies”?
- 11 The Development of German Policy in Occupied France, 1941, against the Backdrop of the War in the East
- Conclusion: Total War, Genocide, and Radicalization
- Appendix: Comparative Table of Ranks for 1941
- Selected Bibliography
- List of Contributors
- Index
10 - Extending the Genocidal Program: Did Otto Ohlendorf Initiate the Systematic Extermination of Soviet “Gypsies”?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Foreword
- Introduction
- 1 Radicalizing Warfare: The German Command and the Failure of Operation Barbarossa
- 2 Urban Warfare Doctrine on the Eastern Front
- 3 The Wehrmacht in the War of Ideologies: The Army and Hitler's Criminal Orders on the Eastern Front
- 4 “The Purpose of the Russian Campaign Is the Decimation of the Slavic Population by Thirty Million”: The Radicalization of German Food Policy in Early 1941
- 5 The Radicalization of German Occupation Policies: The Wirtschaftsstab Ost and the 121st Infantry Division in Pavlovsk, 1941
- 6 The Exploitation of Foreign Territories and the Discussion of Ostland's Currency in 1941
- 7 Axis Collaboration, Operation Barbarossa, and the Holocaust in Ukraine
- 8 The Radicalization of Anti-Jewish Policies in Nazi-Occupied Belarus
- 9 The Minsk Experience: German Occupiers and Everyday Life in the Capital of Belarus
- 10 Extending the Genocidal Program: Did Otto Ohlendorf Initiate the Systematic Extermination of Soviet “Gypsies”?
- 11 The Development of German Policy in Occupied France, 1941, against the Backdrop of the War in the East
- Conclusion: Total War, Genocide, and Radicalization
- Appendix: Comparative Table of Ranks for 1941
- Selected Bibliography
- List of Contributors
- Index
Summary
As far as the historiography on the Nazi genocide of Roma is concerned, the situation in the German occupied territories of the Soviet Union during World War II belongs to the most neglected topics. At the same time, this very region plays a key role for the evaluation of Nazi genocidal policy. The German assault on the Soviet Union marked the transition toward a systematic physical extermination of Jews, “Gypsies,” and other so-called undesirable elements. Furthermore, the Soviet Roma doubtlessly represent a substantial share of the total number of people that were killed by the Nazis as “Gypsies.”
The same can be said, however, about Yugoslavia, which in regard to Jews and Roma foreshadowed to a certain degree the development of Operation Barbarossa. As early as the end of May 1941, the Wehrmacht in occupied Serbia united the status of “Gypsies” with that of Jews and shot “Gypsy” and Jewish hostages in combined retaliatory actions for partisan attacks on army units. On July 25, 1941, the status of Roma who were “integrated” and “sedentary since 1850 [sic]” was softened—an idea that seemed to be copied a few months later in some regions of the occupied Soviet territories. Furthermore, the Ustasha transformed Croatia into one of the largest killing grounds of Roma outside of the Soviet Union.
Until today, the state of research on the Soviet case—although often used as evidence in the discussion about the comparability or incomparability of the Nazi genocide of Roma and the Holocaust—has been rather insufficient.
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- Nazi Policy on the Eastern Front, 1941Total War, Genocide, and Radicalization, pp. 267 - 288Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2012