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There is no better way to arrive to reality than to reconstruct the perspective of the perpetrators
Raul Hilberg
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USHMM - Public domain. Zawierce
Babi Yar, Rumbula and Stanislaviv. And then Charkov, Berdičev, Kamenec Podol'skij, Rovno...
These are some places where apocalyptic slaughters were perpetrated during the summer of 1941.
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Maybe it would be enough to remember these names, to give an idea of the involvement of the police battalions in the ideological war, broken out on the eastern front, from 27 June 1941, that erased, as a hurricane, most of the Jewish communities in the Baltic area, in Galicia, in Belorussia and in Ukraine, with hundred thousands of victims.
But round-ups in the ghettos and the persecution of Jews were not the only tasks in which the Ordnungspolizei was involved.
All along the eastern front, police units were steadily engaged in a fierce anti-partisan warfare, as well as in security activities behind the lines and in the surveillance of prisoners of war. In several occasions and in adverse conditions, police battalions were moved to the front line, where they ended up suffering heavy losses; moreover, many policemen were involved in activities that, using a current term, we could define as "civil defence", especially in the German cities targeted by air bombing.
All these so different activities, ended up involving dozens of thousands of policemen. But the most upsetting aspect is the way – efficient and scrupulous – in which these men acted, whether they were called to carry out a reprisal or to remove the debris after a bombing, perpetrate the round-up of a ghetto or accomplish guard services, burn down a village or perform ordinary garrison tasks.
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The Ordnungspolizei did not have all those characteristics needed to become a symbol of the Nazi regime; it was instead a versatile and ruthless instrument, mostly formed with reservists: "ordinary men" capable of unspeakable atrocities, very similar to the people that we meet in our everyday life.
Very similar to each of us.
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IMPORTANT NOTICE
On the basis of the news, directly received from the publisher, we inform that the book will be published within Summer 2010
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more information click HERE
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ORDNUNGSPOLIZEI
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE GERMAN POLICE BATTALIONS
September 1939 - July 1942
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A complete analysis of all the police battalions formed between 1939 and 1942: data, facts and actions
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MARTINS VAGULANS
AND THE DESTRUCTION OF THE JEWS OF JELGAVA
JUNE - JULY 1941
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A reconstruction of the events that led to the destruction of the Jewish community of Jelgava (Latvia), perpetrated by the Kommando "Vagulans", and by the Teilkommando "Becu"
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You can receive this work, by clicking in the section "Articles"
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