Nazi Empire-Building and the Holocaust in Ukraine [Paperback]

Wendy Lower (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0807858633 | ISBN-13: 978-0807858639 | Publication Date: August 1, 2007

Lower provides the most complete assessment available of German colonization and the Holocaust in Ukraine, the "jewel" of the Nazi empire. In this unprecedented attempt at Nazi empire building, violence, racism, antisemitism, and militarism pervaded all aspects of everyday life. Lower argues that it was in the eastern outposts of the Reich, such as Ukraine, that the regime's core beliefs, aims, and practices were revealed.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An exemplary local study of . . . the administrative entity encompassing much of the German-occupied Ukraine in World War II."
-- Central European History

"An excellent study that bravely attempts to put the Nazi occupation of Ukraine in comparative context, and uses newly opened archives to extend our knowledge of the true horror of the era."
-- Europe-Asia Studies

"A carefully nuanced picture of Ukrainian responses to Nazi occupation. . . . Both specialists and general readers seeking new insights into the Holocaust and the history of Nazi occupation in Eastern Europe will benefit greatly from [this] important study."
—Journal of Modern History

"Lower's excellent study offers important insights into the nature of National Socialist racial visions and efforts to transform colonial fantasy into reality, as well as into the tragic consequences for the Jewish and non-Jewish populations of Ukraine."
— Holocaust and Genocide Studies

"A very useful contribution to the field of Holocaust studies. . . . An excellent analysis of Nazi empire-building and the Holocaust in the Zhytomyr district."
— English Historical Quarterly



"First-rate."
— Journal of Modern History



"[Nazi Empire-Building and the Holocaust in Ukraine] offers an excellent regional account of the Holocaust, carefully unpacking the interaction between higher orders and lower level initiatives in the unfolding of genocide."
— American Historical Review

"Lower's excellent book confirms many findings of the new regional studies over the past decade. . . . Lower demonstrates a mastery of both German sources and those accessible only in the native language (in this case Ukranian) of the occupied population."
— German Studies Review

Lower has uncovered fascinating documentation.
—Times Literary Supplement

[A] tightly written case study.
—Russian Review

Lower demonstrates a mastery of both German sources and those accessible only in the native language.
—German Studies Review

Essential.
—Choice

From the Inside Flap

Lower provides the most complete assessment available of German colonization and the Holocaust in Ukraine, the "jewel" of the Nazi empire. In this unprecedented attempt at Nazi empire building, violence, racism, antisemitism, and militarism pervaded all aspects of everyday life. Lower argues that it was in the eastern outposts of the Reich, such as Ukraine, that the regime's core beliefs, aims, and practices were revealed.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 328 pages
• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press (August 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807858633
• ISBN-13: 978-0807858639
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #189,331 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #25 in Books > History > Europe > Ukraine

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars All New Information, May 16, 2010

By 

Bonner '62 (Virginia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Nazi Empire-Building and the Holocaust in Ukraine (Paperback)

The book does not have much of a narrative flow but it presents almost all new information. The Nazis wanted an eastern empire they just had no idea how to establish or run one. The book underlines how Hitler wanted a system of competitors not cooperation. All the security, intelligence and military forces were operating on their own. Even without their useless brutality they would have had a hard time ruling their subjects. The US started assembling the military occupation government for Japan in 1942 which was wild optimism. The Nazis started assembling theirs after the invasion and it showed.

10 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nazi Arcadia and eco-engineering, November 26, 2008

By 

Kurt Grussendorf (Pensacola, Florida) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Nazi Empire-Building and the Holocaust in Ukraine (Paperback)

Combine racial genocide and an obsession with pantheistic worship of the land--blood and soil--and you get a twisted version of the "Greening" of Europe. The myth of returning to an agrarain utopia devoid of urban industrial crowding is still with us. The Nazis simply cast it all in a racial light. The subraces would work in the dirty factories and the master race would labor and play in the sun and bracing air of the countryside. Himmler's view of Southern Ukraine and the Crimea as a virtual Garden of Eden and core of a medievalist lebensraum for the SS knights is both intriguing and terrifying. The simple folk of the Ukraine enslaved as bead-loving peasants or slave laborers--to be treated as the "Red man of the American Plains"--plied with simple bolts of colored cloth like the Africans of the Congo and old German East Africa--have we really made much progress as humanity(?) when you consider the genocide and eugenics that remains amongst us in the modern era. Himmler certainly had the breadth of imagination to put his schemes forward--a perverse and twisted romantic who took a back seat to Hitler but is now being "appreciated" as the mystical technocrat of the Nazi version of a pantheistic New Age of a perfected humanity dwelling in harmony with a harsh Nordic Social Darwinism. But getting back to earth, it is also an expression of a pragmatic German desire to feed itself and not repeat the famine conditions of the World War I blockade. I would like to see more on the role of agriculture and surplus of grain or lack thereof in the Reich. Finally, the picture of Himmler with the cotton boll on the cover is priceless--shades of the Mississippi Delta or the Antebellum South bereft of its hospitality and gentility with the slave culture laid bare.

3 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good history, March 16, 2010

By 

R. L. Chomiak (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Nazi Empire-Building and the Holocaust in Ukraine (Paperback)

Totalitarian regimes are usually funny, but it's hard to laugh when thousands and millions of people suffer because of them.

Germany (Third Reich) in Ukraine in WW II was like a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. For instance, one of Hitler's cohorts had a title of leader to promote Germanness -- or something to that effect. But these clowns also victimized millions of Ukrainians.

And the ideas these thugs had: building a string of all-German towns east all the way to the Urals. Hitler's dream of expanding the "thousand-year-old Empire." As it turned out he was off by 988 years.

Yes, the book is fun read. It is also a product of good scholarship. I keep it on a shelf in my bedroom and occasionally just reread a few pages for enjoyment.