Edward B. Westermann, "Drunk on Genocide: Alcohol and Mass Murder in Nazi Germany" (Cornell UP, 2021)
The title of Edward Westermann's new book,\xa0Drunk on Genocide: Alcohol and Mass Murder in Nazi Germany\xa0(Cornell University Press, published in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2021),\xa0suggests that it is about the use of alcohol by perpetrators of the Holocaust.\xa0And it is.\xa0Westermann documents extensively how alcohol served to bind perpetrators together and to help them celebrate, conduct and perhaps forget mass murder. The amount of alcohol consumed as part of the German war is astonishing.\nBut Westermann's book is broader than its title suggests.\xa0At the heart of Westermann's examination is the way in which commonly held understandings of masculinity fueled violence--symbolic, sexual and physical.\xa0\xa0He explores the way hypermasculinity led to soldiers to humiliate Jews and other victims as a way of feminizing them. He examines\xa0the extensive trophy-taking practiced by Germans in the East.\xa0He outlines how widespread sexual violence was.\xa0And more.\nWestermann uses a wide variety of primary sources ranging from photos to diaries to interviews to understand the behaviors and beliefs of perpetrators.\xa0It is a remarkably challenging book to read.\xa0But it is a necessary one.\nKelly McFall is Professor of History and Director of the Honors Program at Newman University.\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices\nSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/genocide-studies