The Dynamics of Killing (completed)

Funded by Hans-Böckler-Foundation

At the beginning of the war, about 30,000 Jews lived in the Ukrainian town of Berditshev, thus accounting for about half of the entire population. Within a year, almost all of them had been murdered, the vast majority in mass executions carried out by German police units.

This case study looks into the question of how the process of the almost complete obliteration of Jewish life in Berditshev proceeded. How did everyday life in a town change under conditions of extreme violence? What options and strategies for action did the population develop? How did this society of victims, perpetrators, observers and accomplices function?

Violent actions are perceived here as a social process that can only be explained by taking the various different points of view of those involved into consideration and bringing them together.