Dark Continent: Europe's Twentieth Century (79 page)

The spectre of population decline hung over inter-war Europe: see M. S. Quine,
Population Policies in Twentieth Century Europe
(1996), J. M. Winter, “The fear of population decline in western Europe, 1870–1940,” in R. W. Hiorns (ed.),
Demographic Patterns in Developed Societies
(1980), D. V. Glass,
Population Policies and Movements in Europe
(1940), D. Kirk,
Europe’s Population in the Interwar Years
(1940), and P. Weindling, “Fascism and population in comparative European perspective,” in M. S. Teitelbaum and J. Winter (eds.),
Population and Resources in Western Intellectual Traditions
(1988). G. Mosse,
Nationalism and Sexuality
(1984), is a pioneering study. M. E. Kopp, “Eugenic sterilization laws in Europe,”
American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology
, 34 (September 1937), casts an approving eye over what now seem rather sinister practices.

On racism in Germany, see M. Burleigh and W. Wippermann,
The Racial State: Germany, 1933–1945
(Cambridge, 1991), D. Peukert,
Inside Nazi Germany: Conformity, Opposition and Racism in Everyday Life
(1987) and P. Weindling,
Health, Race and German Politics between National Unification and Nazism, 1870–1945
(1989). B. Müller-Hill,
Murderous Science: Elimination by Scientific Selection of Jews, Gypsies and Others, 1933–1945
(1988), and R. R. Proctor,
Racial Hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis
(1988), focus on the race professionals. G. Mosse,
Towards the Final Solution
(1978), sets German anti-Semitism in a European context. For France, see W. Schneider,
Quality and Quantity: The Quest for Biological Regeneration in 20th Century France
(1990); for Britain, see the debate between M. Freeden, “Eugenics and progressive thought,”
Historical Journal
, 22 (1979), pp. 645–71 and G.
Jones, “Eugenics and social policy between the wars,”
Historical Journal
, 25 (1982), pp. 717–28. The impact of Nazism on Western thinking about race is described by E. Barkan,
The Retreat of Scientific Racism
(1992), and manifested in J. S. Huxley and A. C. Haddon,
We Europeans: A Survey of “Racial” Problems
(1935). The link between racial fears, eugenics and social policy generally is explored in a fine survey, G. Bock and P. Thane (eds.),
Maternity and Gender Policies: Women and the Rise of the European Welfare States, 1880s-1950s
(1991), and for the UK in J. Lewis,
The Politics of Motherhood
(1980). On gender policies under fascism, see R. Bridenthal
et al., When Biology Became Destiny
(1984), and J. Stephenson,
Women in Nazi Society
(1975). For Italy we have V. de Grazia,
How Fascism Ruled Women: Italy, 1922–1945
(California, 1992), and A de Grand, “Women under Fascism,”
Historical Journal
, 19: 4 (1976).

Hitler discusses his dreams for Europe in H. Trevor-Roper (ed.),
Hitler’s Table-Talk
(Oxford, 1988). The best survey remains A. and V. Toynbee (eds.),
Hitler’s Europe
(1954), which also prompted the meditation of a great historian, P. Geyl, “Hitler’s Europe,” reprinted in his
Encounters in History
(1963). A. S. Milward,
War, Economy and Society, 1939–1945
(1977), is essential on the economics, while J. Noakes and G. Pridham (eds.),
Nazism
, vol. 3 (New York, 1990), is a superb collection of documents. N. Rich,
Hitler’s War Aims
, vol. 2 (1974), is reliable; G. Wright,
The Ordeal of Total War, 1939–1945
(1968), excellent, though more general. U. Herbert,
A History of Foreign Labor in Germany, 1880–1980
(Ann Arbor, Mich., 1990) and J. Schechtman,
European Population Transfers, 1939–1945
(Philadelphia, Pa, 1946), cover population movements. Recent research into the Wehrmacht is encapsulated in O. Bartov,
Hitler’s Army
(Oxford, 1991).

Out of a vast literature on the Final Solution, E. Klee, W. Dressen and V. Riess (eds.) (translated by D. Burnstone),
“Those Were the Days”: The Holocaust through the Eyes of the Perpetrators and Bystanders
(1993), is the best collection of documents. M. Marrus,
The Holocaust in History
(1988), is a good survey of the debates, to be supplemented by his excellent extended reviews in
Journal of Modern History. Fateful Months
(1985) and
The Path to Genocide
(1992) contain important essays by the most measured and scrupulous of Holocaust historians, Christopher Browning, whose
Ordinary Men
(1993) is a contrast in
argument, tone and style with D. Goldhagen,
Hitler’s Willing Executioners
(1996). On Nazi demographic engineering, see R. Koehl,
RKFDV: German Resettlement and Population Policy, 1939–1945
(1957), and I. Kamenetsky,
Secret Nazi Plans for Eastern Europe
(1961). On occupation policies in specific countries, see A. Dallin,
German Rule in Russia, 1941–1945
(1981 edn), and A. S. Milward,
The New Order and the French Economy
(1970). Charles Cruikshank’s
The German Occupation of the Channel Islands
(Oxford, 1979) is a comprehensive, if mandarin account of an occupation experience of special interest for the British. It may now be contrasted with M. Bunting,
The Model Occupation: The Channel Islands under German Rule, 1940–1945
(1995). M. Mazower,
Inside Hitler’s Greece
(1993), tries to show what occupation felt like for those involved, but this is more forcefully conveyed in diaries such as Z. Klukowski,
Diary from the Years of Occupation, 1939–1944
(Chicago, 1994), or in memoirs such as the nightmarish O. Pinkus,
The House of Ashes
(1991). J. Gross,
Polish Society under German Occupation
(Princeton, 1979), is a searching sociological analysis of the impact of occupation upon Polish society. It may be read alongside the same author’s
Revolution from Abroad: The Soviet Conquest of Poland’s Western Ukraine and Western Belorussia
(Princeton, NJ, 1988) to compare the experience under Stalin’s occupation forces.

The failure of collaboration is the subject of M. Conway,
Collaboration in Belgium: Leon Degrelle and the Rexist Movement, 1940–1944
(1993). R. Paxton,
Vichy France, Old Guard, New Order
(1972), broke a taboo which forms the subject of H. Rousso’s
Le Syndrome de Vichy
(Paris, 1987). P. M. Hayes,
The Career and Political Ideas of Vidkun Quisling, 1887–1945
(1972), probably contains everything most people will want to know on the subject, while J. Armstrong, “Collab-orationism in World War II: the integral nationalist variant in eastern Europe,”
Journal of Modern History
, 40 (1968), pp. 396–410, surveys eastern Europe. Two vivid journalistic accounts of the moral ambiguities of occupation are R. G. Waldeck,
Athene Palace
(New York, 1942), and C. Malaparte,
Kaputt!
(1948).

On resistance, see J. D. Wilkinson,
The Intellectual Resistance in Europe
(1981), for ideas, S. Hawes and R. White (eds.),
Resistance in Europe, 1939–1945
(1975), M. R. D. Foot,
Resistance
(1976), and T. Judt (ed.),
Resistance and Revolution in Mediterranean Europe, 1939-1948
(1989), for achievements. C. Delzell,
Mussolini’s Enemies
(1961), discusses the anti-Fascists, a subject which also forms the focus of C. Pavone,
Una guerra civile: saggio sulla moralità nella resistenza
(Turin, 1991), which ignited a debate across Italy about the meaning of the resistance. On France, there are two fine studies by H. R. Kedward,
Resistance in Vichy France
(Oxford, 1978), and
In Search of the Maquis
(Oxford, 1993). On Yugoslavia, there is M. Milazzo,
The Chetnik Movement and the Yugoslav Resistance
(1975), and W. Roberts,
Tito, Mihailovic and the Allies, 1941/45
(New Brunswick, NJ, 1973), as well as two classic memoirs, F. W. Deakin,
The Embattled Mountain
(Oxford, 1971), and M. Djilas,
Wartime: With Tito and the Partisans
(1977). On Poland, see R. Lukas,
Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles under German Occupation, 1939–1944
(New York, 1986); for Albania, J. Amery,
Sons of the Eagle: A Study in Guerilla War
(1948).

Working out why Britain was at war is the subject of I. McLaine,
Ministry of Morale: Home Front Morale and the Ministry of Information in World War Two
(1979), in the general political context discussed by P. Addison,
The Road to 1945: British Politics and the War
(1975). A. Shennan,
Rethinking France
(Oxford, 1989), discusses French visions of the post-war order, as does C. Andrieu,
Le Program commun de la Résistance: des idées dans la guerre
(Paris, 1984). W. Lipgens (ed.),
Documents on the History of European Integration
, vol. 1 (New York, 1985), and his “European federation in the political thought of resistance movements,”
Central European History
, 1 (1968), tries valiantly to turn the wartime resistance to Hitler into the seedbed of the post-war drive to European cooperation; this view may be corrected by reading R. E. Herzstein,
When Nazi Dreams Come True
(1982), and in a drier vein, J. R. Gillingham,
Coal, Steel and the Rebirth of Europe, 1945–1955
(Cambridge, 1991), which trace other kinds of continuities back into the war. L. W. Lorwin,
Postwar Plans of the United Nations
(New York, 1943), and L. Holborn,
War and Peace Aims of the United Nations
(Boston, Mass., 1943) are useful.

The chaos and human misery in the aftermath of the war emerge from J. B. Schechtman,
Postwar Population Transfers in Europe, 1945–1955
(Philadelphia, Pa, 1962), D. Macardle,
Children of Europe
(1951), J. Vernant,
The Refugee in the Postwar World
(Geneva, 1953), and M. J. Proudfoot,
European Refugees, 1939–1952
(1957). A. de Zayas,
Nemesis at Potsdam
(1977) covers the expulsion of the Germans, as do the official volumes of documents, T. Scheider
et al
. (eds.),
Documents on the Expulsion of the Germans from East-Central Europe
, 4 vols. (Bonn, n.d.). E. Wiskemann,
Germany’s Eastern Neighbours
(Oxford, 1956), is a masterly survey. Revenge, purges and trials are surveyed in K.-D. Henke and H. Woller (eds.),
Politische Sauberung in Europa
(Munich, 1991), and for individual countries, in R. Palmer Domenico,
Italian Fascists on Trial, 1943–48
(Chapel Hill, NC, 1991), and H. Lottman,
The People’s Anger: Justice and Revenge in Post-Liberation France
(1986). The de-Nazification and redemocratization of Germany are covered by J. Gimbel,
A German Community under American Occupation: Marburg, 1945–1952
(Stanford, 1961), N. Pronay and K. Wilson (eds.),
The Political Re-education of Germany and Her Allies after World War Two
(Totowa, NJ, 1985), and J. Tent,
Mission on the Rhine
(1982). S. Padover,
Experiment in Germany: The Story of an American Intelligence Officer
(New York, 1946) gives the flavour of the times, as does E. Wilson,
Europe Without Baedeker
(1967). J. F. Golay,
The Founding of the Federal Republic of Germany
(Chicago, 1958), describes the establishment of new political institutions; I. D. Connor, “The Bavarian government and the refugee problem, 1945–1950,”
European History Quarterly
, 16: 2 (1986), pp. 131–53 gives insights into a dog that failed to bark.

A pioneering historical treatment of the Soviet occupation of Germany is N. Naimark,
The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation
(Cambridge, Mass., 1995). J. T. Gross, “Social consequences of war: preliminaries to the study of imposition of communist regimes in east central Europe,”
East European Politics and Society
, 3: 2 (spring 1989), pp. 198–214 argues that wartime social change influenced the imposition of Soviet rule in the region. See too, K. Kersten,
The Establishment of Communist Rule in Poland, 1943–1948
(Berkeley, Calif., 1991). H. Seton-Watson,
The East European Revolution
(1951), R. R. Betts (ed.),
Central and South-East Europe, 1945–1948
(1950), and R. J. Wolff,
The Balkans in Our Time
all remain useful, as does R. V. Burks,
The Dynamics of Communism in Eastern Europe
(Princeton, NJ, 1961). M. McCauley (ed.),
Communist Power in Europe, 1944–1949
(1977), remains a useful survey. V. Mastny,
Russia’s Road to the Cold War
(1979), is a fine example of Western scholarship
on Soviet foreign policy before the Russian archives were opened up; V. Zubok,
Inside the Kremlin’s Cold War
(1995), gives a taste of the rethinking to come. Case studies include C. Gati,
Hungary and the Soviet Bloc
(Durham, 1986), and P. Zinner,
Revolution in Hungary
(1962); J. Korbel,
The Communist Subversion of Czechoslovakia, 1938–1948
(Princeton, NJ, 1959), and M. Myant,
Socialism and Democracy in Czechoslovakia, 1945–1948
(Cambridge, 1981).

C. Milosz,
The Captive Mind
(1953), is unsurpassed as an analysis of the ethical dilemmas posed by communism. F. Fejtö,
A History of the People’s Democracies
(1974), is the best introduction. Among the many insider accounts which blend personal experience and political reflection one should mention Z. Mlynar,
Night Frost in Prague
(1980), on the difficulties of reform, A. Oras,
Baltic Eclipse
(1948), on the plight of the Baltic states, B. Szasz,
Volunteers for the Gallows
(1971), on the frenzy of the purges, and M. Djilas,
The New Class: An Analysis of the Communist System
(1958), for the corruption of the new regime. F. J. Kase,
People’s Democracy
(Leyden, 1968), shows how the ambiguities of communist constitutional theory shed light on the uncertainties of Stalin’s foreign policy for the region. For social change, there is S. Fischer-Galati (ed.),
Eastern Europe in the Sixties
(New York, 1963), W. Vucinich (ed.),
Contemporary Yugoslavia
(Berkeley, Calif., 1969), and P. Neuburg,
The Hero’s Children: the Postwar Generation in Eastern Europe
(1972). A. Aman,
Architecture and Ideology in Eastern Europe during the Stalin Era
(New York, 1992), is a well-illustrated study. D. Deletant,
Ceauşescu and the Securitate: Coercion and Dissent in Romania, 1965–1989
(1995), demonstrates how much more comprehensive post-war communist surveillance systems were than pre-war fascist and authoritarian ones. The Baltic states under communism are surveyed in R. Misiunas and R. Taagepera,
The Baltic States: Years of Dependence, 1940–1990
(Berkeley, Calif., 1993); opposition there is covered in T. Remeikis,
Opposition to Soviet Rule in Lithuania, 1945–1980
(Chicago, 1980). P. Kecskemeti,
The Unexpected Revolution: Social Forces in the Hungarian Uprising
(Stanford, Calif., 1961), is a masterly study of the most serious revolt against Soviet rule.