The photos below show German soldiers in freight cars as they embark for the Front in 1914 to fight in the First World War. Innocent young men, they went “like sheep to the slaughter.” Robert Whalen reports that after four years of battle, 2,037,000 German soldiers had died; 4,300,000 were wounded; and 974,977 reported missing or wounded. Total casualties: 7,311,977.
In his study of the First World War, Denis Winter (1979) writes about the experience of German soldiers as they were transported to battle in box cars:
After the stint at base, the railway took the men toward the front line. To a generation with visual memories of the railway lines running into Hitler’s death camps, tense faces peering from cattle trucks, there is something disconcerting about the imagery of this journey from base camp. The soldiers went in waggons of the same type, forty of them in each waggon, kit hanging from hoods in the roof. Death was a high probability for both generations of travelers in these cattle trucks.
The slaughter of young German men preceded the slaughter of the Jews.
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| German soldiers in a railroad car on the way to the front during early World War I, taken in 1914 | German soldiers on their way to Paris |
While we are disturbed and horrified by the Holocaust, the slaughter of young men in the First World War (with total casualties of 37,508,686) does not evoke the same horror and disturbance.
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In Nations Have the Right to Kill, Richard Koenigsberg argues that the essence of the nation-state lies in its capacity to require that young men give over their bodies to the nation-state. What Hitler did was to carry this fundamental premise—that nations have the right to kill—to an extreme, bizarre conclusion.
We believe this book should be read and digested by every serious scholar—You therefore may download the entire book at no charge (141 pages, 843 KB). The download is identical to the hardbound version that is listed (with a selling price of $45.95) on Amazon.com.
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| Library of Social Science Announces the Publication of NATIONS HAVE THE RIGHT TO KILL: Hitler, the Holocaust and War |
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A work of stunning originality, Nations Have the Right to Kill changes forever our understanding of the motives that drive nation-states toward destruction and self-destruction. Focusing on the two World Wars and the Holocaust, this book provides insights into the “hidden narratives” operating under the radar of history. Dr. Koenigsberg’s study of the dynamics of nationalism has generated excitement and discussion throughout the world.PRAISE FOR NATIONS HAVE THE RIGHT TO KILL“Two terrors from long ago haunt us still. First, the Holocaust: that cold-blooded massacre of millions. Second, the ability of political leaders during two World Wars to convince ordinary people that slaughtering their neighbors was patriotic. A half-century later, we continue to ask: how was this possible? Richard A. Koenigsberg offers provocative answers. Koenigsberg’s analysis ranges from gender identity, to the First World War, to Aztec warfare. No single answer will exorcize our terrors. But Koenigsberg’s bold and original approach, clearly and precisely presented, will help us, if not to expel them, at least, finally, to comprehend them.” —Robert Whalen, History Department Chairman, Queens University of Charlotte, author of Bitter Wounds: German Victims of the Great War, 1914-1939 “Richard Koenigsberg skillfully confronts the taken-for-granted worlds of nationalism and political realism. The strength of this book rests in fleshing out original arguments and grounding them in historical evidence. Throwing back the curtains on the nation-state, Koenigsberg interrogates motivations behind the human tragedies of the two World Wars.” —Matthew Eddy, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion “Combining solid historical scholarship and profound psychological insight, this book is recommended for courses that address the whys of the Holocaust, as well as historical and contemporary genocides. Koenigsberg opens the door to a host of further explorations.” “Nations Have the Right to Kill is a fresh and passionate mode of theorizing war.” “Nations have the Right to Kill is a passionate monograph that presents a searing criticism of the sacrificial ideology that mobilizes people for war.”
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