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Well over 200 million people died in the Twentieth Century as a result of actions undertaken by nations. What drives societies toward violent political conflicts that result in massive destruction and self-destruction? Focusing on the case of Hitler and Nazism, Nations Have the Right to Kill examines the ideas and ideologies that generate warfare and genocide.
Why did Hitler believe that it was necessary to destroy the Jewish race? What was the purpose and meaning of this extraordinary project that the Nazis called “The Final Solution?” Richard Koenigsberg shows how genocide grew out of the logic of warfare. Hitler reasoned that if he had the right to sacrifice his soldiers, he also had the right to send Jews to their deaths.
Genocide and Warfare were two sides of the same coin: A massive sacrificial project requiring that every human being die for Germany. Richard Koenigsberg shows that Hitler waged war based on the wish for the annihilation—not only of the Jews—but of himself, his nation and the German people.
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| The boxcars that transported Jews to their deaths in the Holocaust were the same boxcars that transported German soldiers to their deaths in the First World War. |
German soldiers in cattle cars on their
way to the Western Front in France |
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| 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. |
Jews from the Lodz ghetto board
trains for the death camp at Chelmno |
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Jews killed during the Holocaust: approximately 5,933,900 (Dawidowicz).
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