Bloodlands (1)

Last year I read the book by Timothy Snyder called Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin. He tells the story of Eastern Europe between Germany and Russia during the period between 1930 and 1945 when 14 million civilians were killed. This number of deaths is probably unmatched in human history.

The killing began when Stalin starved the people of Ukraine by stealing their grain to pay for the industrialisation of the Soviet Union. Nearly three million people died in three years. Many more people died when Hitler and Stalin divided Poland between them. When Hitler invaded Russia, his troops slaughtered thousands of civilians and even more prisoners of war. Nearly a million died. In the areas that Hitler’s forces controlled, millions of Jews were killed, by bullets to the head, starvation in work camps, or gassing in death facilities. When Stalin’s army defeated Hitler’s forces and pushed them back into Germany, many more people were killed or died of starvation.

Hollywood gives the impression that the Second World War was won by British airmen lying Spitfires and the American army invading France. This book is and important counterpoint. Snyder show that that the real war was fought and won on the Eastern front.