Believe and Destroy: Intellectuals in the SS War Machine, by Christian Ingrao

Abstract

Believe and Destroy: Intellectuals in the SS War Machine, by Christian Ingrao. London, Polity, 2013. ix, 432 pp. 25.00 [pounds sterling] (cloth). Christian Ingrao's book on the Security Service's (SD) intellectual elite is welcome addition to the corpus of research on the SS and the politics of genocide that has grown so massively over the past two decades. Ingrao, author of study of the Brigade Dirlewanger, is expert in the field and he sets out to olfer nothing less than a decisive reinterpretation of Nazi practices (p. viii). Methodologically, he approaches his subject by identifying group of some eighty men whose collective biography he investigates--not as cradle-to-grave narrative but with twofold research question of (a) which experiences and influences were instrumental in making group of young men with above-average education prone to National Socialism; and (b) how the ensuing convictions and beliefs translated into genocidal action. Ingrao proceeds chronologically, starting with World War I as the pivotal childhood event of his sample, and ending with the post-1945 criminal prosecution of his protagonists. Along the way, he makes number of significant observations, some of them surprising, such as the result of his in-depth reading of the SD officers' extensive CVs. Here, he notes, World War I played only marginal role and defeat did not figure at all. The war's impact, however, would feed into mindset that conceived of Germany as threatened by world of enemies. Such notions were fostered by the Weimar Republic's volkische movement with its academic strongholds. That German students were among the most vociferously right-wing groups is well-known and Ingrao can show how universities developed into clusters for future SD officers, catalyzed ideological radicalization and became hubs of career networks. After 1933-34, SS and SD expanded rapidly and Ingrao's protagonists embarked on impressive careers. Among these were Reinhard Hohn, Otto Ohlendorf, and Franz Six who, as the author suggests, was not the scholarly usurper he has been frequently made to be but an alluring young professor, with brilliant career ahead of him (p. 19). War did not imply break in these men's careers. Ingrao shows how the SD officers perceived the Osteinsatz--their service as commanders in the infamous Einsatzgruppen--as opportunity for sociobiological re-establishment (pp. 62, 128) of Gentian rule in Europe, realizing their millenarian aspirations. Arguing that the SD officers' willingness to engage in genocide was the product of fluid (p. 136) ensemble of beliefs and emotions, Ingrao skirts old-school intentionalism and insists that the motives for becoming mass murderers were dynamic and varied significantly. So did their efforts to escape prosecution or at least capital punishment when they were tried first by the Allies, then by German courts: while Six cast himself as the pure academic Ohlendorf strove for autobiographical consistency during his long spell at Nuremberg, even if that would cost his life. More influential was his construction of exculpating narratives for both the SD and Gennany, along with the intricate coordination between the defendants and witnesses, which Ingrao ably deconstructs. Not everything the author has on offer is all that new, and many of his findings support or supplement rather than correct existing research, notably Michael Wildt's comprehensive study. …