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In Eastern Europe, When Nazis Killed Jews, a "Carnival Atmosphere" Prevailed
(Times of Israel) Matt Lebovic - The first phase of the Holocaust was a communal undertaking, jointly perpetrated by Nazi Germany and thousands of Eastern European collaborators. When the Nazis invaded Soviet lands in 1941, the notorious death camps had not yet been constructed in occupied Poland. To enact Germany's "war of annihilation" against the Jews, mobile killing squads were deployed to conduct large-scale shooting massacres. In some towns, thousands of non-Jews turned out to watch the slaughter of Jews in a festive atmosphere, belying the myth of a genocide carried out in secret. The mass shootings were well-documented with photographs and contemporary reports. Nearly two million Jews were murdered in these massacres. Father Patrick Desbois describes the killings in his new book, In Broad Daylight: The Secret Procedures Behind the Holocaust by Bullets. Desbois drew from research in seven countries where the killing squads operated, with an emphasis on the non-German men and women who helped facilitate the shootings. His research team has interviewed nearly 4,000 eye-witnesses to the mass killings, including elderly men and women who admit to having collaborated with the Nazis.