The brutalization of precious German Manpower Summary and Analysis

The book proper consists of two major divisions, the first one being titled: "Part One 'Acts of violence...carried out quite openly' - the murder of Jews in the daily life of the Einsatzgruppen". Part One is further divided into ten named but unnumbered chapters of quite unequal length. Chapters are topical and present one or more documents that are related because they discuss the same event or very similar events. The first chapter, "The brutalization of precious German manpower - the occupation of Poland", presents a recurrent theme in the materials of the book—the Nazi government was deeply concerned that the process of institutionalized murder was dehumanizing those tasked with the direct process of execution. The concern was that good German soldiers would become depraved by prolonged participation...