Drunk on Genocide

Edward B. Westermann has now produced a book that pays tribute to all strands of research while, at the same time, highlighting an element that will need to be included in all future considerations: the stimulation of the murderers through alcohol.

* American Historical Review *

Drunk on Genocide is an essential read, and one that offers considerable insights into the intimate relationship between ritualized intoxication, cults of masculinity, ideological antisemitism, and the mass murders in the bloodlands of the east.

* EuropeNow *

Westermann uses a wide variety of primary sources ranging from photos to diaries to interviews to understand the behaviors and beliefs of perpetrators. It is a remarkably challenging book to read. But a necessary one.

* New Books Network *

[Ed Westermann's work provides an invaluable insight into the mindset and mentality of the everyday executioners of the racial war in the east.

* German History *

Drawing on several decades of research into Nazi police battalions and comparative genocide, Westermann employs social, anthropological, and gender theories to create a framework that effectively analyzes the relationship between alcohol and mass murder.

* Journal of Military History *

Drunk on Genocide is a important and terryfing book that tackles a persistent question in the study of the Holocaust and World War II: how was it possible that the Germans killed so many people and behaved so brutally in the Soviet territory they invaded and occupied?

* Slavic Review *

Westermann's work is incredibly thoroughly researched with a rich amount of survivor testimony that gives voice to the victims. Drunk on Genocide is a compelling work with a well-researched argument.

* The Middle Ground Journal *