Alcohol, Auxiliaries, and Mass Murder

Abstract

This chapter focuses on other perpetrators, including Wehrmacht soldiers, non-German auxiliaries, and local policemen who engaged in acts of brutality and mass murder often in very similar ways. It discusses how foreign auxiliaries, whether serving in German Security or Order Police units, in the labor and death camps in Poland, or with armed formations of the Waffen-SS and the Wehrmacht, proved a key adjunct to overstretched German forces and critical instruments for mass murder in the East. The chapter also explains how the act of heavy alcohol consumption at village taverns and rural communities of Eastern Europe intertwined perceptions of masculinity and antisemitism. It details the roles of widespread abuse of alcohol among the auxiliaries in the murder of the Jews. The plundering of Jewish goods was an important part of the killing and celebratory ritual among the auxiliaries. Ultimately, the chapter emphasizes how ethnic auxiliaries and local policemen integrated alcohol consumption into their daily routine and discusses its impact on cultural perceptions of masculinity.