Birds of Prey: Hitler's Luftwaffe, Ordinary Soldiers, and the Holocaust in Poland By Philip W. Blood. Stuttgart: ibidem, 2021. Pp. xv + 484. Paperback €39.90. ISBN: 978-3838215679.

Abstract

quence of France’s military defeat in June 1940. It cooperated willingly with the Vichy government but was not as politicized as the NSV, nor did it promote a program of lasting social or political change. Like the NSV, most of its employees worked gratis. Unlike the NSV, the National Relief selected employees based on qualifications, most of whom were upper-middle-class Catholic women. It, too, was financed by a combination of contributions, for which it enjoyed a monopoly, and government transfers. Some of its revenues came from expropriations and fines imposed on Jews and political opponents of the Vichy regime. It also received sizeable contributions from France’s overseas territories. The National Relief had no explicit policy concerning Jews, though some of its local officials refused to help them on racist grounds. It also discriminated against Gaullists and communists. When choosing beneficiaries, it concentrated on age and place of residence. Hadwiger characterizes the National Relief as a middle-class, Catholic war charity. After 1949, it, too, was quickly forgotten. The author’s thesis that the NSV and the National Relief lay at the center of wartime social welfare policy in their respective countries is untenable. It would be more accurate to say that the two charities played significant supporting roles. The fashionable interpretive ideas used by the author add little to his analysis. Nationale Solidarität und ihre Grenzen serves two useful purposes: it offers the reader a convenient way to learn a great deal about the two charities, and it provides us with an example of the hazards of presentism.