Empire of Destruction

Alex J. Kay is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Potsdam and lifetime Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He has published five acclaimed books on Nazi Germany, including The Making of an SS Killer.

“In this meticulous, vivid, and grim accounting of the deliberate murder of civilians by Nazi Germany, Kay manages to keep a balance between careful analysis of the evidence and reminders of the horrors of the events he is describing, including individuals’ harrowing recollections of surviving by hiding among dead bodies—often those of their own relatives.”—Lawrence D. Freedman, Foreign Affairs“The book’s great contribution is that it coherently brings together a range of findings, offering a single point of reference for innovative research from the past two decades and beyond. . . . A must-read for anyone teaching classes on the history of World War II, the Nazi period, or twentieth-century Germany more broadly, as well as graduate students studying the Holocaust, Germany, the USSR, or war in twentieth-century Europe.”—Maris Rowe-McCulloch, German History“The book hits the mark due to the fact that it is not individual acts of murder but the entirety of the extermination of civilians by Germans and Austrians in the Second World War that is presented and analysed in an academically rigorous manner. Anyone who wants to understand German and Austrian history— and, beyond that, anyone who wants to understand the human condition—should read the book.”—Hans-Heinrich Nolte, Zeitschrift für Weltgeschichte (Journal of World History)“Kay has produced a truly exceptional book that will be of great interest to general readers and students as well as academics. He presents us with a compendium of Nazi mass killing that both illuminates understudied areas and places them in dialog.”—Waitman Wade Beorn, History: The Journal of the Historical Assocation“Empire of Destruction by Alex J. Kay is an inclusive, compelling, and innovative history . . . comparative history at its best. . . . Kay masterfully overcomes the challenges involved in writing about a staggering number of victims.”—Jan Burzlaff, Holocaust and Genocide Studies“Kay has written an impressive book in all respects. Despite the depressing topic, the book provides a fascinating read and is very accessible, the argumentation convincing and sound. By using many eyewitness accounts, diaries, and other personal documents, the author gives a face to all those killed, so that we do not forget that behind the statistics were individuals. It often makes the book a slap in the face. Kay does an excellent job in showing the multilayered explanations for the way the Third Reich acted in its ‘Empire of Destruction.’ This is a reference book that no one interested in the history of Nazi Germany and the process of mass murder and genocide can afford to miss.”—Martijn Lak, Journal of Slavic Military Studies“Empire of Destruction offers students and scholars alike an up-to-date account of Nazi collective violence that pushes us to reconsider how parallel atrocities can help to explain each other.”—Chelsea Sambells, European History Quarterly“This thought-provoking integrative history of Nazi mass killing sets up a new standard for books on Germany’s darkest period.”—Sönke Neitzel, coauthor of Soldaten: On Fighting, Killing and Dying“Alex Kay performs a great service by juxtaposing the fates of the different population groups who fell victim to Nazi persecution in a way that clarifies the Nazis’ uncompromising drive to domination. The monstrous brutality and vast scale of Nazi mass murder is laid bare here unequivocally, clearly, and unflinchingly.”—Dan Stone, author of The Liberation of the Camps“Building on his earlier insightful work about Nazi policies of destruction, Alex Kay now offers a powerful and empirically convincing account of German war crimes that, for the first time, brings together the history of the Holocaust and genocidal policies against other population groups in a single analytical frame. Lucid and innovative, Empire of Destruction is a major milestone.”—Robert Gerwarth, author of Hitler’s Hangman“A lucid, informative and chronologically well-organized account of Nazi violence, admirable in its effort to integrate the full range of victims of mass killings.”—Mark Roseman, author of Lives Reclaimed: A Story of Rescue and Resistance in Nazi Germany