Christian Ingrao is one of the leading experts on the history of Nazism. Currently a researcher at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), he was director of the Institut d’histoire du temps présent (IHTP) from 2008 to 2013. His previous books include Believe and Destroy: Intellectuals in the SS War Machine (Polity, 2013).

‘This is a highly original and important book. Christian Ingrao draws masterfully on a wide range of sources to deliver compelling new insight into the Nazi plans for the East, at the same time illuminating our understanding of the context in which the Holocaust was conceived.’Jean-Marc Dreyfus, University of Manchester‘Christian Ingrao offers a grim but compelling story, reminding us that the Nazis’ genocidal policies were only part of an even more far-reaching utopian project, a project that succeeded in mobilizing the energies of tens of thousands of young men and women, inspired by the dream of a greater Germany.’Mark Roseman Director, Borns Jewish Studies Program, Indiana University‘We are indebted to Christian Ingrao for giving us a fine reading based on the best sources of this bloody episode of modern history.’Olivier Wieviorka, Libération‘Christian Ingrao’s new book is a landmark and tour de force. In highlighting the interplay of Utopia and genocide, it sheds a fresh and disturbing light on our times.’Paul Gradvohl, L’Histoire

• List of MapsAcknowledgmentsSynoptic table of plans for Germanization, displacements of population, and constructionIntroductionPrologue: The moment of Utopia (September 1939 - summer 1943)The mist-enshrouded time of foundations (1 September - 30 November 1939)The round of short-term plans (1 December 1939 - 21 June 1941)New horizons: the General Plan for the East (22 June 1941-15 February 1943)Part I: The men and the institutions of UtopiaChapter One: A nebula of institutionsThe diversity of the institutions of UtopiaThe central institutions: RKFdV, RSHA, WVHAThe regional and local extensions of the SS: HSSPF and SSPFLocal agencies and institutions: EWZ and UWZCivilian administrations of incorporated and occupied territoriesHow consensus was generatedForms and thoughts of the future in the East: the three main general plansThe RSHA plansThe WVHA memorandaPlanning the RKFdVChapter Two: Networks and trajectories of the men of the East‘Men’ of the East? A world in itselfProfessional networks and military networksTowards genocide? The itineraries of the expertsChapter Three: Osteinsatz. The journey to the East, a form of Nazi fervourThe East, between utopia and anxietyThe myths of the Great TrekThe racial, hygienic and educational dimensionsConclusionPart II: Times and spaces of UtopiaChapter Four: General planning for the EastThe curse of Germanic insularity liftedUmvolkung: dissimilation or ethnomorphosis?The drying up of the alien ocean. Mass murder and utopiaChapter Five: At the School of Fine ArtsThinking about spaceCity, Volksgemeinschaft and segregationDreaming of rural space: the architect, the SS and the peasantChapter Six: From one plan to the next? The Kammler sequenceOn planning style: the WVHA, Hans Kammler and their estimatesAchieving Utopia? The institutionalization and failure of building programmesFrom the future back to the present: Utopia evaporatesConclusionPart III: The case of ZamoIntroductionChapter Seven: The microcosms of radical policy: ZamojszczyznaThe men, the space and the past of ZamojszczyznaInstitutional microscosmsThe land of all Nazi radicalismsChapter Eight: The politics of the laboratoryClassifying, expelling, deporting. The social engineering at the basis of utopiaBuilding. The Nazi attempt to shape the territoryBuilding, installing, settling. At the heart of a new worldChapter Nine: The nightmare. From the ethnic domino effect to the flames of despairIn the full sight of all. The extermination of the Jews, prior to GermanizationA society martyredWars of the entre-soi (“inter-self wars”), (1943-1945)ConclusionNotesAppendix 1: List of acronyms of the SS’s ‘utopian’ institutionsAppendix 2: Organizational chart of the SS institutions of UtopiaTimelineIndex

Christian Ingrao is one of the leading experts on the history of Nazism. Currently a researcher at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), he was director of the Institut d’histoire du temps présent (IHTP) from 2008 to 2013. His previous books include Believe and Destroy: Intellectuals in the SS War Machine (Polity, 2013).

‘This is a highly original and important book. Christian Ingrao draws masterfully on a wide range of sources to deliver compelling new insight into the Nazi plans for the East, at the same time illuminating our understanding of the context in which the Holocaust was conceived.’Jean-Marc Dreyfus, University of Manchester‘Christian Ingrao offers a grim but compelling story, reminding us that the Nazis’ genocidal policies were only part of an even more far-reaching utopian project, a project that succeeded in mobilizing the energies of tens of thousands of young men and women, inspired by the dream of a greater Germany.’Mark Roseman Director, Borns Jewish Studies Program, Indiana University‘We are indebted to Christian Ingrao for giving us a fine reading based on the best sources of this bloody episode of modern history.’Olivier Wieviorka, Libération‘Christian Ingrao’s new book is a landmark and tour de force. In highlighting the interplay of Utopia and genocide, it sheds a fresh and disturbing light on our times.’Paul Gradvohl, L’Histoire

• List of MapsAcknowledgmentsSynoptic table of plans for Germanization, displacements of population, and constructionIntroductionPrologue: The moment of Utopia (September 1939 - summer 1943)The mist-enshrouded time of foundations (1 September - 30 November 1939)The round of short-term plans (1 December 1939 - 21 June 1941)New horizons: the General Plan for the East (22 June 1941-15 February 1943)Part I: The men and the institutions of UtopiaChapter One: A nebula of institutionsThe diversity of the institutions of UtopiaThe central institutions: RKFdV, RSHA, WVHAThe regional and local extensions of the SS: HSSPF and SSPFLocal agencies and institutions: EWZ and UWZCivilian administrations of incorporated and occupied territoriesHow consensus was generatedForms and thoughts of the future in the East: the three main general plansThe RSHA plansThe WVHA memorandaPlanning the RKFdVChapter Two: Networks and trajectories of the men of the East‘Men’ of the East? A world in itselfProfessional networks and military networksTowards genocide? The itineraries of the expertsChapter Three: Osteinsatz. The journey to the East, a form of Nazi fervourThe East, between utopia and anxietyThe myths of the Great TrekThe racial, hygienic and educational dimensionsConclusionPart II: Times and spaces of UtopiaChapter Four: General planning for the EastThe curse of Germanic insularity liftedUmvolkung: dissimilation or ethnomorphosis?The drying up of the alien ocean. Mass murder and utopiaChapter Five: At the School of Fine ArtsThinking about spaceCity, Volksgemeinschaft and segregationDreaming of rural space: the architect, the SS and the peasantChapter Six: From one plan to the next? The Kammler sequenceOn planning style: the WVHA, Hans Kammler and their estimatesAchieving Utopia? The institutionalization and failure of building programmesFrom the future back to the present: Utopia evaporatesConclusionPart III: The case of ZamoIntroductionChapter Seven: The microcosms of radical policy: ZamojszczyznaThe men, the space and the past of ZamojszczyznaInstitutional microscosmsThe land of all Nazi radicalismsChapter Eight: The politics of the laboratoryClassifying, expelling, deporting. The social engineering at the basis of utopiaBuilding. The Nazi attempt to shape the territoryBuilding, installing, settling. At the heart of a new worldChapter Nine: The nightmare. From the ethnic domino effect to the flames of despairIn the full sight of all. The extermination of the Jews, prior to GermanizationA society martyredWars of the entre-soi (“inter-self wars”), (1943-1945)ConclusionNotesAppendix 1: List of acronyms of the SS’s ‘utopian’ institutionsAppendix 2: Organizational chart of the SS institutions of UtopiaTimelineIndex

Christian Ingrao is one of the leading experts on the history of Nazism. Currently a researcher at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), he was director of the Institut d’histoire du temps présent (IHTP) from 2008 to 2013. His previous books include Believe and Destroy: Intellectuals in the SS War Machine (Polity, 2013).

‘This is a highly original and important book. Christian Ingrao draws masterfully on a wide range of sources to deliver compelling new insight into the Nazi plans for the East, at the same time illuminating our understanding of the context in which the Holocaust was conceived.’Jean-Marc Dreyfus, University of Manchester‘Christian Ingrao offers a grim but compelling story, reminding us that the Nazis’ genocidal policies were only part of an even more far-reaching utopian project, a project that succeeded in mobilizing the energies of tens of thousands of young men and women, inspired by the dream of a greater Germany.’Mark Roseman Director, Borns Jewish Studies Program, Indiana University‘We are indebted to Christian Ingrao for giving us a fine reading based on the best sources of this bloody episode of modern history.’Olivier Wieviorka, Libération‘Christian Ingrao’s new book is a landmark and tour de force. In highlighting the interplay of Utopia and genocide, it sheds a fresh and disturbing light on our times.’Paul Gradvohl, L’Histoire

• List of MapsAcknowledgmentsSynoptic table of plans for Germanization, displacements of population, and constructionIntroductionPrologue: The moment of Utopia (September 1939 - summer 1943)The mist-enshrouded time of foundations (1 September - 30 November 1939)The round of short-term plans (1 December 1939 - 21 June 1941)New horizons: the General Plan for the East (22 June 1941-15 February 1943)Part I: The men and the institutions of UtopiaChapter One: A nebula of institutionsThe diversity of the institutions of UtopiaThe central institutions: RKFdV, RSHA, WVHAThe regional and local extensions of the SS: HSSPF and SSPFLocal agencies and institutions: EWZ and UWZCivilian administrations of incorporated and occupied territoriesHow consensus was generatedForms and thoughts of the future in the East: the three main general plansThe RSHA plansThe WVHA memorandaPlanning the RKFdVChapter Two: Networks and trajectories of the men of the East‘Men’ of the East? A world in itselfProfessional networks and military networksTowards genocide? The itineraries of the expertsChapter Three: Osteinsatz. The journey to the East, a form of Nazi fervourThe East, between utopia and anxietyThe myths of the Great TrekThe racial, hygienic and educational dimensionsConclusionPart II: Times and spaces of UtopiaChapter Four: General planning for the EastThe curse of Germanic insularity liftedUmvolkung: dissimilation or ethnomorphosis?The drying up of the alien ocean. Mass murder and utopiaChapter Five: At the School of Fine ArtsThinking about spaceCity, Volksgemeinschaft and segregationDreaming of rural space: the architect, the SS and the peasantChapter Six: From one plan to the next? The Kammler sequenceOn planning style: the WVHA, Hans Kammler and their estimatesAchieving Utopia? The institutionalization and failure of building programmesFrom the future back to the present: Utopia evaporatesConclusionPart III: The case of ZamoIntroductionChapter Seven: The microcosms of radical policy: ZamojszczyznaThe men, the space and the past of ZamojszczyznaInstitutional microscosmsThe land of all Nazi radicalismsChapter Eight: The politics of the laboratoryClassifying, expelling, deporting. The social engineering at the basis of utopiaBuilding. The Nazi attempt to shape the territoryBuilding, installing, settling. At the heart of a new worldChapter Nine: The nightmare. From the ethnic domino effect to the flames of despairIn the full sight of all. The extermination of the Jews, prior to GermanizationA society martyredWars of the entre-soi (“inter-self wars”), (1943-1945)ConclusionNotesAppendix 1: List of acronyms of the SS’s ‘utopian’ institutionsAppendix 2: Organizational chart of the SS institutions of UtopiaTimelineIndex