'Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?' Adolf Hitler asked his generals in 1939, as he told them to 'close your hearts to pity,' 'act brutally' and behave 'with the greatest harshness' in the coming war in the East. It's often assumed that in reminding them of the genocide of at least a million Armenians by the Ottoman Turks during the First World War, Hitler was referring to what he intended to do to Europe's Jews. But he was not referring to the Jews: he was referring to the Poles. 'I have sent my Death's Head units to the East,' he told the generals, 'with the order to kill without mercy men, women and children of the Polish race or language. Only in such a way will we win the living space that we need.'

LRB 4 November 2010 | PDF Download