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Article Analysis:
A Calculus of Complicity: The Wehrmacht, the Anti-Partisan War, and the Final Solution in
White Russia, 1941-42
Hannah Rimnyak
History 1404E 570 FW22
Virtue
October 28, 2022
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A Calculus of Complicity: The Wehrmacht, the Anti-Partisan War, and the Final Solution
in White Russia, 1941-42 written by Waitman W. Beorn, a historian and senior lecturer at
Northumbria University, informs readers about the Mogilev conference’s expansion of the
Wehrmacht and their responsibility within the genocide and debriefs different forms of evidence
which show the increased complicity in the murder of Jews throughout rHGM and Belarus
(Beorn 2011, 309).
The main thesis of this article is to investigate how the anti-partisan war and the Jew-
Bloshevikpartisan constitution were used in order to have the Wehrmacht fully incorporated into
the Nazi genocidal practice at a local level (Beorn 2011, 309). Beorn goes into great depth on
how the partisan threat was intentionally put into action for the main purpose of providing
German soldiers with the idea that all Jews were partisans, and taught the Wehrmacht to always
suspect that Jews were involved within these activities.
Within the article many arguments are made which in turn contribute to the thesis.
Leading up to the conference, the Wehrmacht had been told repeatedly that Jews were a lower
class of people, thus they would be frequently picked out first and used as forced labour during
operations. This may be shown in the case of the Jewish men who were "evacuated" from a
forest by the 350th Infantry Regiment and taken to a camp where they were put on work detail.
The intelligence branch of the 403rd security division reported that during this operation, not all
troops approached Jewish workers with the appropriate attitude and lacked a feeling of
ruthlessness. Alternatively, saying that Jews ought to be handled harshly, like a wayward kid or
even a criminal secondly, the Wehrmacht was under strict rules, as they were expected to be
obedient, or face consequences that no human would ever want to be put through. The article
goes on to describe the great role this played into the maintaining of unit cohesion, even under
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the most adverse combat conditions. (Beorn 2011, 310) It is then stated that between the
discipline and cohesion as well as the mythic association with Jews, Bolsheviks, and partisans
contributed to the troops participating within certain atrocities (Beorn 2011, 310), this now being
another argument which supports the thesis above. Continuing on, Beorn mentions a document
in which called for “the most drastic means” that were to be used to combat resistance, and
included using the ratio of fifty to one hundred communist is killed for every German soldier
killed, this in turn caused an uprising in the violence against civilians as well as the substation of
Jews for communist is as victims, disregarding the fact that the order did not mention Jews
whatsoever. (Beorn 2011, 313) This again, proves that under many circumstances the partisan
threat was intentionally put into action for the sole purpose of implementing troops into the
killing of Jews.
Beorn presents evidence from radio broadcasts, including the passing of information
during that time period, as well as newspaper articles which support his arguments, allowing him
to expand and go into greater detail on his thesis statement.
With the evidence supplied by the author and within this article, it can fit into broader
academic debate in the sense of obtaining knowledge of past historical issues such as the
Wehrmacht ‘clean hands’ debate, Nazi germany, and the holocaust. This gives readers the
opportunity to expand their knowledge on such topics and allow them to have the ability to
communicate their findings and opinions on such topics to others with the goal of effectively
educating each other. Beorn offers a great deal of information that undoubtedly had an impact on
the Wehrmacht, leading them to believe that all Jews were partisans. According to directives and
topics covered during the Mogilev conference, the Wehrmacht should always exercise caution
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with Jews because they might in fact be involved in Partisan action. In conclusion, the
Wehrmacht were pure until antisemitic lies contaminated their brains.
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Bibliography
Beorn, Waitman W. A Calculus of Complicity: The Wehrmacht, the Anti-Partisan War, and the
Final Solution in White Russia, 1941–42 Central European History, no. 44,2
(2011) 308-337.
