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Negotiating Murder: A Panzer Signal Company and the Destruction of the Jews of Peregruznoe, 1942
- Holocaust and Genocide Studies
- Oxford University Press
- Volume 23, Number 2, Fall 2009
- pp. 185-213
- Article
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In September 1942, members of a Panzer signal company murdered thirty to forty Jews near the tiny Soviet town of Peregruznoe. A case study of the unit reveals that individual soldiers faced a twisted terrain of choices, pressures, and organizational cultural norms. The author argues that the "perpetrators" among these Wehrmacht soldiers can be placed along a continuum of response: the commander led the activist core, followers went along, and individual soldiers evaded participation. Investigation of the complexities of participation and non-participation in spontaneous acts of violence such as this helps us to understand why some men (and units) killed while others did not.