Under the Shadows of Swastika: Moral Dilemmas of Resistance and Collaboration in Hitler's Europe

This book is a study in the ethics of war. It is the only work to focus on the moral dilemmas of resistance and collaboration in Nazi-occupied Europe. It presents a comprehensive guide to the harrowing ethical choices that confronted people in Hitler's Europe and includes a detailed discussion of Jewish resistance and 'collaboration'. The central theme is a study of how resistance movements responded to German security policy. This had at its foundation the doctrine of collective responsibility, which was a major weapon in the Nazis' war against subversion. It included the systematic taking and killing of hostages, reprisal killings and the burning of villages. Bennett offers a detailed analysis of morally questionable methods of resistance - torture, the mutilation and killing of German prisoners of war and guerrilla warfare. Resistance is assessed in relation to the laws of war and the just-war tradition.