The new edition of The Scourge of the Swastika is prefaced by a New Introduction by the eminent historian Alistair Horne. In it he sets this shocking condemnation of Nazi war crimes in the context of crimes against humanity in general, and outlines why Lord Russell of Liverpool's book is still important today. “In the years since 1945, genocidal murder - and one must never forget that it was not only the Jews but also Russians, Poles, Yugoslavs, Dutch and French, and Germans themselves, who were murdered by hecatombs in the Nazi Holocaust - has been embarked upon in other parts of the world far from Germany. There have been the various genocides of Central Africa; the terrible 'Killing Fields' of the gentle Cambodians, where an estimated one-third of the population was liquidated by Pol Pot; the millions of Tibetans and Chinese killed in the Cultural Revolution; and the Soviet death camps, which continued even after the demise of the arch-murderer Stalin. Between them Mao and 'Uncle Joe' killed far more innocent civilians than did Hitler. Vile tortures were perpetrated by the civilised French during the Algerian war, and by Chileans under Pinochet. And then, uncomfortably much nearer home, the horrible phrase 'ethnic cleansing', was brought into common usage by Slobodan Milosevic and his henchmen. One hesitates to mention the racist undertones contained within the Islamic terrorist onslaught of September 11th with its suggestions of much worse to come. It is these peoples and their leaders who should now have The Scourge of the Swastika on their reading lists, for it is a book of merit that has stood the test of time. And what about ourselves, so smug in our belief that 'it just can't happen here'. Can't it, though? As one tries, perennially, to answer the conundrum of how a civilised nation like the Germans should have fallen under the sway of satanic demon like Adolf Hitler, one looks at the distorted faces of the soccer fans on the British football terraces in a society of full employment, affluence and comfort, and one wonders . . . One learns on television of the torture and murder of children - and one just wonders.” The Scourge of the Swastika remains the most concise and readable study of the disturbing subject of Nazi crimes, and Alistair Horne's New Introduction complements this classic text for today's audience. Back to Greenhill Military Book News No. 116 Table of Contents Back to Greenhill Military Book News List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2002 by Greenhill Books This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com