Did Stalin condone the holocaust? How warped Soviet values may have prevented him stopping Nazi death camps

By Michael Burleigh for the Daily Mail 20 May 2010

When a platoon of conquering German SS soldiers entered a remote village in Russia in 1941, their leader, Alois Knäbel, was told by an informer that the local cobbler was Jewish.Knäbel had the man, his wife and three-year-old daughter brought to him and set the adults to work scrubbing his quarters. When they had finished, he led them outside and, while holding the child’s hand, he shot them dead.The toddler started screaming, and Knäbel picked her up, stroked her hair and muttered soothing words to her. Then, as he cradled her to his chest with one hand, he used the other to shoot her in the neck.His fellow SS troopers were most impressed.‘Look how finely Knäbel did that,’ said one admiringly, ‘how he first calmed down the child and then killed her.’ more...  and in
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