The title of this book is misleading. It deals with the killing of civilians in war more generally; not just civil war. On the very first page; we are given the example of the killing of 10 civilian men in the village of Baranivka in Ukraine by Wehrmacht soldiers in the Second World War. Just one of many massacres of civilians -and there were many with far; far higher numbers of victims - this was quite typical of Wehrmacht operations in occupied territories; especially on the Eastern Front (pp. 161-65). But while the Second World War contained elements of civil war - Greeks siding with Italian and German occupation forces fighting Greek communists who were siding with the USSR -it was above all an interstate war; and in Ukraine not a civil war. Either way; this is a haunting subject; which Jurgen Brandsch discusses with particular reference to European history. Brandsch categorises distinguishable; if not in reality distinct; motivations for ordering the killing of civilians in war. There is the punitive/retributive motivation. And there is the motivation of killing some with the purpose of terrorising; and thus de-terring; others (would-be insurgents; guerrilleros; partisans and their supporters) who might otherwise be tempted to fight or oppose the government or the occupying forces. This second motivation can lead to selective targeting: the killing (or torturing; or at least imprisoning) of individual militants; their families or residents of their villages; or the destruction; as has been practised by Israeli governments; of the family homes of suicide bombers.
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