The Similarity of Perpetrators

In his role as interpreter of the Nazi system, Max Aue's most consistent ideological 3message´ seems to be his constant equation of Nazi crimes with other atrocities. Aue primarily draws ties between Nazi and Stalinist crimes, as well as those of colonialism. By focusing on two key images in the text where Soviet and German atrocities are evoked as symmetrical, this paper examines how the notion of similarity amongst perpetrators functions. By closely examining the textual treatment of this notion, the paper underlines the complexity through which the question is raised, problematized, contextualized, and explored within Littell's text, in contrast to Aue's wholehearted evocation of this idea.