Setting aside everything else, it's a bit inaccurate to say that Germany was "in the middle of an existential battle" with the Soviet Union without acknowledging that Hitler and the USSR had a non-aggression pact signed August 1939 (under which they carved up eastern Europe) and which Nazi Germany then violated by attacking the Soviets in 1941 after Stalin had somewhat stupidly stood by as everyone else was cleared off the board. The Soviet Union was horrific, yes, but come on. The Nazis were a whole different level of evil. Did the review mention the Holocaust, or dare I ask?
I have to disagree that the Nazis were “a whole different level of evil”. Everything Nazi Germany did, the Soviet Union also did on an equal if not worse level. Genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes, and so on. The Nazis have the Holocaust, the Soviets have the Holodomor - which happened first. You mentioned the non-aggression pact, but what did both sides do with that pact? They ganged up on Poland and carved it between themselves. Stalin didn’t just “stood by” (tell that to Finland). Hitler ended up double-crossing Stalin sure, but there’s no reason to believe that Stalin wasn’t thinking of doing the same at some point (I promise not to get into the rabbit hole that is Stalin’s offensive plans theory).
And to answer your question, the review didn’t really get into the Holocaust because the focus was on Bonhoeffer, a Christian. Though it did acknowledge that he was executed in a concentration camp.
There is one important difference, though: I certainly don't mean to minimize or downplay what the USSR did by any means, but the Holocaust was directly conceived and aimed at eliminating the Jewish people as a people. That's important to acknowledge when we're talking about the context of the evil things Hitler did (not to mention the personal context as Bonhoeffer's brother-in-law, his sister Sabine's husband, was Jewish).
Setting aside everything else, it's a bit inaccurate to say that Germany was "in the middle of an existential battle" with the Soviet Union without acknowledging that Hitler and the USSR had a non-aggression pact signed August 1939 (under which they carved up eastern Europe) and which Nazi Germany then violated by attacking the Soviets in 1941 after Stalin had somewhat stupidly stood by as everyone else was cleared off the board. The Soviet Union was horrific, yes, but come on. The Nazis were a whole different level of evil. Did the review mention the Holocaust, or dare I ask?
I have to disagree that the Nazis were “a whole different level of evil”. Everything Nazi Germany did, the Soviet Union also did on an equal if not worse level. Genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes, and so on. The Nazis have the Holocaust, the Soviets have the Holodomor - which happened first. You mentioned the non-aggression pact, but what did both sides do with that pact? They ganged up on Poland and carved it between themselves. Stalin didn’t just “stood by” (tell that to Finland). Hitler ended up double-crossing Stalin sure, but there’s no reason to believe that Stalin wasn’t thinking of doing the same at some point (I promise not to get into the rabbit hole that is Stalin’s offensive plans theory).
And to answer your question, the review didn’t really get into the Holocaust because the focus was on Bonhoeffer, a Christian. Though it did acknowledge that he was executed in a concentration camp.
There is one important difference, though: I certainly don't mean to minimize or downplay what the USSR did by any means, but the Holocaust was directly conceived and aimed at eliminating the Jewish people as a people. That's important to acknowledge when we're talking about the context of the evil things Hitler did (not to mention the personal context as Bonhoeffer's brother-in-law, his sister Sabine's husband, was Jewish).