After three years of German occupation of Belarus (1941 to 1944), nothing was as it had been before. Nearly 1.7 million of the ten million inhabitants had been murdered, and almost 400,000 had been deported as forced laborers. The terror was directed against Soviet prisoners of war, Jews, intellectuals, farmers, children, the mentally ill, Sinti and Roma, alleged partisans, and refugees from hunger. The cities of the country had largely been turned into fields of ruins, and three million people were homeless. Industrial capacity was nearing zero, and livestock numbers had decreased by 80%. Belarus seemed almost wiped out. Historian Christian Gerlach has tackled this previously only partially addressed history of occupation in a monumental study. Based on a wide range of sources, his account provides deep insights into the practice of extermination.