What did the Soviet citizens of Smolensk experience when the Nazis occupied their city for twenty-six months between 1941 and 1943? In this micro-history, Cohen examines the quotidian endurance and tribulations of those who remained trapped in the city (the population plunged from 156,000 before the war to about 30,000 at its conclusion). During the war, 87,000 persons, including children, were deported to Germany to serve as forced laborers (Ostarbeiter). Flight and war casualities also removed a significant number. Those who remained were chiefly women, children, and the elderly. The relatively few employable men who remained were generally forced to serve in the local administration, including the police force.
Cohen argues that the occupied population defies easy categorization. For the most part, they were neither open collaborators nor clandestine members of the resistance. They were simply too young, old, poor, weak, confused, sick, or apathetic to embrace or...