In "Sadomasochism and the Jihadi Death Cult," Nancy Kobrin writes about Islamic terrorism from the perspective of the "psychological pull of sado-masochism."

Addressing the prominent scholars and important historians on this list (and everyone else):

• Have you ever heard the term "sadomasochism" used in relationship to histories of the First World War? Do they (or you) write about the sadomasochistic Germans? Or sadomasochistic French? Or the sadomasochistic Italians? Or the sadomasochistic Russians?
   
• The Nazis are known for their brutality and the atrocities they committed. Have historians ever called the Nazis "sadomasochistic"?
   
• Nine-million men died in the First World War. It was a war in which nations of the world produced mass-destruction on a prodigious scale. Has this collaborative effort mutually created by the nations of the world ever been referred to as a (gigantic) death cult?
   
• The Nazis produced 55 million deaths. Do historians write about Nazism as a colossal "death cult?"

If anyone can think of a reasons why we shouldn't say that the nations of the First World War participated in a "sado-masochistic death cult," please write to Mary Helen at mhgs@libraryofsocialscience.com.

If anyone can tell me why we shouldn't call the Nazi movement, 1933-1945, a sado-masochistic death cult, please write to Mary Helen at mhgs@libraryofsocialscience.com.

Thanks,

Richard Koenigsberg