Parenting and anti-bullying expert Barbara Coloroso said, “It’s a short walk from bullying to genocide.” Greico, a licensed psychiatric technician with a master’s degree in occupational studies, methodically shows how the Holocaust was bullying on a “nauseatingly large scale.” In a comfortable, conversational style, Greico quickly reviews the literature on bullying: what is a bully, who gets bullied and why, how a bully is created, and how to stop the cycle. Having set the stage, she then shows how Hitler was the biggest bully of all time. For those who think this trivializes the Holocaust and catastrophizes bullying, Greico states, “This is not meant to insult survivors and family members of those lost in the Holocaust.” Hitler’s childhood and young adulthood honed his aggressive tendencies. When Hitler became Führer in 1934, his bullying behavior transformed into a plan to create a racially pure empire through genocide.

The next chapters cover bullying in the most notorious concentration camps: Dachau, Dachau subcamps, Sobibor, Treblinka, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and Buchenwald. Equating Nazi atrocities to bullying may seem far-fetched, but Greico crafts a two-page chart comparing and contrasting “Bullies’ Behavior” and “Nazi’s Behavior.” The U.S.A. does not get off the hook. The author also covers Manzanar—California’s Japanese internment camp during WWII. She then points out the burning of churches in America and addresses the Columbine shootings.

Greico concludes that bullying and victims exist because “we live in a Godless society,” and there aren’t enough Christians. An extensive reference section illuminates her sources. Greico carefully supports her belief that modern-day bullying and historical persecution on a national and international scale are the same animal. Whether bullying takes the guise of concentration camps, internment camps, or workplace and playground oppression, we can fight back with education, self-defense, better communication and parenting, and knowledge of Jesus.

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