Operation Barbarossa in Photographs, The War in Russia as Photographed by the Soldiers

by Paul Carell

Renowned author Paul Carell’s photo album to accompany his definitive studies on the war in Russia. Over 570 b/w and color photos from both German and Russian archives explore the entire campaign.

Genres: World War II

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Paul Carell (born Paul Karl Schmidt) was an Obersturmbannführer (lieutenant colonel) in the Allgemeine-SS (General SS) in Nazi Germany. He worked as the chief press spokesman for Joachim von Ribbentrop's Foreign Ministry, where he formulated propaganda for the foreign press. In this capacity during World War II, he maintained close ties with the Wehrmacht (German Army). After the war, he became a successful author, mostly of revisionist books that romanticized and whitewashed the Wehrmacht's role in World War II.

Reviews

[James Varney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kind of a strange book. Lots and lots of photographs, of course, and thus of great interest to all who read about or study the Eastern Front in WWII. I haven't read Carell's histories - they're quite well regarded by some, but it's my understanding he was a former Nazi and there's no question there's an odd air about this book. Not so much of apology for all the terrible things Germany and the German Army did in Europe, but of sympathy for German soldiers. This can make for some laugh out loud nonsense. For example, there's a photo of a German soldier being bandaged by a Russian. But if you look closely, you see the "SS" on his collar, and the guy himself looks like just the sort of meat-headed bully you associate with the SS.

There are also some errors. In a photo from Stalingrad, for instance, the text identifies the Russian general as "Zhukov" when it is Chuikov.

Nevertheless, there are many, many photos that capture small, forgotten Russian towns left blazing heaps, and cities with streets of rubble, that remind you of the titanic scale of the Eastern Front. The world has never seen such sustained, widespread, immense savagery as the unleashed during the Russo-German War, and every page of the book serves as a reminder of the immeasurable sorrow it caused for millions.