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Battlegrounds: Cornell Studies in Military History
The Virtuous Wehrmacht: Crafting the Myth of the German Soldier on the Eastern Front, 1941-1944
"This book examines how German soldiers fighting on the Eastern Front during the Second World War rationalized their participation in a criminal campaign, and how the Wehrmacht attempted to assert moral superiority over its Soviet enemies. In the process, it redefines the origins of the myth of the "clean" Wehrmacht"--
315 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2021
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April 21, 2025
Indoctrination was and will always be important part of preparation for any conflict and war. What is important is to make sure that in chaos that armed conflict is, people do not lose sight of common human values. Application of force in order to win will always bring forth decisions and actions that are dubious in nature but entire endeavor must not be turned into pure murder campaign.
For a simple reason - all things surface with time and even for population living in denial, that does not mean shame will not be visited upon everyone generations after the event.
And this is what happened with Wehrmacht, Nazi Germany war machine. Unlike standard SS, both Wehrmacht (and Waffen SS who tried and unfortunately succeeded to get disconnected from the main SS) managed to build the myth of how it fought honorably and whatever went wrong was due to the needs to fight off the other side. I mean, first you invade territory where there are no your people (Volkdeutchers aside - since these are equivalent to pioneers establishing colonies in the US West, they never were in such numbers to be considered nation builders in given area) and then you have audacity to say how you fought defensive war against the actual nation(s) you invaded? I mean, what?
Books is concentrated on Wehrmacht alone and all of the data is collated from the correspondence of ordinary soldiers to their loved ones and family, sample from millions of mails and diaries that are kept in Germany's dedicated historiography institutes. In all of this one can clearly see all the elements affecting the actions and behavior of the troops in the East, from political indoctrination, religious views (that eternal Crusade to the East), racial policies (bringing the light to the "unclean ones" - that have popped up in current settings, amongst people-lovers, same almost to the t) to that eternal victim-hood approach after all is lost (oh, my they betrayed us).
It is incredible how people when enabled by the commanders, facing very rough reality, death and destruction can find justification for anything, even the most ruinous and murderous actions.
And to make things worse soldiers did not even need to be Nazi affiliated (maybe by party card but not necessarily by full belief system) - East was seen by them as populated by "half humans" and they all had to be exterminated, sooner or later. And this is what people forget, even in those collaboration states a little bit nearer to Germany. They might have thought Nazis will treat them as (near)equals, and I wish we have what-if time machine that would show that genocides in Czechoslovakia and Poland were taste of things to come once Nazi's would establish themselves more firmly in the East.
I am not for the national level punishments after the war, no matter what given government has done (although lots of current people-loving governments actually follow this approach) but founding of Western Germany army using Wehrmacht troops and sterilizing what Wehrmacht did in order to not burden the nation (since lots of other culprits like SS were ready at hand) was big mistake. This allowed strengthening of the myth of chivalrous Wehrmacht when it was nothing but cold blooded, murderous machine. What is even worse, more bloodthirsty elements like Waffen SS used this to get out of the pits of Hell where they belong.
Final result - ideology from Nazi Germany survived, for no other reason than as a rallying cry against Reds (West did not learn anything from Freikorps years, especially when they used Germans in Baltic immediately after WW1). Viper was brought to the bosoms and left to flourish without any thought of long term effects. And now it again perched its head.
Excellent book, lots of food for thought and with some very ugly parallels with contemporary events and views from the elites, social and academic.
For a simple reason - all things surface with time and even for population living in denial, that does not mean shame will not be visited upon everyone generations after the event.
And this is what happened with Wehrmacht, Nazi Germany war machine. Unlike standard SS, both Wehrmacht (and Waffen SS who tried and unfortunately succeeded to get disconnected from the main SS) managed to build the myth of how it fought honorably and whatever went wrong was due to the needs to fight off the other side. I mean, first you invade territory where there are no your people (Volkdeutchers aside - since these are equivalent to pioneers establishing colonies in the US West, they never were in such numbers to be considered nation builders in given area) and then you have audacity to say how you fought defensive war against the actual nation(s) you invaded? I mean, what?
Books is concentrated on Wehrmacht alone and all of the data is collated from the correspondence of ordinary soldiers to their loved ones and family, sample from millions of mails and diaries that are kept in Germany's dedicated historiography institutes. In all of this one can clearly see all the elements affecting the actions and behavior of the troops in the East, from political indoctrination, religious views (that eternal Crusade to the East), racial policies (bringing the light to the "unclean ones" - that have popped up in current settings, amongst people-lovers, same almost to the t) to that eternal victim-hood approach after all is lost (oh, my they betrayed us).
It is incredible how people when enabled by the commanders, facing very rough reality, death and destruction can find justification for anything, even the most ruinous and murderous actions.
And to make things worse soldiers did not even need to be Nazi affiliated (maybe by party card but not necessarily by full belief system) - East was seen by them as populated by "half humans" and they all had to be exterminated, sooner or later. And this is what people forget, even in those collaboration states a little bit nearer to Germany. They might have thought Nazis will treat them as (near)equals, and I wish we have what-if time machine that would show that genocides in Czechoslovakia and Poland were taste of things to come once Nazi's would establish themselves more firmly in the East.
I am not for the national level punishments after the war, no matter what given government has done (although lots of current people-loving governments actually follow this approach) but founding of Western Germany army using Wehrmacht troops and sterilizing what Wehrmacht did in order to not burden the nation (since lots of other culprits like SS were ready at hand) was big mistake. This allowed strengthening of the myth of chivalrous Wehrmacht when it was nothing but cold blooded, murderous machine. What is even worse, more bloodthirsty elements like Waffen SS used this to get out of the pits of Hell where they belong.
Final result - ideology from Nazi Germany survived, for no other reason than as a rallying cry against Reds (West did not learn anything from Freikorps years, especially when they used Germans in Baltic immediately after WW1). Viper was brought to the bosoms and left to flourish without any thought of long term effects. And now it again perched its head.
Excellent book, lots of food for thought and with some very ugly parallels with contemporary events and views from the elites, social and academic.
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