The Third Reich at War (133 page)

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Authors: Richard J. Evans

Tags: #History, #Europe, #Germany

173
. Madajczyk
et al
. (eds.),
Vom Generalplan Ost
; Mechthild Rössler and Sabine Schleiermacher,
Der ‘Generalplan Ost’: Hauptlinien der nationalsozialistischen Planungs- und Vernichtungspolitik
(Berlin, 1993); Thomas Podranski,
Deutsche Siedlungspolitik im Osten: Die verschiedenen Varianten des Generalplan Ost der SS
(Berlin, 2001).

174
. Evans,
The Third Reich in Power
, 419 - 28.

175
. Tooze,
The Wages of Destruction
, 463 - 76.

176
. Hitler,
Hitler’s Table Talk
, 8 (11/12 July 1941).

177
. Ibid., 587 (22 July 1942).

178
. Ibid., 624 (9 August 1942).

179
. Halder,
Kriegstagebuch
, II. 317 - 20 (17 March 1941).

180
. Ibid., 336 - 7 (30 March 1941).

181
. Ibid.

182
. Quoted in Longerich,
Politik
, 300-301; see also Hans-Adolf Jacobsen, ‘The
Kommissarbefehl
and Mass Executions of Soviet Russian Prisoners of War’, in Helmut Krausnick
et al
.,
Anatomy of the SS State
(London, 1968 [1965]), 505 - 35 (full translation of the order of 6 June on 532 - 4).

183
. See also Jürgen Förster, ‘Operation Barbarossa as a War of Conquest and Annihilation’, in
GSWW
IV. 481 - 521.

184
. Jacobsen, ‘The
Kommissarbefehl
’, 505 - 35, at 517; Kershaw,
Hitler
, II. 353 - 60; Bodo Scheurig,
Henning von Tresckow: Ein Preusse gegen Hitler
(Frankfurt am Main, 1987), 113 - 14; Christian Gerlach, ‘Hitlergegner bei der Heeresgruppe Mitte und die “Verbrecherischen Befehle” ’, in Gerd R. Ueberschär (ed.),
NS-Verbrechen und der militärische Widerstand gegen Hitler
(Darmstadt, 2000), 62-76; Johannes Hürter, ‘Auf dem Weg zur Militäropposition: Tresckow, Gersdorff, der Vernichtungskrieg und der Judenmord: Neue Dokumente über das Verhältnis der Heeresgruppe Mitte zur Einsatzgruppe B im Jahr 1941’,
VfZ
52 (2004), 527 - 62; Bock’s views can be found in Bock,
Zwischen Pflicht und Verweigerung
, 190 (4 June 1941).

185
. Quoted in Förster, ‘Operation Barbarossa’, 485.

186
. Quoted in ibid., 514.

187
. Quoted in ibid., 520.

188
. Friedländer,
The Years of Extermination
, 210-11; see also Ortwin Buchbender,
Das tönende Erz: Deutsche Propaganda gegen die Rote Armee im Zweiten Weltkrieg
(Stuttgart, 1978), and for the senior commanders’ attitude to the ‘criminal orders’, Hürter,
Hitlers Heerführer
, 247 - 65.

189
. Longerich,
Politik
, 302 -10, convincingly dealing with the specifics of the controversy between Christopher Browning,
Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland
(London, 1998 [1992]), and Daniel Jonah Goldhagen,
Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust
(London, 1996), though the general issues raised by Goldhagen rightly continue to be debated. For the background, see Helmut Fangmann
et al
.,
‘Parteisoldaten’: Die Hamburger Polizei im ‘3. Reich’
(Hamburg, 1987); for indoctrination, see Jürgen Matthäus, ‘Ausbildungsziel Judenmord? Zum Stellenwert der “weltanschaulichen Erziehung” von SS und Polizei im Rahmen der “Endlösung” ’,
Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft
, 47 (1999), 677 - 99; and idem
et al
. (eds.),
Ausbildungsziel Judenmord? ‘Weltanschauliche Erziehung’ von SS, Polizei und Waffen-SS im Rahmen der ‘Endlösung’
(Frankfurt am Main, 2003).

190
. Quoted in Longerich,
Politik
, 315.

191
. Ibid., 310-20, provides a very careful consideration of the evidence, concluding that the postwar trial statements of defendants such as the Task Force leader Ohlendorf that a general command was given to kill all Jews indiscriminately lack credibility because of their exculpatory intent. After being condemned to death, indeed, Ohlendorf changed his story and said there had been no such command. See in particular Ralf Ogorreck,
Die Einsatzgruppen und die ‘Genesis der Endlösung’
(Berlin, 1996). For the contrary view, see Breitman,
The Architect of Genocide
, 145 - 206. For Jews in the Soviet apparatus, see Friedländer,
The Years of Extermination
, 247-51; more detail in Mordechai Altschuler,
Soviet Jewry on the Eve of the Holocaust: A Social and Demographic Profile
(Jerusalem, 1998).

192
. Glantz,
Barbarossa
, 35.

193
. Brief summaries in Weinberg,
A World at Arms
, 264-6; Glantz,
Barbarossa
, 35; and Kershaw,
Hitler
, II. 393-9. John Erickson,
Stalin’s War with Germany
, I:
The Road to Stalingrad
(London, 1975), remains the classic account, but has inevitably been overtaken by more recent research and particularly by Soviet documentation released since 1990. The same can be said of the even more detailed account in
GSWW
IV, in which the sections dealing with the Soviet Union are particularly outdated. The most recent narrative is Bellamy,
Absolute War
. See also the discussion of the senior generals’ conduct of the campaign in Hürter,
Hitlers Heerführer
, 279 - 302.

194
. Hürter (ed.),
Ein deutscher General
, 68 (letter to his wife, 11 July 1941).

195
. Karl Reddemann (ed.),
Zwischen Front und Heimat: Der Briefwechsel des münsterischen Ehepaares Agnes und Albert Neuhaus 1940-1944
(Münster, 1996), 223 (to Agnes Neuhaus, 25 June 1941).

196
. Konrad Elmshäuser and Jan Lokers (eds.),
‘Man muss hier nur hart sein’: Kriegsbriefe und Bilder einer Familie (1934-1945)
(Bremen, 1999), 92 (Kalendereintrag Hans-Albert Giese, 22 June 1941).

197
. Hürter (ed.),
Ein deutscher General
, 63 (letter to family, 24 June 1941).

198
. Quoted in Merridale,
Ivan’s War
, 96-7 (also for the preceding details in this paragraph); Mawdsley,
Thunder in the East
, 59-69; Glantz,
Barbarossa
, 37-40. For the condition of the Red Army in 1941, see Glantz,
Stumbling Colossus
.

199
. Merridale,
Ivan’s War
, 86 - 7.

200
. Ibid., 99.

201
. Ibid., 99 - 100, 116, 122 - 3 (translation slightly amended).

202
. Hürter,
Hitlers Heerführer
, 393 - 404.

203
. Reddemann (ed.),
Zwischen Front und Heimat
, 225 (to Agnes Neuhaus, 27 June 1941).

204
. Rudolf Stützel,
Feldpost: Briefe und Aufzeichnungen eines 17jährigen 1940-1945
(Hamburg, 2005), 41; more generally Hannes Heer (ed.),
‘Stets zu erschiessen sind Frauen, die in der Roten Armee dienen’: Geständnisse deutscher Kriegsgefangener über ihren Einsatz an der Ostfront
(Hamburg, 1995), 7, and Hürter,
Hitlers Heerführer
, 359 - 76.

205
. Klukowski,
Diary
, 173 (4 October 1941).

206
. Ibid., 173 (5 October 1941).

207
. Merridale,
Ivan’s War
, 123-5; Christian Streit,
Keine Kameraden: Die Wehrmacht und die sowjetischen Kriegsgefangenen 1941 - 1945
(Stuttgart, 1978).

208
. Quoted in ibid., 131; see also Hürter,
Hitlers Heerführer
, 377 - 93.

209
. Hosenfeld,
‘Ich versuche’
, 557 (letter to wife, 3 December 1941).

210
. Streit,
Keine Kameraden
, 9.

211
. Halder,
Kriegstagebuch
, III. 289 (14 November 1941); see more generally Vyacheslav M. Molotov
et al
.,
Soviet Government Statements on Nazi Atrocities
(London, 1945), 183 - 8.

212
. Streit,
Keine Kameraden
, 201 - 88.

213
. Andreas Hilger,
Deutsche Kriegsgefangene in der Sowjetunion, 1941-1956: Kriegsgefangenenpolitik, Lageralltag und Erinnerung
(Essen, 2000), superseding earlier studies such as Kurt W. Böhme,
Die deutschen Kriegsgefangenen in sowjetischer Hand: Eine Bilanz
(Munich, 1966). For the statistics, see Hilger,
Deutsche Kriegsgefangene
, 137, 370, 389, 425; for political re-education, which was largely unsuccessful, 220 - 54.

214
. Christian Streit, ‘The Fate of the Soviet Prisoners of War’, in Michael Berenbaum (ed.),
A Mosaic of Victims: Non-Jews Persecuted and Murdered by the Nazis
(London, 1990), 142-9; Alexander Dallin,
German Rule in Russia 1941-1945: A Study of Occupation Policies
(London, 1957), 409 - 27; Mawdsley,
Thunder in the East
, 102 - 5.

215
. Bock,
Zwischen Pflicht und Verweigerung
, 298 (20 October 1941); see also ibid., 312-13 (9 November 1941), protesting that, ‘According to military custom and law, the army is responsible for the life and safety of its prisoners of war, of whatever kind.’

216
. Hürter,
Hitlers Heerführer
, 377 - 93.

217
. Mawdsley,
Thunder in the East
, 102 - 5.

218
. Service,
Stalin
, 410 - 24; Merridale,
Ivan’s War
, 83; Sebag-Montefiore,
Stalin
, 330 - 33, also recording different versions of Stalin’s statement by various memoirists, all equally vulgar; the version quoted here is attested by both Molotov and Chadaev. On Stalin’s unpreparedness, see Roberts,
Stalin’s Wars
, 61-70. Roberts’s scepticism about Stalin’s loss of nerve falls down on chronology by failing to realize that it came at the end of June, not immediately after the invasion (89 - 95).

219
. Hoffmann,
Hitler’s Personal Security
, 216-63; Kershaw,
Hitler
, II. 395-7; Fröhlich (ed.),
Die Tagebücher
II/I. 35 (9 July 1941).

220
. Halder,
Kriegstagebuch
, III. 38 (3 July 1941).

221
. Kershaw,
Hitler
, II. 405 - 7; Friedländer,
The Years of Extermination
, 199 - 200.

222
. Quoted in Kershaw,
Hitler
, II. 405.

223
. Ibid., 399 and 944 n. 40; Hitler,
Hitler’s Table Talk
, 17 September 1941; Fröhlich (ed.),
Die Tagebücher
II/I. 29 - 39 (9 July 1941).

224
. Walb,
Ich, die Alte
, 225 (30 June 1941).

225
. Broszat
et al
. (eds.),
Bayern
, I. 149 (‘Aus Monatsbericht der Gendarmerie-Station Heiligenstadt, 25. 6. 1941’ and ‘Aus Monatsbericht der Gendarmerie-Station Waischenfeld, 26. 6. 1941’).

226
. Solmitz,
Tagebücher
, 662 (23 June 1941).

227
. Jochen Klepper,
U
̈
berwindung: Tagebücher und Aufzeichnungen aus dem Kriege
(Stuttgart, 1958), 50 (22 June 1941).

228
. Maschmann,
Account Rendered
, 91.

229
. Broszat
et al
. (eds.),
Bayern
, I. 149-50 (‘Aus Monatsbericht der Gendarmerie-Station Ebermannstadt, 27. 6. 1941’).

230
. Ibid., I. 152 (‘Aus Monatsbericht des Gendarmerie-Kreisführers, 29. 8. 1941’).

231
. Merridale,
Ivan’s War
, 84 - 7; Sebag-Montefiore,
Stalin
, 332 - 4.

232
. Merridale,
Ivan’s War
, 115 - 17.

233
. Ibid., 114-16, also for the quotes; Roberts,
Stalin’s Wars
, 95-103; Soviet reserves discussed in Glantz,
Barbarossa
, 15.

234
. Bock,
Zwischen Pflicht und Verweigerung
, 210 (6 July 1941).

235
. Halder,
Kriegstagebuch
, III. 53 (8 July 1941).

236
. Rolf-Dieter Müller, ‘The Failure of the Economic “Blitzkrieg Strategy” ’, in
GSWW
IV. 1,081 - 8, esp. 1, 141 - 72; graphic details in Anatoly Kuznetsov,
Babi Yar: A Document in the Form of a Novel
(London, 1970 [1966]), 149 - 52.

237
. Hürter (ed.),
Ein deutscher General
, 63 (diary, 23 June 1941).

238
. Ibid., 64 (Heinrici to family, 4 July 1941).

239
. Meier-Welcker,
Aufzeichnungen
, 124 (31 July 1941), 129 (24 August 1941).

240
. Quoted in Theo J. Schulte,
The German Army and Nazi Policies in Occupied Russia
(Oxford, 1989), 109.

241
. Birgit Beck,
Wehrmacht und sexuelle Gewalt: Sexualverbrechen vor deutschen Militärgerichten 1939 - 1945
(Paderborn, 2004), 105 - 16 (for military brothels), 326 - 8 (for trials for rape).

242
. Nicholas,
The Rape of Europa
, 185-201; also Molotov
et al
.,
Soviet Government Statements
, 198 - 209. For an analysis of mentions of theft and plunder in soldiers’ letters, see also Martin Humburg (ed.),
Das Gesicht des Krieges: Feldpostbriefe von Wehrmachtssoldaten aus der Sowjetunion 1941 - 1944
(Opladen, 1998), 164 - 70. For treatment of civilians in general, see Hürter,
Hitlers Heerführer
, 465 - 508.

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