Hitler's soldiers : the German army in the Third Reich

The Resource Hitler's soldiers : the German army in the Third Reich

Label

Hitler's soldiers : the German army in the Third Reich

Title remainder

the German army in the Third Reich

Statement of responsibility

Ben H. Shepherd

Language

eng

Summary

"For decades after 1945, it was generally believed that the German army, professional and morally decent, had largely stood apart from the SS, Gestapo, and other corps of the Nazi machine. Ben Shepherd draws on a wealth of primary sources and recent scholarship to convey a much darker, more complex picture. For the first time, the German army is examined throughout the Second World War, across all combat theaters and occupied regions, and from multiple perspectives: its battle performance, social composition, relationship with the Nazi state, and involvement in war crimes and military occupation. This was a true people's army, drawn from across German society and reflecting that society as it existed under the Nazis. Without the army and its conquests abroad, Shepherd explains, the Nazi regime could not have perpetrated its crimes against Jews, prisoners of war, and civilians in occupied countries. The author examines how the army was complicit in these crimes and why some soldiers, units, and higher commands were more complicit than others. Shepherd also reveals the reasons for the army's early battlefield successes and its mounting defeats up to 1945, the latter due not only to Allied superiority and Hitler's mismanagement as commander-in-chief, but also to the failings--moral, political, economic, strategic, and operational--of the army's own leadership"--

Assigning source

Provided by publisher

Cataloging source

DLC

Dewey number

940.54/1343

Illustrations

illustrations
portraits
plates

Index

no index present

LC call number

D757.1

LC item number

.S54 2016

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography

Context

Context of Hitler's soldiers : the German army in the Third Reich

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Context

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