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Loading... Combat and Genocide on the Eastern Front: The German Infantry's War, 1941-1944by Jeff Rutherford
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By 1944, the overwhelming majority of the German Army had participated in the German war of annihilation in the Soviet Union and historians continue to debate the motivations behind the violence unleashed in the east. Jeff Rutherford offers an important new contribution to this debate through a study of combat and the occupation policies of three frontline infantry divisions. He shows that while Nazi racial ideology provided a legitimizing context in which violence was not only accepted but encouraged, it was the Wehrmacht's adherence to a doctrine of military necessity which is critical in explaining why German soldiers fought as they did. This meant that the German Army would do whatever was necessary to emerge victorious on the battlefield. Periods of brutality were intermixed with conciliation as the army's view and treatment of the civilian population evolved based on its appreciation of the larger context of war in the east. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)940.54History and Geography Europe Europe 1918- Military History Of World War IILC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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Apart from this Rutherford also does a service by backing up the higher analysis with case studies of a number of German infantry divisions; the East Prussian 121st, the Berliners of the 123rd and the mostly Catholic Rhinelanders of 126th. Units that could be called "ordinary" if you will. The main point here being that Germany was still sufficiently variegated that Nazi calls for racial violence did have different degrees of traction depending on a unit's recruitment region.
On the whole, highly recommended. ( )