War in the Wild East : The German Army and Soviet Partisans / Ben H. Shepherd.
Shepherd, Ben H., author.
2009
D804.G4 ǂb S49 2004eb
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Title War in the Wild East : The German Army and Soviet Partisans / Ben H. Shepherd.
Author Shepherd, Ben H., author.
ISBN 9780674043558
DOI https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674043558
Published Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2009]
Copyright ©2004
Language English
Language Note In English.
Description 1 online resource (326 p.)
Other Standard Identifiers 10.4159/9780674043558 doi
Call Number D804.G4 ǂb S49 2004eb
Dewey Decimal Classification 940.54/05/0947
Summary In Nazi eyes, the Soviet Union was the "wild east," a savage region ripe for exploitation, its subhuman inhabitants destined for extermination or helotry. An especially brutal dimension of the German army's eastern war was its anti-partisan campaign. This conflict brought death and destruction to thousands of Soviet civilians, and has been held as a prime example of ordinary German soldiers participating in the Nazi regime's annihilation policies. Ben Shepherd enters the heated debate over the wartime behavior of the Wehrmacht in a detailed study of the motivation and conduct of its anti-partisan campaign in the Soviet Union. He investigates how anti-partisan warfare was conducted, not by the generals, but by the far more numerous, average Germans serving as officers in the field. What shaped their behavior was more complex than Nazi ideology alone. The influence of German society, as well as of party and army, together with officers' grueling yet diverse experience of their environment and enemy, made them perceive the anti-partisan war in varied ways. Reactions ranged from extreme brutality to relative restraint; some sought less to terrorize the native population than to try to win it over. The emerging picture does not dilute the suffering the Wehrmacht's eastern war inflicted. It shows, however, that properly judging ordinary Germans' role in that war is more complicated than is indicated by either wholesale condemnation or wholesale exoneration. This valuable study offers a nuanced discussion of the diversity of behaviors within the German army, as well as providing a compelling exploration of the war and counterinsurgency operations on the eastern front.
Access Note Access limited to authorized users.
System Details Note Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics text file PDF
Source of Description Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 01. Dez 2022)
In HUP eBook Package Archive 1893-1999
Harvard University Press eBook Package Backlist 2000-2013
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Frontmatter
Contents
Introduction: Toward a War of Extermination
1. "Success Comes Only through Terror": The German Experience of AntiguerrillaWarfare
2. "Jew-Bolsheviks," Civilians, and Partisans: The Opening Phase, 1941
3. Bloodshed Mushrooms: The Escalating Security Campaign, 1941
4. The Rules Change: Partisan Surge and German Response, 1942
5. More of the Sugar, Less of the Whip: The Battle for Popular Support, 1942
6. Locusts in Field Gray: The Dead Zones Campaign, 1943
7. Fear in the Forest: The War at Close Quarters, 1942 and 1943
Conclusion: Reap as You Sow, 1943 and 1944
Appendix A. Larger Antipartisan Operations Carried Out by the 221st Security Division, December 1942- April 1943
Appendix B. Atrocities Committed by the 221st Security Division's Subordinate Units, March 1942- August 1943
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations and Translations
Notes
Bibliography of Primary Sources
Index

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