Destructive Impulses: German Soldiers and the Conquest of Poland
Why the Wehrmacht became involved in Nazi genocide and carried on a “war of extermination” in the Soviet Union are questions of central concern to Holocaust scholars. Yet few historians have looked back further than the months leading up to the 1941 German offensive for answers. Using evidence from...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Oxford University Press
1997
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| In: |
Holocaust and genocide studies
Year: 1997, Volume: 11, Issue: 3, Pages: 351-365 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Why the Wehrmacht became involved in Nazi genocide and carried on a “war of extermination” in the Soviet Union are questions of central concern to Holocaust scholars. Yet few historians have looked back further than the months leading up to the 1941 German offensive for answers. Using evidence from archives in the United States and Germany, this article maintains that the tendency of German soldiers to act brutally towards civilians was already evident during the invasion of Poland in 1939. The author argues that the opinions expressed in their letters, diaries, and reports reveal an attitudinal basis for the willingness of German soldiers to follow the criminal orders of the Wehrmacht command in 1941, orders which legitimized the summary execution of communist functionaries, Jews, and Soviet prisoners of war. |
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| ISSN: | 1476-7937 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Holocaust and genocide studies
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/hgs/11.3.351 |