Upk Pasher Copy MOVED X2 .Indd

© University Press of Kansas. All rights reserved. Reproduction and distribution prohibited without permission of the Press. Contents Preface ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 Part 1: Operation Typhoon and German Deportations to the East 11 1. Operation Barbarossa: From Minsk to Moscow 15 2. Operation Typhoon: The Battle for Moscow 27 3. The German War Economy 41 4. Soviet Capabilities 57 Part 2: Operation Reinhard and the Downfall at Stalingrad 83 5. The Wehrmacht and the SS: Operating on Parallel Lines 87 6. From German Blue to Russian Uranus 103 7. Jewish and Military Proportions: Reinhard versus Stalingrad 119 8. The State of the Reichsbahn in Winter, 1942–1943 132 © University Press of Kansas. All rights reserved. Reproduction and distribution prohibited without permission of the Press. viii Contents Part 3: The Battle of Kursk and the Height of the Final Solution 151 9. On the Road to Another Disaster 153 10. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising: Footnote or Major Operation? 170 11. The Allied Invasion of Sicily 185 Part 4: The Extermination of Hungarian Jewry and the Allied Invasion of Normandy 215 12. A Long and Winding Road 217 13. Risk and Fear of Invasion 230 14. The Destruction of Army Group Center 259 Conclusion 275 Notes 291 Works Cited 325 Index 347 Map galleries follow pages 77 and 145. Photo galleries follow pages 94 and 202. © University Press of Kansas. All rights reserved. Reproduction and distribution prohibited without permission of the Press. Preface The present research was a long journey for me — and not just through modern European history of the twentieth century. It was also an opportunity to explore my own family history, to better understand where I came from, and to link this knowledge to the historical narrative. The extraordinary life stories of two people in particular in- fluenced and shaped my way of thinking and point of view: Louis B. Pasher and Aharon Anglister (Agmon). Both men (my grandparents) were forced in midlife to suffer the horrors of World War II, an experience that would haunt them till their last days. Louis B. Pasher was a British subject born in London in 1905. He was the first of nine children from a Zionist family, which emigrated in 1921 in order to fulfill Theodor Herzl’s vision and move to their home- land, Israel, where they resided in a tent in the eleven-year-old city of Tel Aviv. In September 1939, at the age of thirty-four, he joined the British army in its war against European fascism. He would return to Tel Aviv only in mid-1947 after a long period of service that included over two years in Italy and Germany after the Third Reich’s uncon- ditional surrender. Back home, he met for the first time a seven-year- old boy, my father, born in March 1940. Louis was one of the first to join the British armed forces and one of the last discharged. During his military service, Louis would fight Erwin Rommel’s Panzerarmee Afrika in El Alamein with Bernard Montgomery’s 8th Army, and he would be taken prisoner in Sicily and eventually manage to escape the POW camp there with an Australian colonel. In April 1945, he would be present in Milan to see Benito Mussolini and his mistress’s bodies hanging upside down, and even manage to capture this historic scene on camera. In 1961, Louis Bernard Pasher was honored with an OBE from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for helping Jewish widows and orphans of the British Legion after the war ended. Until his death ten © University Press of Kansas. All rights reserved. Reproduction and distribution prohibited without permission of the Press. x Preface years later, the war would continue to be the most influential and de- fining experience of his life. My other grandfather, Aharon Anglister (Agmon), another Zion- ist, left the small town of Garwolin, some sixty kilometers southeast of Warsaw, in 1933, and made his home in Tel Aviv too. He married his hometown sweetheart a year later and maintained contact with both families in Garwolin via mail. When the war broke out, Garwo- lin would be one of the first towns in Poland to suffer under the Nazi boot, and the entire Jewish community was deported to the Warsaw ghetto. Both families — the Anglisters and the Rubins — lived for two years in terrible conditions, but with the hope of a brighter day. This hope, portrayed through letters sneaked out of the ghetto, agonized a helpless young couple in Tel Aviv who had managed by chance to escape the terrible fate of the other members of their families. In July 1942, one week before the birth of their first baby (my mother), they would receive a devastating letter informing my grand- mother that her father had perished in the Warsaw ghetto from star- vation. The fate of the others would be no better. From what could be gleaned from letters, the entire family was probably liquidated during the first bigaktion in the Warsaw ghetto, which began on July 21, 1942, and dispatched them to the gas chambers of Treblinka. No one sur- vived to tell the tale of the two families, leaving two people heartbro- ken forever. My grandparents lost mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters — a total of twelve close family members, as well as numerous other relatives from both sides. They would never quite get over this tragedy; they lived with feelings of guilt and remorse, and for at least half of their adulthood in agony and despair. This, then, is the background to my narrative, constructed while searching for answers. That quest guided me through the research for this book, which I dedicate to their memory. © University Press of Kansas. All rights reserved. Reproduction and distribution prohibited without permission of the Press. Acknowledgments Many people helped me complete this journey, whether by suggestions, insights, thoughts, or paths of research — or by ruling out some of my initial assumptions. They made a profound contribution to this research, and I extend my gratitude and appreciation. My deepest gratitude and appreciation go to my mentor, Gerhard L. Weinberg, for uncompromisingly aiding me in achieving my goals and leading me along the right path while keeping me focused with his immense knowledge and patience. His readings and insights were instrumental in sustaining this project. My deepest thanks also go to Dina Porat, teacher and mentor throughout my academic life, for her support and friendship as well as for her profound influence and faith throughout this project. Without her, it would never have been accomplished. I would like to thank Matityahu Maizel, who has faithfully sup- ported me since my undergraduate years at Tel Aviv University, then through the advanced stages of this research, teaching me, first and foremost, how to read history and how to ask the right questions. Ga- briel Gorodetzky and Shulamit Volkov, through their tutorials, chal- lenged me all the way through my master’s thesis and supervised it in a way that gave me deeper insights into my doctoral research, which is the basis for this book. Dan Diner introduced me to unconventional historical thought. Hartmut Pogge von Strandmann, University Col- lege, Oxford, lent his enthusiastic support to this complex topic and suggested I widen the scope to include all the major campaigns of the war. Hew Strachan of All Souls College, Oxford, made me sweat with questions concerning military theory, and Azar Gat, Ezer Weiz- man Chair of National Security at Tel Aviv University, broadened my knowledge of military thought. I would like to thank Aron Shai and Raphael Vago, Tel Aviv University, for focusing my attention © University Press of Kansas. All rights reserved. Reproduction and distribution prohibited without permission of the Press. xii Acknowledgments on questions arising from my research on the East European and Far East theaters of war. Richard Overy provided valuable insight into the overwhelming amount of archival material I had to go through; in particular, he introduced me to the documentation at Duxford Airfield and at the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, London. Spe- cial thanks go to Dan Laor, former dean of the faculty of humanities at Tel Aviv University, for encouraging me to complete my research; Edna Pasher, my mother, for her support, inspiration, and encourage- ment, as well as for introducing me to the theories of Thomas Kuhn on scientific revolutions, which have helped me over hard times during this research when I had my own doubts. Warm thanks go to Robert M. Citino, University of North Texas, and Dorris L. Bergan, University of Toronto, for reading the book in manuscript and giving me their wise suggestions, permitting me to strengthen some major points. I extend many thanks to Major General Jakob Amidror, former Is- rael Defense Force (IDF) chief of military colleges; Brigadier General Yitzhak Rabin, former IDF chief of the Armored Corps1; and Major General Amiaz Sagis, former IDF head of the technology and logistics division, for the interviews they gave me, along with practical insights and suggestions that have helped me consolidate my assumptions. I am grateful to Stephen Walton for his help at the Imperial War Museum, London and Duxford; Cesrin Schmidt, Bundesarchiv Berlin, for her assistance and patience; and Helga Waib’el and Andrea Meier from the Bundesarchiv Militärarchiv, Freiburg, for their assistance in helping me find archival material during my several visits there. My thanks also go to Sarah Vered, Chaim Rosenberg School of Jewish Studies, Tel Aviv University, for her assistance and friendship — and for helping me keep to a time schedule.

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