Hannes Heer, Klaus Naumann, eds.. Vernichtungskrieg: Verbrechen der 1941-1944. : Hamburger Edition, 1995. 685 pp. DM 68.00, cloth, ISBN 978-3-930908-04-2.

Reviewed by Joerg Bottger

Published on H-German (January, 1999)

The history of Nazi continues to of historical research has largely focused on the generate considerable public and academic atten‐ responsibility of the upper echelons of the tion. In 1996, Daniel J. Goldhagen's "Hitler's Will‐ Wehrmacht in and atrocities. However, ing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the recent works, particularly by , have Holocaust" created an extraordinary hoopla in the unearthed disturbing about the partici‐ media on both sides of the Atlantic. Though com‐ pation of many ordinary German soldiers in mercially successful, Goldhagen's work was casti‐ . gated by most scholars. At the same time, an exhi‐ The volume under review presents twenty- bition titled "Vernichtungskrieg: Verbrechen der nine contributions grouped thematically into fve Wehrmacht, 1941-1944" (: sections. The frst and longest ("Ver‐ Crimes of the Wehrmacht) has caused heated con‐ brechen") consists of eight essays on specifc troversies in Austria and Germany. Under the aus‐ crimes perpetrated by the Wehrmacht. In the sec‐ pices of the Hamburger Institut fuer Sozial‐ ond section ("Formationen"), the authors analyze forschung, this exhibition has been traveling the atrocious behavior of various units of the through various Austrian and German since Wehrmacht. The third section ("Krieger und March 1995.[1] Kriegerinnen") contains seven essays on such di‐ As a mainstay of the Nazi regime, the verse topics as a psychological profle of Field Wehrmacht participated in the implementation of Marshal von Manstein or the role of women in Hitler's genocidal policies directed at Gypsies and the Wehrmacht. The three essays in the fourth Jews and carried out mass killings of the Slavic section ("Tribunale") deal with responses of judi‐ populations in , Serbia, and the Soviet cial authorities in East and West to crimes of the Union. In addition, the Wehrmacht was responsi‐ Wehrmacht. And fnally, in the last section ("Erin‐ ble for the death of more than three million Soviet nerung"), fve contributions address the role of POWs. During the last two decades or so the bulk the Wehrmacht in individual and collective mem‐ H-Net Reviews ories in Germany after 1945. Although most of the cers and men were summarily shot after their essays are of a high quality and very informative, surrender. Michael Geyer contributes an excellent space does not permit a detailed discussion of case-study of a massacre perpetrated by troops of each essay. the Fallschirm-Panzer- "Hermann Goer‐ In the frst essay, Walter Manoschek docu‐ ing," a Luftwafe ground unit, in northern Italy in ments that it was the Wehrmacht, and not the in‐ June 1944. Geyer provides the perpetrators' con‐ famous , that initiated and carried text of social, , and motivational factors out the mass of the Jews and Gypsies in that resulted in the eradication of a small village Serbia. Most of the troops stationed in Serbia at and the killing of its entire male population. Yet, it any given time came from the "Ostmark" should be noted that the "Hermann Goering" was (Austria). On the basis of newly accessible sources an elite unit and with other crack units (para‐ from Belorussian archives, shows troopers, panzer troops, Wafen-SS) showed a par‐ the active participation of rear area troops of the ticular inclination to kill indiscriminate‐ in in Belorussia. ly.[3] These troops were largely composed of middle- In the second section, Margers Vestermanis's aged men unft for front-line duty. In some cases, essay shows the involvement of the however, Heer goes out of his way and attributes (navy) in the massacres of Jews. In the harbor massacres to Wehrmacht units that were in fact of Libau, Latvia, the frst chief of the Ort‐ perpetrated by SS and Police formations, and in skommandantur (local military command) was a other cases he misidentifes the ethnicity of the navy ofcer, and navy personnel provided the ex‐ victims.[2] Heer's second essay critically re-exam‐ ecutioners for the frst mass shooting of Jews in ines the issue of "Partisanenkampf" (anti- that area in the summer of 1941. Next, Bernd Boll warfare). In 1941-42, an organized and well- and Hans Safrian follow the bloody trail of the equipped partisan movement did not exist in the German Sixth Army to Stalingrad. In September occupied territories of the . The 1941, after the of Kiev had been taken, the Wehrmacht responded to the slightest indication Sixth Army provided logistical support for Son‐ of sabotage and other subversive activities with derkommando 4a of Einsatzgruppe C that resulted draconian measures. Time and again innocent in the slaughter of some 34,000 Jews at . and defenseless civilians regardless of age and The authors create the impression that Sixth sex were slaughtered by the hundreds or thou‐ Army enthusiastically collaborated with the Son‐ sands. As Mark Mazower demonstrates, the be‐ der- and . Yet, Alfred Streim havior of Austrian and German soldiers in Greece has argued, after sifting through all the available was infuenced by the barbarous warfare that evidence, that this was true only for the com‐ many had experienced on the Eastern Front. Mi‐ manding , the staf ofcer for enemy infor‐ nor partisan activity would lead in many cases to mation and counterintelligence (Ic), and a few indiscriminate "Suehnemassnahmen" (reprisals) Ortskommandanturen. Most of the staf and units against Greek and villages. The Wehrmacht of Sixth Army had refused to cooperate with treated not only the subjugated populations of Himmler's Weltanschauungskrieger.[4] Theo J. Eastern Europe and in the Balkans with contempt Schulte ofers a counterpoint to what he calls the and brutality. Menachem Shelah shows the perfd‐ "new orthodoxy." His case study of "Korueck 582" ious behavior of German soldiers toward their (Kommandant des rueckwaertigen Armeegebiets/ former comrades-in-arms of the Italian army be‐ commander of army rear area) reveals that non- tween September and November 1943. In willful conformistic behavior of German soldiers did ex‐ violation of the laws of war, numerous Italian of‐ ist in a barbaric environment. Schulte cautions

2 H-Net Reviews against preconceived notions of endemic brutality ities for persecuting crimes committed under the in the Wehrmacht. Nazi regime. As Alfred Streim shows, a In the third section, Christian Gerlach at‐ "Schlussstrich-Mentalitaet" ensued in both Germa‐ tempts to demonstrate the complicity of Henning nies when former Wehrmacht ofcers were need‐ von Tresckow and other ofcers in atrocities. ed for rearmament. These men plotted against Hitler and eventually The 1950s saw the emergence of a veritable tried to kill him on 20 July 1944. Gerlach's essay is industry of memoirs by former high-ranking perhaps the only unconvincing contribution to Wehrmacht ofcers. Particularly Guderian's and this volume. Clearly, as a staf ofcer in Army von Manstein's memoirs, whether in the original Group Center, Tresckow had knowledge about the German edition or in English translation, are still crimes being perpetrated by Wehrmacht, Police being relied upon in popular accounts and even and Wafen-SS, but Gerlach does not provide doc‐ some academic works about World War II. umentation for his assertion that Tresckow did Friedrich Gerstenberger calls them "strategische approve of those crimes.[5] Klaus Latzel discusses Erinnerungen," selective tales which are devoid of the perceptions of Wehrmacht soldiers as refect‐ any references to criminal behavior of German ed in "Feldpostbriefe" (feld post letters). He points soldiers or the responsibility of ofcers for out‐ out that whereas in German soldiers rages perpetrated by troops under their com‐ had deplored and criticized the living conditions mand. of the populations of Eastern Europe, during I have two major criticisms of this volume. World War II the populations themselves were de‐ Unfortunately, an essay on crimes of the Wehrma‐ nounced. At the same time he cautions against cht in Poland is conspicuously absent. One histori‐ problematic generalizations about the attitudes of an, Juergen Foerster, has recently argued that the Wehrmacht soldiers based on small and unrepre‐ brutalization of German soldiers started in sentative samples of letters. Poland, the barbarization of warfare, however, in Although a number of German generals were the Soviet Union.[6] On the other hand, Dieter tried and convicted by the Allies after 1945, the Pohl sees a tremendous eruption of collective vio‐ OKW (Army High Command) and the Wehrmacht lence already during the in escaped from being declared criminal organiza‐ 1939 bearing similarities with the conduct during tions. The fourth section opens with an essay by .[7] According to Polish his‐ Manfred Messerschmidt. He analyzes the so- torians, some 20,000 persons fell victim to mass called "Denkschrift der Generaele" (generals's executions or massacres between 1 September memorandum) for the Trials by von 1939 and 25 October 1939. Of 764 mass killings Brauchitsch, Halder, von Manstein and others with 25 victims or more, 311 were carried out by about the role of the Wehrmacht in WWII. In this Wehrmacht units.[8] It seems not far-fetched then memorandum, the former generals claimed that to suggest that the conduct of the Wehrmacht in a) the Wehrmacht did not cooperate with Hitler, Poland set the precedent of what was to come on b) the Wehrmacht did not participate in crimes, a larger scale in the war of annihilation against and c) the Wehrmacht had no knowledge of the Soviet Union. crimes perpetrated in the hinterland against The amount of ink wasted on the faddish but POWs, Jews, and other civilians. Thus the myth of insignifcant topic of Wehrmachtshelferinnen is the "saubere" Wehrmacht was born. This myth annoying. Instead, a comparative perspective was not demolished when judicial authorities in might have been more useful. Various volunteer East and took over the responsibil‐ legions from German-occupied countries fought

3 H-Net Reviews alongside the Wehrmacht and Wafen-SS under [5]. See Peter Hofmann, "Tresckow und Stauf‐ the motto of a "European crusade against Bolshe‐ fenberg: Ein Zeugnis aus dem Archiv des russis‐ vism." These units can serve as "control groups," chen Geheimdienstes," Frankfurter Allgemeine thereby allowing scholars to compare how men Zeitung, 20 July 1998, p. 8. from diferent nationalities and of difering ideo‐ [6]. Juergen Foerster, "Complicity or Entangle‐ logical predispositions behaved when exposed to ment? Wehrmacht, War, And Holocaust," in The the same conditions. For example, a recent work Holocaust and History: The Known, the Unknown, documents, among other things, the involvement the Disputed, and the Reexamined, ed. Michael of Danish volunteers in atrocities.[9] Also, the Ital‐ Berenbaum and Abraham J. Peck (Bloomington ian army carried out numerous reprisals, shoot‐ and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1998), ings of , and massacres during anti-parti‐ p. 271. san operations in the Balkans from 1941 to 1943. [7]. Dieter Pohl, "Die Holocaust-Forschung [10] und Goldhagens Thesen," Vierteljahreshefte fuer In sum, this volume is a much welcome addi‐ Zeitgeschichte, 45 (1997): p. 44. tion to the growing literature on Wehrmacht [8]. Czeslaw Madajczyk, Die Okkupationspoli‐ crimes. It validates, perhaps unintentionally, tik Nazideutschlands in Polen, 1939-1945 's famous dictum about the history of (Cologne: Pahl-Rugenstein Verlag, 1989), p. 28. as a "past that will not pass away." [9]. Claus B. Christensen, Niels Bo Poulsen, Notes and Peter Scharf Smith, _Under Hagekors og Dan‐ [1]. Compare now Angelika Koenigseder, nebrog: Danskere i Wafen-SS (Copenhagen: "Streitkulturen und Gefuehlslagen: Die Goldha‐ Achehougs Forlag, 1998). gen-Debatte und der Streit um die Wehrmacht‐ [10]. Brunello Mantelli, Kurze Geschichte des sausstellung," in Geschichtswissenschaft und Oef‐ italienischen Faschismus, trans. Alexandra Haus‐ fentlichkeit: Der Streit um Daniel J. Goldhagen, ed. ner (Berlin: Verlag Klaus Wagenbach, 1998). Johannes Heil and Rainer Erb (/M.: Fis‐ cher Taschenbuch Verlag, 1998), pp. 295-311. Copyright (c) 1999 by H-Net, all rights re‐ served. This work may be copied for non-proft [2]. For corrections see Christian Gerlach, educational use if proper credit is given to the au‐ "Deutsche Wirtschaftsinteressen, Besatzungspoli‐ thor and the list. For other permission, please con‐ tik und der Mord an den Juden in Weissrussland, tact [email protected]. 1941-1943," in Nationalsozialistische Vernich‐ tungspolitik: Neue Forschungen und Kontrover‐ sen, ed. Ulrich Herbert (Frankfurt/M.: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1998), pp. 284-285, fn. 74. [3]. For an overview see Friedrich Andrae, "Auch gegen Frauen und Kinder," in Gehorsam bis zum Mord? Der verschwiegene Krieg der deutschen Wehrmacht--Fakten, Analysen, Debatte, ZEIT-Punkte Nr.3/1995, ed. Theo Sommer (Ham‐ burg: ZEITVERLAG, 1995), pp. 34-38. [4]. See Alfred Streim, "The Tasks of the SS Einsatzgruppen," Center Annu‐ al, 4(1987): p. 311.

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Citation: Joerg Bottger. Review of Heer, Hannes; Naumann, Klaus, eds. Vernichtungskrieg: Verbrechen der Wehrmacht 1941-1944. H-German, H-Net Reviews. January, 1999.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=2647

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