A Dissertation Entitled The Soviet Union through German Eyes: Wehrmacht Identity, Nazi Propaganda, and the Eastern Front War, 1941-1945 By Justin T. Pfeifer Submitted to the Graduate Faculty as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy in History _____________________________________ Dr. Larry D. Wilcox, Committee Chair _____________________________________ Dr. Beth Griech-Polelle, Committee Member _____________________________________ Dr. Roberto Padilla, Committee Member _____________________________________ Dr. Robert McCollough, Committee Member ____________________________________ Dr. Patricia Komuniecki, Dean College of Graduate Studies The University of Toledo December 2014 Copyright 2014, Justin T. Pfeifer The document is copyrighted material. Under copyright law, no parts of this document may be reproduced without the express permission of the author. An Abstract of The Soviet Union through German Eyes: Wehrmacht Identity, Nazi Propaganda, and the Eastern Front War, 1941-1945 by Justin T. Pfeifer Submitted to the Graduate Faculty as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree in History The University of Toledo December 2014 This dissertation investigates the worldview of German frontline soldiers during the Eastern Front conflict of the Second World War. It argues that Nazi era propaganda’s creation of a racial and ideological “Other” in the Soviet Union had a significant impact on the attitude of the military in the East. These ideological imaginations of the enemy were often transformed by the realities at the front through the experiences of common enlisted men. While the Nazis constructed a racially and politically charged image of the enemy to justify a war of conquest, the German soldiers fighting in the East developed their own views of an expanding imperial landscape. An identity transformation amongst German combatants took place during the Eastern Front campaign for many reasons, including the effects of Nazi dogma, a foreign environment and local populace, the strains of combat, changing war circumstances, and genocidal policies. This project utilizes the wartime writings of Hitler’s ordinary men to provide a partial reconstruction of their mentality, revealing their beliefs, fears, and perceptions of the Soviet enemy. iii To my family, for their support of a dream that began in the sixth grade and is now a reality. Thank you. I love you all. iv Acknowledgements I want to start by thanking my wife Stephanie Pfeifer for her patience and understanding during my years of graduate school. Dr. Larry D. Wilcox, my academic advisor and dissertation committee chair, has been a mentor and constant source of support to me throughout my academic career at the University of Toledo. Dr. Wilcox’s personal and professional guidance has been invaluable to me throughout this process. I am also indebted to Dr. Beth A. Griech-Polelle of Bowling Green State University for acting as my co-advisor, your insights and our conversations have helped me beyond measure. I greatly appreciate the willingness of Dr. Roberto Padilla and Dr. Robert McCollough to serve on this committee. I also want to thank past and present faculty of the University of Toledo’s Department of History who influenced my preparation as a historian, including Dr. Michael Jakobson, Dr. William J. O’Neal, and Dr. Glenn Ames. There are a number of people and organizations who have provided me with generous funding and advice towards this project. Many thanks to Phi Alpha Theta National (Doctoral Scholarship), the Foreign Languages Department (Herbert B. Schering Scholarship), the History Department (Lapp Award), the Graduate Student Association (Research Award), and Northwestern University (HEF Fellowship Award). I also want to thank Dr. Wendy Lower, Dr. Felix Römer, Bernhard Sulzer, Ron Coleman (USHMM), and the staffs at NARA (College Park, MD), the IfZ (Munich), the RBMS (Ohio State University) and the Special Collections Library (University of Michigan). v Table of Contents Abstract……………………….……………………………………………...………….iii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ v Table of Contents .............................................................................................................. vi 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Historiographical Essay: The Wehrmacht, Propaganda, and German Soldiers’ Writings .................................................................................................. 14 2. Das Feindbild: Nazi Domestic Propaganda and Representations of the Soviet Union, 1941-1945 ............................................................................................. 37 2.1 Home Front Propaganda: Selling and Sustaining War through Ideology ............ ..41 2.2 The Alliance between Plutocratic West and Soviet Russia.................................... 46 2.3 Antisemitism and the Jewish-Bolshevik Threat ..................................................... 53 2.4 “Europas Freiheitskrieg” and European Unity ....................................................... 73 2.5 Soviet Citizenry and the Red Army ....................................................................... 88 2.6 Communist Oppression .......................................................................................... 97 2.7 Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 107 3. What Informed the Soldiers: Military Propaganda on the Eastern Front ................. 113 3.1 Wehrmacht Propaganda Division: The Military and Indoctrination .................... 115 vi 3.2 Media and Soldier’s Ideology: Film and Radio Propaganda ............................... 124 3.2.2 Film Propaganda: Die Frontschau ................................................................. 125 3.2.2.2 Radio Propaganda: Die Wehrmachtbericht ................................................ 133 3.3. Print Propaganda: The Mitteilungen für die Truppe ........................................... 148 3.3.1. The Alliance between Plutocratic West and Soviet Russia .......................... 153 3.3.2. Antisemitism and the Jewish-Bolshevik Threat ......................................... ..157 3.3.3 “Europas Freiheitskrieg” and European Unity .............................................. 166 3.3.4 Communist Leadership and Oppression ...................................................... ..174 3.4 Conclusions ...................................................................................................... .....179 4. “This is a short description of the Russian paradise....:” German Soldiers Experience the Soviet Union, 1941 .................................................................................................. 182 4.1 Perceptions of the Occupied Territories: Civilians, Landscape, Society ............. 184 4.2. Liberating the East, Saving the West, and Destroying Bolshevism .................... 197 4.3 Views of the Enemy Combatants: The Red Army and Partisan Warfare………211 4.4. War without Mercy: Atrocities against Civilians and Partisans ......................... 221 4.5. The War against the Jews: Antisemitism and Mass Murder in the East ............. 233 4.6. Conclusions ......................................................................................................... 245 5. “We are all slowly facing the end:” Triumph and Setback on the Eastern Front, June 22, 1941-June 28, 1942.......................................................................................... 249 5.1. Frontline Indoctrination: The Impact of Propaganda on the Troops ................... 251 vii 5.2. Sieg Heil!: Overconfidence in Success and Faith in the Führer ......................... 262 5.3 The Realities of War: Combat, Conditions, and Changing Perceptions .............. 283 5.4. Conclusions ......................................................................................................... 306 6. “Furlough is the only escape:” Shifting Mentalities during the Stalingrad Campaign, 1942-1943 ...................................................................................................................... 309 6.1. Humanizing the Untermensch: Perceptions of Russia and Communism, 1942 .......................................................................................................................... ...311 6.2. Myth versus Reality: Frontline Propaganda and Hoping for Victory ............... ...330 6.3. Eroding Morale: The Effects of Combat and Defeat against the Red Army ...... 344 6.4. Conclusions ......................................................................................................... 385 7. “Who were we?:” Despondent Soldiers, Desperate Ideologues, and the Demise of the Wehrmacht, 1943-1945.................................................................................................. 387 7.1. Visions of War: Combat, Defeat, and the Enemy from Kursk to the Endkampf ........................................................................................................... 389 7.2. The Minds of the Vanquished: Reflections on the Ostfront by POWs, 1943-1945............................................................................................................ 426 7.3. Conclusions ........................................................................................................