Customer Reviews

The Eastern Front, 1941-45: German Troops and the Barbarisation of Warfare (St. Antony's Series)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is quite a short book of some 156 pages yet it tells us a lot more about the German fighting on the Eastern front than a lot of much longer histories. The book is an attempt to understand the Barbarism that infected the German army on the Eastern Front in the Second World War. The first chapter studies the manpower and casualties of three German divisions who fought on the eastern front. Each of the divisions suffered enormous numbers of casualties all in excess of their actual establishment. This meant that at any given time most divisions were below establishment and this had considerable effects on individual soldiers. Not only would soldiers see their comrades killed but it meant that the amount of time available for sleep would be reduced, as there would be fewer people to be available for watch and sentry duty. In addition the author examines the movement of the actual divisions especially in the first year of the war. German Divisions were not mechanized and foot soldiers marched. His calculations of the distances covered by these divisions show that men were marching 15 hours a day for long periods. As a result German troops would have been physically exhausted. The situation got worse in the winter due to the poor supply of clothing and other necessities.

The second chapter deals with the composition of the officer corps. The overall membership of the Nazi Party in German Society was about 15%. The level of membership in the Army was around 30%. One interesting thing that becomes clear is that the promotion rate for Nazi party members was a little slower than for non-Nazi's. It is thus clear that membership of the party was not due to a perceived advantage, but because of ideological commitment.

The third chapter is an examination of the means by which Nazi racist doctrines were spread. The Nazis were keen on the use of propaganda and made available radio's newspapers and films to soldiers on active duty. All this propaganda was immensely popular with the army, again being an indication of the ideological fervor of the army.

The third chapter deals with the level of criminality shown by the army. Previously a good deal of what was written about the German Army came from the memoirs of serving officers. This material suggested that the army was reasonably free of criminality and this was the responsibility of specific Nazi units such as the SS. This chapter examines the policy towards civilians in the Soviet Union and it also examines the disciplinary record of the Nazi formations, which were examined earlier in the book. It becomes clear that the murder of civilians by regular army units was commonplace. Civilians were murdered and villages burnt as a means of terror to keep the population under control. Crimes such as theft and rape, were punished in other campaigns but not on the Eastern Front. This chapter looks at the number of civilians killed and villages burnt and the record is staggering.

The book is readable and puts paid once and for all to one of the comfortable myths to come out of the war about the "honor" of the German Army. It is clear that the Army acted in a way that was criminal and atrocious. The earlier parts of the book go a long way to explaining why this occurred.

This is a very interesting and quite different approach to experiencing the events of the Second World War. It is interesting in the fact that it comprises a sort of social history of the members of the Wehrmacht, or regular German army itself. So, this then is a fascinating if somewhat oddly focused study of the war along the eastern front from the viewpoint of the German foot soldier. It is often frightening and revealing, especially when one considers the fact that the author actually survived over five years of combat. So, although the writing style is a bit stiff and belabored, it is well worth the effort.

Given its attempt to be both more rigorous scientifically and paying attention to the details that comprise the German soldier's cultural makeup and prime orienting values, this is a very readable and absorbing exploration of an "average" foot soldier involved up to his muddy ankles in the most outrageous and provocative battles in modern history. This is truly a story for the record books, one told with brutal frankness regarding the soldiers existential circumstances as well as his willful cooperation in the widespread and savage atrocities systematically ordered and committed all along the eastern front; this is a story deserving of your time and study. Imagine slogging through the heat and rain and mud and snow and ice of the campaign into and then through Poland and Russia, and retracing mile by mile, yard by yard, foot by foot as the Russians relentlessly push the 200 divisions of the German Army slowly and painfully back from all of the gains, inflicting murderous tolls along the way.

The portrait given is one revealing the levels of hardship, depravations, depravities, and extreme experiences of a common soldier involved in the most terrible and hard-fought campaign of World War Two, Operation Barbarossa. One sees how the culture from which they sprang made all of this possible, the savagery toward Russian civilians, the rampant anti-Semitism, and the butchering of everything that walked, crawled, or flew into their pathway. Indeed, the changes such experiences must make on any ordinary human being; the slow but inexorable metamorphosis from callow and self-assured young men to war and world weary cynics willing to do anything to see another tomorrow, and the vaguest hope of someday going back to home and the world, makes them into battle-hardened survivors who do what need to be done to protect themselves and their comrades with trained indifference.

This is indeed a worthwhile and well-described (which is not to say easily read) story of a view of the Wehrmacht informed by a consideration of the social and cultural factors surrounding their participation in the barbarian behavior of the German Army in the Soviet Union and elsewhere. In the last analysis, it is in the close knit circles of comrades and friends that such things become possible, and the cultural background and social factors allowing these thousands of otherwise decent young men to willingly participate in the excesses of the Gernamn Army are much more understandable in light of the factors examined and discussed herein. Finally it comes down to living in the small community of buddies and surviving in that context that becomes paramount in the day-to-day experiences. This is, in that sense at least, a very moving and graphic document in describing such experiences, and should be read and understood by any serious student of WWII.

Previous history of the eastern war has held the average Wehrmacht combatant relatively harmless regarding atrocities against ethnic groups, civilians, and POWs. Bartov's book attempts to implicate them. His thesis is that German soldiers who came of age during the mid-30s were so steeped in National Socialist propaganda that they saw no evil in performing these war crimes. According to Bartov, they were in fact quite eager to kill these people wholesale.
I have no doubt regarding Wehrmacht ruthlessness, since these soldiers were trained to hate, to kill indiscriminately. But what is more revealing to me from Bartov's work is that these soldiers were also very human. They bolted from tank attacks, developed battle fatigue, had to be coerced to be made to fight, had to be threatened with death against desertion.
My problem with most history of this type - despite superb analyses of data and droves of new information - is that the norm of modern history writing tends to be deconstructive, is hardly without bias, tending to be forced into alignment with authorial agenda.
I simply wish the author had focused equally on the Wehrmacht's food shortages, the lack of transportation, the killing weather, the equally brutal nature of the Soviet counteroffensives and partisan warfare. This was likely the most savage war mankind has ever known. Without a complete account of the futility of such barbarity - on both sides- I doubt historians will have much impact on the problematic results of war on human society.

An excellent presentation of this sad and tragic chapter in German history.

This book should be on the shelf of every student of WW II history. Bartov is one of the first historians to detail in English the real truth behind the shameful conduct of the German army on the Eastern front and dispel the myth of the "honorable" German army that was propogated during the years after the war. Bartov also wonderfully details the horrible conditions experienced by the German soldiers that he asserts helped lead to their barbarous conduct as well as the criminal orders by Hitler. In addition to dispelling the myth of the "honorable German army" he also does a wonderful job of dispelling any myth that the fighting on the Eastern front was mechanized and that the German army wasn't as fully mechanized as is commonly believed, they mostly relied on horses. This is another important part of his study. All in all, a wonderful book and deserves to be an important part of any WW II Eastern front collection.

Bartov has written two earlier book on this. Those two were nearly the same. This one is yet another repeat. That is how how academics build their resumes. Save money and read his earlier work Hitler's Army.

This book dispels any myths of the German soldiers as any other soldiers. It shows how their racist Nazi theories influenced them. Don't listen to former Nazi soldiers,..., for the facts. What the Germans did in Russia is beyond civilized conduct.

Unless you are an absolute amateur about WWII, there is very very little positive that can be said about this book.

Omer Bartov is either an insane individual or a pathetic "historian" telling partial truths, ignoring facts and telling several lies.

About his "destruction of the myth" that the Wehrmacht was not a mechanized army (relying more on horses and echelons to bring supplies over), the man seemed to ignore that at the launching of Barbarossa, the Wehrmacht had 13 (thirteen) FULLY motorized and mechanized divisions. Several panzer divisionen were up graded and highly mechanized as well. I know of no author telling that the entire Wehrmacht was mechanized. So perhaps he himself dreamed of such a myth.

He pictures the Russian soldiers and partisans as heavenly archangels defending themselves from the "legions of demons" coming from Germany. A lie.

For a person like myself, who has read a good deal of books about the eastern front, as well as meeting several veterans from both sides, my conclusion about Bartov`s book is:

I DO NOT BUY LIES, I DO NOT BUY TRIBULATIONS.