The Wehrmacht: History, Myth, Reality | 
 enlarge | Author: Wolfram Wette
Creator: Deborah Lucas Schneider
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Category: Book
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Avg. Customer Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 127319
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 400
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 0674025776
Dewey Decimal Number: 940
EAN: 9780674025776
ASIN: 0674025776
Publication Date: October 30, 2007
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Product Description
This book is a profound reexamination of the role of the German army, the Wehrmacht, in World War II. Until very recently, the standard story avowed that the ordinary German soldier in World War II was a good soldier, distinct from Hitler's rapacious SS troops, and not an accomplice to the massacres of civilians. Wolfram Wette, a preeminent German military historian, explodes the myth of a "clean" Wehrmacht with devastating clarity. This book reveals the Wehrmacht's long-standing prejudices against Jews, Slavs, and Bolsheviks, beliefs that predated the prophecies of Mein Kampf and the paranoia of National Socialism. Though the sixteen-million-member German army is often portrayed as a victim of Nazi mania, we come to see that from 1941 to 1944 these soldiers were thoroughly involved in the horrific cleansing of Russia and Eastern Europe. Wette compellingly documents Germany's long-term preparation of its army for a race war deemed necessary to safeguard the country's future; World War II was merely the fulfillment of these plans, on a previously unimaginable scale. This sober indictment of millions of German soldiers reaches beyond the Wehrmacht's complicity to examine how German academics and ordinary citizens avoided confronting this difficult truth at war's end. Wette shows how atrocities against Jews and others were concealed and sanitized, and history rewritten. Only recently has the German public undertaken a reevaluation of this respected national institution--a painful but necessary process if we are to truly comprehend how the Holocaust was carried out and how we have come to understand it. (20060619)
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| Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
 The Wehrmacht August 8, 2008
Not quite as interesting as I expected, but a good history of the German army and the anti-semitc attitude of most of them.
 Junk August 2, 2007
9 out of 26 found this review helpful
This book is nothing more than another anti-German tirade. It is long on "assumption" and short on facts. Unless you enjoy wasting time reading biased opinions, then pass this one up.
Disappointing mea culpa July 20, 2007
13 out of 27 found this review helpful
To be honest I only skimmed this book. I thought it was going to be a scholarly military-history critique of the general impression that the Wermacht was a disciplined, well-led and aggressive fighting force. Unfortunately the authors are still striving to demonstrate their politically correct disdain for the German military, as required sixty-five years ago by the Occupying Powers' de-nazification program. The result is a one-sided trashing of the Wermacht that sheds neither light nor heat, but just boredom.
 A Sweeping Condemnation of Crimes of the Wehrmacht June 16, 2007
16 out of 19 found this review helpful
Wolfram Wette's book, "The Wehrmacht", is an attempt to take a simple question (Were all members of the Wehrmacht guilty of war crimes under international law?) and assert a simple answer (Yes. All but a dozen of the claimed 20 million members of the Wehrmacht were guilty of war crimes.).
The problem is sometimes there are no simple answers, only simple questions, as Mr. Wette uses too broad a brush to review and condemn equally the actions of each member of the Wehrmacht.
In one sense, all members of the Wehrmacht were equally responsible in that they were all engaged in wars of agression. But that does not take into account the individual actions, and responsiblities, of each member of the Wehrmacht. Nor does it take into account the fact that, beginning as early as 1935, Germany had universal conscription and most men had no choice but to serve in its armed forces in one capacity or another. Nor does it factor in that all members of the German population, including especially members of the Wehrmacht, were inundated daily with messages of hate and fear dissemininated by the first modern master of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels. Nor does it make any allowance for the fact that after the war started in 1939 it was a crime against the state to criticize Hitler or the war effort, and later it became a crime of treason, punishable by death, for anyone, including members of the Wehrmacht, to mention appeasement in any form. Nor does it even mention that direct threats against the regime were dealt with summarily, e.g., the murder of S.A. leader Ernst Roehm (who at the time led a personal army of 2-3 million men), his associates, and others on 30 June 1934 in the "Knight of the Long Knives." Nor does it mention that by 1939 the regime had the current U.S. equivalent (i.e., by proportion of the population) of 1,000,000 people held in concentration camps or in "protective custody" for political crimes. Nor does it mention that all political parties were banned by 1935. In other words, life in Hitler's Germany was not the bastion of freedom of expression and freedom of choice the author would lead you to believe.
The inherent problem with the author's conclusions is that they stem from his faulty premises: Over and again he cites an example of how one officer (or even several) believed or acted, which he supports with a citation, but presumptuously, and too generously, he goes on to apply it to each and every member of the Wehrmacht, which conclusion he does not support with any authority other than his own opinion.
The author also repeatedly misstates the facts he does cite. For example, he refers to Rommel's memoirs as a post-war attempt by him to whitewash the Wehrmacht. Unfortunately, Rommel died before the end of the war so it's a bit of a stretch to claim he wrote them after the war. He also constantly refers to an exhibition of war crimes put on by the Hamburg Institute for Social Research. But what he does not tell you is that the entire exhibition was withdrawn under claims of fraud and forgery, then put on again in a redacted, less conclusory format. In addition, he claims there was really only one attempt to assassinate Hitler, the July 20, 1944 plot, when in fact there were at least three dozen documented plans to assassinate Hiter. Further, he claims the Soviets treated German prisoners of war well, i.e., much better than the Germans, but the figure he provides for the number of German soldiers who died as Soviet prisoners of war is off by a factor of ten and does not even equal the number of German prisoners who died after surrendering at Stalingrad. I could go on.
Admittedly, the Wehrmacht's policies were racist, and the Wehrmacht participated in, and at times initiated, horrible acts. In addition, there was of course a coverup after the war by everyone who participated in such atrocities. Moreover, there was a reluctance by Germany after the war to come to grips with its past. Nonetheless, the author does not present a convincing argument why the acts of several hundred thousand, or even a million, men in either orchestrating or participating in wartime atrocities, should ipso facto condemn by association 19 million others.
While this book is useful to further discussion about the extent of the participation of the Wehrmacht in heinous acts and to what extent the blame for it should lie, it should not be viewed as the last word. That awaits a more thorough and probative examination, which may very well demonstrate that all 20 million members of the Wehrmacht are equally guilty for the crimes of any one member or group of members.
(This is an extremly well-written book, for which the translator, an historian in her own right, deserves special mention.)
The Wehrmacht, Hisory and Myth March 26, 2007
8 out of 16 found this review helpful
I definitely think this book is worth purchasing. It does an overall good job of dispelling the myth of the "clean Wehrmacht". However, you should bear in mind that the author is doing a "hatchet job" on the Wehrmacht. He will present information that confirms that the Wehrmacht did murder civilains. He will then do a "they are all guitly" paragaph. After this he presents information stating how these horrible actions might be explained.
I quite vehemently disagree with his thesis that the Wehrmacht as an organization and everyone who served in it are criminals.
First as to the murder of Jews, which the author can't seem to figure out the reasons for. All christians of that era were taught about the "blood guit" of the Jews. In one of the synoptic gospils the jews say someting like "His blood by on us and all of our children" in taking about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. If you were taught that your central religious figure that you venerated, was murdered by a cetain group of people, I really don't think you'd hesitate to punish them, even killing them.
Secondly, as the author points out orders to commit murder of civilians came from the head of the army. Failure to carry out an order would most likely result in your exceution. Personally, not being a saint, if I were a Landser I would carry the order and at least be alive for now rather than be dead.
As far as the author's once again incomprehesion of why the seinor officers of the Wehrmacht would issue these criminal orders, let's start with the idea that if you want to keep your job you'd better do what the political leadership says.
To conclude, this is about what one would expect from an academic. I really think that the good gentleman needs to come out of his ivory tower and get into the real world once in a while.
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