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 enlarge | Author: Geoffrey P. Megargee
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 320098
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 208
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 6 x 0.7
ISBN: 0742544826
Dewey Decimal Number: 943
EAN: 9780742544826
ASIN: 0742544826
Publication Date: October 28, 2007
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| Customer Reviews:
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 An Outstanding Introduction to the War with Russia April 30, 2006
37 out of 44 found this review helpful
For far too long historians of the Russo German war focused on either the military operations or the abuses of the civilian population in Soviet Russia. The most notably of these were obviously the Jews, although the Slavs and others suffered terribly. Although, in some instances Wehrmacht rear service units and the general staff have been identified as contributing to the escalation of brutality, for the most part the work of murder and starvation has been attributed to the various civil administration authorities and most notably, the SS. It is to this lack of connection between the occupation policies in Soviet Russia and the actual prosecution of the war that Geoffrey P. Megargee addresses in his book. Before I get any further however, let me be clear as to what this book is and is not. As the author informs the reader in the introduction, this book is not a comprehensive history of the Russo German war told from both sides of the story. It is primarily told from the perspective of the German plans and actions. This book is also not a shocking piece of new scholarship. What it is though, is a refreshingly new look at all of the pieces of evidence that have been laid down by other researchers and not previously seen for their interconnected nature. This book is a concise history of both the Nazi war against the USSR and the occupation policies and how the two inevitably led to the defeat of the Germany.
Finally there is the issue of the author's style. Simply said, it is excellent and the book is laid out in a very readable way. Each chapter is divided into sections describing military operation and rear area operations in regards to partisan warfare, POWs and `Jewish actions'. Furthermore, having side by side histories allows the author to clearly demonstrate their interconnectedness. The author uses a good number of sources to make his arguments but does so with a good degree of control in regards to the additional information given in the endnotes. I never once caught myself in the constant back and forth flipping that occurs when a less skilled historian writes a separate book in the endnotes. This book was a quick read and certainly the type of book a person can get through in a single weekend.
In the initial two chapters, the author, in an expert manner lays out the military and social background to the war in the east. He clearly shows how the General Staff's own long held biases, racism, social Darwinism, adherence to the `Stab in the Back' myth of the end of the first World War, and the connection of Jews and communists who supposedly committed this betrayal, led to enthusiastic support of an eastern campaign. Furthermore he shows the complete disregard that the Wehrmacht's leadership had for the well-being, even the very survival of the civilian population and Soviet POWs.
The next three chapters, lay out the various phases of the military campaign against the USSR and describes the several instances in which one army group or another lacked strength to meet an objective and was forced to pare strength from other groups in order to do so. Megargee clearly lays out the failures of resupply and reinforcement that caused this. He does this as well as describing the ever increasing brutality in occupation policies and an equal increase in the strength of the partisan movement. He also goes on to describe both the resources dedicated to the brutal pacification of the rear area and the nonexistence of resources to care for Soviet POWs.
In the last chapter, Megargee shows how the ever increasing brutality against civilians and POWs, intelligence agencies neglected to the point of uselessness and a supply system strained to the point of failure culminated in the Wehrmacht's famous defeat at the very gates of Moscow and Leningrad. Moreover he asserts that it was the racist and elitist beliefs of the General Staff that caused the deliberate starvation and death by exposure of thousands of POWs daily at a time when the German leadership was already beginning to struggle to replace a workforce pulled away for military duty.
In his conclusion the author states, with the weight of the evidence cited to support him, that it was in the opening months of the eastern campaign that the Wehrmacht lost the war. Through their ruthlessness and racist policies from the opening of hostilities as well as their lack of concern for logistics and intelligence gathering, the General Staff threw away any chance that they had of defeating the Soviet Union.
A quick introduction to the Eastern Front January 16, 2006
32 out of 41 found this review helpful
This book is both for the layman and for those who want a better understanding of why the Eastern Front was such a struggle for life and death on the part of civilians and POW's not even speaking of soldiers on the front lines. The author goes through the history of Nazi ideology and the role it played in the creation of the Third Reich as well as the history of the German Army and why in the end it proved an essential tool in the genocidal campaign Germany would launch when it attacked the Soviet Union (although keeping in mind the Polish campaign showed signs of what was to come on a smaller scale). Although military movements are described, they are done so in a general sense simply to show the success the German Armed forces were enjoying and the amount of territory that was falling under their supervision. Then come the explanations for how involved the Army was in the genocide of Jews, Communists, and various other groups throughout the Soviet Union. Mainly the Armed forces helped the SS, Einzatsgruppen, Order Police, and other various units in their mass murders throughout the rear areas that they had just occupied. As well as making it possible for POW's to starve on a massive scale without a second thought to their fates. Without the Army's cooperation millions of Soviet POW's would have lived to see 1942 and perhaps tens of thousands of Jews and Communists would have lived to see the end of the war. The Army's complication in these crimes is now being shown for what it was, although the book is small, around 150 pages of text, the revelations it makes are very important for understanding what went on on the Eastern Front and how it evolved into outright genocide. Well worth the money.
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