Violence in Defeat
The Wehrmacht on German Soil, 1944-1945
Published on 22. August 2024
Book
Paperback/Softback
368 pages
978-1-108-79064-2 (ISBN)
Description
In the final year of the Second World War, as bitter defensive fighting moved to German soil, a wave of intra-ethnic violence engulfed the country. Bastiaan Willems offers the first study into the impact and behaviour of the Wehrmacht on its own territory, focusing on the German units fighting in East Prussia and its capital Koenigsberg. He shows that the Wehrmacht's retreat into Germany, after three years of brutal fighting on the Eastern Front, contributed significantly to the spike of violence which occurred throughout the country immediately prior to defeat. Soldiers arriving with an ingrained barbarised mindset, developed on the Eastern Front, shaped the immediate environment of the area of operations, and of Nazi Germany as a whole. Willems establishes how the norms of the Wehrmacht as a retreating army impacted behavioural patterns on the home front, arguing that its presence increased the propensity to carry out violence in Germany.
Reviews / Votes
'In this fresh examination that restores the army's centrality to the defense of Koenigsberg, Willems demonstrates that the Wehrmacht's mobilization of civilians in East Prussia closely resembled the ruthless practices it developed in the Soviet Union. An important study that demonstrates the evolution of total war during the Third Reich's death throes.' Jeff Rutherford, author of Combat and Genocide on the Eastern Front: The German Infantry's War, 1941-1944 'The German Wehrmacht's role in war crimes against Eastern European populations has long been a matter of historical record. Much less well-known is how soldiers' brutalized mentality also caused them to inflict misery upon the German population in the last-ditch defence of their homeland. Bastiaan Willems' admirable study shines disturbing light on this phenomenon. It greatly deepens and enriches our understanding of the collapse of the Third Reich.' Ben H. Shepherd, author of Hitler's Soldiers: The German Army in the Third Reich 'The suffering of the population in East Prussia under Soviet occupation, even long after the war had ended, is well known. This book will stimulate lively discussions about how the conduct of the radicalized Wehrmacht units retreating from the Eastern Front onto German territory in 1944/45 impacted these miserable conditions.' Margit Szoelloesi-Janze, editor of Science in the Third Reich '... original, analytically rigorous, and engagingly written.' Ben H. Shepherd, WIH 'Willems provides a harrowing view into the Wehrmacht's final days and an essential perspective on this notorious army.' Daniel Gipper, US Army War College Press/Parameters BookshelfMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
533 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-108-79064-2 (9781108790642)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
02/2021
Cambridge University Press
€51.50
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Bastiaan Willemsis Lecturer in the History War in 20th-Century Europe at Lancaster University, UK. He is the author of Violence in Defeat: The Wehrmacht on German Soil, 1944-1945(2021) and co-editor of Reflections on Perpetration and Complicity under Nazism and Beyond: Compromised Identities? (forthcoming, Bloomsbury).
Content
List of Figures; List of Maps; List of Tables; Acknowledgements; Chronology; List of Abbreviations; Introduction; 1. Regionality and Total War in East Prussia; 2. Eastern Front Battles on German Soil; 3. The City as a Fortress-Community; 4. Redefining Koenigsberg: Historical Continuity in Practice; 5. The Evacuation of East Prussia; 6. Koenigsberg as a Community of Violence; Conclusion; Appendices; Bibliography; Index.