The German War
 | |
| Author | Nicholas Stargardt |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
Publication date | October 2015 |
| Pages | 760pp |
| ISBN | 978-0465018994 |
The German War: A Nation Under Arms, 1939-1945 is a history of the "thoughts and actions" of German citizens during the Second World War by historian Nicholas Stargardt.[1]
Stargardt presents evidence that Germans were aware of the genocide and atrocities being committed by German policy, even though the subject was not discussed. Stargardt argues that as the war went on, German media increasingly, "hinted at what people already knew, fostering a sense of collusive semi-secrecy."[2] This, spiral of silence,' according to Stargardt, produced a sense of quasi-complicity among German, even those who did not directly participate in atrocities. He argues that Germans began the War in the conviction that they were fighting "a war of national defense forced upon them by Allied machinations and Polish aggression," and that Allied bombing of Germany persuaded them that the war was being prolonged by English "plutocrats and slaveholders," as the war continued the German belief in their own victimhood was mixed with guilt over the guilt over German treatment of Jews, Ukrainians, Poles and others.[2] He explains the determination with which Germans fought long after it became clear that the Reich was losing by German expectations to be treated by the victors with the same genocidal brutality that Germans had visited on other peoples, and hence the conviction that the war "must never come home to Germany."[2]
Stargardt goes on to explore the remarkable resilience of defeated Germans who, despite living under military occupation, organized themselves to receive and assist the millions of ethnic Germans expelled from countries to Germany's east and south at the end of the War.[3]
References
- ↑ Kampfner, John (6 September 2015). "The German War by Nicholas Stargardt review – the Third Reich’s home front". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 October 2015.
- 1 2 3 "Fate and furies; How Germans perceived the second world war". The Economist. 26 September 2015. Retrieved 2 October 2015.
- ↑ Tanner, Marcus (24 September 2015). "The German War: A Nation Under Arms 1939-45 by Nicholas Stargardt , book review; A disturbing study captures the voices of ordinary Germans during the war". The Independent. Retrieved 2 October 2015.