Ostkrieg
Page 71
For Hitler, then, the war represented nothing less than the opportunity to remake and rationalize Central and Eastern Europe ethnically while removing for all time the “destroyer of peoples,” the Jews. Ironically, by the end of his war, a conflict that in Europe consumed perhaps 50 million people and left much of the Continent in ruins, its citizens struggling to rebuild their shattered lives, Hitler had largely accomplished the one goal, but at the expense of the other. Central and Eastern Europe had been ethnically cleansed, the intermingled national groups had been disentangled, the Volksdeutsche had been concentrated back in Germany (in the largest, deadliest, and most rapid migration in human history), and the ancient Jewish culture and communities of Europe had been uprooted and destroyed. The German nation, however, on whose behalf Hitler had ostensibly waged this apocalyptic struggle, had ceased to exist as a political entity. Hitler had prophesied that, if Germany failed to prevail against its enemies, it would face a national catastrophe. His actions, and those of his helpers in the Wehrmacht and the war economy, had ensured just such an outcome. In the end, however, its vanquishers worked not to destroy Germany but to integrate its parts into an admittedly divided Europe. In so doing, the German question was solved at last, and the Germany of Hitler—resentful, aggressive, racist, nationalist—was, like him, crushed forever. The legacy of the Third Reich, however—the awareness of what can result from that explosive mixture of hatred, hypernationalism, racism, and authoritarianism—remains as a constant warning to us, challenging our notions of loyalty, honor, morality, and justice.
Acknowledgments
Two important people in my life died during the writing of this book: my mother, who lived through the war as a young wife worried about the well-being of her husband (and my father) away at sea, and my dear friend and extraordinary colleague Professor Christa Hungate, who was born in Germany during the war and, in her own person, although sharing none of the responsibility, nonetheless bore the burden of guilt for the crimes of her countrymen. Although it is not appropriate to dedicate a book on war to either, both were shaped in significant ways by World War II, and, thus, I was affected as well. My wife, Julia, has as always been a source of enormous encouragement, advice, occasional prodding, and, most importantly, steadfast support. She has also once again brought her logical, scientific mind to the creation of the outstanding maps that accompany and are such an important part of the book. I can also add thanks to my daughter, Kelsey, who in a matter of seconds, it seems, has grown from the baby I held on my lap as I composed my first book to a beautiful, talented, bright young woman—one, moreover, with a passion for history. Over the years, I like to think that I have even helped promote her growing interest in European history. I am sure that our innumerable historical discussions over the dinner table drove Julia to distraction, but her questions have also helped focus and clarify my arguments. More importantly, they have reminded me of the sheer joy of learning. The ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu wrote, “Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone gives you courage.” This neatly expresses my gratitude to both Julia and Kelsey—our souls touch and protect each other, and I am always conscious of my nearness to them. I carry their hearts in my heart and am never without them. Without them, my wife and daughter, I can truly say that this book would never have become reality. Both of them have enriched my life beyond measure, and to them this book is lovingly dedicated.
Appendix
Supplementary Data
Table 1: Comparative Sizes of Major Commands
German
Soviet
Army groups: 4–5
Fronts: 10–18
Armies: 2–4 in an army group
Armies: 3–9 in a front (average 5–7)
Corps: 2–7 in an army
Corps: an average of 3 in an army
Divisions: 2–7 in a corps
Divisions: 2–3 in a corps
Authorized Strengths
Authorized Strengths
Panzer divisions: 14,000–17,000 (103–125 tanks)
Tank corps: 10,500 (189 tanks)
Motorized divisions: 14,000 (48 tanks)
Mechanized corps: 16,000 (186 tanks)
Infantry divisions: 12,700–15,000
Rifle divisions: 9,375
Guards rifle divisions: 10,585
Artillery divisions: 3,380 (113 guns)
Artillery divisions: 6,550 (210 guns)
Source: Ziemke, Stalingrad to Berlin, 506.
Figure 1. German deaths on the eastern front, 1941–1945.
Source: Overmans, Deutsche militärische Verluste im Zweiten Weltkrieg, 238.
Notes
1. Dilemma
1. Shirer, Berlin Diary, 21 June 1940, 420–24; Horne, To Lose a Battle, 646–47; Kershaw, Hitler: Nemesis, 298–99; TBJG, 22 June 1940.
2. TBJG, 6 June 1940; Hoffmann, Mit Hitler im Westen; Hornshøj-Møller, “The Role of ‘Produced Reality.’ ”
3. Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich, 170–72; Kershaw, Hitler: Nemesis, 299–300; TBJG, 3 July 1940.
4. Mann, “Beim Propheten,” 275.
5. Förster, “Hitler’s Decision,” 30–31; Kershaw, Fateful Choices, 56–57; Deist, “The Road to Ideological War,” 380–81. For the best extended assessment of Hitler’s ideology, see Jäckel, Hitler’s World View.
6. Hitler, Mein Kampf, 284–329; Weinberg, ed., Hitler’s Second Book, chaps. 1–6; Kershaw, Hitler: Hubris, 243–46.
7. Hitler, Mein Kampf, 679; Kershaw, Hitler: Hubris, 244–45.
8. Jäckel and Kuhn, eds., Hitler: Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen, 775; Bloxham, The Final Solution, 88; Friedländer, Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1:73–113; Herf, The Jewish Enemy, 2–3; Kershaw, Hitler: Hubris, 244–46.
9. Kershaw, Hitler: Hubris, 248–49, and Fateful Choices, 56–57; Förster, “Hitler’s Decision,” 31–32; Hitler, Mein Kampf, 610–11; Müller, “Das ‘Unternehmen Barbarossa’ als wirtschaftlicher Raubkrieg,” 174. For an excellent and extended discussion of the concept of Lebensraum, see Liulevicius, War Land on the Eastern Front, 247–77.
10. For Hitler’s general views on foreign policy, see Hitler, Mein Kampf, 607–67; and Weinberg, ed., Hitler’s Second Book, passim.
11. Tooze, The Wages of Destruction, 8–9, 138, 144–45; Hitler, Mein Kampf, 654.
12. Weinberg, ed., Hitler’s Second Book, 15–27, 48–54, 99–118, 160–74; Kershaw, Hitler: Hubris, 247–50, and Fateful Choices, 56–57; Förster, “Hitler’s Decision,” 31–32.
13. Kershaw, Hitler: Hubris, 249–50; Deist, “The Road to Ideological War,” 380–82; Weinberg, ed., Hitler’s Second Book, chaps. 1–6; Zitelmann, “Zur Begründung des ‘Lebensraum’ Motivs in Hitlers Weltanschauung”; Vogelsang, “Neue Dokumente zur Geschichte der Reichswehr,” 434–36.
14. Schmidt, Hitler’s Interpreter, 158; Bauer, Jews for Sale? 37–38; Jersak, “Blitzkrieg Revisited,” 376.
15. Frieser, The Blitzkrieg Legend, 10, 13, 17.
16. Hitler, Mein Kampf, 126–56, 607–67; Weinberg, ed., Hitler’s Second Book, 160–74, 228–38; Förster, “Hitler’s Decision,” 33; Kershaw, Fateful Choices, 62; Jersak, “Blitzkrieg Revisited,” 570; Ueberschär, “Hitlers Entschluß,” 88.
17. Deist, “The Road to Ideological War,” 390–91; Treue, “Hitlers Denkschrift”; Noakes and Pridham, eds., Nazism: A History, 2:281–87; Overy, Russia’s War, 34–35.
18. Treue, “Hitlers Denkschrift”; Tooze, The Wages of Destruction, 219–22 and chaps. 7–8 generally; Deist, “The Road to Ideological War,” 383; Overy, Russia’s War, 35.
19. Tooze, The Wages of Destruction, chaps. 7–9; Deist, “The Road to Ideological War,” 374–79, 383; Geyer, “German Strategy in the Age of Machine Warfare,” 575, 581. See also Deist, “The Rearmament of the Wehrmacht”; and Volkmann, “The National Socialist Economy in Preparation of War.”
20. Jersak, “Blitzkrieg Revisited,” 571; Herf, The Jewish Enemy, chaps. 1–3.
21. Wildt, ed., Judenpolitik, 35–60; Brechtk
en, “Madagascar für die Juden,” 176–85, 193–94; Jansen, Der Madagaskar-Plan, 236–39, 284–85; Nicosia, The Third Reich and the Palestine Question, 109–44; Jersak, “Blitzkrieg Revisited,” 571–72; Kershaw, Hitler: Nemesis, 132–35; TBJG, 25 July 1938.
22. Tooze, The Wages of Destruction, 274–75; Kershaw, Hitler: Nemesis, 135–36; Wildt, ed., Judenpolitik, 55–57; Barkai, “Schicksalsjahr 1938,” 101.
23. Kershaw, Hitler: Nemesis, 136–39; TBJG, 9, 10 November 1938. See also Graml, Reichskristallnacht.
24. Jersak, “Blitzkrieg Revisited,” 573; Kershaw, Hitler: Nemesis, 150–51 (Goering quote 151).
25. Tooze, The Wages of Destruction, 282–83; Herf, The Jewish Enemy, 46–49; Kershaw, Hitler: Nemesis, 151–52 (Das schwarze Korps and Hitler quotes 152).
26. Tooze, The Wages of Destruction, 283–84; Jersak, “Blitzkrieg Revisited,” 574–75; Kershaw, Hitler: Nemesis, 152–53; Domarus, ed., Hitler: Reden und Proklamationen, 2:1049, 1057.
27. Domarus, ed., Hitler: Reden und Proklamationen, 2:1057–58.
28. Kershaw, Hitler: Nemesis, 136–39. See also Fritz, Frontsoldaten, 187–218, and “ ‘We are trying . . . to change the face of the world.’ ”
29. Browning, The Origins of the Final Solution, 12–14. See also Sven Lindqvist, “Exterminate All the Brutes”; Ehmann, “From Colonial Racism to Nazi Population Policy”; Smith, Ideological Origins.
30. Browning, The Origins of the Final Solution, 15–16. See also Halder, War Diary; Baumgart, “Zur Ansprache Hitlers vor den Führern der Wehrmacht”; “Ansprache des Führers auf dem Berghof am 22. 8. 1939,” in Schramm, ed., Kriegstagebuch, 1, pt. 2:947–49.
31. Browning, The Origins of the Final Solution, 16–24; Groscurth, Tagebücher, 202 (9 September 1939), 298 (18 October 1939); Müller, Das Heer und Hitler, 667 (doc. 45: Brauchitsch to Army Commanders, 21 September 1939); Kershaw, Hitler: Nemesis, 240–44; Mommsen, “Die Realisierung des Utopischen.”
For the best assessments of Einsatzgruppen activities in Poland and the army reaction, see Rossino, Hitler Strikes Poland, passim. Other important recent works focusing on Poland as the dress rehearsal for later atrocities are Rossino, “Destructive Impulses”; Böhler, Auftakt zum Vernichtungskrieg; Westermann, Hitler’s Police Battalions; and Rutherford, Prelude to the Final Solution.
32. Browning, The Origins of the Final Solution, 25–28.
33. Ibid., 27–28, 46; TBJG, 10 October 1939. See also Aly and Heim, Architects of Annihilation, chap. 4.
34. Browning, The Origins of the Final Solution, 14; Aly and Heim, Architects of Annihilation, 149–59.
35. Browning, The Origins of the Final Solution, 36–63; Friedländer, Nazi Germany and the Jews, 2:30–37.
36. Browning, The Origins of the Final Solution, 36–63; Friedländer, Nazi Germany and the Jews, 2:30–37; Goshen, “Eichmann und die Nisko-Aktion”; Moser, “Nisko”; Pohl, Von der “Judenpolitik” zum Judenmord, 47–54.
For an extensive collection of documentation concerning Nazi policy in Poland and toward the Jews, see Noakes and Pridham, eds., Nazism: A History, vol. 2, chaps. 35, 37. On demographic and academic experts and their role in shaping policy, see Burleigh, Germany Turns Eastwards; Aly and Heim, Vordenker der Vernichtung; Haar, Historiker im Nationalsozialismus; and Rössler and Schleiermacher, eds., Der “Generalplan Ost.”
37. Friedländer, Nazi Germany and the Jews, 2:16–17. For a detailed discussion of Goebbels’s project, see Hornshøj-Møller, “Der ewige Jude,” and “Der ewige Jude.”
38. TBJG, 17, 29 October 1939; Hornshøj-Møller, “Der ewige Jude,” 66–68; Browning, The Origins of the Final Solution, 46; Friedländer, Nazi Germany and the Jews, 2:16–24; Kershaw, Hitler: Nemesis, 249. Hornshøj-Møller also notes the probable enhanced impact of the ritual slaughter scene on Hitler since he was a confirmed vegetarian.
39. TBJG, 2–3, 19 November, 5 December 1939; Hornshøj-Møller, “Der ewige Jude,” 66–68; Browning, The Origins of the Final Solution, 46; Friedländer, Nazi Germany and the Jews, 2:16–24; Kershaw, Hitler: Nemesis, 249.
40. Browning, The Origins of the Final Solution, 68.
41. Heinrich Himmler, “Reflections on the Treatment of Peoples of Alien Races in the East,” doc. NO-1880, Prosecution Exhibit 1314, Nuremberg Trial Documents, reproduced and translated in Bauer, A History of the Holocaust, 383–85. Browning (The Origins of the Final Solution, 68–70) also translates parts of it.
42. Browning, The Origins of the Final Solution, 81–101; Kershaw, Hitler: Nemesis, 320–25. For a detailed discussion of the Madagascar Plan, see Brechtken, “Madagaskar für die Juden”; Jansen, Der Madagaskar-Plan; Yahil, “Madagascar,” 315–34.
43. TBJG, 26 July, 17 August 1940.
44. Halder, War Diary, 28 August, 27 September 1939, 37, 62–66; Hitler quoted in Groscurth, Tagebücher, 385 (21 October 1939), 414 (23 November 1939); TBJG, 14, 17 November, 29 December 1939, 13, 25 January 1940; Frieser, The Blitzkrieg Legend, 20, 60–63; Förster, “Hitler’s Decision,” 19; Ueberschär, “Hitlers Entschluß,” 91–92; Tooze, The Wages of Destruction, 373.
45. Frieser, The Blitzkrieg Legend, 21–54; Tooze, The Wages of Destruction, 326–67.
46. Frieser, The Blitzkrieg Legend, 55–59; Groscurth, Tagebücher, 223; Tooze, The Wages of Destruction, 326–67.
47. Frieser, The Blitzkrieg Legend, 60–99, 320–53; Murray, The Change in the European Balance of Power, 326–32, 361; Reynolds, “1940,” 326–27.
48. Tooze, The Wages of Destruction, 383–92, 411–20; Müller, “Economic Alliance,” 118–36; Aly and Heim, Architects of Annihilation, 234–35.
49. Tooze, The Wages of Destruction, 383–92, 411–20; Müller, “Economic Alliance,” 118–36. See also Harrison, ed., The Economics of World War II; Milward, The New Order and the French Economy; Overy, Otto, and Houwink ten Cate, eds., Die “Neuordnung” Europas; and Müller, “The Mobilization of the German Economy,” 564–603, 711.
50. Reynolds, “1940,” 328; Tooze, The Wages of Destruction, 396–97.
2. Decision
1. TBJG, 7 July 1940; Kershaw, Hitler: Nemesis, 300–301, and Fateful Choices, 65–66.
2. TBJG, 9 June 1940 (quote). On America and the Jewish press, see ibid., 16, 23, 26, 28 May, 2, 7, 11–13, 20, 22 June, 6, 18, 23 July, 5 September 1940.
3. Ibid., 30–31 May, 16 (quote) June 1940. On fears of the Soviet Union, see ibid., 17–18, 28, 29 June, 4, 5 (quote), 11, 19, 23 (quote) July 1940. For the rest, see ibid., 11–12 January, 28–29 June, 5–6, 8–9, 20–21 July, 31 August 1940.
4. Ibid., 30, 31 (quote) May, 2 (quote), 3 (quote), 9, 16, 25, 27, 29 (quote) June, 3 (quote) July 1940; Kershaw, Hitler: Nemesis, 298, 300.
5. TBJG, 7, 9 (quote), 12, 16–17 July 1940.
6. Halder, War Diary, 13 July 1940, 227.
7. Kershaw, Hitler: Nemesis, 300–303; Halder, War Diary, 13 July 1940, 227; Tooze, The Wages of Destruction, 397–400; Weinberg, A World at Arms, 117–18.
8. Kershaw, Hitler: Nemesis, 303–4; Leach, German Strategy against Russia, 57; TBJG, 20 July 1940; Shirer, Berlin Diary, 19 July 1940, 452–57.
9. Kershaw, Hitler: Nemesis, 304; Citino, Death of the Wehrmacht, 32–34; Shirer, Berlin Diary, 20 July 1940, 457; TBJG, 21 July 1940.
10. TBJG, 14, 17 November, 29 December 1939, 13, 25 January, 21 April 1940; Ueberschär, “Hitlers Entschluß,” 91–95; Groscurth, Tagebücher, 385 (21 October 1939), 414 (23 November 1939); Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant, 217; Halder, War Diary, 11 January 1940, 85–86; Speer, Inside the Third Reich, 173.
11. Leach, German Strategy against Russia, 53–57; Klink, “Military Concept,” 228–29; Halder, War Diary, 26–27, 30 June, 1, 3 July 1940, 217–21; Koch, “Hitler’s ‘Programme,’ ” 896–98.
12. Halder, War Diary, 25, 30 June, 3, 11, 13 July 1940, 217–27; Förster, “Hitler’s Decision,” 18–19; Klink, “Military Concept,” 241–51; Koch, “Hitler’s ‘Programme,’ ” 897–98.
13. Förster, “Hitler Turns East,” 117; Klink, “Military Concept,” 240�
�45; Halder, War Diary, 18, 22–23, 25 June, 3–4 July 1940, 209–22; Hitler quoted in Koch, “Hitler’s ‘Programme,’ ” 896–97.
14. Halder, War Diary, 22 July 1940, 229–33.
15. Ibid.; Förster, “Hitler’s Decision,” 21–22; Klink, “Military Concept,” 251–53; Koch, “Hitler’s ‘Programme,’ ” 903–4; Leach, German Strategy against Russia, 58; Ueberschär, “Hitlers Entschluß,” 96–97.
16. Leach, German Strategy against Russia, 60–61, 64; Halder, War Diary, 22, 30 July 1940, 232, 240–41; Warlimont, Inside Hitler’s Headquarters, 112.
17. Ueberschär, “Hitlers Entschluß,” 96–97; Förster, “Hitler’s Decision,” 15, 21–27, and “Hitler Turns East,” 118; Kershaw, Fateful Choices, 66, 208–20; Tooze, The Wages of Destruction, 402–3; Herf, The Jewish Enemy, 77–91; Shirer, Berlin Diary, 20 July 1940, 457–58.