Overview

The Second World War affected the lives and shaped the experience of millions of individuals in Germany - soldiers at the front, women, children and the elderly sheltering in cellars, slave labourers toiling in factories, and concentration-camp prisoners and POWs clearing rubble in the Reich's devastated cities. Taking a 'history from below' approach, the volume examines how the minds and behaviour of individuals were moulded by the Party as the Reich took the road to Total War. The ever-increasing numbers of German workers conscripted into the Wehrmacht were replaced with forced foreign workers and slave labourers and concentration camp prisoners. The interaction in everyday life between German civilian society and these coerced groups is explored, as is that society's relationship to the Holocaust. From early 1943, the war on the home front was increasingly dominated by attack from the air. The role of the Party, administration, police, and courts in providing for the vast numbers of those rendered homeless, in bolstering civilian morale with 'miracle revenge weapons' propaganda, and in maintaining order in a society in disintegration is reviewed in detail. For society in uniform, the war in the east was one of ideology and annihilation, with intensified indoctrination of the troops after Stalingrad. The social profile of this army is analysed through study of a typical infantry division. The volume concludes with an account of the various forms of resistance to Hitler's regime, in society and the military, culminating in the failed attempt on his life in July 1944.

Full Product Details

Author:   Ralf Blank (, Lecturer in modern and recent history at the Ruhr University at Bochum) ,  Jörg Echternkamp (, Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam) ,  Karola Fings (, Lecturer at University of Cologne) ,  Jürgen Förster (, Adjunct professor at Freiburg University)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press
Imprint:   Oxford University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.70cm , Height: 5.80cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   1.578kg
ISBN:  

9780198738350

ISBN 10:   0198738358
Pages:   1074
Publication Date:   25 June 2015
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
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Table of Contents

A: At War, Abroad and at Home: The Essential Features of German Society in the Second World WarJörg Echternkamp: 1: 'War on Two Fronts' 2: A Coherent War Society? 3: Violence Given Free Reign 4: Principles for and Structure of the Volumes PART 1: RULE, DESTROY, SURVIVE B: The NSDAP, the War, and German SocietyArmin Nolzen: 1: Pre-war Structure and Functions of the NSDAP 2: Mobilizing the Troops and Moulding Minds and Behaviour at Home (September 1939 to April 1941) 3: 'People Management' on the Home Front (May 1941 to July 1943) 4: On the Road to Total War (August 1943 to May 1945) 5: The NSDAP and the Volksgemeinschaft C: Slaves for the 'Home Front'. War Society and Concentration CampsKarola Fings: 1: Public Awareness of the Concentration Camps 2: The Initial Stages of Prisoner Deployment 3: Urban Satellite Contentration Camps 4: The Camps and German Society 5: Concentration Camps Anchored in German Society D. Decisions to Murder and to Lie. German War Society and the HolocaustTobias Jersak: 1: Introduction 2: Holocaust and War 3: Society and Holocaust in the War 4: Normality of the Unimaginable: War within the War E. Wartime Daily Life and the Air War on the Home FrontRalf Blank: 1: The Bombing War seen as an Historical Event 2: The War, as seen on the Home Front 3: 'Fully Serving the Defence Efforts': The Administration, Police, and Courts 4: Coping with the Bombing War 5: Accommodation, Provisioning, and Replacement Homes 6: 'Revenge' and Miracle Weapons Propaganda 7: The 'Society in Disintegration', 1944/45 8: The Bombing War in Figures PART II: THE UNIFORMED SOCIETY Introduction to Part II A. Ideological Warfare in Germany 1919 to 1945Jürgen Förster: 1: The Legacy of the First World War 2: The Politicization of the Reichswehr/Wehrmacht 3: Ideological Warfare in the Early, Victorious Phase 4: The War of Ideology and Annihilation in the East 5: Between Optimism and Defiance: War Fought Under Military-Ideological Guidance 6: The Shock of Stalingrad and the Crisis of Military-Ideological Guidance 7: The 'Führer Order' of 22 December 1943 8: Ideological Indoctrination and Personnel Selection 9: The Totalness of National Socialism after 20 July 1944 B. The Social Profile of the German Army's Combat Units 1939-1945Christoph Rass: 1: Principles and Prospects for Researching the Social Structures of Wehrmacht Units 2: Changes in the Organizational Structure of the Army 3: Analysis of a Specimen Infantry Division 4: Results C. Military Resistance Activities and the WarWinfried Heinemann: 1: Resistance in German War Society 2: The Military Conspiracy. Military Motives for Resistance 3: The War as Crime 4: Communist Resistance During the War 5: The Battle with the Party and the SS 6: The Organization of the Coup D'Etat. General Staff Plans and the Military Putsch 7: Resistance and Ending the War 8: Resistance Activities Unconnected with 20 July 1944 9: Efforts and Consequences 10: Mutiny or Moral Revulsion Bibliography

Reviews

[Part of] a succession of mighty volumes ... The portrait of German wartime society presented by this book is somber, meticulously documented, cool, reasoned. The New York Review of Books

`[Part of] a succession of mighty volumes ... The portrait of German wartime society presented by this book is somber, meticulously documented, cool, reasoned. ' The New York Review of Books

[Part of] a succession of mighty volumes ... The portrait of German wartime society presented by this book is somber, meticulously documented, cool, reasoned. * The New York Review of Books *

Author Information

Project co-ordinated by the Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt (Research Institute for Military History), Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany

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