Overview

In 1947 German Field Marshal Albert Kesselring was tried and convicted of war crimes committed during World War II. He was held responsible for his troops having executed nearly 9,000 Italian citizens - women, children, elderly men - in retaliation for partisan attacks. His conviction, however, created a real dilemma for the United States and western Europe. While some sought the harshest punishments available for anyone who had participated in the war crimes of the Nazi regime, others believed that the repatriation of alleged war criminals would help secure the allegiance of a rearmed West Germany in the dangerous new Cold War against the Soviet Union. Kerstin von Lingen's close analysis of the Kesselring case reveals for the first time how a network of veterans, lawyers, and German sympathizers in Britain and America achieved the commutation of Kesselring's death sentence and his eventual release - reinforcing German popular conceptions that he had been innocent all along and that the Wehrmacht had fought a 'clean war' in Italy. But von Lingen shows that Kesselring bore much greater guilt for civilian deaths than had been proven in court - and that the war on the southern front had been far from clean. Von Lingen weaves together strands of the story as diverse as Winston Churchill's ability to mobilize support among British elites, Basil Liddell Hart's need to be recognized as an important military thinker, and the Cold War fears of the 'Senators' Circle' in the United States. Through this rich narrative, she shows how international politics shaped the trial's proceedings and outcome - as well as the memory and meaning of the war for German citizens - and sheds new light on the complex interplay between the combatants' efforts to 'master the past' and the threatening state of international relations in the early Cold War. In analyzing the efforts to clear Kesselring's name, von Lingen shows that the case was about much more than the fate of one convicted individual; it also underscored the pressure to wrap up the war crimes issue - and German guilt - in order to get on with the business of bringing a rearmed Germany into the Western alliance. """"Kesselring's Last Battle"""" sheds new light on the 'politics of memory' by unraveling a twisted thread in postwar history as it shows how historical truth is sometimes sacrificed on the altar of expediency.

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9780700616411

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Reviews

Historians have analyzed the postwar trials of German officers before, but none have done it so brilliantly. While truth may be the first casualty in war, Von Lingen shows that it often suffers in peacetime as well. A fascinating and essential book. Robert M. Citino, author of Death of the Wehrmacht: The German Campaigns of 1942 A superb study that is balanced, extremely thorough, and highly readable. What makes this book especially timely is its discussion of war crimes, command responsibility, and the process of conducting such trials. James S. Corum, author of Wolfram von Richthofen: Master of the German Air War An important contribution. Richard Breitman, editor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies

Author Information

Kerstin von Lingen teaches at Eberhard-Karls University, Tubingen, and Rupprecht-Karls University, Heidelberg.

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