The Wehrmacht

History, Myth, Reality

Wolfram Wette

Translated by Deborah Lucas Schneider

    Preface to the English-Language Edition
    by Peter Fritzsche

    Foreword
    by Manfred Messerschmidt

    List of Abbreviations

    1. Perceptions of Russia, the Soviet Union, and Bolshevism as Enemies

    German Perceptions of Russia in the Twentieth Century

    National Socialists' Perceptions of Russia: "Jewish Bolshevism"

    Perceptions of Russia among the Wehrmacht Generals

    2. Anti-Semitism in the German Military

    From Anti-Semitism to the Holocaust?

    Germany under the Kaiser and the First World War

    The Revolutionary Era of 1918-19

    The Postwar Period: War Continued by Different Means

    The Weimar Republic

    The National Socialist Era up to 1939

    3. The Wehrmacht and the Murder of Jews

    Issuing Orders and Propaganda in the Wehrmacht

    Some Theaters of War

    Anti-Semitism as a Soldier's Duty

    4. Generals and Enlisted Men

    The Military Elites in the Grip of a War Ideology

    Hitler and the Generals

    The "Little Guy" in Uniform

    Soldiers of the Wehrmacht in Light of Recent Research

    The Will to Survive in the War's Final Phase

    5. The Legend of the Wehrmacht's "Clean Hands"

    The Birth of a Legend

    The War Crimes Trials

    Writing History from the Wehrmacht's Point of View

    The Cold War Begins

    Wehrmacht Crimes, the Justice System, and the Statute of Limitations

    6. A Taboo Shatters

    Historical Research

    Perceptions of the Wehrmacht in the Bundeswehr

    After Fifty Years a Taboo Is Broken

    7. Conclusion

    Notes

    Index

  • Cover: The Wehrmacht

Wolfram Wette is Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Freiburg, Germany.