Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Foreword
- Introduction
- 1 Radicalizing Warfare: The German Command and the Failure of Operation Barbarossa
- 2 Urban Warfare Doctrine on the Eastern Front
- 3 The Wehrmacht in the War of Ideologies: The Army and Hitler's Criminal Orders on the Eastern Front
- 4 “The Purpose of the Russian Campaign Is the Decimation of the Slavic Population by Thirty Million”: The Radicalization of German Food Policy in Early 1941
- 5 The Radicalization of German Occupation Policies: The Wirtschaftsstab Ost and the 121st Infantry Division in Pavlovsk, 1941
- 6 The Exploitation of Foreign Territories and the Discussion of Ostland's Currency in 1941
- 7 Axis Collaboration, Operation Barbarossa, and the Holocaust in Ukraine
- 8 The Radicalization of Anti-Jewish Policies in Nazi-Occupied Belarus
- 9 The Minsk Experience: German Occupiers and Everyday Life in the Capital of Belarus
- 10 Extending the Genocidal Program: Did Otto Ohlendorf Initiate the Systematic Extermination of Soviet “Gypsies”?
- 11 The Development of German Policy in Occupied France, 1941, against the Backdrop of the War in the East
- Conclusion: Total War, Genocide, and Radicalization
- Appendix: Comparative Table of Ranks for 1941
- Selected Bibliography
- List of Contributors
- Index
Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Foreword
- Introduction
- 1 Radicalizing Warfare: The German Command and the Failure of Operation Barbarossa
- 2 Urban Warfare Doctrine on the Eastern Front
- 3 The Wehrmacht in the War of Ideologies: The Army and Hitler's Criminal Orders on the Eastern Front
- 4 “The Purpose of the Russian Campaign Is the Decimation of the Slavic Population by Thirty Million”: The Radicalization of German Food Policy in Early 1941
- 5 The Radicalization of German Occupation Policies: The Wirtschaftsstab Ost and the 121st Infantry Division in Pavlovsk, 1941
- 6 The Exploitation of Foreign Territories and the Discussion of Ostland's Currency in 1941
- 7 Axis Collaboration, Operation Barbarossa, and the Holocaust in Ukraine
- 8 The Radicalization of Anti-Jewish Policies in Nazi-Occupied Belarus
- 9 The Minsk Experience: German Occupiers and Everyday Life in the Capital of Belarus
- 10 Extending the Genocidal Program: Did Otto Ohlendorf Initiate the Systematic Extermination of Soviet “Gypsies”?
- 11 The Development of German Policy in Occupied France, 1941, against the Backdrop of the War in the East
- Conclusion: Total War, Genocide, and Radicalization
- Appendix: Comparative Table of Ranks for 1941
- Selected Bibliography
- List of Contributors
- Index
Summary
The year 1941 was a turning point both in the course of World War II and in the scope and magnitude of National Socialist Germany's policies. At the beginning of the year, Germany dominated continental Europe, having defeated the French in a stunning six-week campaign while at the same time forcing British troops to beat a hasty retreat back across the English Channel. To many contemporaries, it seemed as if the German army, utilizing a new doctrine of war termed “Blitzkrieg,” was unstoppable. If Germany began 1941 in such a powerful position, however, it ended the year militarily on the back foot, waging a two-front, truly global war, its human and material resources severely stretched.
It is during these twelve months that the radicalization of Nazi policy, both in terms of an all-encompassing approach to warfare and the application of genocidal practices, can be seen most clearly. In this context, we understand the term “radicalization” to mean a willingness to contemplate, plan, and execute ever more extreme policies in order to achieve ever more far-reaching goals. This was already hinted at with the expansion of the conflict to the Balkans by means of the invasion and occupation of Greece and Yugoslavia. In the former territory, rapacious economic policies unleashed by the German authorities led to widespread starvation, centered on Athens. In Yugoslavia, the Wehrmacht itself initiated a brutal reprisal policy in which Jewish and Romani hostages were executed in “atonement” for partisan and other irregular attacks on army units and installations; within a year of the invasion, Serbia was declared judenfrei by the military authorities.
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- Nazi Policy on the Eastern Front, 1941Total War, Genocide, and Radicalization, pp. 1 - 18Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2012