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| sönke neitzel: Tapping Hitler's Generals Sönke Neitzel, 2013-07-19 These transcripts of wiretapped conversations between Nazi officers reveal “a fascinating—and chilling—insight into the German view of the war” (Financial Times). Between 1939 and 1942, the British Directorate of Military Intelligence created a number of POW interrogation camps in and around London where they secretly recorded private conversations between senior German staff officers. In this extraordinary work, historian Sonke Neitzel examines these transcripts in depth and presents the private thoughts, opinions, and secrets of Nazi officers during the Second World War. These transcripts address important questions regarding the officers’ attitudes towards the German leadership and Nazi policies: How did the German generals judge the overall war situation? From what date did they consider it lost? How did they react to the attempt on Hitler’s life in July 1944? What knowledge did they have of the atrocities? By turns insightful and horrifying, this unprecedented research is a must for any serious scholar of the period. “A goldmine of information about what the German High Command privately thought of the war, Adolf Hitler, the Nazis and each other.” —Daily Mail |
| sönke neitzel: Soldaten - On Fighting, Killing and Dying Sonke Neitzel, Harald Welzer, 2012-09-25 In November 2001, as the world still reeled from the attack on the Twin Towers, German historian Sonke Neitzel discovered an extraordinary cache of documents from the Second World War. The documents were the transcripts of German prisoners of war talking among themselves in prisoner of war camps, and secretly recorded by the allies. In these apparently private conversations the soldiers talked freely and openly about their hopes and fears, their concerns and their day-to-day lives. With a banality and ease which to the modern reader can appear shocking, they also talked about the horrors of war -- about rape, death and killing. Sonke Neitzel shared the material with renowned and bestselling psychologist Harald Wezler and they set about trying to make sense of the vast piles of documents, the hours of transcripts. The result is SOLDATEN, a landmark book which will change the way we look at soldiers and war, and is as relevant to our modern conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan as it was to the soldiers of the German Army in 1945. Published to huge acclaim and controversy in Germany it was a number one bestseller there and reignited the debate about the banality of evil under the Nazi regime. |
| sönke neitzel: Soldiers Sonke Neitzel, Harald Welzer, 2012-09-25 On a visit to the British National Archive in 2001, Sönke Neitzel made a remarkable discovery: reams of covertly recorded, meticulously transcribed conversations among German POWs during World War II that recently had been declassified. Neitzel would later find another collection of transcriptions, twice as extensive, in the National Archive in Washington, D.C. These discoveries, published in book form for the first time, would provide a unique and profoundly important window into the true mentality of the soldiers in the Wehrmacht, the Luftwaffe, the German navy, and the military in general—almost all of whom had insisted on their own honorable behavior during the war. Collaborating with renowned social psychologist Harald Welzer, Neitzel examines these conversations—and the casual, pitiless brutality omnipresent in them—to create a powerful narrative of wartime experience. [Originally published as Soldaten.] |
| sönke neitzel: Operation Sealion Peter Schenk, 2019-07-26 An in-depth analysis of Nazi Germany’s unused strategy to invade the UK during the Battle of Britain in World War II. It is hard to believe that in the summer of 1940, neither the Allies nor the Axis powers had any experience of large amphibious operations. German planning for Operation Sealion was concerned with pioneering new techniques and developing specialized landing craft. Remarkably, in only two months they prepared an invasion fleet of 4,000 vessels. In Operation Sealion, Peter Schenk begins by examining the vessels that were developed and deployed for the operation: converted cargo vessels and steamers, more specialized landing craft, barges and pontoons, and auxiliary vessels such as tugs and hospital ships. He then goes on to outline the strategic preparations for the landing and looks at the operational plans of, in turn, the navy, army, and air force. The planned invasion is described in full detail so that the reader can follow the proposed sequence of events from loading, setting sail, and the crossing of the English Channel, to the landing and the early advances into southern England. Schenk uniquely estimates the chances of success. This absorbing account of Hitler’s abortive mission, more detailed than anything written before, is of interest not just to the naval historian but to anyone with an interest in World War II or military strategy. |
| sönke neitzel: What is Military History? Stephen Morillo, 2013-04-03 This clear, readable introduction to the popular field of military history is now available in a refreshed and updated second edition. It shows that military history encompasses not just accounts of campaigns and battles but includes a wide range of perspectives on all aspects of past military organization and activity. In concise chapters it explains the fundamental features of the field, including: The history of military history, showing how it has developed from ancient times to the present; The key ideas and concepts that shape analysis of military activity; it argues that military history is as methodologically and philosophically sophisticated as any field of history; The current controversies about which military historians argue, and why they are important; A survey of who does military history, where it is taught and published, and how it is practiced; A look at where military history is headed in the future. The new edition of What is Military History? provides an up-to-date bibliography and cutting edge new case studies, including counterinsurgency, and as such continues to be ideal for classes in military history and in historiography generally, as well as for anyone interested in learning more about the dynamics of a rich and growing area of study. |
| sönke neitzel: Allen Dulles, the OSS, and Nazi War Criminals Kerstin von Lingen, 2013-09-30 Kerstin von Lingen shows how Nazi SS-General Karl Wolff avoided war crimes prosecution because of his role in Operation Sunrise, negotiations conducted by high-ranking American, Swiss, and British officials - in violation of the Casablanca agreements with the Soviet Union - for the surrender of German forces in Italy. Von Lingen suggests that the Cold War started already with Operation Sunrise, and helps us understand rollback operations thereafter: one was the failure of justice and selective prosecution for high ranking Nazi criminals. The Western Allies not only failed to ensure cooperation between their respective national war crimes prosecution organizations, but in certain cases even obstructed justice by withholding evidence from the prosecution. |
| sönke neitzel: War Stories Philip Dwyer, 2016-11-01 Although war memoirs constitute a rich, varied literary form, they are often dismissed by historians as unreliable. This collection of essays is one of the first to explore the modern war memoir, revealing the genre’s surprising capacity for breadth and sophistication while remaining sensitive to the challenges it poses for scholars. Covering conflicts from the Napoleonic era to today, the studies gathered here consider how memoirs have been used to transmit particular views of war even as they have emerged within specific social and political contexts. |
| sönke neitzel: German Atrocities, 1914 John Horne, Alan Kramer, 2001-01-01 Is it true that the German army, invading Belgium and France in August 1914, perpetrated brutal atrocities? Or are accounts of the deaths of thousands of unarmed civilians mere fabrications constructed by fanatically anti-German Allied propagandists? Based on research in the archives of Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, and Italy, this pathbreaking book uncovers the truth of the events of autumn 1914 and explains how the politics of propaganda and memory have shaped radically different versions of that truth. John Horne and Alan Kramer mine military reports, official and private records, witness evidence, and war diaries to document the crimes that scholars have long denied: a campaign of brutality that led to the deaths of some 6500 Belgian and French civilians. Contemporary German accounts insisted that the civilians were guerrillas, executed for illegal resistance. In reality this claim originated in a vast collective delusion on the part of German soldiers. The authors establish how this myth originated and operated, and how opposed Allied and German views of events were used in the propaganda war. They trace the memory and forgetting of the atrocities on both sides up to and beyond World War II. Meticulously researched and convincingly argued, this book reopens a painful chapter in European history while contributing to broader debates about myth, propaganda, memory, war crimes, and the nature of the First World War. |
| sönke neitzel: "Promise Me You'll Shoot Yourself" Florian Huber, 2020-03-10 Named a Best History Book of 2019 by The Times (UK) The astounding true story of how thousands of ordinary Germans, overcome by shame, guilt, and fear, killed themselves after the fall of the Third Reich and the end of World War II. By the end of April 1945 in Germany, the Third Reich had fallen and invasion was underway. As the Red Army advanced, horrifying stories spread about the depravity of its soldiers. For many German people, there seemed to be nothing left but disgrace and despair. For tens of thousands of them, the only option was to choose death -- for themselves and for their children. Promise Me You'll Shoot Yourself recounts this little-known mass event. Using diaries, letters, and memoirs, historian Florian Huber traces the euphoria of many ordinary Germans as Hitler restored national pride; their indifference as the Führer's political enemies, Jews, and other minorities began to suffer; and the descent into despair as the war took its terrible toll, especially after the invasion of the Soviet Union. Above all, he investigates how suicide became a contagious epidemic as the country collapsed. Drawing on eyewitness accounts and other primary sources, Promise Me You'll Shoot Yourself presents a riveting portrait of a nation in crisis, and sheds light on a dramatic yet largely unknown episode of postwar Germany. |
| sönke neitzel: Empire of Destruction Alex J. Kay, 2021-09-28 The first comparative, comprehensive history of Nazi mass killing – showing how genocidal policies were crucial to the regime’s strategy to win the war Nazi Germany killed approximately 13 million civilians and other non-combatants in deliberate policies of mass murder, mostly during the war years. Almost half the victims were Jewish, systematically destroyed in the Holocaust, the core of the Nazis’ pan-European racial purification programme. Alex Kay argues that the genocide of European Jewry can be examined in the wider context of Nazi mass killing. For the first time, Empire of Destruction considers Europe’s Jews alongside all the other major victim groups: captive Red Army soldiers, the Soviet urban population, unarmed civilian victims of preventive terror and reprisals, the mentally and physically disabled, the European Roma and the Polish intelligentsia. Kay shows how each of these groups was regarded by the Nazi regime as a potential threat to Germany’s ability to successfully wage a war for hegemony in Europe. Combining the full quantitative scale of the killings with the individual horror, this is a vital and groundbreaking work. |
| sönke neitzel: The Global Chancellor Kristina Spohr, 2016 Helmut Schmidt is the neglected chancellor of modern German history, overshadowed by 'the greats' - Bismarck, Adenauer, Brandt and Kohl. This volume retrieves Schmidt's true significance as a pivotal figure who helped reshape the global order during the crisis-ridden 1970s. This major reinterpretation, based on detailed research in Schmidt's private papers and numerous archives in Europe and America, reveals him as a leader equally skilled in economics and security, and adept at personal diplomacy, who dared to act as a 'double interpreter' between the superpowers during the nadir of the Cold War. Schmidt was no mere 'crisis-manager': in fact he brought to the chancellorship a depth of reflection, evident in two decades of writings and speeches that justifies considering him an intellectual statesman on a par with Henry Kissinger. His achievements were prodigious. Hailed as the 'world economist', Schmidt helped create the G7 forum for global economic governance and the European Monetary System at a time when capitalism seemed on the rocks. And as the 'strategist of balance', he designed NATO's 'dual-track' response to the crisis caused by the massive Soviet arms buildup of Euro-missiles. This decision, Kristina Spohr argues, played a crucial part in holding together the Western alliance and paved the way to defusing the Cold War in Europe. Schmidt brought his country to the top table of world politics - what he unashamedly called Weltpolitik - as an equal of the wartime victor powers. It was through his Chancellorship that West Germany came of age on the global stage. |
| sönke neitzel: Soldat Siegfried Knappe, 1993-08-09 Paris. The Somme. The Italian Campaign. The Russian Front. And inside Hitler’s bunker during The Battle of Berlin . . . World War II through the eyes of a solider of the Reich. Siegfried Knappe fought, was wounded, and survived battles in nearly every major Wehrmacht campaign. His astonishing career begins with Hitler’s rise to power—and ends with a five-year term in a Russian prison camp, after the Allies rolled victoriously into the smoking rubble of Berlin. The enormous range of Knappe’s fighting experiences provides an unrivaled combat history of World War II, and a great deal more besides. Based on Knappe’s wartime diaries, filled with 16 pages of photos he smuggled into the West at war’s end, Soldat delivers a rare opportunity for the reader to understand how a ruthless psychopath motivated an entire generation of ordinary Germans to carry out his monstrous schemes . . . and offers stunning insight into the life of a soldier in Hitler’s army. “Remarkable! World War II from inside the Wehrmacht.”—Kirkus Reviews |
| sönke neitzel: Keep Saying Their Names Simon Stranger, 2020-05-19 An extraordinary work of fiction, inspired by historical events--an exquisitely crafted double portrait of a Nazi war criminal and a family savaged by World War II, conjoined by an actual house of horrors they both called home On a street in modern-day Norway, a writer kneels with his son and tells him that according to Jewish tradition, a person dies twice: first when their heart stops beating, and then again the last time their name is read or thought or said. Before them is a stone engraved with the name Hirsch Komissar, the boy's great-great-grandfather who was murdered by Nazis. The man who sent Komissar to his death was one of Norway's vilest traitors, Henry Oliver Rinnan, a Nazi double agent who set up headquarters in an unspectacular suburban house and transformed the cellar into a torture chamber for resisters, a place to be avoided and feared. That is until Komissar's own son, Gerson, and his young wife, Ellen, take up residence in the house after the war. While their daughters spend a happy childhood playing in the same rooms where some of the most heinous acts of the occupation occurred, the weight of history threatens to pull the couple apart. In Keep Saying Their Names, Simon Stranger uses this unusual twist of fate to probe five generations of intimate and global history, seamlessly melding fact and fiction, creating a brilliant lexicon of light and dark. The resulting novel reveals how evil is born in some and courage in others--and seeks to keep alive the names of those lost. |
| sönke neitzel: Black April George Veith, 2013-09-17 The defeat of South Vietnam was arguably America’s worst foreign policy disaster of the 20th Century. Yet a complete understanding of the endgame—from the 27 January 1973 signing of the Paris Peace Accords to South Vietnam’s surrender on 30 April 1975—has eluded us. Black April addresses that deficit. A culmination of exhaustive research in three distinct areas: primary source documents from American archives, North Vietnamese publications containing primary and secondary source material, and dozens of articles and numerous interviews with key South Vietnamese participants, this book represents one of the largest Vietnamese translation projects ever accomplished, including almost one hundred rarely or never seen before North Vietnamese unit histories, battle studies, and memoirs. Most important, to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of South Vietnam’s conquest, the leaders in Hanoi released several compendiums of formerly highly classified cables and memorandum between the Politburo and its military commanders in the south. This treasure trove of primary source materials provides the most complete insight into North Vietnamese decision-making ever complied. While South Vietnamese deliberations remain less clear, enough material exists to provide a decent overview. Ultimately, whatever errors occurred on the American and South Vietnamese side, the simple fact remains that the country was conquered by a North Vietnamese military invasion despite written pledges by Hanoi’s leadership against such action. Hanoi’s momentous choice to destroy the Paris Peace Accords and militarily end the war sent a generation of South Vietnamese into exile, and exacerbated a societal trauma in America over our long Vietnam involvement that reverberates to this day. How that transpired deserves deeper scrutiny. |
| sönke neitzel: Amiens to the Armistice J. P. Harris, Niall Barr, 1998 A study of the '100 Days' campaign of the British Expeditionary Force, from 8 August to 11 November 1918. The author's aim is to rescue the campaign from the relative obscurity into which it has fallen and give it a central place in British military history and the development of the art of war. |
| sönke neitzel: The Story of World War II Henry Steele Commager, Donald L. Miller, 2010-05-11 Drawing on previously unpublished eyewitness accounts, prizewinning historian Donald L. Miller has written what critics are calling one of the most powerful accounts of warfare ever published. Here are the horror and heroism of World War II in the words of the men who fought it, the journalists who covered it, and the civilians who were caught in its fury. Miller gives us an up-close, deeply personal view of a war that was more savagely fought—and whose outcome was in greater doubt—than readers might imagine. This is the war that Americans at the home front would have read about had they had access to the previously censored testimony of the soldiers on which Miller builds his gripping narrative. Miller covers the entire war—on land, at sea, and in the air—and provides new coverage of the brutal island fighting in the Pacific, the bomber war over Europe, the liberation of the death camps, and the contributions of African Americans and other minorities. He concludes with a suspenseful, never-before-told story of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, based on interviews with the men who flew the mission that ended the war. |
| sönke neitzel: The Long Shadow of World War II Matthias Strohn, 2021-08-31 2020 marks 75 years since the end of World War II, yet even as the war slips from living memory, its legacies continue to influence current political and military thinking. This anthology will analyze these legacies for a number of countries and regions including China, Russia, the United States, the Near East, and Germany illustrating in detail how World War II is not merely a historical event, but a defining moment for current military and political thinking around the globe. This book will therefore be of interest for those interested in history, but also political and military decision makers, and followers of current political and military affairs. |
| sönke neitzel: Hitler's Generals in America Derek R. Mallett, 2013-12-17 Americans are familiar with prisoner of war narratives that detail Allied soldiers' treatment at the hands of Germans in World War II: popular books and movies like The Great Escape and Stalag 17 have offered graphic and award-winning depictions of the American POW experience in Nazi camps. Less is known, however, about the Germans captured and held in captivity on U.S. soil during the war. In Hitler's Generals in America, Derek R. Mallett examines the evolution of the relationship between American officials and the Wehrmacht general officers they held as prisoners of war in the United States between 1943 and 1946. During the early years of the war, British officers spied on the German officers in their custody, housing them in elegant estates separate from enlisted soldiers, providing them with servants and cooks, and sometimes becoming their confidants in order to obtain intelligence. The Americans, on the other hand, lacked the class awareness shared by British and German officers. They ignored their German general officer prisoners, refusing them any special treatment. By the end of the war, however, the United States had begun to envision itself as a world power rather than one of several allies providing aid during wartime. Mallett demonstrates how a growing admiration for the German officers' prowess and military traditions, coupled with postwar anxiety about Soviet intentions, drove Washington to collaborate with many Wehrmacht general officers. Drawing on newly available sources, this intriguing book vividly demonstrates how Americans undertook the complex process of reconceptualizing Germans—even Nazi generals—as allies against what they perceived as their new enemy, the Soviet Union. |
| sönke neitzel: Castaways of the Kriegsmarine Derek Nudd, 2017-08-05 December 1943 brought little cheer to Hitler's Kriegsmarine, . As Mediterranean U-boats threw themselves into ever more desperately hopeless sorties against allied convoys a short, vicious battle in the Bay of Biscay sank a German blockade runner and three of the escorts trying to bring her in. On Boxing Day the battlecruiser Scharnhorst met her lonely end in the heaving, freezing waters of the Barents Sea off North Cape. Some of the survivors claimed they sang the U-boat anthem, No Roses Grow on a Seaman's Grave, as they awaited rescue or death. Only the most wilfully myopic of the exhausted, disoriented castaways brought to the Latimer House and Wilton Park interrogation centres could believe in ultimate victory, a gift for the experienced interviewers awaiting them. They knew how to adapt their approach to the individual prisoner, work patiently toward a result. And they had a secret weapon. Every word the prisoners said in their cells was overheard and, when interesting, recorded by secret listeners eavesdropping from another part of the site. This tale follows the interwoven fates of the bedraggled captives and the Naval Intelligence team coping with an unprecedented surge of subjects. It looks at how raw data and rumour became useful intelligence for strategists and fighting sailors, and highlights the contribution of this small, eclectic, irreverent band of reservists and Wrens to ultimate victory. This compelling story casts new light on the personalities involved on both sides, the pace and processes involved, the role of stool-pigeons, and the psychologists trying to see through the captives' eyes into Germany's deepest fears. |
| sönke neitzel: War and Education Sebastian Engelmann, Bernhard Hemetsberger, Frank Jacob, 2022 This book shows that education does not only prepare war, but defines its character for future generations. Pointing out the intricate interconnetion with the various practices of education this volume offers in-depth studies of war and education in several chronological and geographical contexts. Tying in with the latest state of the art the authors offer examples for education for war, education in war and education for reconciliation in the aftermath of wars from a global perspective. |
| sönke neitzel: The Night of Broken Glass Uta Gerhardt, Thomas Karlauf, 2021-09-11 November 9th 1938 is widely seen as a violent turning point in Nazi Germany’s assault on the Jews. An estimated 400 Jews lost their lives in the anti-Semitic pogrom and more than 30,000 were imprisoned or sent to concentration camps, where many were brutally mistreated. Thousands more fled their homelands in Germany and Austria, shocked by what they had seen, heard and experienced. What they took with them was not only the pain of saying farewell but also the memory of terrible scenes: attacks by mobs of drunken Nazis, public humiliations, burning synagogues, inhuman conditions in overcrowded prison cells and concentration camp barracks. The reactions of neighbours and passersby to these barbarities ranged from sympathy and aid to scorn, mockery, and abuse. In 1939 the Harvard sociologist Edward Hartshorne gathered eyewitness accounts of the Kristallnacht from hundreds of Jews who had fled, but Hartshorne joined the Secret Service shortly afterwards and the accounts he gathered were forgotten – until now. These eyewitness testimonies – published here for the first time with a Foreword by Saul Friedländer, the Pulitzer Prize historian and Holocaust survivor – paint a harrowing picture of everyday violence in one of Europe’s darkest moments. This unique and disturbing document will be of great interest to anyone interested in modern history, Nazi Germany and the historical experience of the Jews. |
| sönke neitzel: The Emperor of Lies Steve Sem-Sandberg, 2011-07-20 Longlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize In February 1940, the Nazis established what would become the second-largest Jewish ghetto in the Polish city of Lódz. Its chosen leader: Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski, a sixty-three-year-old Jewish businessman and orphanage director -- and the elusive, authoritarian power sustaining the ghetto’s very existence. From one of Sweden's most critically acclaimed and bestselling authors, The Emperor of Lies chronicles the tale of Rumkowski's monarchical rule over a quarter-million Jews for the next four years. Driven by a titanic ambition, he sought to transform the ghetto into a productive industrial complex and strove to make it --and himself -- indispensable to the Nazi regime. Drawing on the detailed records of life in the Lódz ghetto, Steve Sem-Sandberg captures the full panorama of human resilience and probes deeply into the nature of evil. He asks the most difficult questions: Was Rumkowski a ruthless opportunist, an accessory to the Nazi regime driven by a lust for power? Or was he a pragmatic strategist who managed to save Jewish lives through his collaboration policies? Winner of the August Prize, Sweden’s most important literary award, The Emperor of Lies is a haunting, profoundly challenging novel. |
| sönke neitzel: The Book Thieves Anders Rydell, 2018-02-06 A chilling reminder of Hitler’s twisted power. —BBC For readers of The Monuments Men and The Hare with Amber Eyes, the story of the Nazis' systematic pillaging of Europe's libraries, and the small team of heroic librarians now working to return the stolen books to their rightful owners. While the Nazi party was being condemned by much of the world for burning books, they were already hard at work perpetrating an even greater literary crime. Through extensive new research that included records saved by the Monuments Men themselves—Anders Rydell tells the untold story of Nazi book theft, as he himself joins the effort to return the stolen books. When the Nazi soldiers ransacked Europe’s libraries and bookshops, large and small, the books they stole were not burned. Instead, the Nazis began to compile a library of their own that they could use to wage an intellectual war on literature and history. In this secret war, the libraries of Jews, Communists, Liberal politicians, LGBT activists, Catholics, Freemasons, and many other opposition groups were appropriated for Nazi research, and used as an intellectual weapon against their owners. But when the war was over, most of the books were never returned. Instead many found their way into the public library system, where they remain to this day. Now, Rydell finds himself entrusted with one of these stolen volumes, setting out to return it to its rightful owner. It was passed to him by the small team of heroic librarians who have begun the monumental task of combing through Berlin’s public libraries to identify the looted books and reunite them with the families of their original owners. For those who lost relatives in the Holocaust, these books are often the only remaining possession of their relatives they have ever held. And as Rydell travels to return the volume he was given, he shows just how much a single book can mean to those who own it. |
| sönke neitzel: The Responsibility to Defend Bastian Giegerich, Maximilian Terhalle, 2021-06-08 The rise or resurgence of revisionist, repressive and authoritarian powers threatens the Western, US-led international order upon which Germany’s post-war security and prosperity were founded. With Washington increasingly focused on China’s rise in Asia, Europe must be able to defend itself against Russia, and will depend upon German military capabilities to do so. Years of neglect and structural underfunding, however, have hollowed out Germany’s armed forces. Much of the political leadership in Berlin has not yet adjusted to new realities or appreciated the urgency with which it needs to do so. Bastian Giegerich and Maximilian Terhalle argue that Germany’s current strategic culture is inadequate. It informs a security policy that fails to meet contemporary strategic challenges, thereby endangering Berlin’s European allies, the Western order and Germany itself. They contend that: Germany should embrace its historic responsibility to defend Western liberal values and the Western order that upholds them. Rather than rejecting the use of military force, Germany should wed its commitment to liberal values to an understanding of the role of power – including military power – in international affairs. The authors show why Germany should seek to foster a strategic culture that would be compatible with those of other leading Western nations and allow Germans to perceive the world through a strategic lens. In doing so, they also outline possible elements of a new security policy. |
| sönke neitzel: Neither Good Nor Bad Gerhard Besier, Katarzyna Stokłosa, 2014-06-19 When confronted by a range of violent actions perpetrated by lone individuals, contemporary society exhibits a constant tendency to react in terms of helpless, even perplexed horror. Seeking explanations for the apparently inexplicable, commentators often hurry to declare the perpetrators as “evil”. This question is not restricted to individuals: history has repeatedly demonstrated how groups and even entire nations can embark on a criminal plan united by the conviction that they were fighting for a good and just cause. Which circumstances occasioned such actions? What was their motivation? Applying a number of historical, scientific and social-scientific approaches to this question, this study produces an integrative portrait of the reasons for human behavior and advances a number of different interpretations for their genesis. The book makes clear the extent to which we live in socially-constructed realities in which we cling for dear life to a range of conceptions and beliefs which can all too easily fall apart in situations of crisis. |
| sönke neitzel: Hitler's Deserters Lars G. Petersson, 2015-03-19 Over 20,000 deserters and war resisters paid the ultimate price at the hands of Hitler's brutal war judges and bloody executioners. Thousands of others died in prison camps and penal battalions. Even for those who escaped death, life was never the same. Even today, many of those who refused to serve the Nazis live as pariahs, scorned by a society that professes to hate the regime they had actively opposed. |
| sönke neitzel: Cultures of Intelligence in the Era of the World Wars Simon Ball, Philipp Gassert, Andreas Gestrich, Sönke Neitzel, 2020-08-06 Cultures of Intelligence analyses the intelligence services of Germany, Britain, the USA, and France in the first half of the twentieth century. It asks whether there were national traditions in intelligence, or whether each of the sophisticated Western intelligence powers was part of a transnational intelligence culture? The book is a contribution to the cultural turn in intelligence studies. Its underlying purpose is to place intelligence in its proper historical and comparative context. As such it is also a contribution to the history of political culture and its study. |
| sönke neitzel: In Deadly Combat Gottlob Herbert Bidermann, 2000-06-07 In the hell that was World War II, the Eastern Front was its heart of fire and ice. Gottlob Herbert Bidermann served in that lethal theater from 1941 to 1945, and his memoir of those years recaptures the sights, sounds, and smells of the war as it vividly portrays an army marching on the road to ruin. A riveting and reflective account by one of the millions of anonymous soldiers who fought and died in that cruel terrain, In Deadly Combat conveys the brutality and horrors of the Eastern Front in detail never before available in English. It offers a ground soldier's perspective on life and death on the front lines, providing revealing new information concerning day-to-day operations and German army life. Wounded five times and awarded numerous decorations for valor, Bidermann saw action in the Crimea and siege of Sebastopol, participated in the vicious battles in the forests south of Leningrad, and ended the war in the Courland Pocket. He shares his impressions of countless Russian POWs seen at the outset of his service, of peasants struggling to survive the hostilities while caught between two ruthless antagonists, and of corpses littering the landscape. He recalls a Christmas gift of gingerbread from home that overcame the stench of battle, an Easter celebrated with a basket of Russian hand grenades for eggs, and his miraculous survival of machine gun fire at close range. In closing he relives the humiliation of surrender to an enemy whom the Germans had once derided and offers a sobering glimpse into life in the Soviet gulags. Bidermann's account debunks the myth of a highly mechanized German army that rolled over weaker opponents with impunity. Despite the vast expanses of territory captured by the Germans during the early months of Operation Barbarossa, the war with Russia remained tenuous and unforgiving. His story commits that living hell to the annals of World War II and broadens our understanding of its most deadly combat zone. Translator Derek Zumbro has rendered Bidermann's memoir into a compelling narrative that retains the author's powerful style. This English-language edition of Bidermann's dynamic story is based upon a privately published memoir entitled Krim-Kurland Mit Der 132 Infanterie Division.The translator has added important events derived from numerous interviews with Bidermann to provide additional context for American readers. |
| sönke neitzel: Operation Sealion Peter Schenk, 2019-07-26 An in-depth analysis of Nazi Germany’s unused strategy to invade the UK during the Battle of Britain in World War II. It is hard to believe that in the summer of 1940, neither the Allies nor the Axis powers had any experience of large amphibious operations. German planning for Operation Sealion was concerned with pioneering new techniques and developing specialized landing craft. Remarkably, in only two months they prepared an invasion fleet of 4,000 vessels. In Operation Sealion, Peter Schenk begins by examining the vessels that were developed and deployed for the operation: converted cargo vessels and steamers, more specialized landing craft, barges and pontoons, and auxiliary vessels such as tugs and hospital ships. He then goes on to outline the strategic preparations for the landing and looks at the operational plans of, in turn, the navy, army, and air force. The planned invasion is described in full detail so that the reader can follow the proposed sequence of events from loading, setting sail, and the crossing of the English Channel, to the landing and the early advances into southern England. Schenk uniquely estimates the chances of success. This absorbing account of Hitler’s abortive mission, more detailed than anything written before, is of interest not just to the naval historian but to anyone with an interest in World War II or military strategy. |
| sönke neitzel: The German-Soviet War Jeff Rutherford, Robert von Maier, 2025-06-15 The German-Soviet War revises the conflict's generally accepted understanding through case studies, demonstrating the complexity of the war at the local level. The contributors assembled by Jeff Rutherford and Robert von Maier examine the multiplicity of experiences of individuals caught in this savage war, starting with the German war of annihilation launched against Soviet state and society in June 1941. This detailed collection shows that the particular nature of the war in the east resulted from an intertwining of military, ideological, and economic motives. The German-Soviet War puts Germany's murderous policies toward Soviet Jews and prisoners of war, and the justification for these policies and actions within the ranks of the army, into the larger context of battlefield events. The neglected topic of the destructive German scorched-earth retreats receives detailed analysis, demonstrating the importance of ideology and economic thinking in the German army's war. The difficulty in reconciling economic and ideological considerations also played a prominent role in Soviet attempts to rebuild after the war. The German-Soviet War not only brings attention to these devastating events but also revises the general narrative of the war. By internationalizing the conflict through examinations into the various Axis and Allied nations and peoples who participated in the fighting, this volume provides new ways of conceptualizing their motivations, actions, and importance in its eventual outcome. Together, the contributions to The German-Soviet War provide new ways of examining the defining conflict of the Second World War. |
| sönke neitzel: Europe Brendan Simms, 2013-04-30 With verve and panache, this magisterial history of Europe since 1453 shows how struggles over the heart of the continent have shaped the world we live in today (The Economist). Whoever controls the core of Europe controls the entire continent, and whoever controls Europe can dominate the world. Over the past five centuries, a rotating cast of kings, conquerors, presidents, and dictators have set their sights on the European heartland, desperate to seize this pivotal area or at least prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. From Charles V and Napoleon to Bismarck and Cromwell, from Hitler and Stalin to Roosevelt and Gorbachev, nearly all the key power players of modern history have staked their titanic visions on this vital swath of land. In Europe, prizewinning historian Brendan Simms presents an authoritative account of the past half-millennium of European history, demonstrating how the battle for mastery of the continent's center has shaped the modern world. A bold and compelling work by a renowned scholar, Europe integrates religion, politics, military strategy, and international relations to show how history -- and Western civilization itself -- was forged in the crucible of Europe. |
| sönke neitzel: The Impact of War Experiences in Europe Nina Janz, Denis Scuto, 2024-08-09 |
| sönke neitzel: The Outbreak of the First World War Jack S. Levy, John A. Vasquez, 2014-04-03 The First World War had profound consequences both for the evolution of the international system and for domestic political systems. How and why did the war start? Offering a unique interdisciplinary perspective, this volume brings together a distinguished group of diplomatic historians and international relations scholars to debate the causes of the war. Organized around several theoretically based questions, it shows how power, alliances, historical rivalries, militarism, nationalism, public opinion, internal politics, and powerful personalities shaped decision-making in each of the major countries in the lead up to war. The emphasis on the interplay of theory and history is a significant contribution to the dialogue between historians and political scientists, and will contribute to a better understanding of the war in both disciplines. |
| sönke neitzel: Mass Violence in Nazi-Occupied Europe Alex J. Kay, David Stahel, 2018-07-03 Mass Violence in Nazi-Occupied Europe argues for a more comprehensive understanding of what constitutes Nazi violence and who was affected by this violence. The works gathered consider sexual violence, food depravation, and forced labor as aspects of Nazi aggression. Contributors focus in particular on the Holocaust, the persecution of the Sinti and Roma, the eradication of useless eaters (psychiatric patients and Soviet prisoners of war), and the crimes of the Wehrmacht. The collection concludes with a consideration of memorialization and a comparison of Soviet and Nazi mass crimes. While it has been over 70 years since the fall of the Nazi regime, the full extent of the ways violence was used against prisoners of war and civilians is only now coming to be fully understood. Mass Violence in Nazi-Occupied Europe provides new insight into the scale of the violence suffered and brings fresh urgency to the need for a deeper understanding of this horrific moment in history. |
| sönke neitzel: The Cambridge History of Nationhood and Nationalism: Volume 2, Nationalism's Fields of Interaction Cathie Carmichael, Matthew D'Auria, Aviel Roshwald, 2023-11-09 This major new reference work with contributions from an international team of scholars provides a comprehensive account of ideas and practices of nationhood and nationalism from antiquity to the present. It considers both continuities and discontinuities, engaging critically and analytically with the scholarly literature in the field. In volume II, leading scholars in their fields explore the dynamics of nationhood and nationalism's interactions with a wide variety of cultural practices and social institutions – in addition to the phenomenon's crucial political dimensions. The relationships between imperialism and nationhood/nationalism and between major world religions and ethno-national identities are among the key themes explained and explored. The wide range of case studies from around the world brings a truly global, comparative perspective to a field whose study was long constrained by Eurocentric assumptions. |
| sönke neitzel: Visions of Community in Nazi Germany Martina Steber, Bernhard Gotto, 2018-07-16 When the Nazis seized power in Germany in 1933 they promised to create a new, harmonious society under the leadership of the Führer, Adolf Hitler. The concept of Volksgemeinschaft - 'the people's community' - enshrined the Nazis' vision of society'; a society based on racist, social-Darwinist, anti-democratic, and nationalist thought. The regime used Volksgemeinschaft to define who belonged to the National Socialist 'community' and who did not. Being accorded the status of belonging granted citizenship rights, access to the benefits of the welfare state, and opportunities for advancement, while these who were denied the privilege of belonging lost their right to live. They were shamed, excluded, imprisoned, murdered. Volksgemeinschaft was the Nazis' project of social engineering, realized by state action, by administrative procedure, by party practice, by propaganda, and by individual initiative. Everyone deemed worthy of belonging was called to participate in its realization. Indeed, this collective notion was directed at the individual, and unleashed an enormous dynamism, which gave social change a particular direction. The Volksgemeinschaft concept was not strictly defined, which meant that it was rather marked by a plurality of meaning and emphasis which resulted in a range of readings in the Third Reich, drawing in people from many social and political backgrounds. Visions of Community in Nazi Germany scrutinizes Volksgemeinschaft as the Nazis' central vision of community. The contributors engage with individual appropriations, examine projects of social engineering, analyze the social dynamism unleashed, and show how deeply private lives were affected by this murderous vision of society. |
| sönke neitzel: Thank You for Your Service David Finkel, 2013-10-01 From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Good Soldiers comes “a panoramic view of postwar life. . . . A book that every American should read” (Jake Tapper, Los Angeles Times). No journalist has reckoned with the psychology of war as intimately as David Finkel. In The Good Soldiers, his bestselling account from the front lines of Baghdad, Finkel embedded with the men of the 2-16 Infantry Battalion as they carried out the infamous “surge”. Now, in Thank You for Your Service, Finkel tells the true story of those men as they return home and struggle to reintegrate—both into their family lives and into American society at large. Finkel is with these veterans in their most intimate, painful, and hopeful moments as they try to recover. He creates an indelible portrait of what life after war is like for these soldiers, their families and friends, and for the professionals who are truly trying, and to a great degree failing, to undo the damage that has been done. Thank You for Your Service offers nuanced and complete explorations two essential questions: When we ask young men and women to go to war, what are we asking of them? And when they return, what are we thanking them for? A National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year |
Sonke Gender Justice
Sonke is a South African-based non-profit organisation working throughout Africa. We believe women and men, girls and boys can work together to resist patriarchy, advocate for gender …
About Us - Sonke
Sonke is a dynamic tech start-up that is committed to having a positive impact on the lives of the people we care about and the environment we live in. We create and intelligently deliver …
Sonke - borgia
Sonke travels often to express his restless and unconventional spirit through his art. As an almost archetypical urban Neo Pop street artist, his graffiti may be seen on walls in Athens, Paris, …
Sönke Neitzel - Wikipedia
Sönke Neitzel (born 26 June 1968) is a German historian who has written extensively about the Second World War. [1] .
Sonke Digital – Chasing Growth Together
Explore new digital horizons with Sonke. Unleash ambitions, fuel growth. Let's make it happen.
Bonaventure Sonké - Google Scholar
Testing environmental, structural and floristic drivers. L Banin, TR Feldpausch, OL Phillips, TR Baker, J Lloyd, K Affum‐Baffoe, ... Measuring biomass changes due to woody encroachment …
Sonke Gender Justice Network - Align Platform
Sonke Gender Justice is a research and advocacy initiative based in Johannesburg that works across Africa. It aims to strengthen government, civil society and citizen capacity to promote …
Sonke Gender Justice
Sonke is a South African-based non-profit organisation working throughout Africa. We believe women and men, girls and boys can work together to resist patriarchy, advocate for gender …
About Us - Sonke
Sonke is a dynamic tech start-up that is committed to having a positive impact on the lives of the people we care about and the environment we live in. We create and intelligently deliver …
Sonke - borgia
Sonke travels often to express his restless and unconventional spirit through his art. As an almost archetypical urban Neo Pop street artist, his graffiti may be seen on walls in Athens, Paris, Berlin, …
Sönke Neitzel - Wikipedia
Sönke Neitzel (born 26 June 1968) is a German historian who has written extensively about the Second World War. [1] .
Sonke Digital – Chasing Growth Together
Explore new digital horizons with Sonke. Unleash ambitions, fuel growth. Let's make it happen.
Bonaventure Sonké - Google Scholar
Testing environmental, structural and floristic drivers. L Banin, TR Feldpausch, OL Phillips, TR Baker, J Lloyd, K Affum‐Baffoe, ... Measuring biomass changes due to woody encroachment and...
Sonke Gender Justice Network - Align Platform
Sonke Gender Justice is a research and advocacy initiative based in Johannesburg that works across Africa. It aims to strengthen government, civil society and citizen capacity to promote …
