A World at Arms

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Book: Read A World at Arms for Free Online
Authors: Gerhard L. Weinberg
Tags: History, World War II, Military, 20th Century, World
index (Munich: Saur, 1987), and the rest is yet to appear; the conferences of Hitler with Armaments Minister Speer edited by Willi A. Boelcke, Deutschlands Rüstung im Zweiten Weltkrieg: Hitlers Konferenzen mit Albert Speer 1942–1945 (Frankfurt/M: Athenaion, 1969), and the same editor’s Kriegspropaganda 1939–1941: Ministerkonferenzen im Reichspropagandaministerium (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1966); and the conferences of Hitler with his naval chief edited by Gerhard Wagner, Lagevorträge des Oberbefehlshabers der Kriegsmarine vor Hitler 1939–1945 (Munich: Lehmanns, 1972), of which there are several English language editions, none of them entirely satisfactory. Also of major importance for an understanding of the German navy are the three volumes of Michael Salewski, Die deutsche Seekriegsleitung, 1935–1945 (Frankfurt/M: Bernard & Graefe, 1970–75); Eberhard Rossler, The U-Boat: The Evolution and Technical History of German Submarines, trans. by Harold Erenberg (Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1981); and Günter Hessler, The U-Boat War in the Atlantic, 1939–1945 , 3 vols. (London: HMSO, 1989 [but written right after the war]).
    On the German air force, the best books are Williamson Murray, Luftwaffe (Baltimore: Nautical & Aviation Publishing Co. of America, 1985), and Horst Boog, Die deutsche Luftwaffenführung 1935–1945: Führungsprobleme, Spitzengliederung, Generalstabsausbildung (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1982). The German army is dealt with in this essay in terms of the various campaigns; on the armed units of the SS the most recent comprehensive treatment is Bernd Wegner’s Hitlers politische Soldaten: Die Waffen-SS, 1933–1945 (Paderborn: Schoningh, 1982), recently translated as The Waffen SS: Ideology, Organization and Function (New York: Blackwell, 1990). Providing more insight into the German military than the endless and generally unreliable memoirs of German generals who claim credit for any battles won, blame Hitler for all battles lost, and display an astonishing degree of ignorance, actual or pretended, of much of what they were doing, is the very revealing study of Nazi terror within the military’s own ranks: Manfred Messerschmidt and Fritz Wüllner, Die Wehrmacht Justiz im Dritten Reich: Zerstörung einer Legende (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 1987). Very important for Germany’s gas warfare preparations is Rolf-Dieter Müller, “Die deutschen Gaskriegsvorbereitungen 1919–1945: Mit Giftgas zur Weltmacht?” MGM 21, No. 1 (1980), 25–54. On German propaganda and home front attitudes, excellent works are Robert E. Herzstein, The War that Hitler Won: Goebbels and the Nazi Media Campaign (New York: Paragon House, 1987), and Marlis Steinert, Hitler’s War and the Germans, ed. and trans. by Thomas E.J. de Witt (Athens, Ohio: Ohio Univ. Press, 1977).
    The ideological side of Germany’s conduct of the war, other than the Holocaust and special aspects of the Eastern Front (both covered subsequently), are handled very well in Helmut Krausnick and Hans-Heinrich Wilhelm, Die Truppe des Weltanschauungskrieges: Die Einsatzgruppen der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD, 1938–1942 (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1981), and Ernst Klee, “Euthanasie” im NS-Staat: Die “Vernichtung unwertes Lebens” (Frankfurt/M: S. Fischer, 1983). A most thoughtful discussion of the role of the German Foreign Ministry is by Hans-Jürgen Doscher, Das Auswärtige Amt im Dritten Reich: Diplomatie im Schatten der “Endlösung” (Berlin: Siedler, 1987). The other side is well represented by David H. Kitterman, “Those Who Said ‘No!’: Germans Who Refused to Execute Civilians during World War II,” German Studies Review 11 (1988), 241–54; but the most comprehensivetreatment of this subject is Peter Hoffmann, The History of the German Resistance 1933–1945 (London: Macdonald & Jane’s, 1977).
    Helpful for an understanding of the German economy during the war are Edward L. Homze, Foreign

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