Название: Life of a Nazi Soldier
Издательство: Lucent Books
Год: 2000
Формат: PDF
Страниц: 102
Язык: English
Размер: 16 MB
This examination of a German soldier's experience begins by describing the rise of the country's militarized culture under Hitler and his requirements of universal military service. The authors then describe the army's rigorous training and devote chapters to Germany's major campaigns in Poland, France, Russia, and Africa, as well as its final defense of its homeland at the end of the war. Although they outline Germany's territorial goals and its military strategy to gain them, their main focus is on the fighting and living conditions average soldiers faced on the various fronts. Cartlidge and Clark condemn the atrocities that occurred on the battlefields and in the death camps, and explain how German ideological beliefs and the extremely difficult wartime conditions created an atmosphere that encouraged them. They draw extensively on primary sources to tell the soldiers' stories and use sidebars to provide additional information or longer excerpts from historical treatments of the war. Average-quality, black-and-white photos add little to the text. Earle Rice Jr.'s The Third Reich (Lucent, 2000) focuses on Hitler's poor strategic decisions and the factors that led to Germany's defeat. Nazi Soldier complements that title by helping readers see beyond the leaders and the larger strategic picture to the human face of the young men who carried out orders.
