Hitler's deserters

• Verfasst von: Peifer, Douglas Carl [VerfasserIn]
• Titel: Hitler's deserters
• Titelzusatz: breaking ranks with the Wehrmacht
• Verf.angabe: Douglas Carl Peifer
• Verlagsort: New York, NY
• Verlag: Oxford University Press
• E-Jahr: 2025
• Jahr: [2025]
• Umfang: 1 online resource
• Illustrationen: illustrations.
• Gesamttitel/Reihe: Oxford scholarship online
• Fussnoten: Includes bibliographical references and index. - Description based on online resource and publisher information; title from PDF title page (viewed on November 13, 2024)
• ISBN: 978-0-19-753969-9
• DOI: doi:10.1093/oso/9780197539668.001.0001
• Datenträger: Online-Ressource
• Sprache: eng
• Bibliogr. Hinweis: Erscheint auch als : Druck-Ausgabe: Peifer, Douglas Carl, 1963 - : Hitler's deserters. - Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2025. - XI, 299 Seiten
• Sach-SW: Warfare and Defence
• Sach-SW: European history
• K10plus-PPN: 1919525432
• K10plus-PPN:
  Universitätsbibliothek
• Lokale URL UB: Zum Volltext

Abstract

The German military executed between 18,000 and 22,000 of its personnel in World War II on the charges of desertion and 'undermining the military spirit.' Who were the soldiers, sailors, and airmen who had been condemned to death on these charges? Why had they deserted? Was there an archetypal deserter? What was the balance between consent and coercion in maintaining military discipline? This book addresses these questions as well postwar debates over whether Wehrmacht deserters should be treated as cowards, victims, or role models worthy of rehabilitation.

Abstract

"The Wehrmacht executed thousands of its own in World War II for desertion and "undermining the military spirit." This study examines who these Wehrmacht deserters were, why they deserted, what punishment they could expect, and how German military justice operated. It argues that after the First World War, the German military embraced the Dolchstoss legend and determined that if it ever went to war again, the military would punish deserters ruthlessly. This view, arrived at independently, accorded fully with that of Adolf Hitler. The study analyses the challenges associated with hiding in the Third Reich, surrendering to the enemy, or crossing over into neutral Switzerland or Sweden. After the Second World War, Germans began a debate about how these deserters should be remembered (Vergangenheitsbewältigung) and whether they should be rehabilitated. The study analyzes the contested meaning attached to the Wehrmacht deserter in Germany from 1945 to the twenty-first century"--