1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910813878703321

Autore

Biddiscombe Alexander Perry <1959->

Titolo

Werwolf! : the history of the National Socialist guerrilla movement, 1944-1946 / / Perry Biddiscombe

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Toronto, [Ontario] ; ; Buffalo, [New York] : , : University of Toronto Press, , 1998

©1998

ISBN

1-282-00333-X

9786612003332

1-4426-8328-7

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (484 p.)

Disciplina

940.54/8743

Soggetti

World War, 1939-1945 - Germany

Guerrilla warfare

Sabotage - Germany

Germany

Allemagne Histoire 1945-1955

Germany History 1945-1955

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Gothic guerrillas : the Bureau "Prützmann" and the SS-Werwolf -- A nursery tale : the Hitler Youth and the Werwolf -- A Werwolf war : the military and the Kleinkrieg -- Reign of terror : the Party and the Werwolf -- Werwolf redoubts -- The Werwolf along Germany's periphery -- Western Allied and Soviet reactions to the Werwolf -- Consequences and significance of the Werwolf.

Sommario/riassunto

Near the end of the Second World War, a National Socialist resistance movement, known as the Werwolf, flickered briefly to life in Germany and its borderlands. Dedicated to delaying the advance of the Allies on both fronts, the Werwolf succeeded in scattered acts of sabotage and violence. By the spring of 1945, it also showed signs of becoming a vengeful Nazi reaction against the German populace itself. 'Collaborators' and 'defeatists' were frequently assassinated, and crude posters warned that certain death would follow any failure to resist the



enemy. Werwolf violence failed to mobilize a spirit of national resistance. Biddiscombe argues that the group was poorly led, armed, and organized, and that it was doomed to failure given the war-weariness of the populace and the hesitancy of young Germans to sacrifice themselves on the funeral pyre of the regime. He also demonstrates that although the group failed to assume a popular character, its influence was still great and its revolutionary sentiments would have grave implications for the future. Werwolf! is the most complete history to date of the Nazi partisan movement. It will be of great interest to general readers as well as to military historians.