1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910817880403321

Autore

Harrisville David A.

Titolo

The virtuous Wehrmacht : crafting the myth of the German soldier on the Eastern Front, 1941-1944 / / David A. Harrisville [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Ithaca : , : Cornell University Press, , 2022

ISBN

1-5017-6006-8

9781501760051

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xii, 309 pages) : illustrations

Collana

Battlegrounds. Cornell studies in military history

Cornell scholarship online

Disciplina

940.54/217

Soggetti

World War, 1939-1945 - Moral and ethical aspects - Germany

World War, 1939-1945 - Atrocities - Moral and ethical aspects - Germany

Justification (Ethics)

World War, 1939-1945 - Campaigns - Eastern Front

World War, 1939-1945 - Campaigns - Soviet Union

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Previously issued in print: 2020.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction: toward a moral history of the Wehrmacht in the war of extermination -- Honorable self and villainous other: value systems in the Wehrmacht -- Rationalizing atrocities: self-exoneration in soldiers' letters -- The "crusaders": religious justifications for Barbarossa -- The "liberators": Barbarossa as an emancipatory act -- Death and victimhood: cultivating moral superiority through burial practices -- Conclusion: a myth is born.

Sommario/riassunto

'The Virtuous Wehrmacht' explores the myth of the German armed forces' innocence during World War II by reconstructing the moral world of German soldiers on the Eastern Front. How did they avoid feelings of guilt about the many atrocities their side committed? David A. Harrisville compellingly demonstrates that this myth of innocence was created during the course of the war itself - and did not arise as a postwar whitewashing of events.