Germany and the Second World War Volume IX I: German Wartime Society 1939-1945: Politicization, Disintegration, and the Struggle for Survival (Germany and the Second World War)

1074 Pages·2008·3.87 MB·English

by  Ralf Blank

GERMANY AND THE SECOND WORLD WAR
IX / I
German Wartime Society 1939–1945: Politicization, Disintegration,
and the Struggle for Survival
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Germany
and the
Second World War
Edited for the
Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt
(Research Institute for Military History),
Potsdam, Germany
by
JÖRG ECHTERNKAMP
VOLUME IX / I
German Wartime Society 1939–1945: Politicization,
Disintegration, and the Struggle for Survival
RALF BLANK
JÖRG ECHTERNKAMP
KAROLA FINGS
JÜRGEN FÖRSTER
WINFRIED HEINEMANN
TOBIAS JERSAK
ARMIN NOLZEN
CHRISTOPH RASS
Translated by
DERRY COOK-RADMORE
EWALD OSERS
BARRY SMERIN
BARBARA WILSON
Translation editor
DERRY COOK-RADMORE
CLARENDON PRESS • OXFORD
2008
3
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ISBN978–0–19–928277–7
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Contents
LISTOFILLUSTRATIONS xiii
LISTOFTABLES xiv
NOTESONTHEAUTHORS xv
NOTEONTHETRANSLATION xvii
ABBREVIATIONS xviii
GLOSSARYOFFOREIGNTERMS xxxiv
FOREWORD xxxvi
A. At War, Abroad and at Home
The Essential Features of German Society in the Second World War
BY JÖRG ECHTERNKAMP
I. ‘WAR ON TWO FRONTS’ 1
II. A COHERENT WAR SOCIETY? 7
1. The Utopia of a Volksgemeinschaft at Arms 8
2. Propaganda as a Weapon 19
3. Hitler’s Charismatic Rule, and the Führer Myth 25
4. Social Control, Self-Policing, and Resistance 31
III. VIOLENCE GIVEN FREE REIN 41
1. Women on the ‘Home Front’ and in Military Service 41
2. The Morale of the Troops 49
3. Genocidal Warfare, and Fighting the Enemy Within 60
4. Death on the Home and Foreign Fronts: War and the
Cult of the Hero 71
IV. PRINCIPLES FOR AND STRUCTURE OF THE VOLUMES 84
1. Guiding Principles 85
2. Structure 92
vi Contents
PART I
Rule, Destroy, Survive
INTRODUCTION TO PART ONE 105
B. The NSDAP, the War, and German Society
BY ARMIN NOLZEN
I. THE NSDAP’S STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONS
BEFORE THE WAR 111
II. MOBILIZING THE TROOPS, AND MOULDING MINDS AND
BEHAVIOUR AT HOME, SEPTEMBER 1939 TO APRIL 1941 124
1. Development of Personnel Resources of the NSDAP
and its Divisions and Affiliated Organizations 124
2. The Hitler Youth, ‘Youth Service’, and the ‘Protection of Youth’ 133
3. The Struggle over the Unity of Homeland and Front: ‘Comforts for the
Troops’ and ‘Wehrmacht Welfare’ 139
III. ‘PEOPLE MANAGEMENT’ ON THE HOME FRONT,
MAY1941 TO JULY 1943 148
1. NSDAP Celebrations and ‘Activating the Party’ 148
2. Racism and Repression: The Party, Foreign Workers, and the German
Population 156
3. NSDAP Assistance in the Air War 163
IV. ON THE ROAD TO TOTAL WAR, AUGUST 1943 TO MAY 1945 172
1. Strategies for Mobilization within the Party 172
2. The NSDAP’s Involvement in Armaments, and the Reich
Plenipotentiary for Total Mobilization 180
3. Home Guard Flak, Fortification-Building, and the Volkssturm 188
V. THE NSDAP AND THE VOLKSGEMEINSCHAFT 201
C. Slaves for the ‘Home Front’: War Society and Concentration
Camps
BY KAROLA FINGS
I. PUBLIC AWARENESS OF THE CONCENTRATION CAMPS 207
II. THE INITIAL STAGES OF PRISONER DEPLOYMENT 209
1. The ‘Home Front’ and Forced Labour 209
2. Local Policy and the Concentration Camps 217
3. Consensus on the Deployment of Concentration-Camp Inmates 221
III. URBAN SATELLITE CONCENTRATION CAMPS 228
1. The Perpetrators: Engineers and Architects 228
2. The Establishment of Satellite Concentration Camps 233
Contents vii
3. ‘Labour Deployment’ 245
4. Bomb-Disposal Squads 249
IV. THE CAMPS AND GERMAN SOCIETY 258
1. Concentration-Camp Inmates in Everyday War Society 258
2. Interaction between War Society and the World
of the Concentration Camps 265
3. Surrounding Societies Compared 275
V. CONCENTRATION CAMPS ANCHORED
IN GERMAN SOCIETY 283
D. Decisions to Murder and to Lie: German War Society
and the Holocaust
BY TOBIAS JERSAK
I. INTRODUCTION 287
II. HOLOCAUST AND WAR 289
1. Plans for the ‘Final Solution of the Jewish Question’ after the War 290
(a) The Polish Campaign 291
(b) The French Campaign 294
(c) The Russian Campaign 298
2. The Basis of the Decision-Making Process 301
(a) Prior Resolve and Order 302
(b) Decision-Making on What? The Content of Hitler’s Order 305
3. Shifting the ‘Final Solution of the Jewish Question’
to during the War 306
(a) Territorial Wars versus Race War in Hitler’s Strategy 308
(b) The 1941 Dam Burst: Decisions from Above,
Radicalization from Below 312
4. Through Extermination to ‘Final Victory’ 325
(a) The Function of the Extermination
of Jews during the War 325
(b) Conduct of the War and Extermination
of the Jews in Parallel 328
III. SOCIETY AND HOLOCAUST IN THE WAR 333
1. Place and Time as Factors of Social Transformation 333
2. German War Society outside the Reich, and the Holocaust 335
(a) Wartime ‘Normality’ 336
(b) Reconstitution of German War Society at the Places of Mass
Extermination 344
3. German War Society inside the Reich, and the Holocaust 359
(a) Removal of the Jews by Deportation 359
(b) Absence of the Jews as Absence of the Jewish
Question? Absence, Mourning, and Normality in Wartime 362
(c) The War Penetrates into the Reich, and the Jewish
Question Returns 364
viii Contents
4. The Holocaust Becomes Known: War in the
Reich and Civil Society in the War 367
IV. NORMALITY OF THE UNIMAGINABLE:
WAR WITHIN THE WAR 369
E. Wartime Daily Life and the Air War on the Home Front
BY RALF BLANK
I. THE BOMBING WAR SEEN AS A HISTORICAL EVENT 371
II. THE WAR, AS SEEN ON THE HOME FRONT 375
1. Build-up of the Strategic Air War 375
2. The First Air Raids, 1940 to 1942 376
3. The Bombing War Intensifies from 1943 379
4. Hamburg and Berlin: The Turning Point in the Air War 385
5. Everyday Life ‘under the Bombs’ 390
III. ‘FULLY SERVING THE DEFENCE EFFORT ’:
THE ADMINISTRATION, POLICE, AND COURTS 396
1. Local Administration and the Air War, 1943–1945 396
2. The Air-Raid Protection Police and Gestapo 400
3. The Criminal Courts and the Bombing War 402
IV. COPING WITH THE BOMBING WAR 406
1. Centralization of Civilian Air War Measures from 1942/1943 406
2. Civil Defence Construction, and ‘Life down in the Bunker ’ 409
(a) From Large-Scale Programme to Makeshift Measures 409
(b) Bunkers and Town Planners 418
(c) Survival in Cellars, Tunnels, and Bunkers 422
(d) Air-Raid Warnings, Air Situation Reports,
and Cable Broadcasting 428
V. ACCOMMODATION, PROVISIONING,
AND ‘REPLACEMENT HOMES’ 433
1. Planning Emergency Housing and Accommodation 433
2. Providing for the Bombed-Out, 1943–1945 437
3. Replacement Goods for Air-Raid Victims 441
4. Reconstruction Plans 446
VI. ‘REVENGE’ AND MIRACLE WEAPONS PROPAGANDA 449
1. The Propaganda Offensive from Spring 1943 449
2. The Mirage of War-Winning ‘Retaliation’ 451
3. Placing Blame 453
4. Maintaining ‘Fighting Morale’ 454
Contents ix
VII. THE ‘SOCIETY IN DISINTEGRATION’, 1944/1945 458
1. The Final Phase of the War 458
(a) Air Raids, Every Day and Every Night 459
(b) Severe Damage to Industry and Transport 462
(c) Lynch Law against Allied Aircrew 464
2. The Bombing War Draws to its Close 467
(a) Unceasing Attacks and Air-Raid Warnings 467
(b) Heavy Raids on Berlin 468
(c) An Indiscriminate Bombing War 470
(d) The Disintegration of Everyday Life 473
VIII. THE BOMBING WAR IN FIGURES 475
PART II
The Uniformed Society?
INTRODUCTION TO PART TWO 479
A. Ideological Warfare in Germany, 1919 to 1945
BY JÜRGEN FÖRSTER
I. THE LEGACY OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR 485
II. THE POLITICIZATION OF THE
REICHSWEHR/WEHRMACHT 501
III. IDEOLOGICAL WARFARE IN THE EARLY,
VICTORIOUS PHASE 524
IV. THE WAR OF IDEOLOGY AND
ANNIHILATION IN THE EAST 537
V. BETWEEN OPTIMISM AND DEFIANCE: WAR
FOUGHT UNDER MILITARY-IDEOLOGICAL LEADERSHIP 559
VI. THE SHOCK OF STALINGRAD AND THE CRISIS
OF MILITARY-IDEOLOGICAL LEADERSHIP 582
VII. THE ‘FÜHRER ORDER’ OF 22 DECEMBER 1943 614
VIII. IDEOLOGICAL INDOCTRINATION
AND PERSONNEL SELECTION 627
IX. THE TOTALNESS OF NATIONAL
SOCIALISM AFTER 20 JULY 1944 648