Here is my senior thesis for my BA in History I wrote in 2007. Please bare in mind I was going to school full time during the day and working nights full time at an Amazon fulfillment center, getting 3 hours of sleep each day so this is no perfect opus.
From man to beast; Propaganda and the German Soldier in East
Several historians have written on the Wehrmacht and its participation in atrocities on the Eastern Front though there are four who stand out. Christopher Browning in his book Ordinary Men, Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland, makes a very compelling argument about why ordinary soldiers would commit such horrible atrocities. In his study of Reserve Police Battalion 101 (stationed in Poland and tasked with transporting and executing Jews) Browning concludes that the factors causing men to do such things are brutalization and the need for group conformity.[i] He tells that the brutalization can induce atrocities in two ways; a soldier can kill out of the brutal and hateful environment that is war, and a soldier can kill simply by being brutalized and numbed by the atrocities themselves. For instance the battalion he studied were not combat troops, they became brutalized by executing official policies that numbed them and made killing easier. Group conformity is also very important, as Browning states that soldiers were induced to participate in atrocities so as not to ‘leave it to their buddies’[ii]. Those who did not participate risked being ostracized from the group.
A second historian, Daniel Goldhagen, has written a book entitled Hitler’s Willing Executioners, which is a direct attack on Browning’s work. In his book, Goldhagen blames the Holocaust on the ‘evolution of eliminationist anti-Semitism in modern Germany’.[iii] Where other historians such as Browning have blamed the hardships of war for causing individual, non-sanctioned actions such as torture and individual or random killings, Goldhagen holds these actions as proof that Germans had anti-Semitism as a mindset; they only needed Hitler to help them bring it out.[iv]
The other two historians, Omer Bartov and Hans Heer, do not see eye to eye either, though their disagreement is no where near the level between Browning and Goldhagen. Both men make no effort to hide or down play what the Wehrmacht did in Russia, and both men are very well written on the subject. The two men do however disagree on a fundamental detail in the subject; when the German soldier became what he became in Russia. Bartov, in his several books on the topic, asserts that the German soldier made his barbaric transformation “naturally” (if such a word can be used) as a result of all the gruesome factors of the world around him; propaganda, casualties, the brutality of the fighting, the education and ideology of his officers, German policies for conduct, and the desperate situation of the mid and late war period. The key factor of his argument is his near disregard for independent thought, arguing almost as if the German soldier had no choice in the matter. Heer on the other hand is perhaps more direct in his assertion of a cause. Heer writes that the transformation instead happened nearly as soon as they army crossed the border into Russia on 22 June, 1941. He believes in a concerted “normalization” effort by the German command in which soldiers were exposed to the exterminations carried out by the S.S. and the Einsatzgruppen, ordered to “live off the land” by looting the civilian population, and very early on ordered to participate in the extermination of civilian “partisans” and POWs. Sharply distinguishing his ideas from those of Bartov is his belief that the German soldier initially resisted his transformation, further adding to his shock and subsequent loss of self. This paper falls somewhere in the middle, accepting Heer’s belief that the Wehrmacht was deliberately normalized to wanton violence in the early stages of the war, but also believing that Bartov’s assertions have weight as well; such a normalization needed to be cemented and reinforced, both by the ideologies of the Nazi party before the war and by propaganda and experiences during the fighting. Browning’s ideas are also taken into account, as the hellish environment left the soldier longing to be part of something, as most felt that they were no longer themselves. Goldhagen’s argument, though interesting and important to note when on this topic, do not have much place in this thesis, dealing much more with historical German society than the war.
An analysis of such a sickening event in the history of humanity can not be discussed through the writings of scholars alone. Primary sources must be used. But, like all humans the German soldier was just as easily able to rationalize and reinterpret the things he did, as tell them as they actually happened. This is a problem that occurs when using the memoirs of German soldiers; few men will openly write of the things they did. If a recounting is given at all of atrocities, they are recorded as “the killing of partisans” or other such names that would fall under the heading of a “normal” war. This requires one to also look at the propaganda of the period leading up to and during the invasion of Russia. By studying what the soldier was exposed to by the Reichspropagandaleitung (the Central Propaganda Office), and by the military (for example, orders like the ‘Guidelines for the Conduct of the Troops in Russia’) the mental world in which he lived, created by the Nazi party, can be discovered. For example a studying of other primary sources such as military directives, and reading secondary writings by historians, allows one to read the memoirs of German soldiers and interpret “the killing of partisans” as being in reality the murder of local Jews (or after they had all been killed, the local population) in retaliation for partisan attacks.
This paper will explain the transformation of the German soldier by explaining three key areas. First one must understand the Russian Front itself; the hardships and the brutality of the fighting. Secondly the propaganda of the Nazi party in relation to Russia and its exposure to the soldiers will be discussed. This will include Hitler’s directives for the army’s conduct once in Russia, as they are obviously a product of his ideas on race. Lastly both the Russian Front and the propaganda of the Nazi Party must be examined together in order to show how they worked hand in hand transform the German soldier, from pre invasion, through the defeat at Stalingrad and on till the end of the war. Therefore this paper will take a chronological approach, stopping at each pivotal point along the soldier’s journey.
On April 29, 1945 the German soldier in the East faced his end. Hunkered in the burning wreckage of the Reichstag he fired his weapon, each spent cartridge representing the last seconds of his beloved Reich. Before him, the Soviet 79th Rifle Corps came pouring over the Konigsplatz[v], eager to seal the fate of Nazi Germany and end the bloodiest war ever fought. Fighting on until the bitter end, what was he thinking? What ideas and beliefs motivated him to fight on against completely assured defeat? What horrid things had he seen in his four years of war; what horrid things had he done? And perhaps more important than what, is why. To find the answer one must rewind, back to his childhood. Before the German soldier fired his first shot, before he killed, before he even knew what war truly was, he was a child.
When Hitler came to power in 1933, no time was wasted in “educating” German children in Nazi ideas of race and Germany’s place in the world. One striking example of the propaganda used by the Nazi party in schools was a 1934 booklet entitled The German National Catechism[vi], in which the 25 points of the Nazi party program are explained and the leaders introduced. Section 3, Of Race and People, is of great importance here as it illustrates what was being taught to Germany’s children in regards to racial superiority and the Jew. The book states that the Jew is the enemy of the National Socialist race, and that “The goal of the Jew is to make himself the ruler of humanity. Wherever he comes, he destroys works of culture.” Much is written at length about the Jew and his corruption of the Germans through money lending and causing defeat in the World War.
Not only is the Jew degraded, but the German is raised above others. One sentence reads “The German people […] is the most racially pure of the European peoples.” On the characteristics of the Nordic races (which include the Germans, English, Danish, Norwegians and Swedish) the book lists “Courage, bravery, creative ability and desire, loyalty.” The other races of the world are beneath the German. The last section proclaims in bold lettering “The greatness of your people calls you to loyalty!”
One particularly horrible children’s’ book, Trust No Fox on his Green Heath, and No Jew on his Oath[vii], is a very sad and telling example of the intensity of the anti-Semitism children were being exposed to. This book, written by an eighteen year old, was the first in a set of 3 books meant to ‘teach’ children about the Jew. Through both words and illustrations the Jew is portrayed as a sneaky, fat, balding banker. Germans are portrayed as upright, blond and true. There is even a picture of a troop of Hitler Youth boys marching gloriously up the road.[viii] Just as disturbing is the text of the book. The first chapter is titled The father of the Jews is the Devil. The next chapter claims that “From the start the Jew has been a murderer, said Jesus Christ. And as our Lord died on the cross God the father knew no other race to torment His Son to death, he chose the Jews for this.” The book goes on to give a list of Jewish names to help children identify Jews, reasons why children should not use Jewish services or stores, and that when all the Jewish children leave school will be fun again.[ix] Such blunt teachings would have had a deep impact on the soldier as a child. Such an extensive book would have seemed to have all the answers, since it does not take much to convince a child of the ‘truth’. Growing up thinking that even God hates Jews would have a huge impact on anyone who was exposed to this material as a child.
These teachings of racial superiority, hatred for the Jew and loyalty to Germany were further reinforced by such things as the Hitler Youth. A paramilitary organization for male youths, its members were taught that the German soldier was the best soldier in the world, that Germany was superior to all nations, and that Hitler loved Germany and would lead them to greatness. They were taught of great battles in the World War and that the German Soldier would have achieved victory if the Jew had not betrayed Germany.[x] The propaganda targeted at children is very important in the story of the German soldier, as it served as a framework both for his racial ideas and his ideas of what it meant to be a soldier. By constantly telling children of their duty and loyalty to the Fatherland and of the greatness of the German soldier, the Nazi party was preparing their young boys to become soldiers who fought without question. By teaching of the superiority of the German race and of the ugliness of the Jew the Nazis were laying the ground work that, with constant reinforcement for the next ten years, would allow for the implementation of atrocities. By reinforcing Hitler as their loving leader, children learned that anything Hitler did was for the betterment of Germany. The raising of Hitler to a demigod status would prove particularly useful later in the war, when Hitler himself began to make the decisions of strategy.
With Hitler coming to power in 1933 our soldier received his first exposure to Nazi propaganda, and the ideas and beliefs that would help mold him and affect him in war continue throughout the 1930’s. It was during this decade that the Nazi propaganda machine cemented the Jew as the enemy of both Germany and the world. With such exposure to hatred, one may think that the soldiers who waited throughout Eastern Europe on the eve of Operation Barbarossa were already killing machines with no feeling toward any non Germanic human. This was not the case however. One soldier, Henry Metelmann, had experienced the propaganda of the 1930’s and had joined the Hitler Youth in 1934 at the age of ten. He accepted the ideas that the Nazi party and the Fuehrer presented to him as fact[xi], yet when his unit arrived in Poland he was disturbed by what he saw, writing
Hollow eyed children, often in rags, came begging for bread. Not having any on us, we were of course in no position to give them any, and though we had been told in special little lectures before we were let out of the train that they were enemy children, dangerous breeds, some of us found it hard to have to shut our hearts. Some of us who still believed in the basics of Christ’s teaching[xii]
Metelmann also speaks on witnessing Jews in Poland. From his observations it becomes evident that no matter what the Fuehrer told his people, it would take more than firey speeches and hate filled children’s books to create true monsters of his soldiers, Many of us had seen the odd Jew wearing the yellow star in a German city; but this was all so different, so incomparable in scale, and seeing them walking around in their abject misery we did not know anymore whether we should hate these people or feel pity for them[xiii] It would take action, not words to create monsters, and Hitler had prepared a war that would do just that. While it is obvious that Metelmann looked down upon the Jew, he still feels inklings of human compassion towards them. This is strong evidence for Browning, as at this time no fighting has taken place to brutalize the soldier. Long before the first German units crossed over into Russia, Hitler had been planning his war with the Soviet Union. Central to his strategy was the waging of an unconventional war beyond the conventions of international law. To do this he created the two most important themes of war propaganda on the Eastern Front: the war with Soviet Russia was in truth a defensive war against a Judeo-Bolshevik world threat, and that they were fighting against a brutish and inhuman enemy who would himself ignore international law[xiv]. In order for Hitler to execute his plans for the bloody war to follow, he and Goebbels would build upon the strong foundations of racial superiority and hatred of the Jew built in the 1930’s. The major tools of the Nazis to indoctrinate their soldiers, both before the invasion and during the early stages, were radio and film. The divisions waiting to invade Russia were inundated with radios and movie screens, allowing nearly 24/7 access to Nazi propaganda broadcasts and films.[xv] Once the invasion had begun and the Wehrmacht was making rapid advances into Russia, special radio vans and portable film trucks were used to follow the troops so that they would not lose contact with Nazi ideology. While film and radio were important, Bartov also suggests that the most effective tool of propaganda was the junior officers, who were ordered to discuss politics and give lectures with their men in order to create bonds in both the personal and ideological realms.[xvi] Messages of German superiority, Bolshevik foolishness, Jewish evil and Asiatic inferiority were constantly project onto the soldiers, and orders were given that they must discuss them and what they meant with their officers. Along with this inundation of Nazi propaganda, the military took strict measures to counter enemy propaganda. The punishment for listening to foreign radio broadcasts and spreading its news was death.[xvii] Even German civilians were subject to this law.[xviii] These ideas were cemented into military policy and directive by the infamous “criminal orders” issued by the OKW (the German High Command) on the eve of the invasion, as if to be a sadistic finale to years and years of propaganda. These orders were paramount to the creation of German monsters in Russia, for they officially sanctioned brutality. Firstly, military jurisdiction was placed in the hands of the regular army to execute partisans, civilians suspected of aiding or partaking in partisan activity. If the partisans could not be found after an event, the order allowed collective measures to be taken against the civilian population in the surrounding area. The Commissar Order, a directive stemming directly from the Nazi’s belief in the evil of the Bolshevik system (which they believed to be controlled by Jews)[xix], maintained that any Commissars (Soviet political officers) or civilian party leaders were to be executed on the spot. The ‘Guidelines for the Conduct of the Troops in Russia’ ordered that any “Bolshevik agitators, saboteurs and Jews” were to be dealt with ruthlessly, and that any active or passive resistance of any kind from the civilian population was to be completely eliminated. Among these guidelines was the order that the soldiers were to ‘live off the land’, effectively ordering the plunder of the civilian population. Lastly, the Wehrmacht was ordered to give complete freedom to the Einsatzgruppen in their operational areas, and to assist them in any way in the eradication of the Jewish population behind the lines.[xx] Of much importance to the tragedy of the Eastern front was the ambiguous nature of these orders and the self fulfilling nature of the sub-human labeling of Soviet soldiers. These orders left open a wide door through which the slaughter of civilians could be easily explained away, if not already sanctioned. Such measures, meant to stamp out partisan activity, would only serve to fuel it; further providing examples of Bolshevik unhuman resistance and ‘Jewish treachery’. By labeling the Soviet forces as subhuman, any act of hard resistance could be labeled as an example of the Bolsheviks’ sub-human nature. Even the strategies of the Soviet army in the early to mid war period, which unarguably tended to care less about the life of their soldiers and more about the objective at hand, served to play into this self fulfilling prophecy. If the Soviets did not even care about the lives of their own soldiers, how barbarically would they treat their enemies in combat, or if they surrendered in battle?[xxi] This bred contempt for the enemy, as German soldiers felt that they would surely be executed if captured. So it was with these ideas that the Wehrmacht entered combat at 0305 hours on June 22, 1941. After an initial artillery bombardment that lasted for only a few minutes three German Army Groups, a total of one hundred and seventeen infantry divisions and seventeen panzer divisions[xxii], poured over the border into Russia; into a world of which little was known about the land or its people and officially opening the Eastern Front. The German soldier who ran over the border with his rifle that morning knew little of Russia; even the German high command knew little. The maps provided were incorrect, and the soldiers were met with an alien world. Fields of sunflowers and corn stretched beyond the horizon; impenetrable forests and vast marshes blocked many lines of advance. While the German soldier knew that the Slavic peoples were beneath him, he still expected to see some kind of advanced road network, but none existed. Even the few rail lines that existed could not be utilized, the gauge was broader than was used in Europe. In his frustration, Field Marshal von Rundstedt said of the complete inaccuracies of their topographic maps, “Everything was false.” With this alien terrain came an alien climate, with winters that reached to forty degrees below zero and summers that soared far above anything experienced in Europe. Further reinforcing the Nazi stereotypes of the Slavic-Russian Untermensch (subhuman) were the appalling conditions in which the German soldiers witnessed the masses of Russian peasantry living.[xxiii]
What ever surprises the Germans found in this new land, it did not hinder their advance. The German Army Groups swept deep into Russia, and Soviet troops surrendered in the thousands upon thousands. Such early success only served to bolster feelings of Germanic superiority. And the military wasted no time in fulfilling their obligations outside of combat. By August, only two months after the start of the invasion, one German soldier wrote to his wife, “[…] And yet it would be bearable if we did not bear the responsibility for hecatombs of corpses.”[xxiv] Within the first weeks, the extermination of the Jewish population and Soviet prisoners of war had already begun. Soldiers writing home spoke of their shock and their need to ‘completely readjust’ to the world around them. Many soldiers wrote of feeling as if they were no longer themselves.[xxv] These feelings signal the last screams of humanity in the German soldier, before his sense of self was ripped away and replaced with Nazi ideology. Hans Heer writes that these feelings of being lost forced the German soldier to rely on the collective, and accept the daily doses of propaganda, if only to stay sane. Browning would say that this is the point in which the German soldier decided to kill in order to be a part of his group, and no longer be alone in such a climate. This marks the breaking point of the German soldier; sadly it occurred early on. By treating extermination as a normal and completely sensible order, the OKW was able to expose its soldiers to such terrible things and transform them into willing participants. Already possessing a frame of mind in which Jews and non-Germanic peoples held no value as humans, the shock of war easily jolted the soldier into a killing machine.[xxvi]
The span of August to November of 1941 saw a wide scale campaign of extermination against the Jewish population in occupied Russian lands. Ranging from small raids to total liquidation of ghettos, the Wehrmacht participated fully in the bloody killing of that autumn. For example between October 20th and December 8th 1941 the Wehrmacht in the operational area of Army Group Center alone murdered 31,300 Jews in official raids, 19,000 by a single regiment in only one month’s time.[xxvii] Further proof of the transformation from man to beast is the relish with which the Wehrmacht participated in these operations. One soldier related during post war testimony another soldier who
“said, in his exact words, ‘Jew brain, that tastes good.’ He said they had just shot Jews, and their brains had sprayed him right in the face. […] He also told how children had run away during the execution, and that these children were skewered onto a bayonet and then thrown into a hole.” A Jewish survivor of the town of Chutchin retold “A German Wehrmacht unit stationed in Chutchin amused itself every Saturday with ‘Jew games’. At random and for no reason they tortured and shot Jews.”[xxviii] Such horrible examples of brutality show that the German soldier had been desensitized to violence quite early. This can be explained by Browning’s belief in the need to be a part of a group. Soldiers killed to feel like they belonged among their comrades, and after a short while the killing became easier. These examples also hold up to Heers belief that the German soldier was forced to adopt a new identity and to cling to it with all his being (for example such brutal killings, when done by a unit, made the soldier feel as if he had a purpose).
The mass killing by the Wehrmacht only tapered off in December of 1941 as the Blitzkrieg began to grind to a halt within sight of Moscow. The soldiers which had been rampantly killing civilians were now needed at the front to fight the enemy. This winter of 1941-1942 is also very important in the story of the German soldier for it served to cement his ideas of the enemy, and put him through intense physical anguish which only made him more open to propaganda. The winter of 1941-1942 was a frozen hell for both the German soldier and the Russian villager, not to mention newly arrived soldiers who had not experienced the horrors of the autumn offensive. The order to live off the land came into full swing as the Wehrmacht had been provided with no winter clothing that could withstand the harsh Russian winter. Once again the ambiguous nature of the directive left a margin for disorder; many soldiers could not understand the difference between ‘organized requisition’ and the random looting of food and winter clothes. On top of looting the Wehrmacht was ordered to execute a scorched earth policy as the army retreated before the Soviet advance. By the end of the winter of 1942 the Wehrmacht had left a wasteland of famine and death.[xxix] For the German soldier, seeing Russian peasants live so easily in the frozen temperatures, and battling Soviet soldiers who seemed to fight better in the snow, the ideology of the Bolshevik untermench was made clear. How could a human thrive and fight in such a climate?
While the soldiers were fighting and dieing in the cold Russian winter, those on the front as well as those still in Germany were being inundated with propaganda. The Nazi party had realized by the Fall of 1941 that the war in Russia would be harder than originally anticipated. In response the Reichspropagandaleitung (Reich Propaganda Office) released its propaganda guidelines for the winter of 1941/1942. The main theme of the winter was to be ‘German Victory’, and that the German people were fighting against the Bolshevist threat and Jewish domination. The guidelines place the Jew as the continued enemy, stating “international Jewry is the cause of this war”.[xxx] The Fuhrer is listed as a model for everyone, and the slogan “Where Adolf Hitler leads, there is victory!” is presented. The guidelines also stress the need for face to face conversation, which links to the Wehrmacht’s insistence that junior officers talk to their men about politics and news. Junior officers were important in the brutalization of the German soldier. The soldier clung to his new identity in the group, and as part of a military unit his officers were like mentor figures. Therefore the beliefs of his officers would hold much weigh with the German soldier.
The spring of 1942 saw the propaganda office release an exhibition, movie and pamphlet titled “The Soviet Paradise”.[xxxi] The aim of this campaign was to show Germany the misery in which Soviet citizens lived, the falsehoods of the Judeo-Bolshevik system, and the threat which it poses to both Europe and Asia. The pamphlet goes into extensive and rambling detail about how the Bolshevik system was created and controlled by Jews. One sentence reads “The Jewdification of high offices in the Soviet Union makes everything clear.” It states that the war has not made the Russian people destitute, their political system has. It tells of how the failed economy has destroyed everything, even the family. The pamphlet says that many Russians marry several times with out ever getting a divorce because paper work is not kept properly. Most importantly to the German soldier, it has a section titled “The Soviet Army- A terrible threat to Europe”. It tells about the hundreds of thousands of prisoners, weapons and vehicles captured in the opening stages of the war and warns that there may be more to come; stating “This vast armory was meant to help Jewry overrun Europe.” The pamphlet ends with a quote by Hitler in which he states “In defeating this enemy, we remove a danger from the German Reich and all of Europe more severe than any it has faced since the Mongol hordes swarmed across the continent.”[xxxii] This comparison of the Red Army to the Mongol hordes is very important as it placed the conflict with Russia on a historic scale. The Mongols had threatened Western civilization in the 1200’s, just as Bolshevik Russia threatened Western civilization in the 1940’s. These kind of comparisons no doubt add emphasis and urgency to the situation, both for the German soldier and the German people.
This “Soviet Paradise” is very important because it shows the growing realization of the Nazi leadership that the war with Russia will not be easy and may not go the way they had originally planned. With Hitler’s quote one can see the growing sense of urgency, that the Soviet army must be stopped. For the soldiers, Hitler (who has already and will continue to be lifted to a godly status) comparing the Soviet army to Mongol hordes would have a deep impression. The pamphlet and exhibition also served to “educate” newly recruited soldiers who would be going to the front to participate in the coming offensive.
The next great occurrence for the German soldier in the East, as far as propaganda is concerned, would be the defeat at Stalingrad. On January 31, 1943 the German 6th Army surrendered at Stalingrad, and by February 2nd the last pockets of German resistance were overrun. The most savage battle in human history had come to an end and Germany alone had suffered nearly 300,000 killed or wounded in only three months of bitter fighting, and nearly 100,000 German prisoners were marched east into captivity.[xxxiii] For the German soldier who had been taught for ten years that his people and military were the greatest on Earth, this was a shattering experience. Pitted against the Soviet untermench in the urban battlefield of Stalingrad, the German soldier had been beaten. There were no workers or Jews to blame and cry treachery as Hitler had done to explain the First World War. This disaster would shift the tone of Nazi propaganda on a new course that it would keep until the end of the war. The defeat had shed light on the true seriousness of the war and on February 18, 1943 Joseph Goebbels gave his most famous speech, his “Total War” speech (actually titled Nation, Rise Up and Let the Storm Break Loose). He states that he does not want to give the German people a “false sense of security” and wants them to see things “as they are”. He says that “The storm raging against our venerable continent from the steppes this winter overshadows all previous human and historical experience. The German army and its allies are the only possible defense.”[xxxiv] This new tone is very significant because for the first time the idea of a Soviet victory and how it would affect Germany and the world is thoroughly entertained throughout the speech. Another change in policy is the shifting of the enemy from the Judeo-Bolshevik to simply the Bolshevik. In his long and rambling speech, Goebbels says the word Jew only once. This could be for several reasons. A speech that hinted at possible disaster that spoke too much about Jews would make it appear as if Germany was being defeated by Jews. Also, Goebbels was no doubt preoccupied with the more tangible threat; Soviet tanks pushing west was a real danger.
Two days following Goebbel’s speech the Reich Propaganda Office released its “Directive for the Anti-Bolshevist Propaganda Action”. This new propaganda directive again reinforces Goebbel’s ideas, shifting to fear of Soviet victory and using Jews far less as the enemy. Most telling is the main slogan for the directive, “VICTORY OR BOLSHEVIK CHAOS!” It goes over the main points that one, the war is a defensive war, two that Bolshevik rule would affect everyone, and three that only Germany can defeat Bolshevism and save Europe. The directive calls for the acceptance of total war; that the enemy has realized they must fight in a cold and brutal matter and so must Germany. It states that the Bolsheviks value nothing except for its use in their military machine, and that this is why Germany must fight to avoid defeat. The directive ends with stating that the ultimate conclusion of the propaganda is the absolute affirmation of the German people to Adolf Hitler, ending with the slogans “We will win because Adolf Hitler leads us!” and “Fuhrer command, we will obey!”.[xxxv]This propaganda shift is very important for the German soldier, as his duty to fight the Bolshevik armies is given a new and dire urgency, and Hitler is reaffirmed as the only one who can lead them to victory. With this fear of defeat, the desperation would only grow as the Soviets began to push Germany further and further back through out 1944. In late 1944 a pamphlet entitled “Never!” was widely published. The long document speaks of the desire of the Allied powers to destroy Germany, and the Soviet Union’s wish to enslave the German people (and not allow any Germans to emigrate to America). Select sections titled “Ten Million German Labor Slaves!”, “Occupation until the year 2000!” and “Biologic Extermination of the Germans!” show the fear that the Nazi leadership was trying to strike into its soldiers and citizens. The point of the whole document is that Germany will be destroyed if defeated, so the German people should fight to the death anyway.[xxxvi] In early 1945, the German Propaganda Magazine Signal published a photo of several young boys sitting and smiling together in uniform, the caption reading “Our pictures shows a group Luftwaffe helpers. Theirs eyes reflect the pride with which these young men take in their jobs.”[xxxvii] This image would have represented the next generation of Nazi citizens. For the German soldier this picture would have embodied his reason for resisting; to preserve Germany’s future.
With the fear that his race would be utterly destroyed and the picture of smiling boys doing their duty on his mind, the German soldier met his end. From childhood he had been molded by the ideologies of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party. Taught to love Germany, Hitler and the military above all else. Taught to hate the Jew as the enemy of his people. Taught that victory could only come through his own brutality. Taught that failure meant the destruction of the German race. The ideologies and propaganda of the Nazi party surrounded the German soldier from childhood until death. It was this constant exposure to propaganda that allowed him to commit horrible atrocities, and it was his reliance on propaganda for a meaning of self that allowed him to carry on. The German soldier who fired from the burning rubble of the Reichstag was no longer a human. He had murdered women and children in the most brutal of ways. He had fired on POWs and mutilated corpses. He had stayed the night in the welcoming homes of Russian peasants, and then murdered them and made off with their cattle in the morning.[xxxviii] This monster had been human once, before the machine of Nazi propaganda grabbed him, molded him, and never let him go.
[i] Browning, Christopher. Ordinary Men, Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland. Christopher Browning/HarperCollins Books. 1992. pg 160 & 184.
[ii] Browning. Ordinary Men. pg. 185
[iii] Goldhagen, Daniel. Hitler’s Willing Executioners. Daniel Goldhagen/Vintage Books. 1996. pg 375.
[iv] Goldhagen. Hitler’s Willing Executioners. pg. 376.
[v] Macdonald, John. Great Battles of World War II. Marshall Editions Limited, 1986. 174,175.
[vi] Werner, May. Deutscher National-Katechismus. 1934. found on the German Propaganda Archive, www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/catch.htm
[vii] Bauer, Elwira. Trau keinem Fuchs auf grüner Heid und keinem Jüd auf seinem Eid. Sturmer Publishing, 1936. Located on German Propaganda Archive. www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/fuchs.htm
[viii] Bauer. Trau keinem Fuchs. German Propaganda Archive. illustrations along left hand side
[ix] Bauer. Trau Keinem Fuchs. German Propaganda Archive. text in right hand column.
[x] Metelmann, Henry. Through Hell for Hitler: A dramatic first-hand account of fighting on the Eastern Front with the Wehrmacht. Casemate. 2001. 12-18.
[xi] Metelmann. Through Hell for Hitler. 12-18.
[xii] Metelmann, Through Hell for Hitler. 30.
[xiii] Metelmann, Through Hell for Hitler. 30.
[xiv] Heer, Hannes. “How Amorality became Normality. Reflections on the Mentality of German Soldiers on the Eastern Front”. in War of Extermination. The German Military in World War II, 1941-1944.Berghahn Books. 2000.
[xv] Bartov, Omer. The Eastern Front, 1941-1945, German Troops and the Barbarisation of Warfare. Macmillan Press, 1985. 69,70.
[xvi] Bartov, Omer. The Eastern Front. 74.
[xvii] Metelmann. Through Hell for Hitler. 29.
[xviii] Warning, Enemy Propaganda! 1940. on German Propaganda Archive. www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/feindpro.htm.
[xix] Das Sowjet-Paradies. 1942. on German Propaganda Archive. www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/paradise.htm.
[xx] Bartov, Omer. The Eastern Front. 106.
[xxi] Lucas, James. War on the Eastern Front. 13
[xxii] Lucas, James. War on the Eastern Front. Cooper and Lucas Ltd., 1979. 8.
[xxiii] Lucas. War on the Eastern Front. 15-19
[xxiv] Streit, Christian. “Soviet Prisoners Of War In The Hands Of The Wehrmacht” 1996, in War of Extermination. The German Military in Wolrd War II 1941-1945. Berghahn Books, 2000.Edited by Hans Heer and Klaus Naumann
[xxv] Heer. “How Amorlality became Normality”. 332.
[xxvi] Heer, Hannes. “How Amorality became Normality”. 337
[xxvii] Heer, Hannes. “Killing Fields. The Wehrmacht and the Holocaust in Belorussia, 1941-1942”, 1997. in War of Extermination. 63,64.
[xxviii] Heer, Hannes. “Killing Fields”. 63
[xxix] Bartov, Omer. The Eastern Front. 130.
[xxx] Erlauterungen zur Propaganda-Aktion 1941/42. 1941. German Propaganda Arcive. www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/salzburg1.htm
[xxxi] Das Sowjet-Paradies. 1942. on German Propaganda Archive. www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/paradise.htm.
[xxxii] The Soviet Paradise. German Propaganda Archive.
[xxxiii] Macdonald, John. Great Battles. 98.
[xxxiv]Goebbels, Joseph. “Nun, Volk steh auf, und Sturm brich los!” 1943. Written version. On German Propaganda Archive. www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/goeb36.htm.
[xxxv] “Anweisung fur antibolshewistische Propaganda-Aktion”. February 20, 1943. on German Propaganda Archive. www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/bolshevist.htm.
[xxxvi] Goitsch, Heinrich. Niemals! 1944. on German Propaganda Archive. www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/niemals.htm.
[xxxvii] Swastika at War. edited by Robert Hunt and Tom Hartman. final page.
[xxxviii] Heer, Hannes. “The Logic of the War of Extermination. The Wehrmacht and the Anti-Partisan War.”in War of Extermination. 92,93.
From man to beast; Propaganda and the German Soldier in East 1941-1945
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Originally Posted by Markas
. Still though that might be irrelevant 
I think it was partly to do with the words 'brutalization' and 'monster' being tossed around almost constantly in many of the works I read for the research, they planted themselves in my sleepless mind. I even remember not being at all happy with that when I was printing out my final draft, but being too tired and too 22 to figure out how to make it go away. Tonight I may hit that paragraph with some thesaurus. I will admit I don't want to revisit the whole work too terribly much as far as over all language or more research. I did catch some casualty numbers that were horribly wrong (I had the grand 1 MILLION casualties at Stalingrad that gets thrown around, which is the total of Germany and her allies combined). I may try and check out that Eichmann book sometime.
