Ostkrieg: Hitler's War of Extermination in the East
On June 22, 1941, Germany launched the greatest land assault in history on the Soviet Union, an attack that Adolf Hitler deemed crucial to ensure German economic and political survival. As the key theater of the war for the Germans, the eastern front consumed enormous levels of resources and accounted for 75 percent of all German casualties.
Despite the significance of this campaign to Germany and to the war as a whole, few English-language publications of the last thirty-five years have addressed these pivotal events.
In Ostkrieg: Hitler's War of Extermination in the East, Stephen G. Fritz bridges the gap in scholarship by incorporating historical research from the last several decades into an accessible, comprehensive, and coherent narrative.
His analysis of the Russo-German War from a German perspective covers all aspects of the eastern front, demonstrating the interrelation of military events, economic policy, resource exploitation, and racial policy that first motivated the invasion. This in-depth account challenges accepted notions about World War II and promotes greater understanding of a topic that has been neglected by historians.
Fiche Technique
- ISBN-13 : 9780813134161
- Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
- Publication date : 08/09/2011
- Author : Stephen G. Fritz
Editorial Reviews
Library Journal
Integrating a variety of factors, Fritz (history, East Tennessee State Univ.; Frontsoldaten: The German Soldier in World War II) writes that the Eastern Front was fiercer than other theaters of war because Hitler saw it as an ideological/racial war that required the physical elimination of Jews, Communists, and Slavs to allow for Lebensraum and the exploitation of resources. He considers the German army as not as innocent as has been portrayed but complicit in the Holocaust and related atrocities; career German officers should have stood up to Hitler. Not based on primary research, this is a synthesis of many secondary sources. Fritz's aim is to study the German perspective on the Eastern Front, touching on the irony, paradox, and complexity of the war. The führer, who did not always appreciate irony or complexity, is the main actor here. VERDICT Serious readers and specialists will most appreciate this book, owing to its analysis and extensive documentation.
From the Publisher
"Of all the hundreds of books on the Russian campaign, Mr. Fritz's is the first I have seen that demonstrates the nexus between mass murder and military operations."—Washington Times" —
"Stephen Fritz brought to his sources his considerable analytical skills and clarity of expression. The product is a very readable consideration of the European war's most important front, and one that expresses a new understanding of it scauses and effects."—New York Journal of Books" —
"Fritz seeks to synthesize and build upon earlier scholarship while exclusively focusing on the struggle as seen from Berlin.... Ostkrieg will be a significant addition to any academic library."—Choice" —
"It is truly a magnificent work of military history integrating ideological, economic, political, and military dimensions of this theater of war."—Waterline" —
"Perfect for instructors and students."—Teaching History" —
"An ambitious and impressive synthesis of two vast and often mutually exclusive fields of scholarship: the historiography of the Holocaust and that of the war on the Eastern Front.... [it] should serve as the starting point for all historians and students of World War II interested in the relationship of war and genocide."—Journal of Military History"
Meet the Author
Stephen G. Fritz, professor of history at East Tennessee State University, is the author of Frontsoldaten: The German Soldier in World War II and Endkampf: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Death of the Third Reich. He lives in Johnson City, Tennessee.