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Hitler's Soldiers

The German Army in the Third Reich

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Hitler's Soldiers

By: Ben H. Shepherd
Narrated by: Michael Page
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About this listen

For decades after 1945, it was generally believed that the German army, professional and morally decent, had largely stood apart from the SS, Gestapo, and other corps of the Nazi machine. Ben Shepherd draws on a wealth of primary sources and recent scholarship to convey a much darker, more complex picture.

For the first time, the German army is examined throughout the Second World War, across all combat theaters and occupied regions, and from multiple perspectives: its battle performance, social composition, relationship with the Nazi state, and involvement in war crimes and military occupation.

This was a true people's army, drawn from across German society and reflecting that society as it existed under the Nazis. Without the army and its conquests abroad, Shepherd explains, the Nazi regime could not have perpetrated its crimes against Jews, prisoners of war, and civilians in occupied countries. The author examines how the army was complicit in these crimes and why some soldiers, units, and higher commands were more complicit than others.

Shepherd also reveals the reasons for the army's early battlefield successes and its mounting defeats up to 1945, the latter due not only to Allied superiority and Hitler's mismanagement as commander-in-chief, but also to the failings of the army's own leadership.

©2016 Ben H. Shepherd (P)2018 Tantor
Germany Military War Imperialism Holocaust Prisoners of War Hungary Interwar Period

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Not what it said it would be

The title is misleading. This is not a book about the German Army, it is a story of how the German government treated the people of the countries they occupied during the war. Sure, the army played a big role in this (probably bigger than is usually thought), and it does include information about how the army transformed under Hitler's lead, but it is definitely not the story of the German army in the Third Reich.

Additionally, the writing style is dull and difficult. How many times do you need to the the term "moreover"? Far to may times in this book.

One of the reason I purchased this book is because I like Michael Page as a narrator, but even his skills could not make this anything but a chore to listen to.

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