Während des deutsch-sowjetischen Krieges war ab Herbst 1941 das Gebiet um die russische Stadt Brjansk von der Wehrmacht besetzt. Die 2. Panzerarmee verwaltete dieses Territorium über den Kommandanten des rückwärtigen Armeegebietes 532. Wie überall im besetzten Gebiet verübten die Einsatzgruppen des SD zahlreiche Morde und es kam zum Massensterben der Kriegsgefangenen in den Durchgangslagern. Starke, in den ausgedehnten Waldmassiven versteckte sowjetische Partisanenverbände erschwerten die Beherrschung des ausgedehnten Raumes. Aufgrund des Mangels an deutschen Soldaten wurden zahlreiche Bewachungseinheiten aus Einheimischen und Kriegsgefangenen gebildet. Der Kommandeur der Armee Generaloberst Rudolf Schmidt ging sogar so weit, einen von der russischen Bevölkerung vollständig selbst verwalteten Bezirk zuzulassen. Kollaboration mit den deutschen Besatzern war ein weit verbreitetes Phänomen, während gleichzeitig in den Wäldern die Partisanen herrschten. Die Sicherungsverbände führten zahlreiche Antipartisanenunternehmen durch, die meist ohne anhaltende Erfolge blieben, aber in deren Verlauf zahlreiche Zivilisten als vermeintliche Partisanen getötet wurden. Obwohl die Besatzungsherrschaft der Wehrmacht in diesem Gebiet von der in Berlin beschlossenen Generallinie der Ausbeutung, Unterdrückung und Vernichtung in vielem abwich, wurde nicht für eine ausreichende Ernährung der Bevölkerung gesorgt. Dem Hunger und dem Partisanenkrieg fielen bis zum Rückzug der Wehrmacht im Herbst 1943 tausende Zivilisten zum Opfer. / During the German-Soviet war by autumn 1941 the area around the Russian city Bryansk was occupied by the Wehrmacht. The Second Tank Army administrated this territory through the commander of the backward area of the army 532. Like everywhere in the occupied territories the Einsatzgruppen of the SD committed numerous murders and it came to the widespread deaths of the prisoners of war in the transit camps. Strong Soviet partisan groups hidden in the vast forest massifs complicated the control of the vast area. On account of the lack of German soldiers numerous guarding units from locals and prisoners of war were formed. The commander of the army senior general Rudolf Schmidt went even so far of admitting a district completely administered by Russians themselves. Collaboration with the occupying forces was a widespread phenomenon, while at the same time in the woods the partisans ruled. The guarding troops carried out numerous anti-partisan operations which mostly remained without during success but killed numerous civilians as putative partisans in the course. Although the occupation of the Wehrmacht in this area in many aspects deviated from the in Berlin concluded general line of exploitation, suppression and destruction, it was not provided for a sufficient supply of food for the population. Until the retreat of the Wehrmacht in autumn 1943 thousand of civilians fell victim to hunger and partisan warfare.

No description available.

The thesis examines the process of recruitment of German prisoners of war (the former Wehrmacht soldiers) to the Czechoslovak foreign army in the West. Based on a wide variety of sources mainly of military origin, the thesis investigates the process of enlistment with all its specific regional features (the recruitment differed slightly based on the country where it took place). More specifically, the thesis also deals with questions concerning the German captives' security clearance, e. g. to which extent the actual recruitment followed the official instructions and guidelines, in which ways the captives presented themselves and what image they tried to create, how they were appraised and perceived by the Czechoslovak authorities and by officers, etc. The final mosaic should demonstrate that recruitment of the former Wehrmacht soldiers was not only inevitable, but also vital and necessary for completion of Czechoslovak armed forces. The vetting itself was a very strict and thorough process aimed on preventing potentially dangerous, unreliable individuals who might have posed a security risk from joining the Czechoslovak army.

Zugl.: Leipzig, Univ., Diss., 2006

Originally presented as the author's thesis (doctoral)--Universität Leipzig, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [317]-344) and index.

No description available.

Thèse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

The German Armed Forces were originally thought to be completely innocent of all war crimes associated with unethical Nazi racial policies. This has been proven not to be the case. History has adjusted itself to show that Wehrmacht forces were guilty of virtually every war crime except for the sexual violation foreign women. Due to the long-standing assumption that Nazi racial ideology prevented the intermingling of the “Aryan” race with the “unworthy” Eastern European races, this myth was rarely questioned. Given the lack of hard evidence proving that civilian women were raped by invading Wehrmacht troops, a firm conclusion is out of the question. However, with a concrete understanding of the Nazi attitude towards sexual relations, the components in the East that led to a breakdown in Wehrmacht discipline, and the resulting reaction of the Soviet Union in light of this brutality, one can surmise the type of violence women were forced to endure. Through the research conducted in this thesis, it is likely that the mass rape of Eastern European women did indeed occur. The silence that surrounds this issue is highly indicative of the cultural elements that prevent an open discussion of this topic. This thesis is meant to spark a discussion of the implications and reverberations of mass rape in a wartime setting.

Univ., Habil.-Schr.--München, 2007.

Despite the plethora of material written on the history of prisoners-of-war in the Second World War, surprisingly few works treat the issue analytically, at least from the perspective of German military policy toward, and treatment of, British and American prisoners-of-war. The handful of dissertations written on the subject have examined tightly focused aspects within this subject, or did not make thorough use of the German federal military archives. Most published works, indeed, have tended to examine the issue from the perspective of the prisoners themselves. While these were valid and valuable approaches to the subject, they also left a significant gap in the historiography: what precisely was German policy towards British and American prisoners-of-war, how did it evolve over the course of the war years, and how was it ultimately put into practice? / The largest portions of this dissertation consist of distilling, from the thousands of pages of German military orders and documents which survived the war, the essence of the German Armed Forces Supreme Command (the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, or OKW) directives to the lower levels of command, ultimately reaching the level of the camp Commandants, with regard to the many facets of prisoner-of-war life, from shelter, clothing, and food, to labour policy and security measures. Every report by the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Protecting Power delegates of their visits to most of the British or American prisoners-of-war in German-run camps for non-commissioned soldiers (Stalags) and camps for commissioned officers (Oflags) which could be found in the national archives of Great Britain, the United States, and Canada, was then examined, with the aim of providing a standard by which to measure German policy. / Given the sensitivities of each of the belligerents to the plight of their own soldiers held captive in enemy hands, the final results of the investigation are then presented in conclusion with a brief comparison of how German prisoners-of-war fared while in British or American captivity. Though necessarily relying on the scholarship of other historians in this regard, it allows for the original findings of this dissertation to be placed in a wider context for the reader. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)