TY - JOUR A1 - Kay, Alex James T1 - The extermination of Red Army soldiers in German captivity, 1941–1945 BT - causes, patterns, dimensions JF - Journal of Slavic Military Studies N2 - Captive Red Army soldiers made up the majority of victims of Nazi Germany’s starvation policy against Soviet civilians and other non-combatants and thus constituted the largest single victim group of the German war of annihilation against the Soviet Union. Indeed, Soviet prisoners of war were the largest victim group of all National Socialist annihilation policies after the European Jews. Before the launch of Operation Barbarossa, it was clear to the Wehrmacht planning departments on exactly what scale they could expect to capture Soviet troops. Yet, they neglected to make the necessary preparations for feeding and sheltering the captured soldiers, who were viewed by the economic staffs and the military leadership alike as direct competitors of German troops and the German home front for precious food supplies. The number of extra mouths to feed was incompatible with German war aims. The obvious limitations on their freedom of movement and the relative ease with which large numbers could be segregated and their rations controlled were crucial factors in the death of over 3 million Soviet POWs, the vast majority directly or indirectly as a result of deliberate policies of neglect, undernourishment, and starvation while in the ‘care’ of the Wehrmacht. The most reliable figures for the mortality of Soviet POWs in German captivity reveal that up to 3.3 million died from a total of just over 5.7 million captured between June 1941 and February 1945 — a proportion of almost 58 percent. Of these, 2 million were already dead by the beginning of February 1942. In English, there is still neither a single monograph nor a single edited volume dedicated to the subject. This article now provides the first detailed stand-alone synthesis in that language addressing the whole period from 1941 to 1945. KW - Red Army KW - prisoners of war KW - Wehrmacht KW - extermination KW - starvation KW - Eastern Europe KW - Second World War Y1 - 2024 UR - https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13518046.2024.2340839 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/13518046.2024.2340839 SN - 1556-3006 SN - 1351-8046) VL - 37 IS - 1 SP - 80 EP - 104 PB - Taylor & Francis CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kay, Alex James T1 - Crimes of the Wehrmacht BT - A Re-evaluation JF - Journal of Perpetrator Research N2 - Of the up to eighteen million men who served in the Wehrmacht during the Second World War, ten million were deployed at one time or another between 1941 and 1944 in the conflict against the Soviet Union, a theatre of widespread and sustained mass violence. In order to determine how extensive complicity in Nazi crimes was among the mass of the regular German soldiers, it is necessary first of all to define what constitutes a criminal undertaking. The sheer brutality of the German conduct of war and occupation in the Soviet Union has overshadowed many activities that would otherwise be rightly held up as criminal acts. KW - Wehrmacht KW - criminality KW - mass violence KW - occupation KW - Second World War Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.21039/jpr.3.1.29 SN - 2514-7897 VL - 3 IS - 1 SP - 95 EP - 127 PB - University Press CY - Manchester ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Scianna, Bastian Matteo T1 - Rebuilding an Austrian Army BT - The Bundesheer’s Founding Generation and the Wehrmacht Past, 1955–1970 JF - War in History N2 - After the Second World War, a new Austrian Army (the Bundesheer) was formed to guarantee the country’s armed neutrality. But the period between 1938 and 1945 remained a point of contention. While some Austrian officers had been sidelined, the majority had served in the Wehrmacht and thus shared experiences and soldierly values. As Cold War realities necessitated a professional experienced army, a group around Erwin Fussenegger (1908–1986) dominated the new Bundesheer and contemplations about reforming the military culture and value system were postponed; while at the same time, the Bundesheer managed to prevent becoming a mere continuation of the Wehrmacht. KW - Austria KW - Wehrmacht KW - Second World War KW - Cold War KW - military culture KW - Bundesheer Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/0968344516682057 SN - 0968-3445 SN - 1477-0385 VL - 26 IS - 1 SP - 105 EP - 123 PB - Sage Publ. CY - London ER -