Rutherford - Combat and Genocide on the Eastern Front: The German Infantrys War, 1941-1944

By 1944, the overwhelming majority of the German Army had participated in the German war of annihilation in the Soviet Union and historians continue to debate the motivations behind the violence unleashed in the east. Jeff Rutherford offers an important new contribution to this debate through a study of combat and the occupation policies of three frontline infantry divisions. He shows that while Nazi racial ideology provided a legitimizing context in which violence was not only accepted but encouraged, it was the Wehrmachts adherence to a doctrine of military necessity which is critical in explaining why German soldiers fought as they did. This meant that the German Army would do whatever was necessary to emerge victorious on the battlefield. Periods of brutality were intermixed with conciliation as the armys view and treatment of the civilian population evolved based on its appreciation of the larger context of war in the east.

JEFF RUTHERFORD is Assistant Professor of History at Wheeling Jesuit University.

The aim of this series is to publish outstanding works of research on warfare throughout the ages and throughout the world. Books in the series take a broad approach to military history, examining war in all its military, strategic, political, and economic aspects. The series complements Studies in the Social and Cultural History of Modern Warfare by focusing on the hard military history of armies, tactics, strategy, and warfare. Books in the series consist mainly of single author works academically vigorous and groundbreaking which are accessible to both academics and the interested general reader.

For a list of titles published in the series, please see .

Combat and Genocide on the Eastern Front

The German Infantrys War, 19411944

Jeff Rutherford

Wheeling Jesuit University

University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom

Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge.

It furthers the Universitys mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence.

www.cambridge.org

Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107055711

Jeff Rutherford 2014

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2014

Printing in the United Kingdom by TJ International Ltd. Padstow Cornwall

A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data

Rutherford, Jeff.

Combat and genocide on the Eastern Front / Jeff Rutherford.

pages cm. (Cambridge military histories)

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-107-05571-1 (Hardback)

1. World War, 19391945CampaignsEastern Front. 2. World War,

19391945AtrocitiesEastern Front. 3. Germany. HeerHistoryWorld

War, 19391945. I. Title.

D764.R9558 2014

940.54217dc23 2014006668

ISBN 978-1-107-05571-1 Hardback

ISBN 978-1-107-65273-6 Paperback

Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.