Fritz Plasser - New Perspectives on Austrians and World War II

Sponsored by the University of New Orleans and Universitt Innsbruck

Gnter Bischof, CenterAustria, University of New Orleans
Fritz Plasser, Universitt Innsbruck

Ellen Palli

Universitt Innsbruck

Copy Editor

Jennifer Shimek

Loyola University, New Orleans

Assistant Editor

Marion Wieser

UNO/Innsbruck

Executive Editors
Franz Mathis, Universitt Innsbruck
Susan Krantz, University of New Orleans

Siegfried Beer

Universitt Graz

Peter Berger

Wirtschaftsuniversitt Wien

John Boyer

University of Chicago

Gary Cohen (ex officio)

Center for Austrian Studies
University of Minnesota

Christine Day

University of New Orleans

Oscar Gabriel

Universitt Stuttgart

Reinhard Heinisch

University of Pittsburgh

Pieter Judson

Swarthmore College

Wilhelm Kohler

Universitt Tbingen

Helmut Konrad

Universitt Graz

Sndor Kurtn

Corvinus University Budapest

Gnther Pallaver

Universitt Innsbruck

Peter Pulzer

Oxford University

Oliver Rathkolb

Universitt Wien

Sieglinde Rosenberger

Universitt Wien

Alan Scott

Universitt Innsbruck

Franz Szabo (ex officio)

Wirth Institute for Austrian and Central
European Studies University of Alberta

Heidemarie Uhl

Austrian Academy of Sciences

Ruth Wodak

University of Lancaster

Publication of this volume has been made possible through generous grants from the Austrian Ministry of European and International Affairs through the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York as well as the Ministry of Science and Research. The Austrian Marshall Plan Anniversary Foundation in Vienna has been very generous in supporting CenterAustria at the University of New Orleans and its publications series. The College of Liberal Arts at the University of New Orleans and the Auslandsamt of the University of Innsbruck provided additional financial support, as did the Cultural Office of the City of Innsbruck.

Contemporary Austrian Studies, Volume 17

First published 2009 by Transaction Publishers

Published 2017 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Copyright 2009 by Taylor & Francis.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2008051225

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

New perspectives on Austrians and World War II / Gnter Bischof, Fritz Plasser, and Barbara Stelzl-Marx, editors.

p. cm. -- (Contemporary Austrian studies ; v. 17)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4128-0883-5 (alk. paper)

1. Austria--History--1938-1945. 2. World War, 1939-1945--Austria. I. Bischof, Gnter, 1953- II. Plasser, Fritz, 1948- III. Stelzl-Marx, Barbara.

DB99.N39 2009
940.53436--dc22

2008051225

ISBN 13: 978-1-4128-0883-5 (pbk)

Gerhard L. Weinberg

It is not surprising that in the vast literature on the European theater of World War II the material on Nazi Germany in English has paid relatively little attention to developments in Austria and how the war affected Austrians with the exception of a few relatively narrow aspects. In terms of population, annexed Austria represented approximately 10 percent of Germanys wartime population, and most have therefore concentrated their attention on the other 90 percent. The situation of Austria has, however, not been neglected entirely. There have been studies of the decision of the Allies to insist on the restoration of Austrias independence, on the fighting in Austria in the very last stage of the war, and on the division of Austria into occupation zones. The emphasis in English language publications has been on Germany as a whole with any regional studies more likely to be focused on such areas as Bavaria, Thuringia, and other older German units as well as on the areas that were turned over to Poland and the Soviet Union in 1945. It is under these circumstances especially useful for those interested in the history of the war and of modern Europe in general to have a collection of pieces dealing with Austria and Austrians in English, especially pieces that rely heavily on publications and archives in German.

In Austria itself, Austrians had long viewed the war years as an especially dramatic burden during which the country endured its sad status as victim of the nasty German Nazis. This volumes introductory survey by Oliver Rathkolb illuminates this aspect and shows how a series of incidents involving Austrians with especially dirty records contributed to a new look at the past, one that some historians had begun to examine seriously earlier but without much wider impact. Without any doubt, as the studies of the participation of Austrians in the German armed forces by Richard Germann and Thomas Grischany show, once a number of officers of the pre-annexation Austrian army had been purged, the generals, officers, and men from Austria were easily and essentially totally integrated into the military apparatus of the Third Reich. Happy about opportunities for promotion and travel, pleased to be part of an effective and victorious force in the early stages of the war, they did their part and expected to continue to do so into the indefinite future. Whether called upon to participate in fighting or atrocities, in holding difficult positions or looting, officers and soldiers from Austria could be depended upon to resemble those from other parts of Nazi Germany. They might hate the Italians after they surrendered even more than their fellow soldiers, but they shared the general outrage over the fact that, contrary to expectation and belief, bombs were not dropped only by Germans on the cities of Germanys enemies. Although several authors cite the essential book on German military deaths in the war by Rdiger Overmans, they do not engage one of his most interesting findings. Although not employed disproportionately on any one front, the soldiers from Austria suffered a substantially lower percentage of losses than those from the rest of Germany. The explanation for this important finding remains to be discovered.

While the article by Barbara Stelzl-Marx on military resistance in Vienna in the last weeks of the war illustrates the confused situation there in the final weeks of the war, Stefan Karners account of Soviet organizations, policies, and practices in regard to prisoners of war offers no separate analysis of Austrian soldiers that fell into Soviet hands. The issue of any separate treatment and release policy for soldiers from Austria needs further investigation.