The Wehrmacht: History, Myth, Reality
Quick Summary
The Wehrmacht was the armed forces of the Third Reich, comprising the army (Heer), air force (Luftwaffe), and navy (Kriegsmarine). Established in 1935 under Adolf Hitler, it grew rapidly, reintroducing conscription and expanding military capacity in violation of the Treaty of Versailles.12
Wolfram Wette's The Wehrmacht: History, Myth, Reality challenges the post-war "clean Wehrmacht" narrative, which claimed ordinary soldiers were honorable and untainted by Nazi ideology. Wette's work details the Wehrmacht's complicity in a campaign of extermination on the Eastern Front against Bolsheviks, Jews, and Slavs, asserting that its high command was fully involved in Hitler's racist agenda. This scholarly work has been instrumental in dispelling the myth of the Wehrmacht's innocence.1
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