The Second World War resulted in the deaths of around 85 million people. Additionally, tens of millions more people were displaced. However, amid all the carnage people demonstrated remarkable courage, fortitude, compassion, mercy and sacrifice. We would like to honour and celebrate all of those people. In the War Years Blog, we examine the extraordinary experiences of individual service personnel. We also review military history books, events, and museums. And we look at the history of unique World War Two artefacts, medals, and anything else of interest.
The German War: Crimes and Persecution Complex
The German War by Nicholas Stargardt and The Bitter Taste of Victory by Lara Feigel are two WW2 history books that neatly dovetail one another. The German War examines the many, varied aspects of the German war experience from 1939 to 1945 at home and on the frontlines. The Bitter Taste of Victory begins in 1944 as Allied forces, East and West, advance into the shrinking Reich and extends to 1949.
The German War by Nicholas Stargardt and The Bitter Taste of Victory by Lara Feigel are two history books that neatly dovetail with one another. The German War examines the many, varied aspects of the German war experience from 1939 to 1945 at home and on the frontlines. The Bitter Taste of Victory begins in 1944 as Allied forces, East and West, advance into the shrinking Reich and extends to 1949. Both books focus heavily on the question of German guilt for the many crimes committed under the Nazi regime, remorse and reconstruction. Chillingly, each book comes to the same conclusion: the only thing the surviving Germans truly felt guilty about was losing the war. The only pity most Germans felt was self-pity. Her cities, centres of industry and infrastructure lay in ruins. Millions were displaced and homeless. Hunger, disease, and lack of winter fuel all contributed to the misery after the nation’s collapse. However, for the victims of the camps, the millions of slave labourers, and all those countries ravaged by the German war machine there was no thought, no compassion and no sense of national guilt or shame. On the contrary, population surveys taken 5 and 10 years after the war revealed German sentiment towards the Jews and many Nazi policies had barely changed for many.
The German War examines the many motivating factors that kept the German people fighting right until the bitter end, even when defeat was assured. It reveals how most Germans initially believed they were fighting a war of national defence against Poland, France and Great Britain. Later, the Allied air offensive convinced many Germans of their victimhood, although some saw it as a punishment for their crimes against the Jews. The book also exposes the lie that most Germans were ignorant of the many atrocities committed by the regime. In fact, right from the start of the conflict German soldiers were documenting their crimes in writing, photography and film. But perhaps one of the darkest aspects of the book is just how quickly ordinary men and women could be transformed from law-abiding citizens to brutal murderers and rapists. The transformation often took less than two months. In Russia, senior field commanders began to worry about their troop’s propensity to loot property, burn villages and slaughter the inhabitants without orders. When defeat and occupation finally came to the German nation it did nothing to change outlooks and attitudes. Even years after the war’s end, the majority of Germans believed that Nazism had essentially been a good idea, poorly executed.
Lara Feigel’s book The Bitter Taste of Victory begins in the closing months of the war, as reporters, writers, filmmakers and entertainers followed the advancing Allied armies into the heart of Nazi Germany. The book illustrates the utter destruction wrought on German cities by the Allied bombing campaign and contrasts it with the horrors of death and concentration camps such as Bergen-Belsen. Martha Gellhorn, Marlene Dietrich, Billy Wilder and George Orwell are just some of the famous names we encounter amidst the rubble and misery of Germany’s defeat. With incredible naivety, the occupying powers set about a process of denazification. Writers, artists, musicians and filmmakers were recruited to cleanse German culture of its Faustian excesses. However, German re-education, the Nuremberg Trials and occupation seem to have done nothing to change the population’s psyche. Instead, the realpolitik of the Cold War allowed former Nazis and war criminals to reinvent themselves without actually changing. Rather than accept any collective guilt, the Germans of the war period were satisfied to largely remain silent or seek refuge in empty platitudes and point the finger of blame anywhere but at themselves. There is some small irony that far-left-wing groups such as the Baader-Meinhof Gang would later regard the West German state as the continuation of fascism and imperialism by other means.
In reality, these two books arrive at the same stark conclusion, although starting from very different places. The Germans of the war years remained fixed in their beliefs that they were victims, not perpetrators. They largely believed Nazism was correct in its outlook, but poorly executed by the regime. That brutality, murder, and even genocide were justifiable in pursuit of national goals. These two books also illustrate just how quickly the most civilised and educated of people can be transformed into remorseless killers, happy to abdicate all responsibility for their crimes.
The BBC's Forgotten Wireless War
In this review, we take a look at David Boyle's book V for Victory: the Wireless Campaign that Defeated the Nazi published by The Real Press. The book briefly tells the tale of an almost forgotten piece of World War Two history. Enthusiastically adopted by foreign governments in exile and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the V for Victory campaign called for small acts of disobedience and sabotage by the people of Nazi-occupied Europe.
V for Victory: the Wireless Campaign that Defeated the Nazis by David Boyle briefly tells the tale of an almost forgotten piece of World War Two history. In the dark days of 1941 journalists, Noel Newsome and Douglas Ritchie took up “the weapons of responsible journalism and the instruments of the clever advertiser” to promote British ideals and explain the nation’s war aims to the peoples of occupied Europe. Together they forged the BBC’s European Service that proved such an effective foil to Joseph Goebbels’ black propaganda.
The Stay-at-Home Hour, New Year’s Day 1941, helped test the idea of a sustained campaign of honest or “white” propaganda and gauge how many people were listening to the BBC’s Foreign Service broadcasts. Nazi black propaganda in the sinister voice of William Joyce or Lord Haw Haw had certainly captured the imagination of British radio listeners during the early months of the war. On 6 June 1941 Douglas Ritchie in the mysterious guise of Colonel Britton launched the V Campaign on the ears of Europe. The audience included 15 million German citizens who risked imprisonment and even death if caught listening to the BBC.
The BBC European Service and V for Victory campaign upset just about everybody from the established political parties and security services to the Civil Service because it cut through bureaucracy. The European Service was enthusiastically adopted by political and military leaders of foreign governments in exile. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was quick to see the many possibilities of the V for Victory campaign, making the V-sign a popular gesture of defiance.
The V Campaign called for small acts of disobedience and sabotage by the people of Nazi-occupied Europe. As distinctive as any brand logo, the V-sign was daubed on walls and buildings across the continent. Ritchie made the opening notes of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony the sound of European resistance and the theme tune of his broadcasts. In one of the worst periods of all human history, the V for Victory campaign became a symbol of hope and solidarity.
Although David Boyle has produced a well-researched exposé of the V for Victory campaign, the book is very short and leaves the reader with more questions than answers. After all, the V-sign has its origins in the Hundred Year’s War and has continued in popular culture from the Vietnam War and Arab Spring to movies, graphic novels and popular TV mini-series. The book could have looked at the various resistance movements that emerged during World War Two, the work of the clandestine SOE (Special Operations Executive), the various aspects of psychological warfare or even Douglas Ritchie’s personal battle to recover from a stroke aged just 50. For me, V for Victory: the Wireless Campaign that Defeated the Nazis is a book that only tells half the story, maybe less, and leaves you wanting to know a lot more.
V for Victory by David Boyle is published by The Real Press.
The Curious Case of SS Colonel Jochen Peiper
In this book review we discuss Danny S. Parker’s book Hitler’s Warrior, which takes an unflinching look at the life and war crimes of SS Colonel Jochen Peiper. Originally sentenced to death by the Allies for his part in the infamous Malmédy massacre, Peiper went on to lead something of a controversial life. Finally, it would all come to a dramatic end in a burning house one summer’s night in 1976.
The epitome of the Nazi ideal, Danny S. Parker’s book Hitler’s Warrior takes an unflinching look at the life and wars of SS Colonel Jochen Peiper. Found guilty of war crimes and sentenced to death by hanging for his part in the infamous Malmédy massacre of American servicemen during the Battle of the Bulge, Peiper escaped the noose. Instead, he would spend a decade in jail, years working in the German auto industry and die mysteriously on Bastille Day, 13 July 1976, at his secluded home on the banks of the Saone River, France.
Handsome, intelligent and capable, Jochen Peiper had something of the matinee idol look about him. Quick to join the fledgling Schutzstaffel or SS, Peiper applied to become an SS Officer Cadet in 1934 at the suggestion of Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler. By the outbreak of war, Peiper was the Reichsführer’s constant companion and faithful adjutant. He would witness mass executions and an experimental gassing while accompanying his boss on SS business trips across the Nazi’s growing empire. A comrade remarked that Peiper was one of the few people who seemed to genuinely like the cold, humourless, rabidly anti-Semitic Himmler. It seems clear from Parker’s meticulous research that the affection was mutual.
A member of the Waffen SS or fighting SS, Peiper was keen to give up his cosy desk job and see some action as part of the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler. Peiper had a pretty good war. He was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords for extreme bravery and outstanding military leadership. He saw plenty of fighting on the Eastern Front, France and Italy where he revelled in his role as commander of the so-called Blowtorch Battalion, notorious for burning villages and killing the inhabitants regardless of their status as civilian non-combatants. But of course, it was his role as commander of the 1st SS Panzer Division, one of the spearheads of the German’s surprise winter offensive through the Ardennes region of Belgium, which brought Jochen Peiper his lasting infamy. Most notably Peiper’s men executed 84 defenceless American prisoners of war (POW) at the Baugnez crossroads near Malmédy. His men were also responsible for killing numerous Belgium civilians and other POWs during their advance.
After the war, Joachim Peiper was tried and convicted of war crimes, and sentenced to death by hanging on 16 July 1946. His sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. He was released in 1956 after serving nearly 12 years. His dutiful wife Sigurd, the ex-SS secretary, and three children were waiting for him. Peiper then started to live something of a double life. He publicly professed that he wanted to put the war behind him and get on with his life in peace. He felt he had paid for his crimes as the Allies saw them. In reality, Peiper went to work for Porsche, which appeared to be a haven for ex-Nazis and SS men during the 1950s. He also busied himself with the Mutual Help Association of Former Waffen-SS Members (HIAG) and seems to have spent much of his spare time with former comrades-in-arms. However, trouble was to find him again in the 1960s when he was investigated for his part in the Boves massacre of September 1943, Italy. Eventually acquitted due to lack of evidence, Peiper decided to leave Germany for Traves, France in 1972.
In 1974, Peiper, who never attempted to conceal his identity, was recognised by a former French Resistance fighter who contacted the French Communist Party. Peiper soon became the subject of an increasingly sinister intimidation campaign. On the night of 13 July 1976, his house was attacked and set on fire. Peiper made a vigorous defence of the property using a number of firearms but was trapped under falling debris when the roof collapsed. His body was so badly burned that formal identification was almost impossible. The tabloid press pounced on the idea that the whole episode was an elaborate Nazi ploy to allow Peiper to escape to South America or Spain. Right-wing reprisals swiftly followed.
Himmler’s trusted paladin, the youngest Colonel in the Waffen SS, war criminal, the handsome middle-aged car salesman, intellectual and nature lover, Jochen Peiper was all of these things and more. For all his protestations and supposed desire to put the past behind him, Jochen Peiper lived and died a committed, unrepentant Nazi and proud SS officer. Danny S. Parker’s book paints a vivid portrait of a complex personality utterly trapped by the times and events he lived through. A man blind to his own crimes and those of the regime he so loyally and obediently served. Shy, engaging, with something of an eye for the ladies, Peiper was no one-dimensional villain. He possessed a conscience, love, empathy and compassion; he simply couldn’t conceive that he’d done anything wrong but serve the Fatherland.
George Orwell once said: “People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.” I think this is how Peiper always saw himself, cast in the role of righteous guardian. However, Orwell also wrote, “Nationalism is power hunger tempered by self-deception.” In Parker’s book, one of Peiper’s former comrades joked that it would have been better for everyone if he (Peiper) had simply put a bullet through his head in 1945. Maybe so.
Please leave your own thoughts, ideas and comments about the book Hitler’s Warrior.