Sonke Neitzel. A trove of transcripts of bugged recordings providing specific,
startling evidence that German soldiers in World War II were not just
following orders. Neitzel and Welzer
pore over two stores of documents
from the British and American national archives, numbering some 150,000
pages in all, of transcripts from recordings of German prisoners of war
secretly made in various holding facilities. The authors layer on
commentary that sometimes threatens to bury the soldiers' stories in a
gray cloak of academese, but the point remains: These German soldiers
were utterly normal, for all the atrocities they committed, men who
killed simply "because it's their job." Unique--and essential to any
understanding of German mentalites in the Hitler era.--KirkusFriday, December 14, 2012
Soldaten: On Fighting, Killing, and Dying: The Secret World War II Transcripts of German POWs
Sonke Neitzel. A trove of transcripts of bugged recordings providing specific,
startling evidence that German soldiers in World War II were not just
following orders. Neitzel and Welzer
pore over two stores of documents
from the British and American national archives, numbering some 150,000
pages in all, of transcripts from recordings of German prisoners of war
secretly made in various holding facilities. The authors layer on
commentary that sometimes threatens to bury the soldiers' stories in a
gray cloak of academese, but the point remains: These German soldiers
were utterly normal, for all the atrocities they committed, men who
killed simply "because it's their job." Unique--and essential to any
understanding of German mentalites in the Hitler era.--Kirkus
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