War of Annihilation: Combat and Genocide on the Eastern Front, 1941

Total War

by Geoffrey P. Megargee

In War of Annihilation, noted military historian Geoffrey P. Megargee provides a clear, concise history of the Germans' opening campaign of conquest and genocide in 1941. By drawing on the best of military and Holocaust scholarship, Megargee dispels the myths that have distorted the role of Germany's military leadership in both the military operations themselves and the unthinkable crimes that were part of them.

Genres: History, World War II, Nonfiction, Military Fiction, Military History, Holocaust

177 pages, Hardcover

First published December 22, 2005

About the author

Geoffrey P. Megargee was an American historian and author who specialized in World War II military history and the history of the Holocaust. He served as the project director and editor-in-chief for the Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945 produced by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Megargee's work on the German High Command (the OKW) won the 2001 Distinguished Book Award from the Society for Military History.

Reviews

[Brett C · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The constellation of beliefs, attitudes, and assumptions that contributed to the German leadership's willingness to fight a war of conquest and genocide: faith in their own superiority; loathing of Jews amd Slavs; fear and hatred of Marxism and conflation of it with Jewishness; belief in existential struggle and in Germany's right to use any means to win; attachment to ideals of brutality and ruthlessness; a desire for another war and the assumption that such a war would be "total"; particular hostility toward the Soviet Union; and principles of leadership that would, in effect, act to facilitate criminal behavior. The last ingredient would be the war itself, in which all these factors would work together to produce effects that even the most cynical generals had not foreseen. pg 10"

This was a good overall history of the opening campaign of Operation Barbarossa and the subsequent racial warfare that followed the Wehrmacht and SS push to Moscow. The forst chapter was a good lead up to WW2, the rise of Third Reich Germany, and the overall societal aspects of the intra-WW1 to World War II time frame. The German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 is instructive on at least two levels. First, it highlights the combination of ruthlessness and prejudice that informed military strategy and occupation policy. Second, it demonstrates how interconnected ideology, culture, politics, economics, and warfare can be. (pg 149)

The author gave again overall details on the invasion, the Einsatsgruppen and ethnic cleansing operations, extermination of Jewish local nationals within the USSR, and the Nazi Germany Final Solution. The book covered the 1941 time frame with residual case and effect from as early at the 1920s to the ends justifying the means of Operation Barbarossa as fulfilled by Hitler and his edicts from Mein Kampf.

Overall this was a solid overview style narrative and touched a lot on the basics. I would highly recommend this to anyone interested in Operation Barbarossa and the hard open of the Eastern Front. Thanks!

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are unfamiliar with the war on the Eastern Front this would be a good place to start.If you do know a bit about the subject you won't find much you didn't know,the author himself admits there was no primary research undertaken.
I believe this was previously titled Barbarossa 1941.

[Howard H · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a brief history of a major topic (maybe two topics: combat and genocide), this book is fine, hence the three stars. Its brevity naturally requires compromise with all that entails.

Where I was tempted toward only two stars, however, is the "annihilation" part. I expected a wider focus on the incredible slaughter that took place in that theater. Perhaps that's my own faulty expectation, so three stars it is.

HH

[Robert P. Hoffman · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author develops an important thesis: the war in the East was deliberately a war of annihilation, the military leaders were, overall, supportive, and the ideology and beliefs of most of the German people were aligned with the Nazis. The author gives statistics that are almost beyond belief as to the cruelty and savage nature of the war effort. And as the author argues, this was not an unforeseen development, it was not an accident, the policy was in place before the invasion and supported by top military officers.

While that is a key thesis, the author spends the bulk of his time talking about various battles and for this reader I was lost in the details. While the author makes good points (e.g., Hitler's decision to not attack Moscow was not decisive to the outcome of the war, even if he had given the army the permission to launch a full scale attack on Moscow, the army was not in a position to sustain such an attack).

[Bryan Reo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-documented and compelling read that delves into the inhumanity and brutality that characterized the Axis campaign on the Eastern Front in 1941.

[Adrian Radziwoński · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bardzo dużo fajnych rzeczy można się tu dowiedzieć, nie tylko o samej kampanii przeciwko sowietom, ale także o prowadzenie wojny z punktu widzenia logistyki

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

The concept is interesting, but the chapters are way too repetitive. I read the whole book for class, but would have gained the same information reading the first and last paragraph of each chapter.

[Gabriel Argonne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good look at the Eastern Front during WWII. The only issue is it only looks at it from the German side, and glosses over the Russian atrocities.

[Georgia]

read for school