Joining Hitler's Crusade: European Nations and the Invasion of the Soviet Union, 1941

by David Stahel (Editor)

The reasons behind Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union are well known, but what about those of the other Axis and non-Axis powers that joined Operation Barbarossa? Six other European armies fought with the Wehrmacht in 1941 and six more countries sent volunteers, as well as there being countless collaborators in the east of various nationalities who were willing to work with the Germans in 1941. The political, social and military context behind why so many nations and groups of volunteers opted to join Hitler's war in the east reflects the many diverse, and largely unknown, roads that led to Operation Barbarossa. With each chapter dealing with a new country and every author being a subject matter expert on that nation, proficient in the local language and historiography, this fascinating new study offers unparalleled insight into non-German participation on the Eastern Front in 1941.

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

454 pages, Hardcover

Published February 6, 2018

About the author

David Stahel was born in Wellington, New Zealand in 1975, but grew up in Melbourne, Australia. He completed an honours degree in history at Monash University (1998), an MA in War Studies at King's College London (2000) and a PhD at the Humboldt University in Berlin (2007). His research focus has centered primarily on the German military in World War II and particularly Hitler's war against the Soviet Union. Dr. Stahel's latest book Operation Typhoon was released by Cambridge University Press in March 2013 and will be followed by another book focusing on German operations on the eastern front in November and early December 1941.

David Stahel completed his undergraduate studies at Monash University and Boston College. He has an MA in War Studies from King's College London and a PhD in 2007 from the Humboldt University in Berlin. His dissertation has been published by Cambridge Military Histories as Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East. He joined the University of New South Wales Canberra in 2012.

Books:

Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East (Cambridge, 2009).

Kiev 1941. Hitler's Battle for Supremacy in the East (Cambridge, 2012).

(Together with Alex J. Kay and Jeff Rutherford) Nazi Policy on the Eastern Front, 1941. Total War, Genocide and Radicalization (Rochester, 2012).

Operation Typhoon. Hitler's March on Moscow (Cambridge, 2013).

Moscow 1941. Hitler's Battle for the Soviet Capital (forthcoming).

Reviews

[Philip Kuhn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good idea for this book. It's a collection of articles on each nation that joined Hitler's crusade, usually from that country. The articles on Spain, Italy, Hungry and Slovenia were very well done and informative. The article on the Soviet union was weak despite its length.
For die hards.

Phil Kuhn

[Zare · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came across this book by accident after reading European Anabasis. While Anabasis concentrated only on troops that actually participated in the war and contributed to the front, here we have a much wider overview of the way various European states joined the Germans in the attack on Soviet Union. Every essay is written by an expert on the specific country, and it presents a very detailed overview of economic, social, and political forces that put the given country into the collaborationist camp.

I was wondering how to write the review of this truly exquisite book, and in the end I figured out that no matter how detailed review is given, people will think it is rant and not review (as was case with some of the books on Allied intervention in Russian Civil War I read before). And I dont want to leave this impression because I think this book needs to be read because (as was case with Allied intervention in 1917) only way of understanding present is through the past. And if past is to be judged then it is obvious that Western Europe, followed by Romania, Hungary, former Czechoslovakia, Balkans (ex-YU), all those small states in the Baltic, Finland, Norway (interesting there is no mention of Sweden here, although it provided volunteers for SS and kept neutrality, very much like Spain for example) to name the few, are constantly in the loop repeating constantly same things every 100 or so years.

The only thing that changes is reason (previously anti-Tsarist fight, then anti-Bolshevism, now .... well Russians!) but target remains the same - so chillingly presented by Rosenberg in 1941, and so depressingly similar to propaganda existing today (I just cannot forget that German woman in 2022 saying how Russians are are different from rest of Europe in their life and values...... disgusting).

But while Finland could be understood to a degree (they saw this as continuation of Winter War - I wonder what they will say for 2020's when this history is written), all the others were either involved in Balkan-like vicious and bloody cycle of revenge (Baltic states - revenge on revenge from both local nationalist sides and Russian Tsarist/Soviet side, dating back to WW1, in background of which horrendous genocide of Jews took place when German collaborators took power), were just out there for land grab (Hungary, Romania) or were just brown-nosing their way keeping fingers crossed Germans will spare them (Balkans and in general all Slavic collaborators, from Ukraine to numerous small independent warlord-like areas on the Russians western border) which was a delusion if there ever was one.

Excellent book, with lots of information on the state of the Europe before and during the WW2, actual situation in the countries that smeared their national past by collaborating with the most bloody regime that ever existed, that aimed for depopulation and complete genocide of numerous peoples in Europe.

Highly recommended.