A sophisticated look at a bloody chapter in the history of World War II. Avoiding simplistic explanations, Shepherd digs deep into both the archives and the theoretical literature to produce the most convincing explanation yet for the brutality of German anti-partisan operations in Yugoslavia. He is, in particular, the first to locate the origins of the atrocities on the Eastern Front with those officers of the Wehrmacht whose careers began in the Habsburg Army in the First World War. Like his earlier War in the Wild East, Terror in the Balkans is a fresh and provocative book. -- Robert Citino, University of North Texas Shepherd brilliantly establishes and contextualizes the Wehrmacht's central role in Nazi Germany's campaign of terror and genocide in the Balkans during World War II. Focusing on middle-level field commanders, the work convincingly traces the army's counterproductive counterinsurgency policies to the officers' experiences of 1914-1918 and their aftermath. -- Dennis Showalter, Colorado College
Ben Shepherd is Reader in History at Glasgow Caledonian University.
A sophisticated look at a bloody chapter in the history of World
War II. Avoiding simplistic explanations, Shepherd digs deep into
both the archives and the theoretical literature to produce the
most convincing explanation yet for the brutality of German
anti-partisan operations in Yugoslavia. He is, in particular, the
first to locate the origins of the atrocities on the Eastern Front
with those officers of the Wehrmacht whose careers began in the
Habsburg Army in the First World War. Like his earlier War in the
Wild East, Terror in the Balkans is a fresh and provocative
book.
*Robert Citino, University of North Texas*
Shepherd brilliantly establishes and contextualizes the Wehrmacht's
central role in Nazi Germany's campaign of terror and genocide in
the Balkans during World War II. Focusing on middle-level field
commanders, the work convincingly traces the army's
counterproductive counterinsurgency policies to the officers'
experiences of 1914-1918 and their aftermath.
*Dennis Showalter, Colorado College*
Shepherd's book is important for a number of reasons. The first and
most basic one is the fact that it gives an additional historical
dimension to studies about the war on the Balkan front which has
not been granted the same generous attention by scholarly research
as have other war theaters. Another aspect that Shepherd raises is
that an analysis of the murderous manifestation of Nazi ideology is
based on principles that had already been formulated at the end of
the nineteenth century and were applied in the test case of the
Balkan arena...Shepherd's careful and precise research proves that
the Wehrmacht was a partner in the war crimes that Germany executed
during the course of the war...His book has the ability as well to
cast light on the cultural background for the war crimes and racial
murder carried out during the 1990s after the breakup of
Yugoslavia.
*H-Net Reviews*
In this nuanced analysis of German counterinsurgency operations in
the Balkans, 1941-43, Shepherd eschews the facile explanation that
Nazi ideology and indoctrination explain the genocidal conduct of
German soldiers in WWII. Instead, Shepherd concludes that a
multitude of diverse and disparate forces interacted, leading
mid-level German commanders to demand, and their soldiers to wage,
campaigns of genocide and terror in war-torn Yugoslavia. German
commanders were indeed radicalized and brutalized under the Nazi
regime's tutelage, but their actions were also governed by specific
social, cultural, and institutional influences that were magnified
by the harsh conditions, insoluble ethnic rivalries, and ruthless
enemy they encountered. Influenced by his previous work on German
anti-partisan operations in the Soviet Union, Shepherd mines the
appropriate primary sources and cites the most recent scholarship
for this latest effort. If his apologetic qualifications regarding
the extant sources create doubts for some readers, these will be
quickly dispelled by his adept handling of one of the most vexing
issues confronting scholars of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust.
*Choice*
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