Bibliotheken Online

Between God and Hitler

military chaplains in Nazi Germany

Doris L. Bergen, University of Toronto

Buch

Englisch

Bergen, Doris L. (Verfasser/-in) DNB

Cambridge University Press

Cambridge, United Kingdom
New York, NY

2023

xix, 326 pages

1-108-48770-X
1-108-72082-X

978-1-108-48770-2
978-1-108-72082-3

1939-1945--Chaplains--Germany.
1939-1945--Moral and ethical aspects.
1939-1945--Religious aspects--Christianity.
Jewish (1939-1945)--Religious aspects.
1939-1945--Aumôniers--Allemagne.

Zusammenfassung: "During World War II, approximately 1,000 Christian chaplains accompanied Wehrmacht forces wherever they went, from Poland to France, Greece, North Africa, and the Soviet Union. Chaplains were witnesses to atrocity and by their presence helped normalize extreme violence and legitimate its perpetrators. Military chaplains played a key role in propagating a narrative of righteousness that erased Germany's victims and transformed the aggressors into noble figures who suffered but triumphed over their foes. Between God and Hitler is the first book to examine Protestant and Catholic military chaplains in Germany from Hitler's rise to power, to defeat, collapse, and Allied occupation. Drawing on a wide array of sources -- chaplains' letters and memoirs, military reports, Jewish testimonies, photographs, and popular culture -- this book offers insight into how Christian clergy served the cause of genocide, sometimes eagerly, sometimes reluctantly, even unknowingly, but always loyally"--(Publisher, page [i].)