Kirjahaku

Near the end of World War II, a National Socialist resistance movement, the Werewolves, briefly flickered to life in Germany and its borderlands. In this volume the author surveys a broad range of material in an effort to recount the story of the movement. Dedicated to delaying the advance of the victorious Allies and Soviets, the Werewolves succeeded in scattered acts of sabotage and violence, and they encouraged the evolution of combat into a savage, semi-guerilla phase of fighting, which was especially characteristic of the last weeks of the war. Contrary to established thought, the new evidence reveals that Hitler's Werewolves were active against both the Allies and the Soviets, and were also involved in internecine struggles against German "collaborators" and "defeatists". However, popular support for the Werewolves was limited, and the Nazi leadership made a bad problem worse by failing to co-ordinate the different agencies involved in the programme, which yielded a weaker guerilla movement than might otherwise have emerged.

The history of the shadowy Werewolf guerrilla bands formed at end of the Second World War as the last desperate defence of Nazis. Founded by Heinrich Himmler in 1944 when it became clear Germany would be invaded, the Werewolf guerrilla movement was given the task of slowing down the Allied advance to allow time for the success of negotiations or wonder weapons. Staying behind in territory occupied by the Allies, its mission was to carry out acts of sabotage, arson and assassination, both of enemy troops and of defeatist Germans. Perry Biddiscombe has researched the movement exhaustively, and details Werewolf operations against the British, Russians and fellow Germans, on the Eastern and Western Fronts and in the post-war chaos of Berlin. Giving the lie to the established story of a cowed German population meekly submitting to defeat, this is a fascinating insight into what has been described as the death scream of the Nazi regime.

The history of the shadowy Werewolf guerrilla bands formed at end of the Second World War as the last desperate defence of Nazis. Founded by Heinrich Himmler in 1944 when it became clear Germany would be invaded, the Werewolf guerrilla movement was given the task of slowing down the Allied advance to allow time for the success of negotiations or wonder weapons. Staying behind in territory occupied by the Allies, its mission was to carry out acts of sabotage, arson and assassination, both of enemy troops and of defeatist Germans.Perry Biddiscombe has researched the movement exhaustively, and details Werewolf operations against the British, Russians and fellow Germans, on the Eastern and Western Fronts and in the post-war chaos of Berlin. Giving the lie to the established story of a cowed German population meekly submitting to defeat, this is a fascinating insight into what has been described as the death scream of the Nazi regime.

In 1945, the word Germany was synonymous with chaos. The country had become a scene of unprecedented devastation, wrought mainly by a trio of calamities - aerial bombardment, ground fighting and scorched earth measures. The nation's cities and industries lay in ruins, its transportation system was paralyzed and its population was desperately war weary. Millions had become refugees, Germans fleeing the bomb-battered cities and advancing enemy forces, and foreign slave labourers and concentration camp inmates, liberated by the Allies.Amidst a humanitarian crisis of almost unimaginable proportions, the occupiers ordered the mass dismissal of millions of Nazi Party members from government offices threatening the operation of local waterworks, food provisioning systems, hospitals and police forces. Perry Biddiscombe's new book is the first history of denazification of Germany, which has provided the model - albeit flawed - for the De-Communization of Eastern Europe and the De-Baathification of Iraq. The author explores the ideological basis of denazification, German reactions to denazification and assesses how successful the programme was.

The history of the shadowy Werewolf guerrilla bands formed at end of the Second World War as the last desperate defence of Nazis. Founded by Heinrich Himmler in 1944 when it became clear Germany would be invaded, the Werewolf guerrilla movement was given the task of slowing down the Allied advance to allow time for the success of negotiations or wonder weapons. Staying behind in territory occupied by the Allies, its mission was to carry out acts of sabotage, arson and assassination, both of enemy troops and of defeatist Germans.Perry Biddiscombe has researched the movement exhaustively, and details Werewolf operations against the British, Russians and fellow Germans, on the Eastern and Western Fronts and in the post-war chaos of Berlin. Giving the lie to the established story of a cowed German population meekly submitting to defeat, this is a fascinating insight into what has been described as the death scream of the Nazi regime.

Conventional wisdom suggests that the Allies and the Soviets were the only side in the Second World War to support resistance movements. This book shows that Hitler had his own version of the SOE and the OSS, and that the Nazis too encouraged underground resistance against their enemies, especially as Europe was liberated in 1944-5.

Near the end of the Second World War, a National Socialist resistance movement, known as the Werwolf, flickered briefly to life in Germany and its borderlands. Dedicated to delaying the advance of the Allies on both fronts, the Werwolf succeeded in scattered acts of sabotage and violence. By the spring of 1945, it also showed signs of becoming a vengeful Nazi reaction against the German populace itself. 'Collaborators' and 'defeatists' were frequently assassinated, and crude posters warned that certain death would follow any failure to resist the enemy. Werwolf violence failed to mobilize a spirit of national resistance. Biddiscombe argues that the group was poorly led, armed, and organized, and that it was doomed to failure given the war-weariness of the populace and the hesitancy of young Germans to sacrifice themselves on the funeral pyre of the regime. He also demonstrates that although the group failed to assume a popular character, its influence was still great and its revolutionary sentiments would have grave implications for the future. Werwolf! is the most complete history to date of the Nazi partisan movement. It will be of great interest to general readers as well as to military historians.