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

Amazing book!!

This book of 437 pages (including an index) is a collection of papers concerning the different levels of military support that other European countries, their internal political groups and individual citizens gave to the Germans during the Barbarossa campaign and subsequent years on the Eastern Front during the Second World War.The editor, David Stahel, is an academic historian well known for his series of books on the Barbarossa campaign and in his introduction he explains why the current book is necessary as it is unlikely that any one historian would have the knowledge of both languages and sources to use them effectively, therefore the papers included in this volume are written by academic historians with the necessary linguistic skills and access to the sources. Many of them have published either monographs or journal articles relating to this subject or related topics. It is worth stating here that readers looking for detailed descriptions of the military operations of the armies, divisions, battalions and companies referred to in these papers will find them dealt with only briefly and should look to the many other published volumes elsewhere. Primarily this collection of papers is concerned with the political and social concerns and issues that led nations, groups and individuals to the decisions they made either collectively or personally.There is a 14 page introduction by Stahel followed by fourteen papers divided into three parts. I The National Armies (6 papers), Finland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Italy and Croatia. II The Volunteers (6), Spain, The Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, France and Norway. III Collaborators From Within the Soviet Union (2) Baltic States and the Soviet Union.The attitude of the nations that supported Germany with mass armies of conscripts were influenced by a number of factors such as the peace treaties resulting from the conclusion of the First World War or the failure of France to maintain its alliances with its Central and Eastern European allies as it attempted with Britain to appease Hitler to prevent a general war. Economically too many of these nations found that Germany needed their goods such as grain or oil to feed its war machine and some became near vassals. Internal political struggles also determined whether their rulers were sympathetic to the Nazi ideology and many states hoped to regain lost territories or gain new ones as a result of siding with Germany in its campaign against the Soviet Union. Ultimately they were to be disappointed as German plans for the East didn't see a major role for other nations in sharing the spoils of their success, although as the war continued and manpower became an issue, the troops supplied by their allies played a greater part in the military considerations of Hitler and his generals.The nations which provided volunteers only rather than becoming formally allied to Germany by joining the Axis, ranged from fascist Spain which provided a strong division and air support and served with the army, to the various national or regional legions that became part of the Waffen SS. Many of the authors look at the motivation of certain far right wing political parties and groupings in their home countries before and during the war. These organisations were more likely to be sympathetic to the Nazis in at least some respects be it anti-Semitism or fascist corporatism. All were strongly nationalist which led to compromises with the Germans who generally saw such aspirations as a threat to their own power and might prevent their exploitation of manpower and resources in those defeated and occupied countries if they showed any signs of acting independently of their new masters. There often appeared to be a high correlation of individuals joining legions to fight against the Soviet Union who were also members of these political groups which also had a strong anti-Bolshevist ideology, although there were other reasons for enlisting such as personal benefit e.g. food and clothing or military adventure. Many had assumed they would fight in national uniforms and be representatives of their nations but apart from symbolic insignia on helmets for example oaths of service were made to Hitler rather than to their own country. In many cases the SS took over the volunteers and enlisted them into the Waffen SS either willingly or by veiled threats. Many volunteers soon learned of the brutal nature of the Eastern Front and many casualties and reports home made it often difficult to obtain further recruits as the war turned against Germany. Some units proved very effective on the frontline such as the Spanish but other such as the French were withdrawn and used against partisans or those designated as such by the Germans e.g. civilian Slavs or Jews.The final part is probably the most complex of all; the other nations who contributed troops had diplomatic and territorial objectives whilst volunteers had ideological and personal ambitions in going to the east, whereas the citizens of the Soviet Union whether recently enforced i.e. the Baltic peoples or Ukrainians, Russian and other ethnic groups such as the Cossacks had a wide variety of reasons for hating Communist rule and the Germans had to deal with these groups through necessity rather than desire, although again the manpower issues that arose after an incomplete initial campaign forced the various German organisations, whether the Army, SS or party functionaries, to develop strategies to exploit local groups for their own administrative and military ends. However such groups were generally tightly controlled to prevent independent actions by their representative bodies so they knew who was really in charge. Initially many former soldiers of the Soviet union were treated very badly as POWs and were shot or died through extreme indifference to their wellbeing but others served as ‘hiwis’ in German army units in rear services or even as frontline soldiers. In these cases their desire to survive was probably uppermost and working for the Germans gave access to food and shelter.Overall this collection of papers provides insight into the different European nations and groups that had to co-exist with the Nazi state and its various organisations whether Army, SS or NSDAP. The best papers are lengthy enough to pose questions, provide evidence and draw conclusions, some of the others are too short to ask these general questions and focus narrowly on particular issues which may reflect the source material available or the author’s own particular research interests. This book would be most suitable for an academic reader at postgraduate level or above but a general reader with a good knowledge of the Eastern Front may find it of interest too.