Rent 9781111836528 | World War II in Europe : A Concise History

Summary Table of Contents

WORLD WAR II IN EUROPE: A CONCISE HISTORY offers readers an engaging, clear, and comprehensive overview of the war that includes all of the key concepts, recent scholarship, and, where applicable, conflicting interpretations, while avoiding the complex data and schemata that tend to overwhelm non-specialists. Special attention is given to the human experience during the war, including extensive coverage of the Holocaust, and numerous quotations from relevant primary sources are integrated throughout the narrative, bringing the events to life. The text also covers the war's lasting effects on European history as well as population transfers, the treatment of collaborators and war criminals, the ordeal of Jewish survivors, changing German responses to the Nazi era, the emergence of the Cold War, and steps toward European integration.

Preface	p. xi
Hitler's War	p. 1
The Legacy of World War I	p. 2
The Rise of the Nazis	p. 4
The New German Republic	p. 4
Adolf Hitler: The Early Years	p. 5
Hitler's Worldview	p. 6
The Nazis in Power	p. 9
The Breakdown of Peace	p. 12
Hitler's Foreign Policy Aims	p. 12
Tearing Up the Vers... MOREailles Treaty	p. 14
German and Italian Aggressions, 1935-1939	p. 16
Czechoslovakia: The Apex of Appeasement	p. 17
Poland: The Final Crisis	p. 19
Chronology	p. 20
Notes	p. 21
The German Blitzkrieg, 1939-1940	p. 22
The Invasion of Poland	p. 23
Mechanized Warfare: A New Military Tactic	p. 23
The Defeat of Poland	p. 24
The Conquest of Denmark and Norway	p. 27
The Low Countries and France	p. 28
Prewar French Strategy	p. 28
The German Offensive	p. 29
The German Conquest of Western Europe, 1940	p. 30
Through the Ardennes	p. 31
The French in a Rout	p. 32
The "Miracle of Dunkirk"	p. 34
The Fall of France	p. 36
Reasons for France's Defeat	p. 39
The Battle of Britain	p. 43
Fighter Command and Britain's Air Defense	p. 44
Nazi Germany's First Defeat	p. 47
Chronology	p. 49
Notes	p. 49
Operation Barbarossa	p. 51
The Balkans First	p. 52
The Opening Phase	p. 54
A War of Annihilation	p. 54
German Successes	p. 58
Operation Barbarossa and the Eastern Front, 1941	p. 61
Soviet Resilience and German Miscalculations	p. 64
Russian Tenacity and Courage	p. 64
Unforeseen Challenges	p. 66
Stalin's Continued Terror	p. 70
The Wehrmacht Thwarted: Moscow and Leningrad	p. 72
At the Gates of Moscow	p. 72
A Soviet Counterattack	p. 74
The Epic Siege of Leningrad	p. 79
The Tide Turns: Stalingrad	p. 81
More German Conquests	p. 81
Operation Blue	p. 82
Urban Warfare	p. 84
The Death of the Sixth Army	p. 86
Kursk: Germany's Last Offensive on Soviet Soil	p. 90
Soviet Preparations	p. 91
A Stalled German Offensive	p. 92
No Prospect of a German Victory	p. 94
Hitler and His Generals	p. 94
The Momentum Changes	p. 96
Chronology	p. 98
Notes	p. 99
The Racial Empire: Exploitation, Enslavement, Extermination	p. 102
Exploitation and Terror	p. 103
Forced Labor	p. 104
Occupied Poland	p. 107
Occupied Soviet Union	p. 110
The Holocaust: The Extermination of European Jewry	p. 112
The SS Mentality	p. 113
Mobile Death Squads	p. 114
Extermination Camps	p. 119
Main Deportation Centers	p. 121
The Uniqueness of the Holocaust	p. 125
The German People and the Holocaust	p. 126
Germany	p. 126
Austria	p. 130
Europe, America, and the Holocaust	p. 131
Complicity	p. 131
Righteous Gentiles	p. 135
Bombing of Auschwitz Controversy	p. 138
The Vatican's Policy of Silence	p. 139
Collaboration with the Nazis in Occupied Europe	p. 140
Resistance Movements	p. 143
Notes	p. 151
War on Other Fronts	p. 155
Battle of the Atlantic, 1939-1943	p. 156
The U-Boats' "Happy Time"	p. 157
Coping with the Threat	p. 160
The North African Campaign	p. 164
Rommel and the Afrika Korps	p. 165
Containing the Desert Fox	p. 167
American Entry	p. 170
Driving the Axis from North Africa	p. 172
The Italian Campaign	p. 173
Invasion of Sicily	p. 174
Rome under Nazi Occupation	p. 175
Invasion of the Mainland: Salerno	p. 177
Anzio: Bloody Stalemate	p. 180
Cassino: Costly Breakout	p. 182
The Italian Campaign: A Wasteful Diversion?	p. 184
The Air War: 1941 to D-Day	p. 185
Precision and Area Bombing	p. 185
Was It Worth It?	p. 188
The Home Front	p. 190
Sustaining Morale and Coping with Hardship	p. 190
The "Blitz"	p. 191
The War and Women	p. 193
Chronology	p. 196
Notes	p. 197
Invasion: From the Atlantic Wall to the Siegfried Line	p. 199
The Landing at Normandy	p. 200
Preparation	p. 200
D-Day	p. 202
Rommel and the Atlantic Wall	p. 203
Omaha Beach: A Near Disaster	p. 205
Allied Success	p. 207
Struggling to Break Out	p. 210
Cherbourg and Bocage Country	p. 211
Caen	p. 212
Tlie Falaise Pocket	p. 215
Liberation	p. 220
Temporary Stalemate on the Western Front	p. 223
German Recovery	p. 223
German Military Resurgence: Market Garden, Aachen, Huertgen Forest, Metz	p. 226
Advance to the German Border, July 24-December 15, 1944	p. 227
Battle of the Bulge: Hitler's Last Gamble	p. 231
Hitler's Goals and Strategy	p. 231
Initial Success	p. 232
American Resistance and German Defeat	p. 234
Chronology	p. 237
Notes	p. 238
The End of the Third Reich	p. 241
German Morale: Ambivalent, Fanatic, Fatalist	p. 241
Red Army on the Offensive	p. 245
Operation Bagration	p. 246
World War II: The European Theatre	p. 247
Beyond the Soviet Union's Borders	p. 248
The Drive into Germany from the West	p. 249
The Rhineland	p. 249
Montgomery's Crossing of the Rhine	p. 251
Saturation Bombing	p. 251
The Ruhr and Beyond	p. 253
Victory in Italy	p. 256
Unconditional Surrender: Prolonging the War?	p. 257
Liberating Concentration Camps	p. 258
The Drive into Germany from the East	p. 263
The Vistula Offensive: Poland and the Reich	p. 263
Soviet Retribution and German Flight	p. 264
To the Bitter End	p. 267
Soviet Advance and Goebbels' Desperate Appeals	p. 267
Nazi Terror	p. 269
The Bunker: A Delusional Hitler	p. 270
The Storming of Berlin: The Last Battle	p. 272
The End of Hitler and His Third Reich	p. 277
Chronology	p. 280
Notes	p. 281
The Aftermath, Legacy, and Meaning of the War	p. 283
Death Toll	p. 286
Material Damage	p. 286
Population Transfers and Ethnic Cleansing	p. 287
Retribution for Collaborators	p. 288
War Crimes Trials	p. 290
Jewish Survivors	p. 295
The New (West) Germany: Overcoming the Past	p. 299
The Reality of Total Defeat	p. 299
Konrad Adenauer: Architect of the New West Germany	p. 301
Facing Responsibility	p. 302
Enduring Myths: A Defensive War and the Wehrmacht's Clean Hands	p. 307
The German Clergy in the Confession Booth	p. 310
Emergence of the Cold War	p. 312
European Unity	p. 313
The Demise of European Imperialism	p. 314
The War and Western Consciousness	p. 314
Notes	p. 318
Selected Bibiliography	p. 321
Index	p. 325
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