Copyright by Jeffrey C. Rutherford 2007 - University of Texas ...

the murder of East European and Russian Jewry, the focus frequently remains limited to
institutional assistance. 47 Heer examined the actual participation of German soldiers in
the Holocaust and concludes “that when it came to murdering Jews, one could count on
the Wehrmacht.” 48
A wave of scholarship followed the opening of the exhibition which reinforced
its conclusions. Walter Manoschek persuasively documented the Army’s leading role in
the murder of Serbian Jews as well as the increasingly brutal anti-partisan war waged in
the Balkans. 49 Hans Safrian and Bernd Boll investigated the actions of the German Sixth
Army during 1941 and 1942 before it met its destruction in Stalingrad. They contrasted
the popularly held notion of a “betrayed army” with the reality of the brutal ideological
war that it fought. 50 In his examination of Wehrmacht culpability in the Holocaust, Dieter
Pohl argued that the “division of labor” between the SS and Army became increasingly
blurred, especially in the rear-areas where they frequently worked hand in hand. 51 The
exhibition and such subsequent scholarship led one scholar to proclaim the “breaking of
47 See, for example, Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews, volume I (New York, 1985), pp.
271-390.
48 Hannes Heer, “Killing Fields: The Wehrmacht and the Holocaust in Belorussia, 1941-1942,” in Hannes
Heer and Klaus Naumann (eds.), War of Extermination: The German Military in World War II 1941-1944
(New York, 2000), pp. 55-79; here, p. 55. His analysis is based on the actions of Wehrmacht Security
Divisions and the infamous 707 th Infantry Division in the rear of Army Group Center.
49 Walter Manoschek, “Serbien ist Judenfrei!” Militärische Besatzungspolitik und Judenvernichtung in
Serbien (Munich, 2 nd ed., 1995); idem., “Coming along to shoot some Jews?” The Destruction of the Jews
in Serbia,” in Heer and Naumann (eds.), War of Extermination: The German Military in World War II
1941-1944, pp. 40-54; idem., “Partisanenkrieg und Genozid. Die Wehrmacht in Serbien 1941,” in idem.
(ed.), Die Wehrmacht im Rassenkrieg. Die Vernichtungskrieg hinter der Front (Vienna, 1996) pp. 142-167.
Manoschek also served as the organizer of the Serbian section of the Wehrmacht Exhibition.
50 th
Bernd Boll and Hans Safrian, “On the Way to Stalingrad: The 6 Army in 1941-42,” in Heer and
Naumann (eds.), War of Extermination: The German Military in World War II 1941-1944, p. 237-271.
Graphic evidence is found in Hamburg Institut für Sozialforschung (Hrsg.), Vernichtungskrieg. Verbrechen
der Wehrmacht 1941-1944, Austellungskatalog (Hamburg, 1996), pp. 76-115. More evidence of Sixth
Army’s brutal campaign, though with a more nuanced presentation, is found in Richter,
“Handlungsspielräume am Beispiel der 6. Armee,” in Hartmann, Hürter, and Jureit (ed.) Verbrechen der
Wehrmacht: Bilanz einer Debatte, pp. 60-69, esp. pp. 64-65.
51 Pohl, “Die Wehrmacht und der Mord an den Juden in den besetzten sowjetischen Gebieten,” p. 45;
idem., “Die Kooperation zwischen Heer, SS und Polizei in den besetzten sowjetischen Gebieten,” in
Hartmann, Hürter, and Jureit (ed.) Verbrechen der Wehrmacht: Bilanz einer Debatte, pp. 107-116, esp. pp.
113-116.
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