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

formulation, however, is problematic in relation to Army Group North since it was
locked in static warfare for approximately three years. German troops occupied the same
industrial suburbs of Leningrad, the same villages and cities, including Novgorod and
Staraia Russa, along the Volkhov River, and the same villages and towns in the
Demiansk region for two to three years. An examination of how these combat troops
interacted with and treated Russian civilians in these areas proves validity of Gerlach’s
formulation.
The three divisions will be examined from both the viewpoint of the military
hierarchy and the simple soldier; in other words, from “above” and below.” For the
official view, the extensive collection of the Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv in Freiburg im
Breisgau was utilized. Here, divisional, as well as corps and army level records were
examined. These files allow for a detailed reconstruction of both operational experiences
and practices of occupation during the war in Russia. In order to see how involved each
division was in Germany’s war of extermination, their actions will be placed into the
framework of Christian Hartmann’s eight war crimes: partisan warfare, the horrendous
treatment of prisoners-of-war, cooperation with the SS in their murderous tasks, the
ruthless exploitation of the occupied Soviet Union, the shooting of Commissars, the
ignoring of the line between civilians and soldiers, the planned starvation of areas such
as Leningrad and, finally, the retreat of German forces and their subsequent policy of
scorched earth. 110 Were these events part of the everyday routine of combat troops or
were they isolated instances, only occurring at specific times and places? The context in
“Scorched Earth” withdrawals in 1944 in Hitler’s Army, pp. 81-82, 91-92 as well as his The Eastern Front,
1941-1945, German Troops and the Barbarization of Warfare, pp. 139-141. Graphic eyewitness accounts
by Russians regarding the Wehrmacht’s actions during withdrawals is found in Paul Kohl, Der Krieg der
deutschen Wehrmacht und Polizei 1941-1944 (Frankfurt a.M., 1998).
110 Hartmann, “Verbrecherischer Krieg – verbrecherische Wehrmacht?”, pp. 10-14 for “rear-area” crimes,
pp. 47-64 for “front” crimes.
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