Eastern Front: WW2: Bias of Western Historians


THE BIAS OF WESTERN HISTORIANS
It is said that history is a very subjective subject. This happens because the inherent bias of the historian concerned. Few historians are brutally honest. It needs personal courage and personal integrity to be a great historian.

I am no historian but when I come across piece of history which seems biased, I do need to speak up and join the debate.

I refer particualrly to an article on BBC History titled The Soviet-German War 1941 - 1945 By Professor Richard Overy

I shall quote from the article and then have my say [in italics]

"After the outbreak of war in 1939 came the added fear of Soviet expansion in Eastern Europe, while Germany was fighting the British Empire and France in the west. All of these factors contributed to the decision taken by Hitler in July 1940, after the German defeat of France, to plan for an all-out assault on the Soviet Union."

More than any fear of Britain and France or the threat from the Soviet Union, the decision by Hitler to attack Russia was because of his mad devotion to the glory of Germany; needing more lands from the wild barbaric east.


CONTD.....

Problem with rains and slush

BIASED WESTERN HISTORIANS [Contd.]

"The attack came as a complete surprise to the leader of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin. Despite repeated intelligence warnings, which included the precise day and hour of Germany's incipient assault, Stalin remained convinced that Hitler would not risk an eastern war as long as the British Empire remained undefeated. It has been argued that Stalin in fact planned a pre-emptive attack on Germany for the early summer of 1941, and was then thrown off-balance by the German invasion."

The part about Stalin planning to attack Germany is hard to swallow. Stalin was in fact slightly afraid of the German military might. That is why he agreed to the Non-Aggression Pact with Germany, the Ribbentrop-Molotov Treaty. That is why the Soviet Union continued giving raw materials to Germany, till Barbarossa happened. Russia was weak then. The purges by Stalin had left the army in disarray. Stalin knew that well and hence he wanted to avoid trouble from Germany.





A sobering sight. Soldiers frozen to death. The Germans were now beginning to understand the great harm the harsh Russian winter was doing. It was one of the major factor for the defeat in Russia.

BIASED WESTERN HISTORIANS [CONTD.}


"The war in the east was fought with a particular ferocity. The so-called 'barbarisation of warfare' has a number of explanations. Conditions were harsh for both sides, and losses were high. German forces entered the USSR with instructions from Hitler's headquarters to use the most brutal methods to keep control, and to murder Communist commissars and Jews in the service of the Soviet state."

The regular German Army was a professional army. If it had obeyed Hitler's orders and gone on a killing spree of Russian peasants, partisans and Jews, it would hardly have had time and the energy to fight the war. These brutal killings were done by the SS. The so called extermination squads which followed the Wehrmacht as it moved into Russia.

"Soviet resistance made possible a successful Allied invasion of France, and ensured the final Allied victory over Germany."

It can hardly be called mere 'resistance'! If it hadn't been for the Russians, Hitler would have made mincemeat of British forces in Africa and landed on British shores in no time. Hitler attacked Russia first because it had more land and resources than Britain. It is as simple as that.








More dead





Trying to beat off the cold.


Some altercation between the POW and the German soldiers

RELATED....



German soldiers in Russia: WW2: As photographed by themselves: Part 1
German soldiers in Russia: WW2: As photographed by themselves: Part 2
German soldiers in Russia: WW2: As photographed by themselves: Part 4
German soldiers in Russia: WW2: As photographed by themselves: Part 5
German soldiers in Russia: WW2: As photographed by themselves: Part 6

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Quotes about war....

"War grows out of the desire of the individual to gain advantage at the expense of his fellow man."
--Napoleon Hill

"We have failed to grasp the fact that mankind is becoming a single unit, and that for a unit to fight against itself is suicide."
--Havelock Ellis

'Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."
--Mao Tse-Tung (1893 - 1976)

"I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in."
--George McGovern

"The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic."
--Joseph Stalin

It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.
--Voltaire, War

In war, truth is the first casualty.
-- Aeschylus

"The ability and inclination to use physical strength is no indication of bravery or tenacity to life. The greatest cowards are often the greatest bullies. Nothing is cheaper and more common than physical bravery."
--Clarence Darrow, Resist Not Evil

"The victor will never be asked if he told the truth."
--Adolf Hitler

"To walk through the ruined cities of Germany is to feel an actual doubt about the continuity of civilization."
--George Orwell

"Patriots always talk of dying for their country and never of killing for their country."
--Bertrand Russell

Men are at war with each other because each man is at war with himself.
--Francis Meehan

Snippets From History

German Soldiers in Russia: Part 1

Hubert Menzel was a major in the General Operations Department of the OKH (the Oberkommando des Heers, the German Army headquarters), and for him the idea of invading the Soviet Union in 1941 had the smack of cold, clear logic to it: 'We knew that in two years' time, that is by the end of 1942, beginning of 1943, the English would be ready, the Americans would be ready, the Russians would be ready too, and then we would have to deal with all three of them at the same time.... We had to try to remove the greatest threat from the East.... At the time it seemed possible.'
==========

Battle for Berlin, 1945

'We started to fire at the masses,' says one former German machine gunner. 'They weren't human beings for us. It was a wall of attacking beasts who were trying to kill us. You yourself were no longer human.'

==========

Berlin after it fell to the Russians, 1945

"Vladlen Anchishkin, a Soviet battery commander on the 1st Ukrainian Front, sums up the horror of the whole event, when he tells how he took personal revenge on German soldiers: 'I can admit it now, I was in such a state, I was in such a frenzy. I said, 'Bring them here for an interrogation' and I had a knife, and I cut him. I cut a lot of them. I thought, 'You wanted to kill me, now it's your turn.'
Read More

========

Dramatic Pictures: Battle For Stalingrad
"...Effective command no longer possible... further defense senseless. Collapse inevitable. Army requests immediate permission to surrender in order to save lives of remaining troops."
General Paulus' radio message to Hitler on January 24, 1943

"...Capitulation is impossible. The 6th Army will do its historic duty at Stalingrad until the last man, the last bullet..."

Hitler's response to General Friedrich Paulus' request to withdraw from the city

READ MORE>>>

Points To Ponder....

The fall of France was shocking. It reduced France to virtually a non-player in the Second World War. The efforts of Charles de Gualle were more symbolic than material. But the martial instincts of the French must never be doubted. Under Napoleon they were a formidable military power. The French definitely have more iron in their blood then say, the Italians [I do not mean it in a derogatory sense. War never makes sense]

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Bias Of Western Historians

Soviet resistance made possible a successful Allied invasion of France, and ensured the final Allied victory over Germany.

It can hardly be called mere 'resistance'! If it hadn't been for the Russians, Hitler would have made mincemeat of British forces in Africa and landed on British shores in no time. Hitler attacked Russia first because it had more land and resources than Britain. It is as simple as that.

READ MORE>>>>
Eastern Front: Bias Of Western Historians