1st Edition

New Perspectives on Austrians and World War II

Edited By Fritz Plasser Copyright 2009
    384 Pages
    by Routledge

    384 Pages
    by Routledge

    For more than a generation after World War II, offi cial government doctrine and many Austrians insisted they had been victims of Nazi aggression in 1938 and, therefore, bore no responsibility for German war crimes. During the past twenty years this myth has been revised to include a more complex past, one with both Austrian perpetrators and victims.

    Part one describes soldiers from Austria who fought in the German Wehrmacht, a history only recently unearthed. Richard Germann covers units and theaters Austrian fought in, while Th omas Grischany demonstrates how well they fought. Ela Hornung looks at case studies of denunciation of fellow soldiers, while Barbara Stelzl-Marx analyzes Austrian soldiers who were active in resistance at the end of the war. Stefan Karner summarizes POW treatment on the Eastern front. Part two deals with the increasingly diffi cult life on the Austrian homefront. Fritz Keller takes a look at how Vienna survived growing food shortages. Ingrid Bhler takes a rare look at life in small-town Austria. Andrea Strutz analyzes narratives of Jewish refugees forced to leave for the United States. Peter Ruggenthaler and Philipp Lesiak examine the use of slave laborers. And Brigitte Kepplinger summarizes the Nazi euthanasia program.

    The third part deals with legacies of the war, particularly postwar restitution and memory issues. Based on new sources from Soviet archives, Nikita Petrov describes the Red Army liberation. Winfried Garscha analyzes postwar war crimes trials against Austrians. Brigitte Bailer-Galanda and Eva Blimlinger present a survey of postwar restitution of property. And Heidemarie Uhl deals with Austrian memories of the war.

    Introduction; World War II Studies and Austria; The Anschluss in the Rearview Mirror 1938-2008: Historical Memories between Debate and Transformation; I. Soldiers; Austrian Soldiers and Generals in World War II; Mental Aspects of Austrian Wehrmacht Service; Denunciating during World War II in the Military Milieu: A Biographical Case Study Based on Oral and Written Sources; Major and the Soviets: The Military Resistance in Vienna 1945; In Stalin’s Custody: The Soviet Camp System for Prisoners of War during and after World War II; II. Social and Economic Life; Eintopf for the Austrian Gourmet: How even the Spoiled Austrians Learned to Love German Hotchpotch *; Alte Kämpfer and New Houses in Dornbirn: A Case Study of a Small to Medium-sized Austrian City under the Nazi Regime *; III. War Crimes/Crimes Against Humanity; Split Lives: Memories and Narratives of Austrian Jewish Refugees; The Utilization of Slave Labor in the Danube and Alpine Gaue *; The National Socialist Euthanasia Program in Austria: Aktion T4 *; IV. The Aftermath: Occupation, Restitution, Memory; The Internal Troops of the NKVD in the System of Soviet Organs of Repression in Austria 1945-1946 *; Austrians and the Holocaust: A Reception History from the Perspective of Postwar Volksgerichtsprozesse; Restitution and Compensation of Property in Austria 1945-2007; Review Essays; Austrian Histories; Book Review; Michael Gehler and Ingrid Böhler, eds., Verschiedene europäische Wege im Vergleich. Österreich und die Bundesrepublik Deutschland 1945/49 bis zur Gegenwart. Festschrift für Rolf Steininger zum 65. Geburtstag (StudienVerlag: Innsbruck, 2007); Peter Ruggenthaler, ed, Stalin’s großer Bluff: Die Geschichte der Stalin-Note in Dokumenten der sowjetischen Führung (Munich: Oldenbourg, 2007); Klaus Hödl, Wiener Juden—jüdische Wiener: Identität, Gedächtnis und Performanz im 19. Jahrhundert , Schriften des Centrums für Jüdische Studien 9 (Innsbruck: StudienVerlag, 2006); Klaus Zeyringer, Ehrenrunden im Salon. Kultur – Literatur – Betrieb. Essay (Innsbruck: Studienverlag, 2007); Charles W. Ingrao and Franz A.J. Szabo, eds., The Germans and the East (West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2008); Daniel Hamilton and Gerhard Mangott, eds., The New Eastern Europe (Washington, D.C.: Center for Transatlantic Relations / JHU-SAIS, 2007); Annual Review

    Biography

    Fritz Plasser