Violence in Defeat

Bastiaan Willems is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow of Modern European History at University College London.

• List of Figures; List of Maps; List of Tables; Acknowledgements; Chronology; List of Abbreviations; Introduction; 1. Regionality and Total War in East Prussia; 2. Eastern Front Battles on German Soil; 3. The City as a Fortress-Community; 4. Redefining Königsberg: Historical Continuity in Practice; 5. The Evacuation of East Prussia; 6. Königsberg as a Community of Violence; Conclusion; Appendices; Bibliography; Index.

'In this fresh examination that restores the army's centrality to the defense of Königsberg, Willems demonstrates that the Wehrmacht's mobilization of civilians in East Prussia closely resembled the ruthless practices it developed in the Soviet Union. An important study that demonstrates the evolution of total war during the Third Reich's death throes.' Jeff Rutherford, author of Combat and Genocide on the Eastern Front: The German Infantry's War, 1941-1944