David A. Harrisville is an independent scholar. He has held various academic positions, including, most recently, Visiting Assistant Professor of History at Furman University.

• Introduction: Toward a Moral History of the Wehrmacht in the War of Extermination1. Honorable Self and Villainous Other: Value Systems in the Wehrmacht2. Rationalizing Atrocities: Self-Exoneration in Soldiers' Letters3. The "Crusaders": Religious Justifications for Barbarossa4. The "Liberators": Barbarossa as an Emancipatory Act5. Death and Victimhood: Cultivating Moral Superiority through Burial PracticesConclusion: A Myth Is Born

Scholars have long understood how Nazi values infiltrated and infused the Wehrmacht leadership. In seeking to illustrate the self-awareness of average soldiers, Harrisville has broadened the scope of the study to include the ranks. [H]e provides readers with five thematic chapters, each of which explores a different aspect of the self-perception and moral self-justification of the soldiers. In what is perhaps the clearest illustration of the Nazi ability to mold traditional values to fit their own ideology, Harrisville notes the ways in which the Wehrmacht utilized concepts such as duty, honor, sacrifice, and comradeship, along with notions of upright conduct, to enable the men to see their actions in both a legal and virtuous context.(Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs) The Virtuous Wehrmacht provides new insight into the feelings of the Germans who fought there.(Strategy Page) Using an impressive combination of front line soldiers' correspondence, Wehrmacht documents, and sources from the German home front, Harrisville demonstrates that the myth of a virtuous Wehrmacht emerged during the war, not after, and its primary architects were millions of Ostkämpfer (German soldiers on the Eastern Front), not opportunistic post-war politicians and cynical Nazi propagandists.(War in History) The Virtuous Wehrmacht: Crafting the Myth of the German Soldier on the Eastern Front, 1941–1944, is a very impressive and very important addition to that body of work. Harrisville's central concern is that of how soldiers were able to rationalize their involvement in the war of annihilation, and with what effects.(American Historical Review)

David A. Harrisville is an independent scholar. He has held various academic positions, including, most recently, Visiting Assistant Professor of History at Furman University.

• Introduction: Toward a Moral History of the Wehrmacht in the War of Extermination1. Honorable Self and Villainous Other: Value Systems in the Wehrmacht2. Rationalizing Atrocities: Self-Exoneration in Soldiers' Letters3. The "Crusaders": Religious Justifications for Barbarossa4. The "Liberators": Barbarossa as an Emancipatory Act5. Death and Victimhood: Cultivating Moral Superiority through Burial PracticesConclusion: A Myth Is Born

Scholars have long understood how Nazi values infiltrated and infused the Wehrmacht leadership. In seeking to illustrate the self-awareness of average soldiers, Harrisville has broadened the scope of the study to include the ranks. [H]e provides readers with five thematic chapters, each of which explores a different aspect of the self-perception and moral self-justification of the soldiers. In what is perhaps the clearest illustration of the Nazi ability to mold traditional values to fit their own ideology, Harrisville notes the ways in which the Wehrmacht utilized concepts such as duty, honor, sacrifice, and comradeship, along with notions of upright conduct, to enable the men to see their actions in both a legal and virtuous context.(Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs) The Virtuous Wehrmacht provides new insight into the feelings of the Germans who fought there.(Strategy Page) Using an impressive combination of front line soldiers' correspondence, Wehrmacht documents, and sources from the German home front, Harrisville demonstrates that the myth of a virtuous Wehrmacht emerged during the war, not after, and its primary architects were millions of Ostkämpfer (German soldiers on the Eastern Front), not opportunistic post-war politicians and cynical Nazi propagandists.(War in History) The Virtuous Wehrmacht: Crafting the Myth of the German Soldier on the Eastern Front, 1941–1944, is a very impressive and very important addition to that body of work. Harrisville's central concern is that of how soldiers were able to rationalize their involvement in the war of annihilation, and with what effects.(American Historical Review)

David A. Harrisville is an independent scholar. He has held various academic positions, including, most recently, Visiting Assistant Professor of History at Furman University.

• Introduction: Toward a Moral History of the Wehrmacht in the War of Extermination1. Honorable Self and Villainous Other: Value Systems in the Wehrmacht2. Rationalizing Atrocities: Self-Exoneration in Soldiers' Letters3. The "Crusaders": Religious Justifications for Barbarossa4. The "Liberators": Barbarossa as an Emancipatory Act5. Death and Victimhood: Cultivating Moral Superiority through Burial PracticesConclusion: A Myth Is Born

Scholars have long understood how Nazi values infiltrated and infused the Wehrmacht leadership. In seeking to illustrate the self-awareness of average soldiers, Harrisville has broadened the scope of the study to include the ranks. [H]e provides readers with five thematic chapters, each of which explores a different aspect of the self-perception and moral self-justification of the soldiers. In what is perhaps the clearest illustration of the Nazi ability to mold traditional values to fit their own ideology, Harrisville notes the ways in which the Wehrmacht utilized concepts such as duty, honor, sacrifice, and comradeship, along with notions of upright conduct, to enable the men to see their actions in both a legal and virtuous context.(Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs) The Virtuous Wehrmacht provides new insight into the feelings of the Germans who fought there.(Strategy Page) Using an impressive combination of front line soldiers' correspondence, Wehrmacht documents, and sources from the German home front, Harrisville demonstrates that the myth of a virtuous Wehrmacht emerged during the war, not after, and its primary architects were millions of Ostkämpfer (German soldiers on the Eastern Front), not opportunistic post-war politicians and cynical Nazi propagandists.(War in History) The Virtuous Wehrmacht: Crafting the Myth of the German Soldier on the Eastern Front, 1941–1944, is a very impressive and very important addition to that body of work. Harrisville's central concern is that of how soldiers were able to rationalize their involvement in the war of annihilation, and with what effects.(American Historical Review)