The German War in the East: The Radical Variant of Fascist War

Abstract

Rutherford examines the war effort of Nazi Germany within the context of fascist war. The chapter highlights the development of two different approaches to war within the Third Reich: the ideological, fascist war waged by the Nazi state against the civilian populations of Eastern Europe and the mechanized war that emerged from the army’s total war approach. Rutherford demonstrates that while these two conceptions of war initially clashed during the war, the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union led to a convergence that reached its full potential during 1943/1944. In combination, these two approaches culminated in a particularly German version of fascist war that proved more radical than other variants.