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Sönke Neitzel
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Soldaten - On Fighting, Killing and Dying: The Secret Second World War Tapes of German POWs Perfect Paperback – August 1, 2012

by Sönke Neitzel (Author)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 348 ratings
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On a visit to the British National Archive in 2001, Sonke Neitzel made a remarkable discovery: reams of meticulously transcribed conversations among German POWs that had been covertly recorded & recently declassified. Netizel would later find another collection of transcriptions, twice as extensive, in the National Archive in Washington. These were discoveries that would provide a unique & profoundly important window into the true mentality of the soldiers in the Wehrmacht, the Luftwaffe, the German navy & the military in general--almost all of whom had insisted on their own honorable behavior during the war. Collaborating with renowned social psychologist Harald Welzer, Neitzel examines these conversations--& the casual, pitiless brutality omnipresent in them--from a historical & psychological perspective. In reconstucting the frameworks & situations behind these conversations, they've created a powerful narrative of wartime experience.
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  1. Language
    English
  2. Publisher
    Simon & Schuster Ltd
  3. Publication date
    August 1, 2012
  4. ISBN-10
    1471101037
  5. ISBN-13
    978-1471101038
  6. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simon & Schuster Ltd; 2011th edition (August 1, 2012)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1471101037
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1471101038
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.53 ounces
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 348 ratings

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Sönke Neitzel

Sönke Neitzel

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Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
348 global ratings
Shows what the members of the Wehrmacht thought
5 Stars
Shows what the members of the Wehrmacht thought
This book gives new insight into how the German fighting men viewed WW 2. Using transcripts of secretly recorded conversations between POWs, the authors offer a fresh insight into the thoughts of those Germans in captivity while awaiting the final victory of their comrades who were still fighting for the Reich. It's certainly a different perspective than the WW 2 material that I usually read. My wife, a clinical psychologist who usually views my books with polite disinterest, said that she'd like to read this book when I am finished.I recommend this work to anyone who has the smallest amount of interest in the psyche of the German soldiers of the Second World War.
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Top reviews from the United States

Nancy Mullin
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating
Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2013
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You will notice the reviews of this book run the gamut from one star to 5. The reason for that seems to be perspective. Some folks didn't care for the sociology. The explanations, as it were. I am not an academic. I didn't even like school. I'm not a sociologist nor an historian. However, I am interested in both. For me, this book satisfies both of those interests. It's all about perspective in how the Germans felt about the Third Reich. We've all heard the saying "Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely". From the Fuhrer down to the lowly grunt, this book shows that statement to be true. Every person who finds himself in a position of power does not automatically abuse it. However, as this book shows, many do. It is a fascinating insight into the human psyche, particularly in war. I don't perceive the psychologist as making excuses for the bad behavior as much as simply explaining how some people, who would never in normal conditions, act as they do during a war. So many different factors contribute to this from the regimentation of the military all the way down to what would their wife want. Ideology and morals seem to often take a back seat to the specific conditions people find themselves in. Which leads me back to the psychology of the reviews of this book. It's all about where your head is and where your true interests lie as to how you will see this book. As for me, I loved it.
11 people found this helpful
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4.0 out of 5 stars Good book discussing soldier's perspective
Reviewed in the United States on October 22, 2012
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The book is a translation of a German book that includes numerous English translated verbatim transcriptions of surreptitious recordings of German POW's. The most interesting portion of the book is at the beginning where based on the recordings it is quite clear that the average German soldier knew about and not infrequently participated in atrocities against Jews, Russian and other civilians. Most soldiers required almost no transition between civilian and war criminal. Stories included pilots who told of specifically shooting their machine guns at women and children on purpose sometimes to the detriment of hitting actual military targets. The stories are very chilling.

The last book becomes a little weaker when it does a lot more analysis and gets away from the quotes from the soldiers. The book tries to make a case that group-think would cause many to act the same way. Although that was not what the authors were trying to do they almost excuse some of the genocidal behavior because that was the average persons behavior. The book does not focus on the fact that leaders were driving the genocidal policies. It does not focus on the command and control structure (which is discussed on how that same structure contributed to atrocities) could have prevented many war crimes. The book tries to throw in some anecdotes from Vietnam and Afghanistan implying that the destruction of villages was in the same league as what Germany did to civilians (when did the Nazi regime have a trial of soldiers like the US did for Mi Lai).

It still is a very thought provoking book. Probably a good read for military personnel and police departments to beware of the dangers of over-identifying with your group's frame of reference to that of your civilian society's goals.
32 people found this helpful
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Dennis Cunningham
5.0 out of 5 stars Shows what the members of the Wehrmacht thought
Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2022
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This book gives new insight into how the German fighting men viewed WW 2. Using transcripts of secretly recorded conversations between POWs, the authors offer a fresh insight into the thoughts of those Germans in captivity while awaiting the final victory of their comrades who were still fighting for the Reich. It's certainly a different perspective than the WW 2 material that I usually read.
My wife, a clinical psychologist who usually views my books with polite disinterest, said that she'd like to read this book when I am finished.
I recommend this work to anyone who has the smallest amount of interest in the psyche of the German soldiers of the Second World War.
Customer image
Dennis Cunningham
5.0 out of 5 stars Shows what the members of the Wehrmacht thought
Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2022
This book gives new insight into how the German fighting men viewed WW 2. Using transcripts of secretly recorded conversations between POWs, the authors offer a fresh insight into the thoughts of those Germans in captivity while awaiting the final victory of their comrades who were still fighting for the Reich. It's certainly a different perspective than the WW 2 material that I usually read.
My wife, a clinical psychologist who usually views my books with polite disinterest, said that she'd like to read this book when I am finished.
I recommend this work to anyone who has the smallest amount of interest in the psyche of the German soldiers of the Second World War.
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One person found this helpful
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huib vriesendorp
5.0 out of 5 stars Soldaten are soldiers, are soldiers, are soldiers
Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2013
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The bugged conversations between German Prisoners of War are interpreted by two unbiased German citizens, one an historian, the other a sociologist/psychologist. Obviously the purpose of the Brits and the North Americans was to obtain intelligence about the military strength, strategies of the German Army, Navy and Air Force. This did not happen. Sixty years after the recordings were made the new analysis shows interesting differences between the different fighting forces and an almost universal religious belief in Hitler till the very end. Hitler's demand that all Germans soldiers would continue the fight till their last bullet and die rather than surrender was obeyed by a few, most of them in the SS, but most soldiers/commanders were more pragmatic and surrendered when it became obvious that continuing to fight would be futile and self destructive. Many German soldiers were thoroughly antisemitic, but did not approve of the 'Final Solution'
Most German soldiers respected the British and American soldiers but not the Russians. The Germans had no respect for Italians soldiers an never supported the Japanese in their battles. The German War industry produced weapons, airplanes, ships, tanks, radar, codes that were inferior to the products made by the Allied Forces.
Gruesome reading leading to the inevitable conclusion that Global War leads to horrendous atrocities and that the philosophy of soldiers is fight, kill and die. The concept of 'honor' on the battlefield is a piece of soap that is hard to handle and ends up in different corners of the bloody bathtub.
3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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patitka73
5.0 out of 5 stars Deep and difficult content.
Reviewed in Canada on August 2, 2020
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Worth having and reading it.
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Cliente Amazon
5.0 out of 5 stars Superb Social Psicology research on German Soldiers WW2
Reviewed in Spain on April 9, 2020
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Reading this book one felt as If he was attending a University Lecture on the world that awfully transformed the way of social behaviour of soldiers in WW2. Superb Work on this subject.
One person found this helpful
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Faiçal Assad Junior
5.0 out of 5 stars Must read.
Reviewed in Brazil on June 8, 2018
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I read a several books about world war II, and this book was in my opinion one of the most important of them.
This is a study of lot of conversations recorded by US and British inteligence from Germans POWs captured over the course of the conflict.
To me was very interesting by the fact that til a read this book, was unclear the participation and knowledge of the Wehrmatch in crimes against civilians.
Another thing that caugh my attention, was the authors view about the conversations. His professional opinion makes you interpret and analyses the conversations just as a reader not as a judge (mainly because his explanation of frames of references).
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Brandes-Bruttmann
5.0 out of 5 stars A must read book about the "normality" of German war crimes
Reviewed in Germany on November 18, 2017
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The compilation of the re discovered secret recordings of GErman POW's in American and British war prisonners camps during WW2 of regular soldiers of the Wehrmacht, Luftwaffe, the so called "German regular" army. Discussing and describing in their personnal conversations, the war crimes they have done across all the fronts, killing people for a bicycle, shooting a civilian bus from the sky, mass murdering civilians because they were jews and it was "fun" to kill. No more one will say that only the Nazi's and the SS committed war crimes, all the German under uniforms were part of the German death machine. Germany, time to look back at your history !
One person found this helpful
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Lewis Barclay
5.0 out of 5 stars A very haunting study with evil in its' own words
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 8, 2015
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An excellent book from both a psychological and historical perspective. Neitzel and Welzer use transcripts from the bugged accommodation of German prisoners to debunk the myth of the "clean Wehrmacht". They paint a picture of brutalized soldiers who either supported or were indifferent to the mass execution of Jews and other undesirables around them. On the other hand, they also illustrate the officers who were morally outraged by such crimes, with one officer remarking "If you were to ask me: 'Have we deserved victory or not?' I should say: 'Not after what we've done'".

The Holocaust is not the only topic mentioned by the Germans. In fact, it was not mentioned much at all. Sex, technology, and their faith in Hitler and victory is also mentioned in quite detail. This gives an interesting insight into the common thoughts of not only ordinary German soldiers, but soldiers throughout the world.

5 Stars for an objective and impressive approach to one of the most horrific and sensitive episodes in history.
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