Marching Into Darkness: The Wehrmacht And The H... 💫 👑

Unit-level leadership and culture played a critical role in determining a soldier's participation in atrocities.

Beorn describes the transition from improvised extermination to methodical murder, including the organization of "Jew hunts" by regular army units. Marching into Darkness: The Wehrmacht and the H...

How mass murder became a standard operational procedure. Unit-level leadership and culture played a critical role

Beorn utilizes a social-psychological approach, drawing on military records, survivor testimonies, and legal documents to understand the behavior of lower-level units. Chapter Overview for Structure drawing on military records

In his work, Beorn challenges the "myth of the clean Wehrmacht" by detailing how regular German army units actively participated in the Final Solution. He presents a three-part argument regarding why ordinary soldiers became killers:

The escalation of violence in Mogilev.

Initial atrocities in locations like Krupki.