A multitude of social, ideological, psychological, and environmental factors encouraged German servicemen to willingly commit atrocities in Eastern Europe during the Second World War. How should historians contextualize which factors held greater influence over servicemen deployed to different sectors of the vast Eastern Front? Charles Calcaterra highlights soldiers’ responses to their surrounding environments—the landscape of Eastern Europe—to explain why frontline divisions killed and destroyed indiscriminately in accessory to the Holocaust while rearguard personnel socially justified roundups, executions, and the horrid maltreatment of Red Army prisoners of war. Through the lens of military geography, the spatial contexts that fostered frontline units’ existential fear of combat, their struggle to procure food and supplies, soldiers’ brutal responses to the threat of partisan activity, and rearguard troops’ passive apathy toward the suffering of Eastern Europeans bolstered the Wehrmacht and Ordnungspolizei’s complicity in Adolf Hitler’s war of annihilation.
","abstract_html":"<p>A multitude of social, ideological, psychological, and environmental factors encouraged German servicemen to willingly commit atrocities in Eastern Europe during the Second World War. How should historians contextualize which factors held greater influence over servicemen deployed to different sectors of the vast Eastern Front? Charles Calcaterra highlights soldiers’ responses to their surrounding environments—the landscape of Eastern Europe—to explain why frontline divisions killed and destroyed indiscriminately in accessory to the Holocaust while rearguard personnel socially justified roundups, executions, and the horrid maltreatment of Red Army prisoners of war. Through the lens of military geography, the spatial contexts that fostered frontline units’ existential fear of combat, their struggle to procure food and supplies, soldiers’ brutal responses to the threat of partisan activity, and rearguard troops’ passive apathy toward the suffering of Eastern Europeans bolstered the Wehrmacht and Ordnungspolizei’s complicity in Adolf Hitler’s war of annihilation.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Calcaterra, Charles Joseph"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Arts (MA)","degree_level":"Open Access Thesis","degree_discipline":"History and Philosophy","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Jesse Kauffman, Ph.D.","John McCurdy, Ph.D.","Robert Erlewine, Ph.D."],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2024,"date_issued":"2024-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2024-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:17:53Z","subjects":["Cultural Geography","Eastern Front","Holocaust","Ordnungspolizei","Wehrmacht","World War 2","Holocaust and Genocide Studies","Military History","Psychology"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://commons.emich.edu/theses/1278","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Jesse Kauffman, Ph.D.","John McCurdy, Ph.D.","Robert Erlewine, Ph.D."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Calcaterra, Charles Joseph"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2025-01-31T08:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["History and Philosophy"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Open Access Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts (MA)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Cultural Geography","Eastern Front","Holocaust","Ordnungspolizei","Wehrmacht","World War 2","Holocaust and Genocide Studies","Military History","Psychology"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://commons.emich.edu/theses/1278"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["A multitude of social, ideological, psychological, and environmental factors encouraged German servicemen to willingly commit atrocities in Eastern Europe during the Second World War. How should historians contextualize which factors held greater influence over servicemen deployed to different sectors of the vast Eastern Front? Charles Calcaterra highlights soldiers’ responses to their surrounding environments—the landscape of Eastern Europe—to explain why frontline divisions killed and destroyed indiscriminately in accessory to the Holocaust while rearguard personnel socially justified roundups, executions, and the horrid maltreatment of Red Army prisoners of war. Through the lens of military geography, the spatial contexts that fostered frontline units’ existential fear of combat, their struggle to procure food and supplies, soldiers’ brutal responses to the threat of partisan activity, and rearguard troops’ passive apathy toward the suffering of Eastern Europeans bolstered the Wehrmacht and Ordnungspolizei’s complicity in Adolf Hitler’s war of annihilation.
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