Elli Lemonidou, Ιστορία και μνήμη του Α΄ Παγκοσμίου Πολέμου στην Ευρώπη

This book offers a unique perspective for understanding how and why the Second World War in Europe ended as it did—and why Germany, in attacking the Soviet Union, came far closer to winning the war than is often perceived. Why Germany Nearly Won: A New History of the Second World War in Europe challenges this conventional wisdom in highlighting how the re-establishment of the traditional German art of war—updated to accommodate new weapons systems—paved the way for Germany to forge a considerable military edge over its much larger potential rivals by playing to its qualitative strengths as a continental power. Ironically, these methodologies also created and exacerbated internal contradictions that undermined the same war machine and left it vulnerable to enemies with the capacity to adapt and build on potent military traditions of their own. The book begins by examining topics such as the methods by which the German economy and military prepared for war, the German military establishment's formidable strengths, and its weaknesses. The book then takes an entirely new perspective on explaining the Second World War in Europe. It demonstrates how Germany, through its invasion of the Soviet Union, came within a whisker of cementing a European-based empire that would have allowed the Third Reich to challenge the Anglo-American alliance for global hegemony—an outcome that by commonly cited measures of military potential Germany never should have had even a remote chance of accomplishing. The book's last section explores the final year of the war and addresses how Germany was able to hang on against the world's most powerful nations working in concert to engineer its defeat.

List of Illustrations Abbreviations Chapter 1. A New Perspective on the War Henry Rousso Chapter 2. Conceptualizing the Occupations of Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands (1933-1944) Benoit Majerus Chapter 3. The Role of the War in National Societies: The Examples of Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands Chantal Kesteloot Chapter 4. Myths and Realities of the People's WarA in Britain John Ramsden Chapter 5. We Can Take It!A Britain and the Memory of the Home front in the Second World War Mark Connelly Chapter 6. Experience and Memory: The Second World War in Poland Piotr Madajczyk Chapter 7. Remembering and Researching the War: The Soviet and Russian Experience Sergei Kudryashov Chapter 8. Bombing and Land War in Italy: Military Strategy, Reactions, and Collective Memory Gabriella Gribaudi Chapter 9. Italy as Occupier in the Balkans: Remembrances and War Crimes after 1945 Filippo Focardi Chapter 10. Brest under Bombardment (1940-1944): Being in War Pierre Le Goic Chapter 11. Experiences of War, Memories of War, and Political Behavior: The Example of the French Communist Party Philippe Buton Chapter 12. The Air War, the Public, and Cycles of Memory Dietmar SuA Chapter 13. The Long Shadows of the Second World War: The Impact of Experiences and Memories of War on West German Societies Axel Schildt Chapter 14. The War in Postwar Society: The Role of the Second World War in Public and Private Spheres in the Soviet Occupation Zone and Early GDR Dorothee Wierling Chapter 15. Violence and Victimhood: Looking Back at the World Wars in Europe Richard Bessel Chapter 16. The Meanings of the Second World War in Contemporary European History Jorg Echternkamp and Stefan Martens Notes on Contributors Selected Bibliography Index

This book offers a unique perspective for understanding how and why the Second World War in Europe ended as it did-and why Germany, in attacking the Soviet Union, came far closer to winning the war than is often perceived. * Detailed maps show the position and movement of opposing forces during the key battles discussed in the book * More than 30 charts, figures, and appendices, including detailed orders of battle, economic figures, and equipment comparisons

Wartime architectural damage is an area which has until now been subject more to a process of mythologization than to historical analysis - for most it means only Coventry, Dresden, and perhaps Bomber Harris. This fascinating new book attempts to counter this trend. Introducing the subject of wartime destruction of architecture and historic monuments, Nicola Lambourne compares the damage inflicted upon Germany, Britain and France and considers the use and abuse of this type of destruction in the lowering of morale and for propaganda purposes. Commentaries on large-scale destruction have focused more on the resulting human damage than on the effect on the architectural heritage, with the result that the bombardment of historic monuments has almost been taken for granted as an inevitable but essentially unproblematic aspect of 'total war'. However the debate surrounding the morality of this type of damage made it an important and highly visible issue during the Second World War and this book aims to recover the significance and resonance that architectural and cultural damage had at the time. Highly readable and including much fascinating detail, this book spans the areas of military, social, cultural and architectural history, placing the subject within the overall history of the Second World War in Europe and the longer term perspective of events between the 1870s and 1990s. Illustrated with forty black and white photographs, it will appeal to all those with an interest in the damage inflicted during Second World War. Key Features: * Topical, in light of damage being inflicted upon the former Yugoslavia * Comparative approach - across country and subject area - makes this book unique * Illustrated with 40 stunning black and white photographs * Evokes the significance of architectural and cultural damage during the Second World War

GBS_insertPreviewButtonPopup('ISBN:9780748612857); Wartime architectural damage is an area which has until now been subject more to a process of mythologization than to historical analysis - for most it means only Coventry, Dresden, and perhaps Bomber Harris. This fascinating new book attempts to counter this trend. Introducing the subject of wartime destruction of architecture and historic monuments, Nicola Lambourne compares the damage inflicted upon Germany, Britain and France and considers the use and abuse of this type of destruction in the lowering of morale and for propaganda purposes. Commentaries on large-scale destruction have focused more on the resulting human damage than on the effect on the architectural heritage, with the result that the bombardment of historic monuments has almost been taken for granted as an inevitable but essentially unproblematic aspect of 'total war'. However the debate surrounding the morality of this type of damage made it an important and highly visible issue during the Second World War and this book aims to recover the significance and resonance that architectural and cultural damage had at the time. Highly readable and including much fascinating detail, this book spans the areas of military, social, cultural and architectural history, placing the subject within the overall history of the Second World War in Europe and the longer term perspective of events between the 1870s and 1990s. Illustrated with forty black and white photographs, it will appeal to all those with an interest in the damage inflicted during Second World War. Key Features Topical, in light of damage being inflicted upon the former Yugoslavia Comparative approach - across country and subject area - makes this book unique Illustrated with 40 stunning black and white photographs Evokes the significance of architectural and cultural damage during the Second World War "

Why the 1955 Austrian State Treaty that restored Austria’s sovereignty to its landlocked 1938 borders also bans it from deploying submarines is a foreign policy puzzle submerged in a political joke. The idea that Austria would deploy U-boats in the Danube was as preposterous in 1955 as it is today. A political joke is successful when it elicits amusement at awareness of some unrecognized or unspoken truth about power by exposing the contradiction between narratives or interpretive scripts. That Article 13 of the penultimate peace treaty of the Second World War in Europe prohibits submarines along with a list of other more plausible weapons performs the work of a political joke because further investigation reveals important material about the post-war settlement during the early Cold War. Analysis of this penultimate peace treaty of the Second World War in Europe indicates that the submarine ban was likely the product of traumatic recent historical memory, overwrought historical and geopolitical anxiety, and a determination to burden Austria with an arms limits nearly identical to those in the 1947 peace treaties with Romania, Bulgaria, and Hungary, even though the burden was entirely symbolic. The 1947 peace treaty with Italy included no comparable submarine ban. The drafters of the 1955 treaty appear to have been trapped, seemingly compelled by irrational motives, to include a provision that offered no additional security to the victorious powers but instead required an empty sacrifice. The irony of the submarine ban symbolically burdening Austria is it that may have been aimed indirectly at (West) Germany, whose U-boats were iconic weapons in both world wars and which deployed and exported military submarines during the Cold War. Moreover, Germany was not subjected to a submarine ban in the 1990 Final Settlement with Respect to Germany or ‘Two Plus Four’ Treaty, the final peace treaty of the Second World War.

This is an updated edition of the first truly concise introduction to the history of World War II in the West. The author, S. P. MacKenzie traces the major events on both fighting front and home front, explaining what happened and, just as importantly, why the balance of fortunes swung first towards the Axis and then towards the Allies. Along with overviews of the origins and consequences of the conflict, the book: Provides a narrative account of the course of events on land throughout the war Contains sections specifically devoted to societies and economies; resistance movements and collaboration; technology and intelligence; alliances and strategy; the war in the air and at sea Assesses the impact of the war and introduces the key historiographical debates surrounding it Far from being a blow-by-blow account, the book shows how the Second World War can only be understood by taking all the contributing factors - military, economic and social among others - into account. In addition to the existing wealth of useful supplementary material, this edition has been updated to include a colour illustration section and, for readers interested in learning more, a detailed narrative guide to published historical literature. Admirably succinct yet academically rich, this is the essential introduction to the Second World War in the West.

Few political scientists have attempted to apply general theories of war to explain specific cases. This analysis takes a new and non-realist explanation of war derived from a review of quantitative peace research conducted in the last thirty years to identify the general causes of the Second World War in Europe. Two causal paths to war are theoretically delineated as typical of a pattern associated with the onset of world war: one that centers around the use of power politics to resolve territorial disputes, and a second that makes the initial interstate war expand to include more and more actors.

Histories of the Aftermath: The Legacies of the Second World War in Europe. Ed. Frank Biess and Robert G. Moeller. New York: Berghahn Books, 2010. vii, 321 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $95.00, hard bound. - Volume 72 Issue 2

Journal Article Jörg Echternkamp and Stefan Martens, editors. Experience and Memory: The Second World War in Europe. (Studies in Contemporary European History, number 7.) New York: Berghahn. 2010. Pp. xiii, 297. $90.00 Get access Jörg Echternkamp and Stefan Martens, editors. Experience and Memory: The Second World War in Europe. (Studies in Contemporary European History, number 7.) New York: Berghahn. 2010. Pp. xiii, 297. $90.00. The American Historical Review, Volume 116, Issue 3, June 2011, Page 918, https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr.116.3.918-b Published: 01 June 2011

Journal Article Frank Biess, Robert G. Moeller, editors. Histories of the Aftermath: The Legacies of the Second World War in Europe. New York: Berghahn Books. 2010. Pp. vii, 321. $95.00 Get access Frank Biess and Robert G. Moeller, editors. Histories of the Aftermath: The Legacies of the Second World War in Europe. New York: Berghahn Books. 2010. Pp. vii, 321. $95.00. The American Historical Review, Volume 115, Issue 5, December 2010, Page 1564, https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr.115.5.1564 Published: 01 December 2010

The article describes the landscape history of the Westerplatte Peninsula in Gdańsk (Poland) from the 17th to the 20th century presented as a complex process of the landscape’s environmental, urban and military transformations. Westerplatte is known as the symbolic place where the Second World War in Europe broke out, and for this reason the current discourse is mainly concentrated on that period. Nonetheless, the history of Westerplatte includes many other important events involving Polish, German, Russian and even French politics over the last three centuries. Thanks to its location at the entrance of one of the main harbours on the Baltic Sea, it is cartographically the best-documented part of the Vistula river estuary. A comprehensive archival survey conducted in the Polish and German archives and cartographical analysis of over 200 selected historical maps allowed the authors to reconstruct its spatial history over three centuries. This case study of Westerplatte can be regarded as an example of the research modus operandi of a historical landscape which has been transformed multiple times. It might form the basis for establishing a new policy for its preservation, allowing a balance to be kept between fluctuations of the current historical politics and more universal requirements for the protection of tangible and intangible heritage. The article also stresses the importance of a holistic and interdisciplinary approach in the analysis of a historical landscape and the necessity of proper selection and critical verification of sources.

1State University of New York at Stony Brook From Versailles to Pearl Harbor: The Origins of the Second World War in Europe and Asia MargaretLambNicholasTarling BasingstokePalgrave 2001238$65

This research note focuses on the Liberation Festival in Pilsen, one of the largest annual commemorations of the end of the Second World War in Europe. The aim of the paper is to show how the legacy of the Second World War as one of the most conflicting historical topics in the CEE (Central and Eastern Europe) region serves as a central instrument in contemporary political/ideological disputes over collective memory. The authors explain how this works through the specific case of the Soviet tank, which was supposed to be a mere historical requisite in the reenactment of historical battle during the 2016 Liberation Festival, but became a symbolic object of contemporary politics – one of the issues discursively interconnected into what we call “deadly cocktail”. In doing so, the paper builds on the debates on the politics of memory, historical reenactments, and war memorials and their role in constructing collective memory and identity.

The purpose of the article is to analyze the activities of memory institutions in the Slavic countries of Central and Eastern Europe in contexts of the revision of the history of the Second World War in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The author analyzes the role of memory institutions in the formation of a new memorial canons about the history of the war in national versions of historical memories. Methodologically, the article is based on the principles proposed in the memorial turn and the analysis of the politics of memory, belonging to the paradigm of intellectual history and the history of ideas. The novelty of the study lies in a comparative analysis of the activities of institutions that determine the main vectors and trajectories of historical politics as a politics of memory about the history of war. The article analyzes: 1) the activity of the Institute of National Memory (stav pamti nroda) in Slovakia as a participant in the revision of the history of the Second World War; 2) the role of the Institute for the Study of Authoritarian Regimes (stav pro studium totalitnch režimů) in the Czech Republic in the perception of the war in Czech historical memory; 3) strategies for the development and functioning of war memory models in the historical memories of Slovakia and the Czech Republic in a comparative perspective. The article shows the contribution of the institutes of memory to the revision and formation of new memorial canons about the Second World War. The results of the study suggest that the institutions of memory are an important factor in the development of contemporary perceptions of war and its place in modern national identities.