History is written by the victor.
Background | When the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, they encountered a propaganda windfall. Conditions in the Soviet Union were often deplorable by German standards. In January 1942, the Nazis published a 60-page booklet titled German Soldiers in the Soviet Union: Letters from the East. It consisted mostly of excerpts from letters from soldiers reporting on conditions they encountered. The letters, of course, were carefully selected, but soldiers had credibility, and the booklet surely had an impact. Germans who read it, even if they had doubts about Adolf Hitler, were likely to conclude that National Socialism was surely preferable to Bolshevism. The book is divided into 9 chapters. I here translate several sections from each chapter. Wolfgang Diewerge, the author, produced at least five other Nazi anti-Semitic pamphlets.
The best and most personal source of news in war is and remains the letter. That which the husband or son, the brother, or the bridegroom puts on paper during a brief rest is not only longed for and treasured news from a beloved and irreplaceable person, but also a testimony and a report from one heart to another, one that speaks the right language. During World War I, the letters from the soldiers in field gray recorded the experiences and the integrity of determined fighters who were willing to give their all. During this war, too, millions of German soldiers have reported their powerful experiences. Every family carefully preserves these letters. In party local groups, within National Socialist organizations and in factories, these letters from comrades are passed from hand to hand as eyewitness reports of upright German men.
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