Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege, 1942-1943 - Book Report/Review Example

Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege, 1942-1943 offers rare insight into how the critically flawed relationship between the German military and the Nazi party leaders gave the Red Army a crucial advantage. It is this behind-the-scenes dynamic that makes Beevor’s history so exceptionally informative and compelling. As the German Sixth Army’s situation at Stalingrad became desperate and the outcome of the siege became clear, the Fűhrer and his lieutenants in Berlin engaged in a shameless blame-shifting campaign.

From a practical standpoint, this meant that von Paulus and the army’s other commanding officers were not simply compromised, they were sacrificed to the exigencies of the situation and to the Russians. Beevor writes that undelivered resources and support that never materialized destroyed the morale of officers who only months before had been ardent Nazis and fanatical soldiers in the race-tinged conflict with the Soviets. “The psychological confusion and the anger of defeat, produced docility if not cooperation from officers who felt both personally betrayed, and also guilty towards their own men for having assured them of the Fűhrer’s promise of salvation” (Beevor, 232).

From this point, the reader learns of German prisoners angry over their government’s betrayal and only too willing to cooperate with their Soviet captors. Against this backdrop Beevor weaves a complex and enthralling tale of revenge as otherwise stalwart members of the German officer corps, such as von Seydlitz, take the opportunity to strike back at Hitler and his cronies for abandoning the cream of the Wehrmacht to destruction and imprisonment. Seydlitz was the key figure in one of the most intriguing episodes in Beevor’s narrative.

Angered by Hitler’s duplicity, Seydlitz convinced his compatriots to join what he called the League of German Officers, a group that would overthrow the Nazi regime with the backing of Soviet authorities.