Fensch, Thomas (Virginia Union University, USA)

War Diaries from Inside Hitler's Headquarters Fensch, Thomas (Virginia Union University, USA)

German historian Helmuth Greiner served as Custodian of the War Diary in Hitler's Headquarters August 1939 until April, 1943, when he was dismissed, apparently for not being sufficiently pro-Nazi. His diary entries were ordered destroyed but reconstructed between 1946-1949. Greiner's diary entries from 1942-1943 reveal: major decisions by Hitler; movements by vast Nazi Wehrmacht armies; the Luftwaffe, the Nazi air force; the Kriegsmarine, the Nazi navy; the size of the Nazi military and mentions many top Nazi generals. Of particular interest are Greiner's separate dairy entries for Operation Barbarossa, the Nazi invasion of Soviet Russia. This is a dramatic 126-page file. Greiner's War Diaries were translated by U. S. Army language experts post-World War Two, but have been neglected since that time. FIRST PUBLICATION IN ENGLISH -- A major contribution to analysis of the Nazi war machine.