What is the novelty of the sources used in Neitzel and Welzer's book Soldaten? Why are these sources particularly relevant?

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BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

When approaching the question about the novelty of the sources in Neitzel and Welzer's Soldaten, it helps to compare what the options claim with what the authors actually used and why it matters.
Option 1 suggests wiretaps of German officers in American captivity demonstrating Wehrmacht leadership complicity. While this would be significant, the actual novelty highlighted by Neitzel and Welzer lies elsewhere: it centers on the voices of ordinary soldiers, not high-ranking officers. As a result, this option misstates the subject of the captured testimonies and the specific insight into leadership accountability.
Option 2 correctly identifies the distinctive source material: wiretaps of ordinary German soldiers in American captivity, where the soldiers often described war crimes to fellow prisoners, sometimes implying that others had similar experiences. This is the novelty because it provides candid, everyday perspectives from rank-and-file soldiers, not just official statements or elite testimonies, offering a bottom-up view of wartime conduct and moral perceptions.
Option 3 claims the wiretaps were from American guards for German POWs, illuminating abuse by guards. This reverses the actual source of the material and the direction of inquiry; the project relied on German soldiers’ voices, not a focus on Allied guards, making this option factually incorrect.
Option 4 states that the captured voices showed brainwashing by propaganda with verbatim German propaganda. While propaganda is a relevant topic in studies of WWII rhetoric, Neitzel and Welzer’s evidence from the wiretaps emphasizes soldiers discussing actions and norms in practice, not a direct claim that propaganda alone brainwashed soldiers; this option mischaracterizes the nature of the material and the conclusions drawn from these conversations.
In summary, the core contribution is the unprecedented access to ordinary German soldiers’ conversations under interrogation, revealing how they talked about crimes and anticipated others’ experiences, which provides a bottom-up understanding of morale and behavior during the war. The other options either misidentify the source group (officers, American guards) or mischaracterize the nature of the content (brainwashing by propaganda) and thus are not aligned with the actual novelty and relevance of the sources.

2025SpringB-X-WWS460-HST460-JST460-20406-20405-26446 Lecture 6b Learning Check German War Crimes

What is the novelty of the sources used in Neitzel and Welzer's book Soldaten? Why are these sources particularly relevant?

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