Kriegspfarrer an der Ostfront

Dagmar Pöpping analyzes the experiences of Protestant and Catholic military chaplains who were sent on behalf of the Nazi state to the eastern front to provide psychological support to soldiers in the relentless fight against Bolshevism. During the war, which became ever more costly for the German Wehrmacht, the military chaplains became increasingly engaged with trying to find meaning as so many of their comrades died. As witnesses to mass crimes against both civilians and Red Army prisoners of war, they found themselves challenged to the very limits of their capacity to make sense of what was going on around them.