Captive Historians, Captivated Audience: The German Military History Program, 1945-1961

From 1945 to 1961, former German officers, working first as prisoners of war and then as civilian employees of the U.S. government, produced roughly two hundred thousand pages of manuscript histories dealing with nearly every aspect of the Nazi war effort. This essay provides a general historiographical outline of their work and comments on the motivations, aims, and opinions of the authors. Taken together, these manuscripts provide telling insight into the experiences of German officers, both during and after World War II. Motivated by a desire to protect the reputation of the Wehrmacht, their cooperation with U.S. historical efforts produced a significant, influential, and arguably self-serving view of the war.