Paul Carell

[Oldman]

Paul Carell was a German author who wrote a number of books on WWII from the
Nazi soldier's perspective. I've read most of them, and I imagine some of
the rest of you have, too. We used to joke about Carell, because his theme
always seemed to be that the Nazis were overwhelmed by force of numbers, and
that this was just not fair.

I now sometimes manage to play "Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin," a
war game, by e-mail. The web site bulletin board for that game is
characterized by some of the best writing and smartest people you are likely
to ever see on a similar system. I managed to get a peek at it today, and
stumbled upon this topic.

It began when someone asked for references to good books on the war in the
east. Someone named "cbb" said that Paul Carell's books were just the best.
Two posters replied with brief, snide remarks about Carell. Cbb was upset:
*************
Originally posted by cbb:
[QUOTE]I don't know what criteria you use to consider someone a
"high-ranking nazi" or a "member of the nazi-propaganda machine" but I think
any rational criteria for those designations would most certainly exclude
Paul Carell...
*************
The reply of the first poster:
**************
Err, no it would not. He was the head of the propaganda department in the
German Foreign Ministry during the war, heavily involved with Signal (you do
know that Signal was a propaganda rag?). He also held the rank of
SS-Obersturmbannfuehrer (Lieutenant-Colonel), which I presume was in the
civilian SS, not in the Waffen SS, since he lied in his books about his
military record. He entered the SA in 1931, well before the Machtergreifung,
and switched to the SS in 1934.

Here is some of his propaganda, aiming to find a justification for the
persecution of Jews in Hungary:
From the website linked above by Foxbat - I am afraid you have to speak
German.

quote:Belegt ist auch die Bedeutung Paul Karl Schmidts für die
propagandistische Rechtfertigung des Holocaust. Am 27.Mai 1944 wandte sich
Schmidt nicht etwa gegen die Ermordung der ungarischen Juden, sondern
erteilte Ratschläge zu deren besserem Gelingen:

"Aus einer recht guten Übersicht über die laufenden und geplanten
Judenaktionen in Ungarn entnehme ich, dass im Juni eine Großaktion auf die
Budapester Juden geplant ist. Die geplante Aktion wird in ihrem Ausmaß große
Aufmerksamkeit erregen und Anlass zu einer heftigen Reaktion bilden. Die
Gegner werden schreien und von Menschenjagd usw. sprechen und unter
Verwendung von Gräuelberichten die eigene Stimmung bei den Neutralen
aufzuputschen versuchen. Ich möchte deshalb anregen, ob man diesen Dingen
nicht vorbeugen sollte dadurch, dass man äußere Anlässe und Begründungen für
die Aktion schafft, z.B. Sprengstofffunde in jüdischen Vereinshäusern und
Synagogen, Sabotageorganisationen, Umsturzpläne, Überfälle auf Polizisten,
Devisenschiebungen großen Stils mit dem Ziel der Untergrabung des
ungarischen Wirtschaftsgefüges. Der Schlussstein unter eine solche Aktion
müsste ein besonders krasser Fall sein, an dem man dann die Großrazzia
aufhängt."
(Staatsarchiv Nürnberg NG-2424, zit. nach: Köhler, S.106)

So, no matter how much you liked his books, fact of the matter is that by
any standard Paul Karl Schmidt was a high-ranking Nazi propagandist, and a
liar. You are welcome to enjoy his books, but you are not welcome to claim
that he is anything else than what Foxbat claimed.

And finally, the background of a writer is very important in evaluating the
quality of the information he imparts. In his later books, Carrell/Schmidt
advances the idea of a German preventive war against the Soviet Union. That
is complete bollocks, and driven by his old propagandist instincts. Whether
you want to believe anything he writes before I leave up to you.

As a writer, I think he has done more than anyone to warp our perception of
the war in the east. Personally, I am glad that he is gone now, because it
means his lies and propaganda can be buried with him and he will no longer
be able to cook up new ones. His sort were the worst Germans, the ones who
after the war tried to find the excuses, and whitewash what had happened.

Goodbye and good riddance.

********
The second poster was quick, too:
**********
Joined the party in 1931, switched from brownshirts to black in 1934 (IIRC)
was head of the propaganda division of the foreign ministry. Not really a
high-ranking nazi in terms of bodycount but pretty high on the ladder in the
nazi propaganda effort (wasn't he jointly responsible for the "Signal"
publciation? You know the full-colour all-illustrated glossy on the joys of
army life and the gallant victories of the german army and it's
co-belligerents).

quote:I find it quite interesting that those who wish to criticize Carell
always point to his BACKGROUND.

I wonder why they always point out his background as a propgandist?

quote:They never seem able to find anything specifically incorrect in his
writings.

Other than that it is full of holes and "anecdotal" hyperbole that is
allegedly based on his experiences (uh-huh based on Signal propaganda
articles more like), it gives a horribly distorted picture of the germans
fighting gallantly and against the odds (overwheleming numbers of russkies
everywhere). He promotes the ideas of Stalingrad as a valiant sacrifice for
the greater good (a blatant lie made up by the nazi propaganda machine to
whitewash the disaster), Barbarossa as a preventative war the poor germans
had to attack before uncle Joe would steamroller them, the Wehrmacht as a
clean-hands organisation supposedly all crimes were committed by nasty
einsatzcommandas not by the gallant knights of germany, the german
warmachine as infallible only the interference of a meddling Hitler
prevented the 0bersoldiers of the Wehrmacht from victory.. I could go on and
on.

quote:As for his "observations on the war as seen from the Russian side",
his books are intended to be from the GERMAN point of view. If you're
looking for the Russian point of view, you should read someone else...

The initial poster mentioned that his works offered a view from the german
and the russian side, I found that remark quite funny

quote:I've read all of Carell's books and highly recommend them for anyone
interested in the German miliary in World War II.

They are very readable and cover most of the war in the east (at least the
bits that were important to the germans, let's not mention how the russkies
got to Berlin, they just did). But it's closer to boys-literature than to
serious history (and nazi-inspired boys-literature at that).
*************
The discussion continues, and is worth reading:

http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=23;t=0
04189

Frankly, I never knew this, but it seems that our instincts were correct.

- oldman

[otter]

I think I've come to an age and understanding of the war that I can frankly
advise revisionist Germans and Soviets who whine about the war in the east
to go fuck themselves.

The Molotov pact allowed Hitler to attack Poland and dismember it along with
Stalin which thereby prompted Japan to renig on the Tripartite
anti-comintern act and deny Hitler a Japanese-Russian front when the
Japanese signed their own non-aggression agreement with Stalin.

That agreement kept the USSR out of the war with Japan (when any assistence
they could have given us in the Pacific to tie down Japanese land forces
would have been gladly accepted and in fact was begged for by the US) until
after we dropped the A-bomb on Hiroshima.

Kind of puts Stalins bitching about the "second front" in perspective along
with the fact that Allied forces in North Africa, Norway and Sicily tied
down numbers of German divisions who could and would have been used against
Russia while we raised and trained enough men and materiel to assault
Fortress Europe on June 6th.

Add in the fact that Stalin had more warning of Barbarossa than any other
attack in the history of warfare almost and yet ignored it should speak
volumes more to modern day Russians than any other fact about the "Great
Patriotic/Propaganda war" than any other but all I ever see is "we lost
more...defeated germany single handedly...yada yada yad (ok admittedly many
in the US are just as guilty in our attitude when speaking to Western Euros,
but hey at least we can learn).

--
otter
"Oldman" <jkw...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:MXqJ9.39652$kL6.4...@nnrp3.clara.net...

[trevor....@hotmail.com]

Paul Carell was a Nazi. He advised on how best to justify deportation  of Jews. He worked for a wicked regime. But his books represent a fantastic historical resource. Classic primary and secondary sources. David Glantz an eminent Eastern Front historian has vouched for his accuracy and his use of sources "contrary to popular belief". The truth is the Germans were outnumbered and their achievements on the battlefield overall were remarkable. The attack on Russia may or not have been a pre emptive strike. At the time it was sheer aggression but the Russians were deployed in such a way as to hedge their bets. Neither for attack but neither for defence. It is possible the Russians would have struck at some point. There has been and will be plenty of debate on that. Stalingrad was a massive blunder but Carell is right that once the fate was sealed the "sacrifice" saved the Germans in southern Russia from total defeat and allowed Mainstein to deliver the backhand stroke that shocked the Russians in the spring. His argument that the war could have been won for the Germans despite Stalingrad also deserves investigation. It's also clear that Carell does not mention the butchery inflicted by the SS and army but he doesn't deny it either. He just does not write about it. His books do however occasionally mention the camps. His works should be reinterpreted as the historical documents they are, written by someone with access to a lot of previously unseen primary and secondary sources but also someone who was the Nazi's top press and propaganda chief.