Soldaten - On Fighting, Killing and Dying: The Secret Second World War Tapes of German POWs

First published to acclaim and controversy in Germany in 2011, this book is based on recently declassified transcripts of German PoWs talking among themselves, secretly recorded by British and US intelligence services. These private conversations provide unprecedented insights into the prisoners' concerns and their attitudes to the war. Combining historical and psychological perspectives, the authors analyse the transcripts, seeking to understand how soldiers had come to accept the Nazis' warped ideology. Translated from the German.