Longlisted for the Lionel Gelber Prize

“Striking. . . . Unlike memoirs, interviews or legal records, there is no personal agenda, nor are these conversations prejudiced by the kinds of ex post facto knowledge that can distort retrospective discussions. Instead [Neitzel and Welzer] offer ‘live’ commentary on how the war was unfolding from the German perspective. . . . Insightful and largely persuasive . . . this book presents an unprecedented source for understanding the ability to massacre.”
—The Guardian

"Invaluable. . . . Historians often dream of being able to eavesdrop on hisotry, but few can hope to obtain such spectacularly direct access as that presented in this major addition to the literature on the Second World War."
—The Observer (UK)

"Historical gold: an uncensored picture of how ordinary German soldiers thought, acted and justified themselves to their comrades."
—Maclean's

“Neitzel and Welzer have put together a rare, truly interdisciplinary work.”
—The Atlantic

“A compelling read.”
—Sunday Express

"A trove of transcripts of bugged recordings providing specific, startling evidence that German soldiers in World War II were not just following orders. . . . Unique—and essential to any understanding of German mentalités in the Hitler era."
—Kirkus Reviews

"A remarkable archive of the testimony of German prisoners-of-war."
—The Telegraph

“These extraordinary bugged conversations reveal through the eyes of German soldiers with stark fclarity and candor the often brutal reality of the Second World War, providing remarkable insight into the mentality and behavior of the Wehrmacht.”
—Sir Ian Kershaw, author of Hitler: A Biography

“The myth that Nazi –era German armed forces [were] not involved in war crimes persisted for decades after the war. Now two German researchers have destroyed it once and for all. . . .The material [they] have uncovered in British and American archives is nothing short of sensational. . . .[Soldaten] has the potential to change our view of the war.”
—Der Spiegel (Germany)

“This should be required reading for all those who believe that wars could be done cleanly.”
—Martin Meier, Neues Deutschland

“A significant contribution on the mental history of the Wehrmacht . . . The authors have written an incredibly readable book.”
—Die Zeit

“An equally fascinating and shocking book about the everyday madness of the Nazi war of extermination, which once again confirms Hannah Arendt’s thesis about the ‘banality of evil’ . . . A scholarly sensation.”
—Goethe Institut