Episode 24 - Dr. Bastiaan Willems: author of the book “Violence in Defeat: The Wehrmacht on German Soil, 1944–1945"

Episode 24 brings you a conversation that challenges conventional narratives about the final phase of the Second World War. In this episode, we’re joined by Bastiaan Willems, a researcher of modern European history whose work examines the conduct of the German army as the war turned decisively against them. Drawing from his book Violence in Defeat, Willems shifts the lens away from the widely studied brutality of the Eastern Front and redirects it inward, into Germany itself during its final collapse. We explore how years of exposure to extreme violence shaped a “barbarized” mindset within the Wehrmacht, one that did not remain confined to distant battlefields. As German forces retreated, these patterns of behavior followed them home, contributing to a surge of violence within Germany in 1944–45. The episode examines how the boundaries between front line and home front eroded, how civilians became entangled in the logic of total war, and how these dynamics influenced the chaotic disintegration of the Third Reich. This discussion offers a deeper understanding of how war transforms not only outcomes, but societies and how its consequences can reverberate far beyond the battlefield. — Check out Bastiaan Willems’ book here: https://www.amazon.com.br/Violence-Defeat-Wehrmacht-1944-1945-Cambridge-ebook/dp/B08TRL3BHJ Follow and stay connected: Instagram: @worldwarii_daily and @samuel.dekorte