User:K.e.coffman/Statement A

Comments on the Wikipedia entry for Erich Hoepner, and on those for other World War II German generals[edit]

By Geoffrey P. Megargee, May 2018

I have become aware of a dispute over the Wikipedia entries regarding Erich Hoepner and other Wehrmacht generals. Specifically, there are those who object to the inclusion of material concerning the crimes that these men ordered, facilitated, or ignored.

As a professional historian of that era in general and of the Wehrmacht in particular, I wish to make my position plain. We cannot understand the history of modern Germany, of World War II, of the Holocaust, or of the Wehrmacht, indeed we cannot understand the individual biographies of these men, if we disregard their roles in the crimes. I do not believe I need to go into the details here; some of the very best historians of the Wehrmacht, such as Jürgen Förster, Wolfram Wette, Christian Streit, and Christian Hartmann, have catalogued the generals’ roles with thoroughness and precision.

There is no serious academic debate on these matters. To expunge consideration of the crimes is to follow the same path that the generals themselves did, as they tried to create the myth of the "clean Wehrmacht" after the war. Such efforts have no place in serious scholarship. They cannot lead to a balanced, accurate picture of the individuals in question or the era in which they lived.

As a general observation, I find it a bit humorous that "hard-core anti-Nazi" and "Nazi hunter" are used pejoratively on Wikipedia. As if those are bad things! Naturally, I too have had some contact with the people who run or read the various Wehrmacht and SS websites. I have found some of them to be well-intentioned, but many, of course, are apologists or deniers.

There’s no point in debating them; they have shown, time and time again, that they are not interested in truth. I am, however, interested in trying to ensure that neutral websites, as Wikipedia is supposed to be, have accurate, balanced, and complete information, for the sake of readers who are honestly curious.

Geoffrey P. Megargee, PhD, is an American historian who specializes in military history and the Holocaust. He is the author of Inside Hitler's High Command (2000), University Press of Kansas, and War of Annihilation: Combat and Genocide on the Eastern Front, 1941 (2006), Rowman & Littlefield.

Explanatory notes[edit]

I asked the author (Megargee) to review the Talk page of Erich Hoepner, specifically the discussion that I linked above as "dispute", plus a few other related discussions.
The statement is replicated verbatim, apart from the added Wikilinks, from the email that the author sent to ArbCom as part of WP:Arbitration/Requests/Case/German war effort/Evidence#Evidence presented by K.e.coffman.
ArbCom has confirmed receipt of the email here: 31 May 2018.