S1E16 – Dr Grant Harward – The Romanian ‘Holy War’ on the Eastern Front in WW2

Combat Morale Podcast
Combat Morale Podcast
S1E16 - Dr Grant Harward - The Romanian 'Holy War' on the Eastern Front in WW2
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Dr Grant Harward, a historian at the US Army Medical Department, US Army, talks about his recent book ‘Holy War’ on the motivation of Romanian combatants to fight and participate in the Holocaust on the Eastern Front in WW2. He corrects the widespread myth that Romania was a reluctant member of the Axis during World War II and that in Romanian-occupied Ukraine more than 64,000 Jews were killed by Romanian soldiers. Moreover, the Romanian Army conducted a brutal campaign in German-occupied Ukraine, resulting in the deaths of thousands of Soviet prisoners of war, partisans, and civilians. Grant argues that Romanian soldiers fought and committed such atrocities because of a strong ideological commitment of nationalism, religion, antisemitism, and anticommunism.