Death from the Skies: How the British and Germans Endured Aerial Destruction in World War II

Cover
DEATH FROM THE SKIES: HOW THE BRITISH AND GERMANS SURVIVED BOMBING IN WORLD WAR II
Copyright
Acknowledgements
Preface to the English Edition
Contents
List of Illustrations
Introduction
	War from the Skies
	The Battle over Morale: Methods and Perspectives
	Aerial War, the National Community, and the People’s War: Research Problems
1: The War of the Future 1900–1939
	The Shock of London
	Visions of Aerial Warfare
	Air Defence and the Nation
		Germany
	The Lessons of Guernica
		Britain
2: Bombing, the Public Sphere, and Morale
	The Struggle to Win Trust and Maintain Morale
		Mass Observation and morale
		The ‘air defence community’
	The Policy on Rumours and the Representation of the State
		A shift away from hushing things up
	Evacuations and Rumours
		Evacuation in the Third Reich
	The Image and Memory of the War
		Visualizing the Blitz
		The British public and the bombing of Germany
	Retaliation, Word of Mouth Propaganda, and the Struggle to Win Over a Sceptical Population
3: Social Organization under a State of Emergency
	Institutions for Dealing with Emergencies
		Führer rulings and special agencies
	The State and the National Emergency
		Marginalization of institutions by agents of the Führer
	Justice and Repression
		Looting and criminal justice in Britain
	War Damages and Wartime Morale
		War damage compensation in Germany
4: Cities at War
	Preparations for War
		Local government and the state in Britain
		‘The national community at war’ and air defence
	Plunder and Aid
		Local government and coping with crisis in Britain
	The Extent of Damage and Interregional Strategies for Dealing with Crisis
		German cities under a ‘state of emergency’
	Local Authorities, Coping with Crisis, and the Mobilization of the Nazi Party
	The Air War as an Opportunity: Planning and Reconstruction
	‘Grand Designs’ for the Modern British City
5: The Churches and the Air War
	A Just War, with Just Bombing?
	Why Us? The Theology of War and the Destruction of the ‘Homeland’
	Day-to-Day Religious and Pastoral Practice
		Pastoral care in Britain
	Christian Iconography and Ecumenical Experience
		Ecumenical practice in Nazi Germany
	Loss, Guilt, and Reconstruction
6: Fear and Order: Life in Air-Raid Shelters
	Security and Unrest
		Fortress and national community
		Underground
	The Organization of Fear
	Races, Classes, and Genders
		Sites of protection, control, and violence
	Iconography of the Underworld
	Sickness and Health
		Shelter illnesses
7: Experiences of the Air War
	Wartime Morale as an Object of Research
		War and illness in Germany
	Speaking and Remaining Silent
	A Time for Feelings
		Everyday alarms
		The threat from miracle weapons
		Habituation and violence
		Guided memory
		Masculine and feminine emotions
		Keeping on working
	Children in the Air War
		Fear and discipline
		Children and their teachers
8: Death in the Air War
	Simulations
	Recovering the Dead
		Learning from catastrophe
	Death and Mourning
		Death and mourning in Britain
	Rituals of Death
		‘Völkisch’ rituals of death
9: Memories of the Air War in the Early Post-War Peri
	The Guilt of the Victors
	Victims of the Air War
	Psychological Damage, Psychiatry, and the Experience of War
		Britain
	Church, Cities, and a Fresh Start
10: Lessons of the Air War
	The Politics of Reconciliation
	Coventry and Dresden
	Monumentalization and Witnesses to History
	‘Taboos’ and ‘Traumatization’
	The End of the ‘Good War’
Conclusion
	War and Order
	Shelter Society and Coping with Crisis
	Death, Mourning, Faith
	Memory Contests after 1945
Abbreviations Used in the Notes
Notes
	INTRODUCTION
	CHAPTER 1
	CHAPTER 2
	CHAPTER 3
	CHAPTER 4
	CHAPTER 5
	CHAPTER 6
	CHAPTER 7
	CHAPTER 8
	CHAPTER 9
	CHAPTER 10
	CONCLUSION
Sources and Bibliography
	PRIMARY SOURCES
	PRINTED PRIMARY SOURCES
		Newspapers and Journals
		Secondary Literature
Picture Acknowledgements
Index