Other studies look at the indoctrination of the Wehrmacht, and numerous studies look at the war crimes of the Wehrmacht. However, this study is different in that it focuses much more closely on the indoctrination of the Wehrmacht than previous studies, but perhaps more importantly, it views the indoctrination of the Wehrmacht and its later war crimes as part of the same field of study. It argues that the indoctrination of the Wehrmacht was a key factor in explaining the behavior of German soldiers during the Second World War.

This is the only in-depth study of what ideological training meant for the average German soldier or officer under the Third Reich, by citing numerous examples of the curriculum and explaining how it was taught.

The study is also unique in that rather than looking at any one factor of Nazi indoctrination, it looks at the process by which many young German men became socialized from a young age onwards - it looks at the school system, the Hitler Youth, the Reich Labour Service, military training and further propaganda in the military as an ongoing process, rather than looking at one particular institution or stage of life in isolation.