The output of large parts of the German war economy was, if not quite in crisis, then certainly lagging by the autumn of 1941. It had reached a point where it was struggling to meet the current demands of the field army in Russia fighting in Russia, let alone those raised by the planned large-scale expansion of the Luftwaffe. Against such a backdrop, the idea of escalating the war by dragging another great power into it gives legitimacy to the view put forward by some historians that Hitler was seeking his self-immolation.

A close examination of the sources, however, indicates that Hitler had reached the conclusion that far from having hit a glass ceiling the German economy still possessed considerable slack which could be mobilised by rationalising designs and optimising the allocation of labour and raw materials. As a precedent, he could point to the months of January-April 1940 where a last-minute spurt in productivity had provided much of the ammunition and tanks needed for the campaign in the West. It goes without saying that this forecast mistakenly assumed a marked decrease in the intensity of the fighting in Russia on account of the fall of the Donbass industrial area.

Surveys the laws and procedures for the POWs, who came in front of military tribunals, and the German women, who usually had to stand a public trial at a special court, an institution set up to repress and ruthlessly punish dissenting behavior. Briefly touches on trials against civilian men, including trials for homosexual acts.

Analyzes the military tribunals and special court trials. While the former became harsher in response to massive steering from the highest places (the High Command of the Army and Hitler personally), the latter became more lenient, partly in reaction to an intervention by Hitler in 1942 that denied women agency and therefore allowed the courts to be more lenient, especially if the woman had a forgiving soldier husband. While the military tribunals proceeded under international observation, the women were often interrogated and intimidated by the Gestapo. Their confessions counted almost always as proof even if the prisoner denied the charges.