Figure 1.--This image is unidentified. It almost certainly was taken some where in the territories seized from the Soviet Union--perhaps the Baltics. It is somwhat unusual becaise it is a public hanging, a slow way to kill large numbers of people. We are unsure avout the circumstances. There are, however, several notable aspects to this attrocity. First, note the large number of people watching and the fact that they deem to be supporting the executions. Why else would the little boy be placed on his father's back. Note that armed guards to control the crowd is not present. Second note the man at left giving the NAZI salute. Third, note tat one of the people being hanged is a boy still in short pants.

The NAZIs invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. Radidly the Baltic Republics (occupied by the Soviets in 1940) and large areas came under NAZI control. The NAZIs employed the same ruthless tactics developed in Poland, but on a far larger scale. Heydrich in 1941 ordered the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) (SS Security Service) in 1941 to begin the necessary planning for the Germinization of occupied territories in the Soviet Union. The Reichs-Sicherheitsdienst (RSHA) (Reich Security Head Office). The initial report submitted in November 1941 by the RDHA estimated that 31 million peole should be "evacuated". The SS-RKF was ordered to extend its planning for the Germinization to the occupied area of the Soviet Union. [Padfield, p. 363.] There were differences of opinion within the SS and between the SS and Alfred Rosenberg's Ostministerium (Ministry for the Occupied East) over how to claim the East. There was agreement that large numers of Slavs had to be removed to Siberia. There were differences as to the extent to which forcible evictions should take place. Given the scale of movement involved, such discussions probably were not relistic. [Padfield, p. 363.] The NAZIs looked on the people of the Soviet Union in starkly racial terms. They were willing to work with the native Baltic population and some in the Baltics were willing to work with the NAZIs. The NAZIs were determined that the Slav population in Russia proper and the Ukraine would have to be substantially reduced. Some Slavs would be kept, at least for a while to serve as a slave population to do mannual labor, at least until the region could be Germanized.

Operation Barbarossa (June 1941)

The NAZIs invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. Radidly the Baltic Republics (occupied by the Soviets in 1940) and large areas came under NAZI control. The Red Air Force was destroyed within a few days. German Panzers cut off and surounded whole Soviet Armies. The Wehrmacht took huge numbers of Red Army soldiers prisioner. Most died in apauling conditions of German POW camps. Huge quantities of equipment were destroyed or captured. Foreign military analysts doubted if the Red Army could successfully resist the NAZIs. Many forcast a Sioviet collapse. Wehrmacht Highcommand thought that the Red army was a defeated force.

NAZI Objectives

There were three major aspects to the NAZI invasion of the Soviet Union. There were political, militry, racial, and economic goals. Hitler made it very clear that war in the East was to be like no other war fought by Germany. A Führer Degree issued in May 1941 before the invasion made German soldiers imune from prosecution for actions against civilians. The 3 million German soldiers to participate in the invasion were issued guidelines for the conduct of Barbarossa. The Wehrmacht ordered "ruthless and energetic measures against Bolshevistic agitators, guerillas, saboteurs, Jews, and total elimination of all active and passive resistance. [Nuremberg document NOKW-1692] Notice that this was guidelines issued by Wehrmacht OKW. After the war, the Wehrmacht attempted to blame the attrocities on the SS. There is ample evidence that the Wehrmacht was extensively involved in NAZI attricities. All of this had horific consequences for the Soviet people. No one know precisely how many Siviet citizes died in the War, but most extimates exceed 20 million people.

Political

The political goal of the invasion was to destroy the Soviet Union as the only Communist state at the time. The War was despicted as an anti-Bolshevick campaign by civilized Europe. The Soviet populatin was to be clensed of Communism. Wehrmacht OKW issued the Commissar Order (June 6, 1941). The rder referring to "barbously Asiatic methods of fighting: instructed German soldiers to shoot any Red Army political commisars captured.

Racial

Hitler saw the Slavs as next to the Jews as the most serious "racial" threat to Germany. He and the NAZIs constantly harkened back to the Teutonic Knights and their struggle against the Slavs. The Soviet Union was the country with the largest Slavic population. It also had the world's largest Jewish population and in Hitler's mind there was a nexus between Bolshevism and the Jews. As a result, the campaign against the Soviets took on a racial dimension unlike any war ever fought in Europe before. The Einsatzgrupen were ordered to kill the Jews immediately. The resolution of the Slavic "problem" was to follow the successful completion of the War and to be conducted along with the Germinization of the conquered lands. The NAZIs thus looked on the people of the Soviet Union in starkly racial terms. They were willing to work with the native Baltic population and some in the Baltics were willing to work with the NAZIs. The NAZIs were determined that the Slav population in Russia proper and the Ukraine would have to be substantially reduced. The NAZIs viewed the Asiatic people of the Soviet Union with even greater contempt than the Slavs. Some Slavs would be kept, at least for a while to serve as a slave population to do mannual labor, at least until the region could be Germanized. NAZI propaganda triumphed the invasion as a European war against Bolshevism. This is not whjat Hitler said when speaking to NAZI officials. ""Fundamentally, therefore, what matters is conveniently dividing up the gigantic cake so that we can first cintrol it, secondly administer it, and thordly exploit it." He cautioned that these plans must be kept secret for a time. "Neverthel;ess we can and will carry out all necessary measures--shooting, resettlement, an so on" [IMT, XXXVII]

Economic

The German invasions in many ways was a colonial war conducted for economic goals. The major difference was that it was waged against another European power and a power that Hitler was to learn had the power to resist. A major reason in Hitler's mind were the economic resoures of the Soviet Union. This goal is described in Mein Kampf in some detail. [Hitler]

NAZI Operations

The NAZIs employed the same ruthless tactics developed in Poland, but on a far larger scale. Heydrich issued at order in the days leading up to the invasion that Jews, Asiantic "inferiors" Communist officials, and gypsies were to be killed. {Krausnick, pp. 363ff.] The most horific operations were conducted against the Jews. The Holocaust in the Soviet Union began nearly a year before the mass killings began in the NAZI death camps. The NAZIs with Barbarossa made no pretense of isolating and transporting Soviet Jews, their were military groups organized to kill Jews in large numbers where they found them--the Einsatzgruppen. German operations were not limited to Jews. Communist Party anf government officials were executed. Many villages were destroyed. Here we are not yet fully aware of what occurred. The NAZIs seized livestock and food supplies and shipped it back to Germany. We are not sure, however, who was responsible for the destruction of thousands of villages. The Soviets persued a scoarced earth policy. The Germans also destroyed many villages. Here I am not sure what the purpose was because this reduced the economic potential of the occupied areas. I think much of these destruction occurred after Stalingrad when the Wehrmacht began the long retreat west. This subject requires further investigation.

Collaboration

There was considerable collaboration with the NAZIs in the early phase of the NAZI invasion. This was especially the case in the Baltics which probably should not be treated as a true part of the Soviet Union. (The three Baltic Republics were invaded and annexed by the Soviets in 1940.) Because of the brutal Soviet occupation and deportations (1940-41) the Communists were hated by most of the population. It was also true in the Ukkraine where the Soviets created a famine to force the people to submit and at the time of the invasion were involved in a campaign to destroy Ukrakian nationalism. We do not yet have few details on the extent of local collaboration with the NAZIS, but it is subject we hope to research in greater detail. Had the NAZIs not have comined their anti-Bolshevik campaign with a racial war gainst the Slavs it seems likely tht they could have hained considerable support from the Soviet population. NAZI racial policies toward the Slavs, however, quickly turned even the Ukranians against the NAZIs. Even so the NAZIs were able to organize a anti-Soviet Russian army to fight with them

Germinization

Heydrich in 1941 ordered the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) (SS Security Service) in 1941 to begin the necessary planning for the Germinization of occupied territories in the Soviet Union. The Reichs-Sicherheitsdienst (RSHA) (Reich Security Head Office). The initial report submitted in November 1941 by the RDHA estimated that 31 million peole should be "evacuated". (This was the NAZI term used in connectiin to with the killing of Jews.) The SS-RKF was ordered to extend its planning for the Germinization to the occupied area of the Soviet Union. [Padfield, p. 363.] There were differences of opinion within the SS and between the SS and Alfred Rosenberg's Ostministerium (Ministry for the Occupied East) over how to claim the East. There was agreement that large numers of Slavs had to be removed west of the Urals to Siberia. There were differences as to the extent to which forcible evictions should take place. Given the scale of movement involved, such discussions probably were not relistic. [Padfield, p. 363.]

Ressistance

Assessment

We also have to assess how effective the German policies were. We know that politically they were a dissaster. They turned the Ukranians and others from a people willing to make common cause with the Germans to fight Stalinist totalitarianism to a hostile population. The Germans had occupied enough of the Sovie Union in 1941 that they could have recruited large formtions that could have addressed the in balance in population between tGermany and the Soviet Union. Less clear is the economic impact. A major goal of the German invasion was to expolit the Soviet Union economically, We do not yet know enough about the German occupation to assess how effective occupation polices were.

Sources

Dallin, Alexander. German Rule in Russia 1941-1945: A study in Occupation Policies (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1957), 677p. The documents and informatin collected by Professor Dallin make this one of the most important studies of German occupation policies in the East.

Hitler. Adolf. Mein Kampf.

International Miliatry Tribunal (IMT). XXXVII, pp. 86 ff (221-L).

Krausnick. "Judenverfolgung" in Anatomie des SS-Staates.

Nuremberg document NOKW-1692

Padfield, Peter. Himmler: Reichsführer-SS (Henry Holt: New York, 1991), 656p.

Created: January 7, 2003
Last updated: 5:46 AM 11/18/2007