Hitler And His Generals: Military Conferences 1942–1945 from Stalingrad to Berlin

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In the aftermath of the Holocaust, Germany’s military generals claimed they had fought honorably in World War II. They insisted it was the SS—the Nazi elite guard—and the SS leader, Heinrich Himmler, who were responsible for all crimes. Grazhdan, Anna (director); Artem Drabkin & Aleksey Isaev (writers); Valeriy Babich, Vlad Ryashin, et al. (producers) (2011). Siege of Leningrad (television documentary). Soviet Storm: World War II in the East. Star Media . Retrieved 15 May 2015.

This myth of the German military’s “clean hands” was largely accepted in the United States, where American military leaders, embroiled in the Cold War, looked to their German counterparts for information that would help them against the Soviet Union. And because the few available Soviet accounts of the war were deemed untrustworthy—and most of the crimes committed by the German military had taken place in Soviet territory—the myth remained unchallenged for decades.Krivosheev, G. F. (1997). Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses in the Twentieth Century. Greenhill Books. ISBN 978-1853672804. Beyond its role in assisting in and carrying out the direct murder of Jews and others, the German military employed and benefited from the theft of Jewish property and the use of forced labor at all levels. For example, in the winter of 1941, Jews across eastern Europe were forced to surrender their warm clothing to be used by unprepared German soldiers at the front. Also, hair shaved from Jews murdered in the killing centers was used by the German navy to line submariners’ boots and to create felt. Bergström, Christer (2007). Barbarossa – The Air Battle: July–December 1941. Classic Publications. ISBN 978-1-85780-270-2. Not all military personnel agreed with Nazi policy. Some protested while others actively rescued Jews. While these honorable individuals constituted a statistically small minority, they demonstrated that it was possible to resist and help Jews, even in the disciplined and authoritarian army structure. Service, Robert (2005). A History of Modern Russia: From Nicholas II to Vladimir Putin. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-67401-801-3.

Those vast distances covered by the German panzers made them more and more difficult to supply, while Soviet soldiers unexpectedly continued to fight. The invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 brought the war and Nazi policy to their most radical phase. Well before the invasion, the OKW and the OKH, working from Hitler’s general guidance, planned a campaign of persecution, exploitation, and murder that is unparalleled in modern history. No German soldier’s crime against a Soviet civilian would be cause for prosecution. Soviet political officers were to be shot immediately upon capture. Any civilian who was suspected of resisting in any way was also subject to shooting. Jews and Communists were special targets, simply because of who they were (to the generals, a Jew equaled a Communist, equaled a partisan). The army and the SS drew up agreements by which Einsatzgruppen and other mobile killing squads would follow along behind the army, shooting Jews and Communists, with the army providing logistical support. The OKH and the Reich Food Ministry also agreed to take foodstuffs from the USSR in quantities that would condemn millions of civilians to starvation. And the OKW, which was in charge of prisoner of war (POW) policy, deliberately neglected to prepare for the millions of men the army would capture. Dear, Ian; Foot, M. R. D., eds. (1995). The Oxford Guide to World War II. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-534096-9. Less than a thousand T-34s were available at the start of 'Barbarossa' and most were squandered in piecemeal actions by half-trained crews. But the Red Army could absorb significant losses of equipment as well as men. The mass mobilisation of Soviet industry had been set in train, which included relocating vital tank, aircraft and munitions factories eastwards to the Urals. This huge logistical undertaking was already bearing fruit. It meant that despite the early defeats, the Soviet Union was far better prepared for a long war than the Germans, whose own production of tanks and other weapons would be feeble by comparison. GERMAN LOGISTICAL PROBLEMS

The High Command and the Crimes

Roberts, Geoffrey (2006). Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939–1953. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-11204-7.

Many of these divisions don't have uniforms they're just civilian clothes, some of the divisions they have to share rifles there's not enough rifles to go around. At the same time, the first arctic convoys are arriving in Murmansk and Archangel bringing supplies from Britain, just giving enough equipment for the soviets to sort of stay in the field. Gorodetsky, Gabriel (2001). Grand Delusion: Stalin and the German Invasion of Russia. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300084597. Main article: Germany–Soviet Union relations, 1918–1941 The geopolitical disposition of Europe in 1941, immediately before the start of Operation Barbarossa. The grey area represents Nazi Germany, its allies, and countries under its control. Halsall, Paul (ed.). "Modern History Sourcebook: The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, 1939". Internet Modern History Sourcebook. Fordham University . Retrieved 20 April 2021.

2. Hermann Göring

Gellately, Robert (1990). The Gestapo and German Society: Enforcing Racial Policy, 1933–1945. Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-820297-4. After the war began, the Nazis issued a ban on sexual relations between Germans and foreign slaves. [55] There were regulations enacted against the Ost-Arbeiter ('Eastern workers') that included the death penalty for sexual relations with a German. [56] Heinrich Himmler, in his secret memorandum, Reflections on the Treatment of Peoples of Alien Races in the East (dated 25 May 1940), outlined the Nazi plans for the non-German populations in the East. [57] Himmler believed the Germanisation process in Eastern Europe would be complete when "in the East dwell only men with truly German, Germanic blood". [58] Heinrich Himmler, Rudolf Hess, and Reinhard Heydrich listening to Konrad Meyer at a Generalplan Ost exhibition, 20 March 1941 Czak, Steven (2014). Soviet Intelligence on the Eve of War, 1939–1941 (PhD diss.). University of Calgary. doi: 10.11575/PRISM/27837. Hitler's input has been heavily criticised, not least by his generals at the time. Moscow was always a more important objective to the German High Command than it was to Hitler, who was more concerned with destroying Soviet field armies and capturing vital industrial resources. His switching of the main thrust from the central front to Leningrad in the north and Ukraine in the south was to an extent militarily sensible given the weakness of Army Group Centre after the Smolensk battles and the threats to its flanks. Indeed, the diversion actually worked in the Germans’ favour since it surprised the Soviets and resulted in the destruction of huge Soviet forces around Kiev. But it also threw away Germany's only real chance of outright victory. Kirby, D.G. (1980). Finland in the Twentieth Century: A History and an Interpretation. University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 978-0-8166-5802-2.