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Nazi Policy of Extermination in the Soviet Union 1941-1944 Dimension and Perpetrators

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Nazi Policy of Extermination in the Soviet Union 1941-1944 Dimension and Perpetrators Martin Cüppers Nazi policy of extermination in the Soviet Union 1941-1944 Dimension and perpetrators !!www.uni-stuttgart.de Preparaons • Hitler 21.7.1940 instrucon to Wehrmacht commanders for preparaons for war against Soviet Union; planning as "Blitzkrieg“. • Subsequently, extensive negoaons between the Wehrmacht and the SS in order to reach broad agreement. • A series of criminal orders from the Wehrmacht mark the character of the forthcoming campaign. – „Kriegsgerichtsbarkeitserlass“, 13.5.1941 – „Richtlinien über das Verhalten der Truppe in Russland“, 19.5.1941 – „Richtlinien zur Behandlung polischer Kommissare“, 6.6.1941 • In addion, the "Hunger Plan" provided that many "10 million people" would die as a result of the exploitaon of the country, which was considered necessary for war. • Racist and an-Semic orientaon was an integral part of the enre warfare. • This also systemacally abolished the disncon between military operaons and murderous occupaon policy. Consequences • 27 million vicms on the Soviet side • 8,4 million Red Army soldiers killed in combat • 15 million civilians killed 50,000 captured Red Army soldiers at Milerovo in May 1942 without food The fate of Soviet prisoners of war • A total of about 5.7 million Red Army soldiers in German capvity as prisoners of war. • 3.3 million died unl the end of the war, i. e. nearly 58 percent. • Vicms of insufficient supply, but also shoongs, countless excesses. Ø Mass mortality ended with the failure of the German "Blitzkrieg" strategy and the need for forced laborers for the war economy. Oerbke 1941, inscripon „death candidate“, In German capvity as prisoners of war died: • During World War I - 1,434,000 Russian soldiers - 5,4 % • During World War II - 232,000 Brish and US soldiers - 3,6 % • During World War II - 5,700,000 Red Army soldiers - 57,9 % Vicms of the famine blockade in Leningrad Leningrad • Enclosure of the city by Heeresgruppe Nord in September 1941. • At that me there were about 3 million people in the city. • Systemac German blockade, prevenon of every possible supply, prevenon of escape aempts. • Duraon of the blockade unl 18.1.1944, almost 900 days. Ø Total number of deaths esmated at about 1 million people Nazi starvaon policy and the "parsan warfare" • Millions of other vicms among the Soviet civilian populaon as a result of systemac food deprivaon • As a consequence of the connuously radicalized "parsan warfare" – hundreds of villages exterminated – hundreds of thousands of civilians shot to death Deportaon of civilian populaon through Waffen SS, 1943 A unit of the Waffen SS burns down a village, 1943 Murderous forced displacement 7-12/1943 Nazi "euthanasia", murder of the Roma • A total of about 17,000 paents of psychiatric hospitals in the German-occupied territories of the Soviet Union were shot or suffocated in gas vans. • Oen at the same me as the killing of Jews in the Soviet Union, SS and police units murdered about 30,000 Roma. Shoah in the Soviet Union • Thousands of shoongs • Range from a few vicms to the Nazi reporng of 33,771 people shot in Babyn Jar, Kiev • Total number of vicms 2.4 million ˃ New research and mediaon approaches provide more detailed knowledge of the dimension - Shoong squad of security police and SD Protagonists of the exterminaon policy • 3,000 members of the four “Einsatzgruppen”, Sipo and SD • 1942 59 Bataillons Order Police • Divisions and three Brigades Waffen SS • Wehrmacht with mulple support and with units such as the 707. Infantry Division directly involved. • Thousands of officials within the Nazi civil administraon. • By the end of 1942, 300,000 nave supporters in „Schutzmannschaen“ Ø Several hundred thousand people directly involved Propaganda call for female SS volunteers Women's parcipaon • In 1945, the Gestapo headquarters in Berlin and Vienna had reached 40% female staff. • Approximately 2,400 female SS volunteers worked as staff and messaging assistants in the Waffen SS. • Approximately 10,000 women worked in the civilian administraon of the German occupied Soviet Union. • Thousands of wives accompanied their husbands. to the German-occupied East. SS-Stubaf. Gustav Lombard, SS cavalry regiment 1: • “The ‘Entjudung’ (De-Jewificaon’) of the space allocated to the squadrons parcularly extends to the villages of Chomsk, Motol, Telechany, Swieta Wolka and Hancewicze.” SS-Stubaf. Franz Magill, SS cavalry regiment 2 • “Driving women and children into the swamps did not have the success it was supposed to have, because the swamps were not so deep that they could sink in. Aer a depth of 1 metre, in most cases, one came to firm ground (probably sand), so that sinking was not possible.” • Stubaf. Franz Magill: Murder of men and boys Ø Redeployment • Stubaf. Lombard: "Entjudung" of his operaonal area Ø Award Iron Cross, promoon Ø Genesis of the Holocaust as a system of trial and error. Thus, the most radical soluon was achieved through a system of recognion and rejecon. Ø Within a few weeks SS Einsatzgruppen, police baalions and local collaborators took over the murderous pracce; the Shoah in the Soviet Union had become a reality. • In Bialystok by PB 309 on 27.6.1941 murder of 2,000 Jews, predominantly men. • Beginning of 8/1941 in Pinsk about 11,000 vicms, men and boys. • 26-28 August 1941 HSSPF Friedrich Jeckeln in Kamenez-Podolsk 23,000 vicms. • 29-30.9.1941 Sk 4a under Paul Bobel in Babyn Jar 33,771 vicms. Ø Brish intercepon specialists realized German "compete" for highest murder rates Hitler 25.10.1941 to Himmler und Heydrich: • Repeon of his prophecy from January 1939 and: • "Don't tell me we can't send them into the mud! Who cares about our people? It's good to be preceded by the horror of exterminang the Jews. Trying to create a Jewish state will be a failure. We will rewrite history from the race point of view." .
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