Martin Cüppers
Nazi policy of extermination in the Soviet Union 1941-1944 Dimension and perpetrators
!!www.uni-stuttgart.de Prepara ons • Hitler 21.7.1940 instruc on to Wehrmacht commanders for prepara ons for war against Soviet Union; planning as "Blitzkrieg“. • Subsequently, extensive nego a ons 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 poli scher Kommissare“, 6.6.1941 • In addi on, the "Hunger Plan" provided that many "10 million people" would die as a result of the exploita on of the country, which was considered necessary for war. • Racist and an -Semi c orienta on was an integral part of the en re warfare.
• This also systema cally abolished the dis nc on between military opera ons and murderous occupa on policy. Consequences
• 27 million vic ms 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 cap vity as prisoners of war. • 3.3 million died un l the end of the war, i. e. nearly 58 percent. • Vic ms of insufficient supply, but also shoo ngs, 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, inscrip on „death candidate“, In German cap vity as prisoners of war died:
• During World War I - 1,434,000 Russian soldiers - 5,4 % • During World War II - 232,000 Bri sh and US soldiers - 3,6 % • During World War II - 5,700,000 Red Army soldiers - 57,9 % Vic ms 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. • Systema c German blockade, preven on of every possible supply, preven on of escape a empts. • Dura on of the blockade un l 18.1.1944, almost 900 days.
Ø Total number of deaths es mated at about 1 million people Nazi starva on policy and the "par san warfare"
• Millions of other vic ms among the Soviet civilian popula on as a result of systema c food depriva on • As a consequence of the con nuously radicalized "par san warfare" – hundreds of villages exterminated – hundreds of thousands of civilians shot to death Deporta on of civilian popula on 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 pa ents of psychiatric hospitals in the German-occupied territories of the Soviet Union were shot or suffocated in gas vans.
• O en 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 shoo ngs • Range from a few vic ms to the Nazi repor ng of 33,771 people shot in Babyn Jar, Kiev • Total number of vic ms 2.4 million
˃ New research and media on approaches provide more detailed knowledge of the dimension -
Shoo ng squad of security police and SD Protagonists of the extermina on policy
• 3,000 members of the four “Einsatzgruppen”, Sipo and SD • 1942 59 Bataillons Order Police • Divisions and three Brigades Waffen SS • Wehrmacht with mul ple support and with units such as the 707. Infantry Division directly involved. • Thousands of officials within the Nazi civil administra on. • By the end of 1942, 300,000 na ve supporters in „Schutzmannscha en“
Ø Several hundred thousand people directly involved Propaganda call for female SS volunteers Women's par cipa on
• 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 administra on 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-Jewifica on’) of the space allocated to the squadrons par cularly 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. A er 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 opera onal area Ø Award Iron Cross, promo on
Ø Genesis of the Holocaust as a system of trial and error. Thus, the most radical solu on was achieved through a system of recogni on and rejec on.
Ø Within a few weeks SS Einsatzgruppen, police ba alions and local collaborators took over the murderous prac ce; 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 vic ms, men and boys. • 26-28 August 1941 HSSPF Friedrich Jeckeln in Kamenez-Podolsk 23,000 vic ms. • 29-30.9.1941 Sk 4a under Paul Bobel in Babyn Jar 33,771 vic ms.
Ø Bri sh intercep on specialists realized German "compete" for highest murder rates
Hitler 25.10.1941 to Himmler und Heydrich:
• Repe on 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 extermina ng the Jews. Trying to create a Jewish state will be a failure. We will rewrite history from the race point of view."