投稿類別：史地類

篇名： The Nazi Holocaust on Slavs

作者： 高藝展。國立臺灣師範大學附屬高級中學。高二 1472 班。

指導老師: 楊慧媛老師

The Nazi Holocaust on Slavs

Table of Contents

I. Introduction ...... 1

II. Thesis ...... 1

A. The Cause: Nazi Aryan Racial Ideology ...... 1

B. The Elimination: ...... 2

C. Internal Cause: USSR Legislations and Camps ...... 3

1. Order No. 227 - The "No One Step Back!" Order ...... 3

2. Gulags - Starvation Sites on the Motherland ...... 4

D. Brutal German Starvation Campaigns ...... 4

E. German POW Camps for Slavs ...... 4

1. Deadly Transportation – Dulags ...... 4

2. Brutal Camps – Stalags ...... 5

F. German Civilian Starvation Program ...... 6

III. Conclusion ...... 7

IV. References ...... 7

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The Nazi Holocaust on Slavs

I. Introduction Current Nazi Holocaust research and documentaries focused on the Jews. Upon reading documentaries about Operation Barbarossa1, a surprising discovery was made - there might have been more Slavs killed by the German Army than the Jews. These crimes went unnoticed. Google search results for "Nazi Holocaust on Jews" showed 61.6 million hits. Only 331 thousand Google search results were found for "Nazi Holocaust on Slavs"(estimated till March 7th, 2018). This obvious disparity caught my eye, so I decided to dig deep into the truth. In the initial stages of research, the USSR (former Union of the Soviet Socialist Republic or the ) was also found to one of the major criminals. Joseph Stalin, one of its best- known tyrants in history, starved its own citizens. Since the cold war started, this case was quickly forgotten by their government. There were no official record or relevant statistics. We could only trace those brutal days through victims' diaries, or researches of war crimes cases, such as the Nuremberg trials, done by western countries. Another reason for this significant difference is that most of the Nazi massacre on Slavs were unregistered, and were often considered as a part of the battle. We often consider the Jews as the major victims of the Nazi Holocaust, but this is according to official records. The Holocaust on Slavs is a completely different case. Most of the killings were unregistered or executed without witnesses. But the USSR, under the Joseph Stalin regime, also used starvation as a policy, such policies will be mentioned in the following clauses. This article is going to discuss what political factors were on both Germany and the USSR, and also how the Slavs suffered in those camps.

II. Thesis A. The Cause: Nazi Aryan Racial Ideology The Nazi was perhaps the greatest believer on Social Darwinist and was also the only one that put it into practice, and even national law. Hitler blamed the loss of not on the war tactics used by the German Empire, which was led by Kaiser Wilhelm II,

1 Operation Barbarossa was the codename of Germany's USSR invasion plan, this was named after the Holy Roman Empire Emperor Frederick I, or Frederick Barbarossa, who led the Third Crusade 1

The Nazi Holocaust on Slavs but on the Communists and the Jews, whom he declared turned the German society into chaos. Not only Hitler but also a large portion of German citizens thought the same. Hitler greatly used the hatred of Germans to gradually lead to his total power. After Hitler established the Third Reich, he was thrilled to start the extermination campaigns on Jews and communists. But Hitler has greater concerns, as Germany had become far weaker than she was before World War I, she had to maintain peace with other great European powers that was ruled by governments with appeasement diplomatic policies. This led to the great success of the Blitzkrieg on Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Western Europe. Hitler before would like to purge his remaining enemy on the West Front, Great Britain, but he failed, under the persisting and encouraging government led by a former World War I hero Sir Winston Churchill. He then turned the Nazi War machine on the USSR, one of his greatest mortal enemies. This "Enemy" wasn't just a matter of purification of human species, but also an obstacle standing between Germans and their "living space" His plan was to wipe out all Slavs and replace their territory with Germans, whom he so-called Aryans. So Germany's assault on was not like any ordinary war. It was the war of elimination—eradicating lower races to purify the human species. B. The Elimination: Operation Barbarossa After Operation Barbarossa started on May 22nd, 1941, the Luftwaffe2 stormed the naval bases and the airfields of the USSR and destroyed a quarter of USSR naval and air force. Before the Soviet Army could react to the ambush on the 3000-mile Molotov- Ribbentrop Line3, the German Army had occupied what is now Ukraine, Belarus, and the Baltic States. Under the extreme Nazi racial discrimination policy, the Slavs were recognized as "subhuman." To the Nazis, the Soviet campaign was no ordinary war, but a war of German "Aryans" versus" subhuman" Slavs and Jews. German pushed into the great Russian Wilderness and starved people in the major cities such as Kharkov, Leningrad, and Kiev. The Nazis also mistreated the Soviet POWs (prisoners of war). Figure 1 shows the major Soviet POW camps established in the occupied Soviet territory. Prisoners in those camps could barely get any food, the Soviet soldiers thought the Germans were teaching them to be like comrades, but the Germans wanted them to starve to death. Those who survived the camps were fortunate.

2 Luftwaffe is the German Air Force; the name is still being used today 3 Border between Germany and the USSR according to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact issued by the Soviet Union and Germany after Poland's defeat 2

The Nazi Holocaust on Slavs

Picture 1. Major German Starvation Camps on USSR Territory (Snyder, T. (2010), Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin(p.171), New York: Basic Books) C. Internal Cause: USSR Legislations and Camps 1. Order No. 227 - The "No One Step Back!" Order Order No. 227 by the People’s Commissar of the USSR4, issued by Joseph Stalin in 1942, was the main cause of the rising rate of Slav POWs. Stalin(1942) declared in the order that, "Some stupid people at the front calm themselves with talk that we can retreat further to the east, as we have a lot of territory, a lot of ground, a lot of population and that there will always be much bread for us. They want to justify the infamous behaviour at the front. But such talk is a falsehood, helpful only to our enemies." In fact, that is not a falsehood at all. As Operation Barbarossa started, the German Luftwaffe stormed military facilities in Eastern Europe. With nearly 25% of naval and air forces of the USSR destroyed, they could barely combat with the mighty German Panzer and Luftwaffe. The USSR luckily had the harsh climate and the vast land as the greatest defender during the war. Instead of utilizing them, Joseph Stalin decided to take action, which is the same action the Russian Empire took in World War I, sending a massive amount of troops to outnumber the enemy. According to the last clauses of the order, defensive squads were even placed behind the unstable units, or units that might retreat. If they ever were to retreat, the defensive squad would kill them all. As for the generals who ordered the retreat, the Soviet government had them jailed, executed or exiled to the vast wilderness of Siberia. Under those circumstances, the order to retreat was unfeasible. The Soviet commanders eventually stopped ordering retreats, which led to more captivations by the dreadful Nazi army.

4 the highest government authority of executive power in the USSR, the chairman of the council was eventually the head of government 3

The Nazi Holocaust on Slavs 2. Gulags5 - Starvation Sites on the Motherland The USSR had starved her citizens since the establishment of the nation. The major campaigns, like the Nazis, were in camps. Such camps in the USSR were called "Gulags". After Vladimir Lenin passed away, Joseph Stalin was nominated as the General Secretary, or the leader, after a bloody coup against Leon Trotsky. In order to get rid of his political enemies, he established camps called Gulags. At first, the camps were in small scales, only for Stalin's political enemies. Later, Soviet authorities, found the camp useful for controlling her citizens, so the government later used the camps to execute "the enemy of the state" and specific races. For instance, the Armenians, the Ukrainians, and the Asians. The conditions of the camps were no better than the German concentration camps but worse. Like the Germans, the camps were designed to starve, not to starve criminals, but her own citizens, innocent citizens. D. Brutal German Starvation Campaigns Because the German starvation campaigns had never turned into an actual policy, the starving campaign was left untraceable in the Nuremberg Court, unlike the Jewish extermination campaigns. The Jewish extermination campaigns required special facilities, but the starvation campaign in the USSR required none of them. The starving on civilians was no difference with a formal siege. The POW camps for the Slavs were like any other camps for British and American soldiers, were divided into 3 categories, the Dulag6 (for transit), the Stalag7 (for enlisted men and non-commissioned officers), and the Oflags8 (for officers) The prime difference between those camps in western Europe and starving camps for the Slavs was that there were nearly no food provided for Slav POWs. These starvation camps were built on abandoned barracks or factories, while the ones for British and American soldiers were completely constructed. However, the facilities were only used by German administrative officers, while the POWs were standing in freezing open air, without any food. The USSR POWs struggled to lick utensils tossed into the crowd of prisoners. They also fought for dead corpses to eat. As the POWs fought for survival, Nazi officers laughed at them, considering those actions as “sub-humanity”. The devastating situation in those camps can be found by examining the Dulag and Stalag camps established on USSR soil. E. German POW Camps for Slavs 1. Deadly Transportation – Dulags After the Soviet troops surrendered, they were placed in Dulags or transit camps. Unlike concentration camps for Jews, who were registered in names; the POWs, however, were only labelled. The death rates during transportation reach as high as 70%. As we can see in picture 2, soldiers captured were forced to march 400 kilometres in the freezing, open air. Exhausted prisoners would be whipped by German soldiers. If they refuse to move, the Germans would have them shot at the spot. The wounded and sick were already shot when they were captured. The train journey to POW camps was another great catastrophe. The Nazis transported Soviet POWs in open freight cars. Without receiving any rations on their 3 to 4-day journey to POW

5 the abbreviation of Gladney Upravleniye Lagerej 6 the abbreviation of Durchgangslager 7 the abbreviation of Stammlager 8 the abbreviation of Offizierslager

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The Nazi Holocaust on Slavs camps, thousands of frozen corpses were thrown out of the train after the doors were opened, most of the POWs in Dulags were frozen, while others starved to death.

Picture 2. The Treatment of Soviet POWs. (Retrieved July 15th, 2018, from: https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-treatment-of-soviet-pows- starvation-disease-and-shootings-june-1941january-1942) 2. Brutal Camps – Stalags Stalags were camps for low-rank soldiers and non-commissioned officers. Those soldiers were martyrs of the two tyrants of Europe: Hitler and Stalin. Hitler had never thought Russians as the same species as Germans. So the SS guards treated them like cattle. After the train arrived, with 70% dead, they were forced into a tiny, open space, often in abandoned factories or warehouses. They were given no food. Because the USSR starved as a policy, the POWs thought that they won't be starved as they were back in their country. But they didn't realize how the Germans thought they were. So they first thought the Germans starved them to make them like comrades, but they soon realize they were wrong. German camp administrators would ride their horses into the crowd and whip the prisoners to death. The death ratio had reached 64% in those brutal camps. Probably the most noteworthy of those camps was the Stalag Luft III. Luft, in German, means air force. This camp was built to hold air force soldiers. Most of the Soviet officers and a few British and American officers were imprisoned here. These two races were treated differently in the camp. Because the Nazis thought the Slavs were subhuman, but the English were considered as human beings, the same class as Germans. So the British and American were treated like humans, but the Slavs were treated like cattle. So the death rates of Slavs had reached 64% in POW camps, while the British and American were below 1%. While the Slav prisoners were starving, the British prisoners were well-treated. Even when the British prisoners failed to escape, the commander of the camp gave them champagne, and said: "Better luck next time, even if I'm not supposed to say so." We can see how differently the Slavs were treated from other Allied prisoners of war in those camps.

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The Nazi Holocaust on Slavs F. German Civilian Starvation Program German civilian starvation program focused on three major cities - Leningrad, Kiev, Kharkiv. As the German Panzer advanced near Leningrad, they encountered another group of comrades – Finland. Finland, a nation threatened by the USSR, seek World War II as a great opportunity to eliminate her greatest enemy and to regain the port that she had lost during the reign of the Russian Czar Peter the Great. So the Finnish intend to recapture the city. But Nazi Germany planned things in a completely different aspect. The German wanted no subhuman to remain on the planet, so their intention was to demolish the city and killed all of her citizens. The Finns had little authority, and no power to reject or even slightly change Germany's plan. So the starving started and was known as the "", even though the Nazis had no intentions to conquer the city. The siege lasted for about 3 years, and was known as "the 900-day siege". The siege did actually meet the goals of the Nazis, estimated 650,000 lives were claimed in 1942 alone. Although there wasn't a complete documentation on the event, there were still some traceable records although unofficial, but were the truest. Those important records were done by Leningraders, who wrote diaries to record the loss of their neighbours and families. Among those diary entries, the most prominent one was done by a six-year-old girl named Tanya Savicheva. Her diary recorded not only the loss of her entire family but also the condition of how the Leningraders suffered from the siege. She decided to start keeping a diary when her sister, Nina, did not return one day from work after the Axis powers invaded Russia. The family thought that Nina was dead, so Tanya's mother gave her Nina's notebook for memory, but instead, she was evacuated by the government. Tanya picked it up and start writing; this became the solid evidence of the Nazi cruelty. The diary was now well-preserved at the St. Petersburg Museum of history. On her grave in Novgorod, Russia, there is a quote: "Short life. Proud and beautiful memory. I will send you much happiness and love with my prayers!" This symbolized Tanya's short but everlasting life. She passed away six days after her whole family died on June 30th, 1944, at age 14. As the people in the city seemed to be devastated about the deduction of their rations and hunger, some citizens, mostly workers and engineers, under the leadership of two state-owned firms, Admiralty Shipyard and the Kirov Plant, seek their way out of the frozen hell of Leningrad. There were several successful evacuations, which saved lives of 1.4 million. The evacuations were mostly operated in the freezing winter of Russia, which the Germans had a harsh time on, via on the east. Such successful evacuations can be divided into three waves, in the summer and winter in 1941, and the summer in 1942. The evacuation between June and August 1941 happened when the Leningraders realized the German army was closing in. The citizens quickly organize an evacuation for children and government officials. The first evacuation evacuated 336,000 people to Northern Russia and Siberia. The second evacuation occurred between September 1941 and April 1942 was the largest. As the Germans couldn't bear the harsh winter in Russia, the citizens were evacuated by watercrafts and ice vehicles via the frozen Lake Ladoga. This time was the civilians to be evacuated. Nearly 663 thousand Leningraders were evacuated.

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The Nazi Holocaust on Slavs The third wave was a fortunate move. As the Germans deducted the number of troops stationed in Leningrad and deploy them south for the famous Battle of Stalingrad, the citizens organized the third evacuation. This time was also through Lake Ladoga, estimated 403,000 citizens were evacuated.

III. Conclusion The Nazi regime devoted to Social Darwinism, and had a similar caste system as the Aryans in India. The Nazis claimed that the Germanic race were descendants of the Aryans, which belong to the Indo-European ethnolinguistic group, as the highest race class. The Germanic race included the English, the Americans, the French, the Swedish, and every other major race that lived in Western Europe. As the Nazi declared, the Germanic Race should be the race that dominates the world. The Slavs and the Jews, which the Nazi declared as “devils of Communism”, were the lowest of the low. The Nazis had strong intentions of eradicating them from the world. The Nazis “almost” succeed in their goal, and if they really did, it will be a total humanitarian catastrophe. However, the world only focused on to the extent of damage the Nazis inflicted on the Jews, but seldom realized the chaos that the Nazis had done to the Slavs. What is the reason behind the mistreatment? It was the Soviet Union, under dictatorship rule of the Communist Government, which controlled what the citizens can know. Soviet historians knew clearly that their government was one of the culprits. Ironically, they cannot do any further research to bring justice not only for their country but also the Slavs. Under dictatorship, such record and statistics were demolished or secretly altered by the government. We can take a brief look into the Soviet situation only to realize how important the freedom of speech and press were, not only for normal citizens but also for the righteousness of every research. American writer Lois McMaster Bujold(1999) once said, “The dead cannot cry out for justice. It is a duty of the living to do so for them.” It is a duty, not a choice, for anyone to make, not even governments. It is the time for the truth to be revealed, for justice to return, return to those who have perished in the war. We can’t hide from or ignore the scars of history. Only when we face it up front and treat it as a great lesson, can we bear in mind that humanity shall never repeat it again.

IV. References 1. Snyder, T. (2010). Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin. New York: Basic Books 2. Crew, D. (2005). Hitler and the Nazis: A History in Documents. New York: Oxford University Press 3. Wray, T. (1986). Standing Fast: German Defensive Doctrine on the Russian Front During World War II. Kansas: .S. Army Command and General Staff College 4. Applebaum, A. (2003). Gulag: A History. Great Britain: The Penguin Press 5. National Commissar for the Defence of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republic. (1942). Order No.227 by the People's Commissar of Defence of the USSR. Moscow: Author 6. Bujold, L.M. (1999). Diplomatic Immunity. Washington: Earthlight Books 7. Memorial and Museum, Auschwitz-Birkenau. Retrieved July 15th, 2018, from: http://auschwitz.org/en/history/categories-of-prisoners/other-ethnic-groups/ 8. Nazi Persecution of Soviets Prisoner of War - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved July 15th, 2018, from: https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/nazi-persecution-of-soviet-prisoners-of-war

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The Nazi Holocaust on Slavs 9. Germans Reject Geneva Convention - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved July 15th, 2018, from: https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-treatment-of-soviet-pows-starvation- disease-and-shootings-june-1941january-1942 10. Tanya Nikolayevna Savicheva (1930-1944) - Find A Grave Memorial. Retrieved July 15th, 2018, from: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/60320159# 11. Stalag Oflag POW. Retrieved July 15th, 2018, from: http://stalagoflagpow.com/ 12. Victims of the Nazi Era: Nazi Racial Ideology - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved July 15th, 2018, from: https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/victims-of-the-nazi-era-nazi-racial-ideology 13. WWII Soviet Experience - Eisenhower Institute at Gettysburg College. Retrieved July 15th, 2018, from: http://www.eisenhowerinstitute.org/about/living_history/wwii_soviet_experience.dot 14. A teacher's guide to the Holocaust. Retrieved July 15th, 2018, from: http://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/PEOPLE/USHMMPOL.HTM 15. How Many People Died in World War 2 | World War 2 Casualties. Retrieved July 15th, 2018, from: https://worldwar2.org.uk/how-many-people-died-in-world-war-2

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