The Occupation of the Soviet Union

Brief Military Overview & Impact on Soviet Prisoners of War and Civilians   

Adolf Hitler had decided to attack the Soviet Union as early as July 1940, directly after the victory over the French, and Allied Forces, but for once he listened to the objections of his Generals and decided to delay the invasion, due to concerns over the weather and the need to build up the Wehrmacht  and Luftwaffe forces.

Hitler’s decision to attack the Soviet Union under the title of Barbarossa, named after Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, one of the heroes of German history, who at the close of the 12^th century marched with his knights against the infidel in the Holy Land, was designed to give the German people “Lebensraum” – Living Space.  

The German General Staff submitted various plans but Hitler’s variant – Barbarossa in December 1940 was the plan that was put into action. His plan envisaged the weight of the invasion was now decisively shifted to the North.

Leningrad became the main military target and Moscow was to be taken afterwards, while the operations in the South were initially confined to the occupation of the Ukraine West of Kiev.

All the variants proposed had the gigantic intention of destroying the Red Army in huge battlements of encirclement in the Baltic States, Belorussia and the Ukraine, to prevent the Soviet forces escaping into the interior of Russia.

The German and Axis forces that invaded the Soviet Union were split into three Army Groups:

Shortly after 0300 hours on the 22 June 1941 the whole of the German front line from the Carpathians to the Baltic moved forward after a short artillery bombardment across the demarcation line, while Luftwaffe squadrons above them flew far into Russia, facing them were 4 Russian Military Districts, as follows:

Read more here:  http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/nazioccupation/sovietunion.html

The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

www.HolocaustResearchProject.org

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