This presentation develops Hitler's fateful war against "Jewish Bolshevism" 1941-1942 (Stalingrad)

1. The 12-Year Reich
Session 4
Hitler Victorious; Sieg in Osten?
1941-1942

2. The 12-Year Reich
Session 4
Hitler Victorious; Sieg in Osten?
1941-1942
Stalingrad

3. Once again, Hitler’s junior
partner requires a rescue
first, in North Africa
then, in the Balkans
although Hitler had
once looked up to the
Duce, those days are
long gone

4. with Barbarossa, the
struggle reaches its climax

5. with Barbarossa, the
struggle reaches its climax
German surprise is
complete
initial massive victories
seem to vindicate
Hitler’s daring once
again
but by winter, doubts
begin

6. el Alamein
23 Oct-5 Nov 1942
the end of Axis
expansion in North
Africa

7. Operation
Torch
a beginning of the
American ground
presence,
8 November 1942

8. Operation
Uranus
19-22 Nov 1942 Soviet
counter offensive
pincers encircle the
German VI Army at
Stalingrad

9. By the end of 1942 Montgomery had the
Afrika Corps and the Italians in full retreat.
Paulus’ Sixth Army was encircled and
doomed. The high point of Hitler’s success
had been reached.

10. Designing a “war of
annihilation”
winter, 1941

11. 19 January 1941
accompanied by his officers, Hitler greets the
Duce for two days meeting at the Berghof

12. still tactful with his weak ally
Hitler offers aid in Greece. Two days after the Duce
leaves comes word of the fall of Tobruk.

13. Hitler’s answer to North
Africa
13 September 1940- 200,000 Italians
invaded Egypt from Libya
by January 35,000 British had
counterattacked, captured Tobruk and the
entire Italian 10th Army, some 130,000
one of the best commanders from Case
Yellow, Erwin Rommel, was sent in
February with a light Panzer division to
block further British advances
the famous Deutsches Afrikakorps (DAK)
would do far more than that for the next
18 months

14. Mussolini stumbles in Greece
October 1940-jealous of Hitler’s
triumph in the west, Mussolini
gives the Greeks an ultimatum
Prime Minister Metaxas, οχι!
(ouki)
winter in the mountains, the
Italians are halted, then thrown
back
as British troops from Egypt and
Palestine come to the aid of
Greece, Hitler reluctantly orders
German troops to finish the job

15. Balkanfeldzug
Campaign in the Balkans

16. Balkanfeldzug
Campaign in the Balkans

17. Yugoslavia complicates things

18. Yugoslavia complicates things
to prepare for the Italian bailout in Greece,
Hitler pressures the other Balkan states
Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia
join the Tripartite Pact, Nov 1940
Yugoslavia holds out until 25 March 1941
within hours of the signing, Serb officers
overthrow the Croat government
Hitler is furious. He had paid a high price,
now he is spurned.
He orders the army to invade, supported
by his Balkan allies
the Soviet invasion is set back a month and
vital forces are stripped from the southern
front

19. Gebirgsjäger in Bulgarien
Mountain troops in Bulgaria
Greek partisans in EDES

20. Yugoslav partisans Josip Broz
Tito

21. TANKS DRIVE THROUGH THE SERBIAN CITY OF ZARIBROD
there was no doubt of the outcome, but the unequal struggle seriously
strained German maintenance and cut into readiness for Barbarossa

22. practice for the war of
annihilation against
Jewish Bolshevism
partisans in Pancevo Serb POWs in Belgrade
normalizing death

23. Fall Merkur 20-30.v.41
Operation Mercury 20-30 May 1941

24. Fall Merkur 20-30.v.41
Operation Mercury 20-30 May 1941

26. dead Fallschirmjäger
sign in Greek and German
explaining the destruction
of Kandanos

27. The cost to the Germans of Operation Merkur was high. Of
the 22,000 men committed for the operation approximately
6,000 were casualties. Key figures killed during the battle:
Generalleutnant Süssmann, Major Braun, Major Scherber,
and Oberleutnant van Plessen. The mountain troops lost 20
officers and 305 other ranks, killed in action; the missing-
most of them drowned when the Royal Navy sunk the
boats transporting them, numbered 18 officers and 488
other ranks. Of the nearly 500 transport aircraft involved,
271 had been lost.

28. British cruiser York
one of 3 cruisers and 6 destroyers lost. Damaged: 1
aircraft carrier,3 battleships, 6 cruisers & 9 destroyers

29. • The British and Dominion (NZ & Aus) casualties
were 1.742 killed, 1,737 wounded and 11,835 taken
prisoner. 15 k were evacuated.
• For the Royal Navy the battle cost the
Mediterranean fleet: Over 2,000 men killed and
almost 500 wounded.

30. Bier krug
beer mug
to the victors of Crete
per usual Hitler emphasises the positive
but he would never again stage another major
airborne operation

31. Special actions
as OKH, Brauchitsch and Halder, began the
military planning for an attack in mid-May
Hitler met with his RKFdV Himmler
building on the Polish experience, Hitler
knows the army will resent SS and
Einsatzgruppen executions in their areas of
operations
again, the primary targets are not the Jews
but the leadership elements, especially the
military commisars
Jews are to be dealt with harshly, but
exactly how is not clear
in his 30 January speech, Hitler had
repeated the threat/prophecy of two years
before--the Vernichtung of European

32. Transportation -- the final
solution?
Der ewige Jude was released Nov 1940
after the fall of France the colony of Madagascar
was considered as a place for relocating
Europe’s Jews under SS supervision
Hans Frank bitterly resists the use of the Polish
General Government as a dumping ground
Adolf Eichmann, head of the Jewish section of
the SD, once favored Palestine, now looks to the
east, the Pripet marshlands, the arctic wastes
2 February--Hitler reviews past plans and future
options “...not exactly more friendly”

33. The thinking was now moving way beyond
what had been contemplated under the
Madagascar Plan, inhumane though that itself
had been. In such an inhospitable climate as
that now envisaged, the fate of the Jews would
be sealed. Within a few years most of them
would starve, freeze, or be worked to death.
The idea of a comprehensive territorial solution
to the “Jewish problem” had by now become
effectively synonymous with genocide.
Kershaw, ii, p. 351

34. the Führer cult--Soviet style
LYUBEMIE STALIN--SCHASTʼYE NARODNOYE!
Beloved Stalin--the people’s good fortune!

35. Stalin’s “purges”-- 1936-1938
traditionally thought to stem from the
assassination of Sergei Kirov, Dec, 1934
“show trials” beginning in March, 1937
first focused on political elites, “Old
Bolsheviks”
July 1937-Oct 1938-- “kulaks”, saboteurs
in agriculture and industry, military officers
3 of 5 marshals, 13 of 15 army
commanders, 8 of 9 admirals, 50 of 57
army corps commanders, 154 of 186
division commanders, 16 of 16 army
commisars, 25 of 28 army corps
commisars
In total, 30,000 members of the armed
services are executed or sent to labor
camps

36. Commisars
beginning with the Civil War,
1918-1920, the Red Army
attached political officers to each
unit
these commisars “educated” and
policed the officers and men to
ensure their communist
orthodoxy
Hitler’s order of 6 June identified
these officers for “maximum
severity”

37. The “Commisar Order”
6 June 1941
In the struggle against Bolshevism, we must not
assume that the enemy’s conduct will be based on
principles of humanity or of international law. In
particular, hate-inspired, cruel, and inhumane treatment
of prisoners can be expected on the part of all grades
of political commisars, who are the real leaders of
resistance…. As a matter of principle they will be shot
at once whether captured during operations or
otherwise showing resistance.
Kershaw, ii, p. 358

38. a strange distraction
on 10 May Hess flew to Scotland with a
harebrained peace plan. Hitler went ballistic
Rudolf Heß
the wreckage of his Me 110

39. Einsatzgruppen final briefing
(unique/special task groups)
each = 600-1,000 men recruited from various police
organizations augmented by the Waffen-SS
each divided into 4-5 Einsatzkommanden or
Sonderkommanden
top leadership was either SiPo or SD, middle ranking
officers were educated, academics, civil service,
lawyers, a Protestant pastor, even an opera singer
like the RSHA, these leaders were university educated,
of the generation too young for WW I, who had bought
the völkisch ideals in the 1920s
Heydrich, unlike Hitler, considered Jews, not commisars,
their primary target
from mid May until D-Day these 3,000 men were
ideologically prepared for their “special task”

40. At 0530 [22 June 1940], just over two hours
after the German guns had opened fire on all
borders, the new Liszt fanfares sounded over
German radios. Goebbels read out Hitler’s
proclamation….The most destructive and
barbaric war in the history of mankind was
beginning. It was the war Hitler had wanted
since the 1920s -- the war against Bolshevism.
Kershaw, ii, pp. 387-88

41. as war begins Hitler moves east

42. as war begins Hitler moves east

43. Barbarossa, 22.vi.1941

44. Barbarossa, 22.vi.1941

45. the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa
1122-1190

46. military build-up
as we saw in session 1, the Soviets had been
alarmed by German aggression

47. GLORY TO THE GREAT STALIN!
he had received intelligence reports about the
German build-up on his borders
he believed it was only a response to his own
build-up initiated when Germany sent troops into
the eastern Balkans for the Greek campaign
as initial reports poured in of massive German
attacks he refused to believe them--провокацыий
(provokatsieyee) “provocations” to get him to
begin a war
then, when denial proved impossible he became
depressed and refused to deal for several days

48. partisans behind German lines
Stalin recovers, calls for a Great Patriotic War
with partisans attacking the German rear

49. SOVIET CITIZENS
AND CITIZENS OF THE GERMAN OCCUPIED
DISTRICTS!
Help the partisans in their struggle
against the Germans. You struggle against the
Germans. Death to the German occupiers!

50. Hitler reacts to partisan war
he tells Goebbels that this
announcement “had the
advantage of allowing the
extermination of anyone who
got in the way die
Möglichkeit auszurotten,
was sich gegen uns stellt
The wide interpretation of
“partisans” by the Security
Police ensured that Jews were
particularly prominent among
the increasing numbers
liquidated”
Kershaw, ii, p. 395

51. the “final” plan
“No battle plan survives contact with the
enemy”
Hitler had insisted and continued through
the summer to insist that Moscow was
not the primary target
as initial successes seemed to offer
opportunities to wrap things up well
before winter, the generals argued for
adding strength to the center
Hitler continued to insist on the southern
front to cripple the Soviet economy and
bring vital resources to Germany

52. Wolfsschanze
Wolf’s Lair
(Adolf, from edel Wolf)

53. Führerhauptquartier
Fritz Todt was ordered in October, 1940 to build a
hardened HQ in East Prussia to be ready by spring, 1941

55. present remains
A model of the original
Führerbunker
the wooden huts
alongside are typical
of the less gloomy
spaces used prior to
air raids

56. Führer, Duce & generals
gathered around the map table in the briefings
hut at FHQ Wolfsschanze

57. here stood the barracks
in which on 20 July 1944 Claus Schenk Count
von Stauffenberg undertook an attempt to end ...

59. “THIRST” - SCULPTURE
the defense of Brest fortress
one of a few Soviet points
of pride in the opening
weeks PRINCIPAL MONUMENT & ETERNAL FLAME
THEY RESISTED TO THE DEATH
GLORY TO THE HEROES

60. Kesselschlachten
(cauldron battles)

61. Kesselschlachten
(cauldron battles)
Bialystok & Minsk--26 juni-9 juli
Smolensk --16 juli-5 august
Kiev --15-26 september
Vyazma & Bryansk --2-20 oktober

62. http://english.pobediteli.ru/

63. Bialystok
Belarus
(White Russia)
German infantry advance the old fashioned way
deutschen Panzerwagen blitzschnell

64. destroyed Russian A-20 tanks
Soviet POWs
awarding of Iron Crosses
at Bialystok

65. victory isn’t cheap
German tanks artillery, the king of battles
(a propaganda postcard)
soldiers pass a
burning village
outside Smolensk
(another propaganda postcard)

66. a frame from the new propaganda film
Sieg im Osten

67. on to the Dnieper River and Kiev
September
crossing the Bug River
Western Ukraine
August

68. Soviet POWs being fed by a
“babushka” and a German soldier
Soviet troops defending Kiev
KIEV--”The greatest
battle in history”--
Hitler

69. Kiev (Ukr. sp.)
“hero city”?
May, 1945-Stalin
designates four “hero cities”
Leningrad, Stalingrad,
Sevastopol & Odessa
in 1961 Kiev is added
when I was there in 1972
Kievans were embarrassed
to be included

70. Kremlin wall in 2005--60th anniversary
80% of males born in 1923 didn’t survive WW II

71. город герои ленинград
(gorod gyeroi Leningrad)
Hero city Leningrad
900 days from August, 1941 to January, 1944
unparalleled famine through disruption of utilities,
water and energy supply
deaths of 1.5 million civilians and evacuation of
1.4 million more, mainly women and children,
many of whom died during the evacuation due
to starvation and bombardment
economic destruction and human losses in
Leningrad on both sides exceeded those of the
battle of Stalingrad or the battle of Moscow or
the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

72. The 900 days of the siege caused unparalleled famine
through disruption of utilities, water, and energy supply.
This resulted in the deaths of 1.5 million civilians, and
evacuation of 1.4 million more, mainly women and
children, many of whom died during evacuation due to
starvation and bombardment. Of 1.5 million total Soviet
casualties, one cemetery in Leningrad has half a million
civilian victims of the siege interred. Economic
destruction and human losses in Leningrad on both sides
exceeded those of the Battle of Stalingrad, or the Battle
of Moscow, or the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki.

74. Vyazma & Bryansk
2-20 October

75. the last great success
673,000 POWs
destroyed
Soviet
AAA

76. грязь ж.
dirt, filth, mud
Our peasants must have the wings of angels
to travel over this гряжём
Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov (1821-1877)

77. • before General Winter, Stalin
committed Marshall Mud. But by late
October the temp dropped &
frostbite began
• at least when the mud froze the
army could move once more

78. WINTERSCHLACHT IM OSTEN
Winter Battle in the East
medal (obverse and reverse)
and
citation

79. Happy Moskvichanki
dig an anti-tank ditch

80. snow-covered anti-tank devices
We defend Moscow!

81. mercilessly we
grind down and
annihilate the
enemy!
sleazy Hitler is poking
through the non-
aggression pact

82. part of Hitler’s problem
Soviet strength had been drastically
underestimated

83. there’ll be this
no more
if there were
no Hitler
Soviet propaganda
leaflet

85. detail from the previous map
Marshall Zhukov directs the counteroffensive

86. Hitler’s reaction

87. Hitler’s reaction
16-17 Dec--”no retreat” order
19 Dec-- CinC of the Army, Walther von Brauchitsch
relieved of command. Hitler assumes command himself
20 Dec-- appeal to the German people to send warm
winter clothing for the troops. Panzer hero Guderian
opposes Hitler’s “no retreat” order in 5 hour audience.
26 Dec-- Guderian informed of his dismissal. Five other
generals were relieved and one died of a stroke.

88. frames from a film
urging Volksgenossen
to donate winter
clothing for the
Ostfront
the logistics to get
them to the troops
was another
matter

89. Vernichtung

90. Vernichtung

91. FULFILLING THE ‘PROPHECY’
I already stated on 1 September 1939 in the German
Reichstag -- and I refrain from over hasty prophecies-that
this war will not come to an end as the Jews imagine,with
the extermination of the European-Aryan peoples, but that
the result of this war will be the annihilation of Jewry.For
the first time the old Jewish law will now be applied: an eye
for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
Hitler speaking in the Sportpalast,
Berlin, 30 January 1942
A judgement is being carried out on the Jews which is
barbaric, but fully deserved. The prophecy which the Führer
gave them along the way for bringing about a new world war
is beginning to become true in the most terrible fashion...Here,
too, the Führer is the unswerving champion and spokesman of
a radical solution.
Goebbels, diary entry, 27 March 1942

92. the
compulsory
identification
mark
23 November 1939
the Jews of occupied
Poland
1 September 1941
the Jews of the
German Reich

94. public reaction was mixed
some wanted it applied to Mischlinge as well as
Volljuden
others were disgusted
still others openly sympathized with the victims

95. Goebbels and others were eager
to transport “their” Jews to the east.
[Goebbels was Gauleiter of Berlin
as well as Propaganda Minister]
But this awaited final victory, the
Entsieg

96. transportation “to the east”
first German Jews arrive in Lodz, 16 Oct 41

97. transportation “to the east”
first German Jews arrive in Lodz, 16 Oct 41
in autumn 1941, pressure from below
forced Hitler to agree to begin moving
Jews out of the “Old Reich”
Himmler and Heydrich began to view
Poland as the best place for the
Entlösung (final solution)
the Einsatzgruppen were overworked
shooting “dangerous elements” and
“partisans” in occupied CCCP
the crowded Polish ghettos were so
unhealthy that deaths from sickness and
starvation there seemed to be doing the
work for the Nazis

98. acts like this led to policy change
German police torment a Polish Jew while an
army officer looks on with obvious amusement

99. the last Jew in Vinnitsa

100. the last Jew in Vinnitsa
as this picture from autumn, 1941
shows, the army was as implicated in
the “action” as were the
Einsatzgruppen
Himmler was becoming concerned
about the morale of his killers
some were showing remorse as well as
fatigue
experts from the “Euthanasia Action”,
T-4, were consulted about their use of
gas
it was “more efficient, less public, and
less stressful (for the murderers, that is)

101. Death camps begin, late 1941
gassing experts from T-4 were brought in to
advise on the construction

102. Chelmno, 7 December 1941
three gas vans were put in operation • victims
included Roma (Gypsies) as well as Jews

103. “Castle”

104. Belzek
the second
extermination
camp
Purim, 3 March 1942
deportation from Lodz to
Belzek, March, 1942
Jews from Lublin, Poland to Belzek

105. Wannsee Conference, 20.i.42
here, with Heydrich as chair, the rival organizations
of the government machinery are given their orders

106. Heydrich’s aims
“...to inculcate relevant government ministries in the
RSHA’s plans to deport to the east all the Jews within
Germany’s grasp throughout Europe.
“...he was keen to ensure...that his primacy in
orchestrating the deportations was recognized by all
parties involved.”
Kershaw, ii, p. 486

107. Heydrich’s aims
“...to inculcate relevant government ministries in the
RSHA’s plans to deport to the east all the Jews within
Germany’s grasp throughout Europe.
“...he was keen to ensure...that his primacy in
orchestrating the deportations was recognized by all
parties involved.”
Kershaw, ii, p. 486

108. • Göring had given him the job at his
own request that July
• Hitler not there, may not even have
known about the meeting, probably did
• Eichmann, the transportation expert,
kept notes
• the Soviet “wastelands” no longer the
vague scene of the final solution--no
sense they’d be available soon enough.
Poland the principal scene.

109. “… without Hitler, and the unique regime he
headed, the creation of a programme to bring
about the physical extermination of the Jews
of Europe would have been unthinkable.”
Kershaw, ii, p. 495

110. while riding in this car without a bodyguard
Heydrich is assassinated, May 27th. He is given two
state funerals and the town of Lidice is destroyed

111. 1942 Showdown

112. 1942 Showdown

113. with spring, lots of good news
war in the Atlantic: U-boat losses way down while the
wolf pack strategy dramatically increased allied sinkings
Kesselschlacht for Kharkov (Kharkiv), 240,000 POWs
21 June--news that Rommel had taken Tobruk; 33,000
POWs and a huge amount of valuable supplies
Manstein takes Sevastopol and the entire Crimea is
now in German hands
28 June--Operation Blue, the drive to the Caucasus,
the great summer offensive begins well

114. Blow after blow
until the enemy is destroyed. the fine print lists
the “score” 1,044,741 POWs, 6,271 tanks &c

115. Vorstoß in den Kaukasus
Raid on the Caucasus
in August, after the summer offensive,
the 1st Panzer Army, under General
Kleist began the Caucasus drive
the objective was the Maikop oilfield.
When captured, it had been expertly
sabotaged by the retreating Soviets.
problems of fuel and munition supply
limited the endurance of the
successful drive
gains in the Caucasus would be
abandoned the next year

117. СТАЛИНГРАД
Stalingrad

118. СТАЛИНГРАД
Stalingrad

119. initial plans for Stalingrad
Halder: male population to be destroyed (vernichtet),
female to be deported
11 September--Genl. von Weichs: attack on the inner
city could begin immediately & be completed in 10
days
end Sept--intense fighting, block by block, house by
house

120. the war of rats
German troops assault a factory. At least, this
winter, in proper uniforms.

121. view from the Soviet side of the Volga
by November the city was a bombed out ruins
lacking strategic value, only a symbol

122. There might indeed have been something to
be said for choosing the protection of even a
ruined city to the open, exposed steppes
over the winter had the supplies situation
been as favorable as Hitler evidently
imagined it to be, had the supply lines been
secure, and had the threat of a Soviet
counter-offensive been less large.
Kershaw, ii, p.537

123. film clip from “Enemy at the Gates”
this 2001 film centers on Soviet sniper Vassili
Zaitsev, a real hero of the “War of Rats”

125. screen shot from “Pobediteli”
the sort of detail available on this admirable
tribute to CCCP’s “Greatest Generation”

126. Deutsches Afrikakorps

127. Deutsches Afrikakorps

128. North Africa, 1940
the Duce begins the see-saw battle with his attack
from Libya towards British controlled Egypt

129. Italian failure
35,000 British troops, half non-combat, take
200,000 prisoners

130. DAK to the rescue
within 3 months of receiving the assignment,
Rommel restored matters with one light division

131. the Desert Fox
British and German press alike contributed to his
charismatic image

132. Italians view their saviors with mixed feelings
Rommel’s orders make his independent
command clear

133. initial German victories
sea supply and air control in the Mediterranean
are vital for the maintenance of German gains

134. as Rommel had advanced his
supply problems had increased
and so it would prove for Auchinleck

135. now the DAK drives east
Japan’s entry caused Australian and British
forces to be shifted to the Pacific--Rommel’s “go”

136. Britain feared loss of Suez
as German tanks drove eastward they
threatened the “lifeline to India”

137. British Crusader passes Pzkw Mk IV
El Alamein, 23 Oct-5 Nov 1942 marks the turning
point in North Africa

138. UK Ger
KIA 10,227 KIA 12,808
WIA 71,000 WIA 116,000
MIA 25,132 MIA 90,052
casualties Hitler couldn’t afford

139. after El Alamein
but that’s part of next year’s story, America’s
“blooding” and preparation for the Italian campaign

140. Operation Torch
8 November 1942

141. unopposed landings in Algiers
not so lucky in Morocco and Oran