hitler believed that the russians were sub-human (the ‘untermenschen’ ) and that they had no right to live where they did
also many jews lived in russia (also known as the USSR at this time) and hitler wanted them exterminated
in june 1941 the largest land attack in history -‘operation barbarossa’ took place - a massive hit by the germans on russia
the german attack on russia involved: 3 million soldiers, 3580 tanks, 7184 artillery guns, 1830 planes, 750,000 horses
the defeat of an entire german army at stalingrad was the turning point of wwii because the german army could now only go in one direction and that was no way back
the battle of stalingrad was one of the bloodiest battles in history, with combined military and civilian casualties of nearly 2 million - the russians were determined to defend the city as a vital industrial and transportation center, they were burning alive to not give fascists a chance to cross the volga river
the siege of leningrad lasted for a total of 900 days, from september 8, 1941 until january 27, 1944. the city’s almost 3 million civilians (including about 400,000 children) refused to surrender and endured rapidly increasing hardships in the encircled city. the city’s food rations reached an all time low of only 125 grams (about ¼ of a pound) of bread per person per day. In just two months, january and february of 1942, 200,000 people died in leningrad of cold and starvation. despite these tragic losses and the inhuman conditions the city’s war industries still continued to work and the city did not surrender
while the army was fighting the russian army, soldiers from the ss einsatzgruppen murdered hundreds of thousands of civilians
the slaughter of civilians was so great that heinrich himmler believed that the policy of shooting civilians might disturbed those doing the killing
a direct result of this was the order to find a quicker way of murdering the people of russia and the idea of death factories developed from this which lead to the holocaust
the defeat of the germans by the russians was vital to the allies overall victory in europe - over two-thirds of the german army was in the russian war and its defeat meant that the allies in the west (GB, FR and USA) had more chance of success against a smaller force
winston churchill himself stated that it was the russians who “tore the heart out of the german army”
during the battle of berlin ( aka the final major offensive of the european theatre of wwii) the soviet army raised its flag over the reichstag - the most important strategic target in berlin - and it becomes a symbol of a total fascists capitulation and of unofficial end of the war
total soviet population losses due to the war at 26.9 million people
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