Untermenschen

Captured Russian troops being marched westwards, away from the fighting. During the first eighteen days of the German invasion the Soviet Western Front alone recorded nearly 420,000 casualties out of an initial strength of 625,000 men. Prisoners of war accounted for the vast majority of the casualties.

Harshness on the German side was directed at the Russian people, whom Hitler regarded as subhuman (Untermenschen). Captured Soviet soldiers were not treated according to the Geneva Convention, unlike those of the western Allies. During the first few days after surrendering this was sometimes understandable, since the German armies did not have sufficient food and shelter immediately available to provide for the sometimes hundreds of thousands trapped in the great pockets. But thereafter, once they were in proper POW camps, their treatment did not change. Indeed, it became worse, with most captured Russians being employed as slave labour.

Hitler had two specific targets among the Soviet population. One was members of the Communist Party, whose fate was enshrined in his infamous Commissar Order, issued before the invasion took place, and which called for the summary execution of all political officers. The Russian Jews were also to be rooted out. This task was given to the SS Einsatzgruppen (Special Groups) following up behind the armies, who were literally extermination squads. While the Wehrmacht tried to distance itself from their activities, it was drawn in, even If this was merely witnessing mass executions carried out by the Einsatzgruppen.

Yet many Russians in the overrun territories, especially in the Ukraine, where desire for total autonomy had always been strong, welcomed the invader. They believed that the Germans had come to liberate them from the Communist yoke. Fed with Nazi racial doctrine, the Germans failed to grasp the significance of this, even though, as their casualties mounted, they did recruit a sizeable number of Russian POWs into their army. These were known as Hiwis (Hilfswillige, or 'voluntary helpers'). But soon many others, once they realized the true nature of their occupiers, turned against the Germans and an increasing number joined the bands of partisans being formed in the forests and marshes by soldiers who had evaded capture. Soon these were to become an increasing thorn in the flesh of the German lines of communication. But the resolve of the Russian people was also stiffened when Stalin began to appeal directly to their patriotism rather than exhorting them to defend Marxist-Leninism.