1. Operation Barbarossa and the Escalation of the Holocaust Daniel Uziel, Yad Vashem

2. Background and planning Hitler’s animosity towards the Soviet Union was based on: 1.Racism – He viewed the Slavic peoples as inferior. 2.Anti-Semitism – Hitler viewed communism as a Jewish phenomenon and the Jews as the real rulers of the SU. 3.Fear of communism as a threat on German nationality. Fear of communism was not unique to Germany in the 20s-30s, but only there it became part of a comprehensive ideology. August 1939: the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was a tactical move by both countries.

3. Background and planning Planning started in August 1940, while Germany still prepared to invade England. General plan first appeared in “Führer’s order no.21: Operation Barbarossa” in December 1940. Aims of the invasion: elimination of the Soviet state and creation of an Arian living space. Method – conquest of 3 strategic places: Moscow, Leningrad, Ukraine-Caucasus Map

5. Balance of military power Germany & Allies (in the East) USSR (in the West) Ratio Divisions1661900.87:1 Soldiers4,306,8003,289,8511.3:1 Canons42,60159,7870.7:1 Tanks4,17115,6870.27:1 Aircraft4,38911,5370.38:1

6. German advance until December 1941

7. Soviet counter-offensive, winter 1941/1942

8. Plans for the occupied East Demography: Plans to get rid of around 36 million people in the East.The “Hunger/Backe Plan”. Administration: Initially military administration and then Ostministerium. Security: Securing the occupied territories before handing them over to the civilian administration. On 13/3/1941 Hitler gives Himmler executive powers in the occupied East. Herbert Backe Alfred Rosenberg

9. Establishment of the Einsatzgruppen Small Einsatzgruppen were used in former German invasions. May 1941: 4 Einsatzgruppen were established with 3,000 men. Mission of the Einsatzgruppen: to kill partisans, communists, Jewish men and other troublemakers.

10. Escalation of the killing Indiscriminate killing of Jews during local pogroms incited by the Germans. Fighting partisans and cutoff Soviet soldiers used as a pretext for indiscriminate killing. Other branches joined the Einsatzgruppen in July: Police, Wehrmacht, Waffen SS. From mid-August the Germans expanded the killng operation accross the entire front. In October the governor of the Lublin District asks to expend the killings to his district. Map

11. March of the Einsatzgruppen

12. Escalation in Romania, Hungary & Slovakia A dramatic escalation right after the invasion: Antonescu ordered on 27/6/1941 the cleansing of Iasi. Romanian troops marching into Bessarabia and Bukovina started mass killing of Jews in these regions. Hungary deported Jews from Carpato- Ruthenia in July 1941. August 1941 – The “Third Jewish Law”. Slovakia sought to deport it Jew, October 1941.

13. Conclusion The Holocaust was the result of a series of decisions made in summer 1941-early 1942 – the timeframe of “Operation Barbarossa”. The fight against Bolshevism gave the Germans a perfect pretext for persecuting the Jews German military successes in the East gave them access to around one million Jews. During “Barbarossa” an exterminatory dynamics developed in the East and contributed to the escalation of the killing.