Hitler’s War
description
Transcript of Hitler’s War
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Hitler’s WarLeading up to Operation Barbarossa
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Hitler, Adolf
+Political Objective for Hitler
“Destruction” of Jewish Bolshevism
Bolshevism
Defeat of USSR would cause London to surrender
+Resources, resources, resourcesGermany wanted
direct access to the food and mineral resources of Russia
In FWW, Germany’s lack of resources led to defeat
+Invading Russia “was not fatal”
It can be argued that:
Invading Russia was not the fatal mistake of Germany
Rather, the mistake was the invasion of Poland that ultimately led to war
+Attack was not preemptive
Goebbels:
“Stalin and his people remain completely inactive. Like a rabbit confronted by a snake.”
+War of annihilation
“Vernichtungsschlacht”
Annihilation of the enemy’s forces
Halder and General Marcks
+Marcks and Halder
+Looked similar to France and Poland – but…
Hitler intensions
extinction
+Barbarossa was Imperialistic
Russia would provide food and raw resources for the Germans
The Reich expected mass starvation
+Political extinction
Soviet System could not be allowed to survive
+Generalplan Ost
General Plan for the East
Subjugation of the Slavs
Annihilation of the Jews and all officials of the State and the Soviet Party
+German versus Soviet Officers
German officers were better trained and more experienced
The purges did there job
+Germans Officers
German army stressed education and initiative
+Soviet Officers
Much less freedom on the battlefield
The purges depleted the officers Corps
Very few experienced officers left
+Idiots
The People’s Commissar of Defence from 1925 up until May 1940 was an incompetent crony of Stalin’s
Voroshilov