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| Men of the Leibstandarte SS on the Azov Sea in Ukraine |
The launch of Operation
Barbarossa - the invasion of the Soviet Union - surprised the Soviet secret police NKVD, whose jails and prisons in territories annexed by the Soviet Union were crowded with political prisoners. Immediately after the start of the German invasion, the NKVD and the Red Army commenced the execution of large numbers of prisoners in most of their prisons. Approx. two thirds of the total number of 150,000 prisoners were murdered. The NKVD undertook mass extrajudicial executions of untold numbers of citizens, and conceived, populated and administered the Gulag system of forced labor camps. During their hasty retreat the Soviets dismantled and removed industrial plants, conducted a scorched-earth policy - blowing up buildings and installations, destroying crops and food reserves and flooding mines. Almost four million people were evacuated east of the Urals for the duration of the war. The Soviets immediately began to execute German prisoners-of-war right after capture or a short interrogation. Numerous high level orders to this effect are on record. The Germans moved swiftly, however, and by the end of Nov. 1941 virtually all of Ukraine was under their control. Initially the German soldiers were welcomed as liberators by jubilant Ukrainian villages. In Galicia especially, there had long been a widespread belief that Germany was the Ukrainians’ natural ally for the attainment of their independence from the yoke of Soviet Russian Bolshevism. Top image: the barely 24-year-old Knight's Cross holder SS-Obersturmführer
Gerhard Bremer in the SS white summer service tunic somewhere on the Azov Sea coast during the first year of the Russian campaign. Credit: Orianne W. FU. Middle image: girls in national costume greet arriving Leibstandarte SS troops with bread and salt at the entrance in a Ukrainian village. Bottom image: soldiers and officers of the Leibstandarte SS poses with Ukrainian women in traditional costumes at the summer festival near the Azov Sea. c. Bundesarchiv.
The Liberation of Ukraine: http://www.renegadetribune.com/the-liberation-of-ukraine/
ReplyDeleteEveryone thought at the beginning that the war will result in the complete defeat of the Soviet Union. Far from being frightened by the arrival of the Nazis, the Ukrainians welcomed them. The collapse of Soviet Communism that happened in the 1990s could have happened at that time. But despite initially acting warmly to the idea of an independent Ukraine, the Nazi administration had other ideas, particularly the Lebensraum programme, and the warm welcome turned cold.
DeleteIn 1941, after the outbreak of the German offensive against the Russians, all prisoners in Sambor prison in western Ukraine were executed without any trial. The torture that was meted out was beyond description. But deductions can be made from the bashed skulls, mouth cavities stuffed with broken glass, ear cavities with nails, et cetera. These massacres took place about 2 or 3 days before the Soviet retreat from Galicia before the invasion of Hitler's armies. Ukrainian prisoners slaughtered by the NKVD in Kharkiv prisons were found in mass graves in Stalino. 10,000 brutally tortured bodies of Ukrainians were discovered by the Germans in a mass grave in Vynnycia. Mass graves of thousands of NKVD victims were found all over Ukraine during the German occupation.
ReplyDeleteThe Soviets were horrible, devious bastards.... I wouldn't piss on one if he was on fire!
ReplyDeleteUna buona parte degli Ucraini, se non la quasi totalità, accolsero come liberatori i tedeschi, proprio per l'odio che provavano per gli occupanti russi. Il bolscevismo prima e lo stalinismo successivamente, provocò solo oppressione e povertà al popolo Ucraino.
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