-
With 134 divisions at full fighting strength and 73 more divisions for deployment behind the front, German forces invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. The invasion began less than two years after the German-Soviet Pact was signed. Three army groups attacked the Soviet Union across a broad front. These groups included more than three million German soldiers.
-
As such, Adolf Hitler had always regarded the August 23, 1939 German-Soviet nonaggression pact as a temporary tactical maneuver. In July 1940, just weeks after the German conquest of France and the Low Countries (Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands), Hitler decided to attack the Soviet Union within the following year. On December 18, 1940, he signed Directive 21 This was the first operational order for the invasion of the Soviet Union.
-
The Soviet Union saw catastrophic military losses in the first six weeks after the German attack. However, the Soviet Union failed to collapse as anticipated by the Nazi leadership and the German military commanders. In mid-August 1941, Soviet resistance stiffened. This knocked the Germans off their timetable of winning the war by autumn 1941.
-
Nazi leader Adolf Hitler predicted a quick victory, but after initial success, the brutal campaign dragged on and eventually failed due to strategic blunders and harsh winter weather, as well as a determined Soviet resistance and attrition suffered by German forces.
-
In late July, Heinrich Himmler's representatives (the Higher SS and Police Leaders) arrived in the Soviet Union. The SS and police, supported by locally recruited auxiliaries, began to shoot entire Jewish communities there. Hitler decided to deport German Jews to the occupied Soviet Union beginning on October 15, 1941. Contributing to this decision were the rapid advances both on the military front and in the murder of the Soviet Jews.