Written by zachor_foundation on May 7, 2014
Rudolf Hess was the deputy Fuehrer, Hitler’s No. 2 man. Nevertheless, Hess’s sense of having been removed from centers of policymaking power, coupled with his knowledge of the planned attack on the Soviet Union, evidently joined with other factors to prompt his bold decision to fly to England. Hess set out on his mission in early May 1941, hoping that Britain would be willing to make peace with Germany after the impending invasion of the USSR. To this day, it
Read More
Written by zachor_foundation on May 7, 2014
About two weeks before the invasion of the Soviet Union, the Wehrmacht high command (OKW) issued the Kommissarbefehl, the “Commissar Order.” The order was consistent with the Nazis’ ideological perception of the invasion of the USSR as an action meant to liquidate Bolshevism by physically eliminating all bearers of the idea and the Soviet State apparatus. Thus, in contravention of international law, the order stipulated: …If captured during combat or while offering resistance, [these commissars] must on principle be shot
Read More
Written by zachor_foundation on May 7, 2014
The largest military offensive in history began at 3:00 a.m. on June 22, 1941. The armed forces of Germany and its allies attacked the Soviet Union along a frontier 1,800 miles long. Stalin disregarded all forewarnings about the impending onslaught, leaving his army formations totally unprepared. The war was meant to fulfill Hitler’s Lebensraum plans. Germany’s goal was not only to defeat the Red Army, but also to destroy it and the Soviet Union in a mammoth and ruthless tide
Read More
