On 22 June 1941, Nazi Germany launched Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. Most historians regard this as the start of the Holocaust and the mass murder of European Jewry. SS Einsatzgruppen units began shooting tens of thousands of Russian and Polish Jews and Roma and Sinti as well as hundreds of political officers (Commissars) in the Soviet Army.
Within three months over a million Soviet soldiers had been taken prisoner but no provision was made for their proper treatment as required by the Geneva Convention. Thousands were shot and beaten to death whilst two million were deliberately starved to death by March 1942 in the wholly inadequate POW camps provided. It is estimated that of 5.7 million Soviet POWs, up to 3.3 million died between 1941 and 1945 in captivity.
This may well have represented the largest mass murder of a particular group in terms of deaths per day (during 1941-2) in human history.
This talk looks at the experiences of different groups within the Soviet POW population and how they were affected by Nazi racial, demographic and economic policies in occupied Eastern Europe. It also looks at the significance of these events in relation to the Holocaust and the questions and issues they raise.
With the Library’s Education Officer, Dr Peter Morgan
This session is suitable for those studying the following:
KS3 & KS4 History:
- AQA: Germany, 1890 – 1945: Democracy and Dictatorship
- Edexcel: Weimar and Nazi Germany, 1918 – 1939
- OCR (History A): Germany, 1925-1955: The People and The State
- OCR (History B): Living under Nazi Rule, 1933 – 1945
KS5 History:
- AQA: Democracy and Nazism: Germany, 1918 – 1945
- Edexcel: Germany and West Germany, 1918 – 1989
- OCR: Democracy and Dictatorships in Germany 1919 – 1963
