June 22, 1941 - belated

[K. A. Pital]

67 years ago, Germany attacked the Soviet Union in the most brutal war ever waged with modern weapons, intent on destroying both the nation and it's inhabitants, first planning to defeat the Soviet Army in massive "blitzkrieg" encirclements long before the winter starts.

Faced with German agression, the Red Army which was yet preparing to deploy into positions, was caught off-guard and suffered large casualties, especially many prisoners of war and forcibly enslaved civilians were taken to Germany and into Eastern Europe, where most met their untimely death at the hands of the fascists

The front crumbled after a few days, and the three echelons of Russian forces, many still moving on railway lines to their deployment regions, were heavily beaten in many great battles; with the front rolling deep into the Russian heartland.

At this day the following historical message was distributed by V.M. Molotov:

RADIO ADDRESS OF 22 JUNE 1941, BY VYACHESLAV MOLOTOV, ASSISTANT CHAIRMAN OF THE COUNCIL OF THE PEOPLE'S COMMISSARS OF THE U.S.S.R., AND THE PEOPLE'S COMMISSAR FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS

As Transcribed and Translated by Novosti Press Agency, June, 1941

Citizens of the Soviet Union! The Soviet Government and its head, Comrade Stalin, have instructed me to make the following announcement:

Today, at 4:00 a.m., without presenting any claims against the Soviet Union or issuing a declaration of war, German troops have attacked our country, assaulting our borders in many places and subjecting our cities of Zhitomir, Kiev, Sevastopol, Kaunas, and other of our towns to bombing by their aircraft. Air raids by enemy planes and artillery bombardment were also made from bases in Rumania and Finland.

This perfidious aggression against our country is a treachery without precedent in the history of civilized nations. The attack on our country has been made despite the fact of the Non- Aggression Pact between the U.S.S.R. and Germany, and despite the conscientious fulfillment by the Soviet Government of all the terms of this Pact. The attack on our country has been made despite the fact that the German Government had not submitted a single claim against the U.S.S.R. regarding observance of the Pact during the entire time it has been in force.

The full responsibility for this robber attack on the Soviet Union falls entirely on the German fascist rulers.

At 5:30 a.m., after the attack had already taken place, the German Ambassador in Moscow, von Schulenburg, handed me in my capacity as People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs a statement to the effect that the German Government had decided to declare war on the U.S.S.R. because of the concentration of Red Army troops at the eastern German border.

I replied on behalf of the Soviet Government that up to the last minute the German Government had not submitted any claims against the Soviet Government, that Germany had attacked the U.S.S.R. in spite of the peaceful posture of the Soviet Union, and that therefore fascist Germany indisputably is the aggressor in this affair.

I must also emphasize, as spokesman for the Government of the Soviet Union, that our troops and our aircraft have committed no violation of the border at any point, and that therefore the announcement made this morning over Rumanian radio, alleging that Soviet aircraft had fired at Rumanian airports, is a complete lie and a provocation, attempting retroactively to cook up incriminating evidence against the Soviet Union for alleged non observance of the terms of the Soviet-German Pact.

Now, however, that the attack against the Soviet Union has already taken place, the Soviet Government has issued an order to our troops to repulse the robber attack and to drive the German troops from our Motherland.

This war has not been imposed on us by the German people, nor by the German workers, peasants, or intellectuals whose suffering we can well understand, but by the clique of bloodthirsty German leaders who have enslaved the French, the Czechs, the Poles, the Serbs, Norway, Belgium, Denmark, Holland, Greece, and other nations.

The Government of the Soviet Union expresses its unshakable conviction that our valiant Army and Navy and the daring hawks of the Soviet Air Force will discharge with honor their duties towards the Motherland and the Soviet people and will deal a crushing blow to the aggressor. This is not the first time that our nation has had to deal with an arrogant, aggressive enemy. In its time our nation has risen to the challenge of Napoleon's campaign into Russian in the Patriotic War, and Napoleon suffered defeat and came to his undoing. The same fate will befall the arrogant Hitler, who has proclaimed a new campaign of aggression against our country. The Red Army and our entire nation will once again conduct a victorious Patriotic War for the Motherland, for honor, for freedom.

The Government of the Soviet Union expresses its firm conviction that the entire population of our country, the workers, the peasants and the intelligentsia, every individual man and woman, will regard their obligations and their work with full awareness. The whole country must now be joined and united as never before. Each one of us must demand from himself or herself and from each other the discipline, the organization, and the selflessness worthy of a real Soviet patriot in order to supply the Red Army, the Red Fleet, and the Air Force with the means necessary to assure victory over the enemy.

The Government appeals to you, citizens of the Soviet Union, to rally your ranks ever closer around our glorious Bolshevik Party and our Soviet Government.

Our cause is just. The enemy will be defeated. Victory will be ours.

Hitler on this day was far more eloquent (read his entire proclamation here)

Here's it's end:

Now the hour has come when it is necessary to respond to his plot by Jewish-Anglo-Saxon warmongers and the Jewish rulers of Moscow’s Bolshevist headquarters.

German people!

At this moment, an attack unprecedented in the history of the world in its extent and size has begun. With Finnish comrades, the victors of Narvik stand by the Arctic Sea. German divisions, under the command of the conqueror of Norway, together with the heroes of Finland’s freedom and their marshal, defend Finnish soil. On the Eastern Front, German formations extend from East Prussia to the Carpathians. From the banks of the Pruth River, from the lower Danube to the Black Sea, German and Romanian soldiers are united under state leader Atonescu.

The purpose of this front is no longer the protection of the individual nations, rather the safety of Europe, and therefore the salvation of everyone.

I have therefore decided today once again to put the fate of Germany and the future of the German Reich and our people in the hands of our soldiers.

May God help us in this battle

In a while, the war itself determined the victor; thankfully, my home nation prevailed.

However, the last few days, as usual, are days when people remember the war dead and honour their sacrifice.

[PeZook]

The purpose of this front is no longer the protection of the individual nations, rather the safety of Europe, and therefore the salvation of everyone.

Yeah, except for the ones we're going to brutally murder. I can understand why Hitler felt threatened by the USSR, what with his paranoia about Jewish communists stealing his precious bodily fluids, but I wonder what irked him so much about Poland that he decided to kill it off as well.

Racial inferiority? A large Jewish minority? Having the gall to be an independent country? A need to test the Blitzkrieg? All of the above?

[K. A. Pital]

All of the above?

Most likely.

First of all, Hitler and the lovely guys from the Ostministerium and the SS cabal were happy to test the Einsatztruppen in action. A large jewish minority and plenty of administrative officials who did not leave Poland but stayed in the occupied lands offered a prime target.

Later on, when the GPO evolved into a comprehensive cleansing program... Wetzel's notes even had a special paragraph called "Solving the Polish Question", which said:
"Of all nations, which are to be cleansed according to plan, the Poles are most hostile to the Germans, numerically the largest and therefore the most dangerous nation"

Wetzel noted that wholesale destruction of Poles is not an option (like Jews), but due to the "difficulties" of transporting 20 million humans by rail the Poles should be "dealt with quietly".

Remember that Rosenberg and others claimed that they will never deal with nations like governments, but only on a "racial-biological basis", so they wanted to literally enslave Poland. Himmler expressed clearly the idea that any and all Polish leaders, should they be found organizing people into some sort of organization, should be killed.

As for the German government of Poland and the remaining several million Poles, their functions were to be perfectly clear:

The Government General is a reservation for Poles, a hugh Polish work camp. This is good for the Poles because we look after their health and make sure they do not die of hunger, etc. However, we must never allow them to climb to a higher level because then they would become anarchists and Communists.

The Germans were pretty frank about what they were doing, and what their goals were.

[PeZook]

The Germans were pretty frank about what they were doing, and what their goals were.

I like how they viewed the world in an almost cartoonishly simplistic way. For a Nazi ideologue, everything was determined by race and genetic roots and no other factors: look at that quote you cited. It's completely laughable: it assumes that all Slavs would immediately become communists or anarchists if left on their own, without the protection of superior German ideological shields (how come there were nothing but monarchies in this part of the world for hundreds of years, then?), as if simply being Slavic means you have a predisposition towards certain ideologies (because it's not like there are dozens of different Slavic nations with complicated histories, right?)

To anybody who knows anything about occupied Poland, the idea of a significant portion of Poles magically turning into Soviet communists is complete nonsense: Russia was considered as much a "historical" enemy as Germany. Come on - Poland fought an agressive war against Russia no more than twenty years before WWII, and Russia invaded Poland on September 17th 1939 to gain some buffer ground against Germany (and probably to get even, too). Jesus, we threw away politically rational options because of our mistrust of Russian intentions. And, of course, before Germany came and destroyed the country, Poland was pretty stable as far as recently emergent countries go, so there goes that "anarchist" claim (and, hell - five hundred years before it was a European superpower which had a pretty good track record bitchslapping Germanic nations)

That's one of the main problem with ideologies: they slowly subvert all thinking, and eventually every problem has to be filtered through an ideological maginifying glass. Happens all the time, but for some reason, plenty of people can't seem to see when they do that.

[K. A. Pital]

...as if simply being Slavic means you have a predisposition towards certain ideologies.

The SS-man in "Come and See" (which itself was based on the memoirs of the genocide survivor), after carrying out a mass murder versus a Belorussian village claims to the partisans that "lower races spread the virus of communism".

I like how they viewed the world in an almost cartoonishly simplistic way

Cartoonishly simplistic? Yeah, I guess. I mean, why would you make a document like this?

REPORT OF BORKI VILLAGE DESTRUCTION EXPERIENCE

FROM 22 TO 26 SEPTEMBER 1942,

September 21, 1942 - the company received a mission to destroy the Borki village, located 7 kilometres east of Mokran.

At night the same day the company platoon were made aware of the forthcoming operation. The preparation.

The number of cars was sufficient by September 22, loaded and sent to the assembly point in Mokrany, moving all platoons and attached platoon from the 9th company. The move occurred without incident, no men were lost.

Necessary for the forthcoming operation leads have been prepared in advance and at the appointed time arrived in Borki. With the removal of flock a few uppity farmers were revealed, and the company demanded their punishment.

The operation went as planned, excluding minor changes in some of its stages. The main reason for them - the map shows the village Borki as a compactly situated village. In fact, it turned out that this settlement extends 6 - 7 km in length and width.

When I found it out, by dawn, I expanded the cordon on the eastern side of the village and arranged for cover in the form of mites while increasing the distance between the posts. As a result I was able to seize and deliver to the place of execution all the inhabitants of the village without exception. It was good that the population did not know the purpose for which it was hoarded until the very last moments. In the gathering point, a calm mood prevailed, the number of posts was minimized, and freed force could be used in the further course of the operation. Team of grave-diggers received only shovels on the shooting grounds, helping to conceal the forthcoming actions from the population. The covertly placed light machine guns on the perimeter suppressed all panic from the very start, when the first shots sounded on the firing grounds, located 700 metres from the village. Two men tried to escape, but fell a few steps, machine-gun fire struck. Shooting started at 9 o'clock. 00 min. and ended in 18 hours. 00 min. Of the 809 rounded up 104 person (politically Positive family) were released, among them were the Mokrany estate workers.

Shooting took place without any complications, preparations have been very useful.

The confiscation of grain and stock took place, apart from a shift in time, smoothly. The number of horses proved sufficient, since the amount of grain was low and the grain hoarding stocks are not too far...

Home utensils and agricultural tools were taken away by horse carts with bread.

The numerical outcome of the shooting. Shot were:

705 people, among them men - 203, women - 372, children - 130.

The number of cattle collected can be determined only approximately, since no accounting took place on the gathering points: horses - 45, cattle-250, calves - 65, pigs and piglets - and 450 sheep - 300. Poultry may be located only in individual cases. What has managed to find, was transferred allotted residents.

Of the inventory collected: 70 carts, 200 ploughs and harrows, veyalok 5, 25 solomorezok and other small tools.

All the confiscated grain, livestock and equipment handed over to the manager of public estates Mokrany. . .

In conducting operations in Borki spent: rifle cartridges - 786, cartridges for automatic rifles - 2496 pieces.

No losses in the company. One watch guard with suspected jaundice sent to the hospital in Brest.

Deputy. squadron commander, chief of security police lieutenant

Mueller

TSGAOR USSR, fax. 7021, op. 148, 2, l 358-362.

Hell, if the Germans were not so meticulously documenting wanton murder, it would be a hell lot harder to pin them all down in Nuremberg.

Not that they even cared about the fate of citizens in Poland or elsewhere: only a tiny fraction (usually 3-4 million) was deemed "suitable" in the "bad" Ostzonen - Poland, Belorus, Lithuania, Ukraine and Russian territories. The rest were to be killed, or violently expunged into Siberia to die out - but since the Germans clearly lacked transportation to do it, especially as they actively destroyed the Soviet infrastructure - they just went with the "kill them" phase straightaway.

[Vehrec]

It's fairly obvious that if you want more 'living space', you'll need to evict the current occupents. Looking back it's fairly obvious that not only would Nazi Germany require the conquest of other nations, but the extermination of the majority of their populations. Cartoonish maybe, evil yes, human certainly.

To all the veterans and fallen of the Great Patriotic War, I offer my thanks and admiration. The blood that was spilled on the Eastern Front was perhaps the greatest price paid for victory.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Oh, to have been a fly on the wall when Von Schulenburg handed Molotov that declaration.

[Sea Skimmer]

When Hitler talked about living space, he literally meant farmland for the mostly very poor German farming population. Calculations where made on how much land a German farmer needed to be decently off vs. how much was in all of Germany and came up short. The only place to get enough decent quality useable farm land was the western USSR, Poland had to be taken as a stepping stone to this goal. The extermination of large tracts of the existing population was a two fold strategy besides the simple irrational German racist hatred. The exterminations would clear the land, and in the process it would provide slaves to lay the groundwork for German colonization. Auschwitz for example was originally built as a labor camp for this purpose, gas chambers got added when it became clear it was impractical to work all the Poles, Jews and Slavs to death.

[Coyote]

The old German call for expansion into the "eastern lands" goes at least as far back as the Teutonic Knights era and their attempts to colonize as far as Estonia. I find it deliciously ironic, though, that when comparing Slavs to Germans, the "blond hair/blue eyes" ratio of "superior features" falls heavily in favor of folks named Ivan...

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

I remember that Hitler had this "we need breathing room" speech, but I can't remember when he said it.

[K. A. Pital]

You mean this speech?

Since the autumn of 1938 and since I have realised that Japan will not go with us unconditionally and that Mussolini is endangered by that nitwit of a King and the treacherous scoundrel of a Crown Prince, I decided to go with Stalin. After all there are only three great statesmen in the world, Stalin, I and Mussolini. Mussolini is the weakest, for he has been able to break the power neither of the crown nor of the Church. Stalin and 1 are the only ones who visualise the future. So in a few weeks hence I shall stretch out my hand to Stalin at the common German-Russian frontier and with him undertake to re-distribute the world.

Our strength lies in our quickness and in our brutality; Genghis Khan has sent millions of women and children into death knowingly and with a light heart. History sees in him only the great founder of States. As to what the weak Western European civilisation asserts about me, that is of no account. I have given the command and I shall shoot everyone who utters one word of criticism, for the goal to be obtained in the war is not that of reaching certain lines but of physically demolishing the opponent. And so for the present only in the East I have put my death-head formations' in place with the command relentlessly and without compassion to send into death many women and children of Polish origin and language. Only thus we can gain the living space [lebensraum] that we need. Who after all is today speaking about the destruction of the Armenians?

Colonel-General von Brauchitsch has promised me to bring the war against Poland to a close within a few weeks. Had he reported to me that he needs two years or even only one year, I should not have given the command to march and should have allied myself temporarily with England instead of Russia for we cannot conduct a long war. To be sure a new situation has arisen. I experienced those poor worms Daladier and Chamberlain in Munich. They will be too cowardly to attack. They won't go beyond a blockade. Against that we have our autarchy and the Russian raw materials.

Poland will be depopulated and settled with Germans. My pact with the Poles was merely conceived of as a gaining of time. As for the rest, gentlemen, the fate of Russia will be exactly the same as I am now going through with in the case of Poland. After Stalin's death - he is a very sick man - we will break the Soviet Union. Then there will begin the dawn of the German rule of the earth.

Yeah, a good insight into Hitler's "strategy", or rather, insanity guised as such.

"We will first kill Poland"
"Then Russia"
"Then German rule on Earth!"

Simple as ABC, almost. I feel pretty bad for the nations who thought Hitler could be reasoned with (i.e. all europeans, Russia, Poland, Britain and France). Too late did they fully understand what Hitler's real goals were.

[Karrick]

Not to tarnish the deeds of the Russian soldiers or sound like a Nazi apologist, but I would like to point out that the communists weren't all that nice to Poland either. I believe a substantial number of Poles ended up in Siberia (or dead) against their will thanks to the likes of the NKVD.

[PeZook]

Not to tarnish the deeds of the Russian soldiers or sound like a Nazi apologist, but I would like to point out that the communists weren't all that nice to Poland either. I believe a substantial number of Poles ended up in Siberia (or dead) against their will thanks to the likes of the NKVD.

Yes, hence why Poles distrust both Germans and Russians.

But let's be frank: the Soviets did what they did to control the population politically and "reshape" it ethnically: hence why very few Poles actually remain in what was the Eastern Marshes of the II Republic, why cities like Gdansk, Breslau or Posen are 90% Polish today, etc.

The Germans wanted to literally kill us all.

All things considered, the Soviets weren't nearly as bad as the Nazis. Of course, it would do a lot to mutual relations if the Russian government wasn't trying to be a dick about things like Katyn