The number of people killed by Barbarossa is absolutely staggering.
1000 Deaths every hour the first 200 days. Every hour. Day and night.
Almost 10 million soviet civilians killed throughout the entire war.
Around 3 million soviet prisoners of war killed in german camps (or on their way there), that is a death rate of about 60%. (almost genocidal in it’s own right)
And the start of the Holocaust. (first mass killing of jews, first use of gas chambers (against communists at first later en mass against jews)).
And these are just the numbers, behind which countless acts of cruelty by individuals in the Wehrmacht and the SS are hidden.
There is probably a good case to be made following the definition of the genocide convention. But there was still a clear difference in treatment between jewish pows and non jewish pows. Jewish pows were simply shot outright (as well as any pow with a political role), it went even so far that they just shot anyone that was circumcised upon being captured.
The number of people killed by Barbarossa is absolutely staggering.
And these are just the numbers, behind which countless acts of cruelty by individuals in the Wehrmacht and the SS are hidden.
Since they were specifically killed for who they were, there’s a very solid argument to be made for leaving “almost” off
There is probably a good case to be made following the definition of the genocide convention. But there was still a clear difference in treatment between jewish pows and non jewish pows. Jewish pows were simply shot outright (as well as any pow with a political role), it went even so far that they just shot anyone that was circumcised upon being captured.
Also an estimated 1 million german soldiers died in soviet POW camps (about 1/3). At least according to Wikipedia.