The turning point in the Nazis' plan to “solve the Jewish problem” began with Operation Barbarossa, the massive military invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, intended to wind up the war by the winter. The invasion had been planned for a long time, and in anticipation, the Germans prepared units of Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Latvian and Belorussion nationalist and oppositionist collaborators.
Hitler considered the invasion of the USSR as part of his plan to provide the German nation with “living space” (Lebensraum) and an opportunity to destroy Communism, which he loathed. For this reason he instructed his military commanders to subject Kommisars (political officers who accompanied the Red Army) and intellectuals to cruel and harsh treatment. Under his inspiration, the “Kommisars Order” set out the rules for treatment of these officials and for Jews in the Soviet territories.
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