About the Book
Operation Barbarossa, Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, led to the most brutal campaign of World War II: of the estimated 70 million people who died in World War II, over 30 million died on the Eastern Front. The German-Soviet conflict stands at the centre of World War II history. It was more than a duel between dictators - Hitler conceived of it as an ethnically ideological war of annihilation. He made sure from the German side that the campaign was fought with the utmost intensity and viciousness, and that the occupation of the conquered territories was cruel and brutal. It was undoubtedly the most extensive war of plunder and obliteration ever seen.
Although it has previously been argued that the campaign was a pre-emptive strike, in fact, Hitler had been planning a war of intervention against the USSR ever since he came to power in 1933. Using previously unseen sources, acclaimed military historian Rolf- Dieter Müller shows that Hitler and the Wehrmacht had begun to negotiate with Poland and had even considered an anti-Soviet alliance with Japan soon after taking power. Despite the signing of the Molotov- Ribbentrop Pact of non -aggression, at the declaration of war in September 1939, military engagement with the Red Army was still a very real and imminent possibility.
In this book, Müller takes us behind the scenes of the Wehrmacht High Command, providing an important backdrop to Operation Barbarossa and a fascinating insight into an unknown story of World War II.
About the Author:
Rolf - Dieter Müller was Professor of Military History at Humboldt Univesity, Berlin until 2014. He has also been Leading Scientific Director in the German Armed Forces Military History Research Institute in Postdam, and Co-ordinator of the ‘German Reich and the Second World War‘ project. He is the author of numerous publications on World War II, including The Unknown Eastern Front: The Wehrmacht and Hilter’s Foreign Soldiers (I. B. Tauris).
Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations
List of Maps
Introduction
Chapter 1: Germany and Its Neighbours to the East
Chapter 2: A War of Intervention against the Soviet Union?
Chapter 3: The Turning Point in German-Polish Relations
Chapter 4: Preparations for the War in the East
Chapter 5: From the Hitler-Stalin Pact to Operation Barbarossa
Conclusion
Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index