It is two years this week since Germany invaded Poland. That European conflict soon became a global one. Japan’s invasion of China began two years before that, but with Japan allied to the Axis Powers, they are now the same conflict. Those Axis are all fighting together now to try and defeat the Soviet Union, but the war has grown not just in the scale of the armies fighting, but also in the scale of man’s inhumanity to man. We see that this week in German occupied territory.
Fegelein’s and Himmler’s actions to ‘comb’ the Pripet Marshes for Jews continues. The largest mass-murder yet is committed in Kamianets-Podilskyi, while new methods to commit genocide on an industrial scale are being devised.
Sources:
Bundesarchiv
Yad Vashem 4220/2, 9292/17, 1570, 4248/20, 953, 4788/72, 75EO4, 3150/122, 48AO4, 4220/3, 10470/23, 4572/3, 4613/1055, 7283/146, 5705/48, 4216/18, 94DO1, 90FO3, 4613/625
National Parliament Library of Georgia
Bildersammlung des Bistumsarchivs Münster, des Erbnehmers der Urheberrechte
USHMM
Corpses of Auschwitz prisoners in block 11 (Auschwitz I) February 1945, USHMM, courtesy of Instytut Pamięci Narodowej
Lithuanian militia force Jewish women to undress before execution in the Pajuoste Forest 1941-1942, USHMM, courtesy of Saulius Berzinis
www.auschwitz.org
Bletchley Park Trust
Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe
From the Noun Project: Skull by Muhamad Ulum from the Noun Project
Soundtracks from the Epidemic Sound:
Johan Hynynen – “Dark Beginning”
Andreas Jamsheree – “Guilty Shadows 4”
Farell Wooten – “Blunt Object”
Fabien Tell – “Last Point of Safe Return”
Skrya – “First Responders”
Wendel Scherer – “Growing Doubt”
Jon Bjork – “For the Many”
Gunnar Johnsen – “Not Safe Yet”
Cobby Costa – “Flight Path”
The British and Soviets work together invade Iran, while Barbarossa trudges ever on, with heavy losses. Bletchley Park intercepts German messages, and unease grows among the German public.
Not all plans for Operation Barbarossa are as successful as hoped. In August 1941, Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler push forward their plans to wage war on all Jews, unleashing the Einzatsgruppen and the SS Cavalry Brigade of Hermann Fegelein on the Jewish people of Eastern Europe.
Sources:
Yad Vashem 4788/72, 5648/39, 139BO1, 2725/8, 5138/98, 4220/2, 48AO4, 4272/10, 75EO4, 2725/7, 2798/2, 4147/65, 48AO5, 3745/143, 3955/365, 1907/4, 3745/140, 3521/134
USHMM
Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe
Bundesarchiv
From the Noun Project: people by ProSymbols, Skull by Muhamad Ulum, Woman and boy by Studio Het Mes
Soundtracks from the Epidemic Sound:
Reynard Seidel – “Deflection”
Johan Hynynen – “Dark Beginning”
Skrya – “First Responders”
Farrell Wooten – “Blun Object”
Fabien Tell – “Last Point of Safe Return”
Gunnar Johnsen – “Not Safe Yet”
Philip Ayers – “Under the Dome”
Cobby Costa – “From the Past”
Josef Stalin is forming new armies to fight off the German onslaught, and yet it continues gaining ground both in the north and in the south. He also issues Draconian orders to the Red Army concerning any form of surrender.
A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.
From the comments:
World War Two
3 days ago (edited)
Orders, orders and more orders this week as both Stalin and Hitler try and get hold of the vast and chaotic situation along the battlefront, but nefarious war crimes and atrocities continue to lurk in the background. We cover the humanitarian crisis created both deliberately and by collateral effects that the war has on the world population in our War Against Humanity series that is now coming out every second week to keep up with the increasing pace of terror. To get the full experience of the chronological developments, follow those formats too:
As Barbarossa unfolds and the Germans take ever more Soviet territory, they have ever fewer planes with which to fly over it. What does this mean for the forces on the ground? What does this mean for their other theaters of war?
Sources:
Bundesarchiv
Stuka by Kaboldy https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi…
from the Noun Project: Bomb by A184, explosion by Nico Tzogalis, Deteriorated building by Tokka Elkholy, Skull by Muhamad Ulum, Air Crash by Lee Mette
Soundtracks from the Epidemic Sound:
Rannar Sillard – “March Of The Brave 4”
Max Anson – “Maze Heist”
Philip Ayers – “Trapped in a Maze”
Johan Hynynen – “Dark Beginning”
Fabien Tell – “Last Point of Safe Return”
Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt issue a charter that lays out their thoughts for the future, the Soviets are in trouble on two fronts, and Adolf Hitler repeats his orders to those who failed to heed them the first time.
Sources:
– Bundesarchiv, CC-BY-SA 3.0: Bild_146-2005-0030, Bild_146-1971-070-61
– Imperial War Museum: E 1416, E 7014, E 3450E, E 7008, E 3438E, E 15023
– Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe
– Mil.ru
– egor7 from Wikimedia
A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.
From the comments:
World War Two
3 days ago
Although the US has been steadily edging towards more and more support for the Western Allies since outbreak of war almost two years ago, it is this week that an active involvement in WW2 by the United States starts taking form. Let’s be clear though: both the US public, and the US administration are still staunchly opposed to sending in troops and becoming an active belligerent. But the tone of public and political discourse has begun to change, as it becomes increasingly obvious exactly how horrendous the threat is that humanity faces from Naziism.
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In Japan those in power are divided as to what to do as war with the Western powers looks more and more likely. Meanwhile in the USSR the war gets deadlier and deadlier, but also more and more confusing with leadership conflicts on both sides of the front.
A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.
From the comments:
World War Two
2 days ago
This war is getting bigger and bigger, and bloodier and bloodier. When we started out on this mega project we already anticipated this, and immediately started to cover the war on multiple fronts to provide the fullest coverage possible,
As Indy says in the episode we publish an essential event of the war every day on our Instagram WW2 Day by Day feed. Often these are events that Indy might not have place to cover here in the weekly videos.
Likewise we cover the humanitarian crisis created deliberately, and by collateral effects that the war has on the world population in our War Against Humanity series that is now coming out every second week to keep up with the increasing pace of terror. So, to get the full experience of the chronological developments, follow those formats too:
In China, and the Soviet Union, all sides are causing widespread death to the local civilians. The defending forces are scorching the earth and plundering their own civilians, the attacking armed forces of Japan and Germany are executing planned genocide and mass destruction.
Written and Hosted by: Spartacus Olsson
Director: Astrid Deinhard
Producers: Astrid Deinhard and Spartacus Olsson
Executive Producers: Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson, Bodo Rittenauer
Creative Producer: Joram Appel
Post-Production Director: Wieke Kapteijns
Research by: Spartacus Olsson and Joram Appel
Edited by: Mikołaj Cackowski
Sound design: Marek Kamiński
Map animations: Eastory (https://www.youtube.com/c/eastory)
Sources:
Eesti Kirjandusmuuseum KM EKLA, A-3:107
Yad Vashem 55AO6, 74FO7,
Consiliul National pentru Studierea Arhivelor Securitatii (CNSAS)
USHMM
IWM NA 15129, N 530
from the Noun Project: Skull by Muhamad Ulum
Picture of a victim of starvation during the siege of Leningrad, courtesy George Shuklin
Portrait of Nikolai Moskvin, courtesy goskatalog.ru
Soundtracks from the Epidemic Sound:
Johan Hynynen – “Dark Beginning”
Yi Nantiro – “Watchmen”
Yi Nantiro – “A Single Grain Of Rice”
Farell Wooten – “Blunt Object”
Reynard Seidel – “Deflection”
Andreas Jamsheree – “Guilty Shadows 4”
Philip Ayers – “Trapped in a Maze”
Skrya – “First Responders”
Philip Ayers – “Under the Dome”
A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.
From the comments:
World War Two
3 hours ago (edited)
So here we are — it’s the end of July and the Nazi plan to ethnically cleanse Eastern Europe by genocide and forced migration is now in play, while the deliberate genocide of the Chinese has been in motion for more than three years. It’s easy to write off the massive death in both regions as collateral damage, the millions of PoWs that died as callous carelessness, the overall death toll as part of a desperate defense strategies. But that belies how planned, meticulous and specific both the genocides by Imperial Japan and by Nazi Germany were.
The sources detailing the execution and opposition to these plans in the Soviet Union are relatively easy to access. Already during the war the Allied intelligence services were intercepting most of the communication that outlined death tolls, policies, and events. After the war the comprehensive documentation by the Germans themselves was captured and compiled for the Nuremberg Trials. Although Russia under the current regime choose to obfuscate, and distort their side of the story, the decade after the collapse of the Soviet Union saw the release of enough classified material for us to know the big picture.
The sources on what happened in China are, on the other hand, harder to come by. Unlike Germany, Japan has not been forced to, and has been unwilling to reconcile with what their forefathers did. Historians unearthing these stories face massive opposition by interests that still try to maintain Japanese exceptionalism. In China, the Communist regime never collapsed, and continues to promote a propagandist historiography that distorts the events within a narrative of unilateral heroic struggle by the People’s Red Army against Imperialism. Therefore it’s all the more important that we try to see these events for what they were: a massive tragedy of human suffering caused by ideological chauvinism – there is nothing heroic here, only the sad reality of war, and the terror of hatred to the level of mass murder.
Comments Off on Generalplan Ost, the Nazi plan to kill the Slavs – War Against Humanity 015 – July 1941, Part 02
Japan needs resources for its seemingly endless war in China, but where to look for them? And who might have a problem with it? Meanwhile in the Soviet Union, Hitler’s forces have been diverted from the Moscow Road, and are on the move in the north and the south.
Soundtracks from the Epidemic Sound:
Gunnar Johnsen – “Not Safe Yet”
Rannar Sillard – “Easy Target”
Johannes Bornlof – “Magnificent March 3”
Fabien Tell – “Break Free”
Brightarm Orchestra – “On the Edge of Change”
Wendel Scherer – “Growing Doubt”
Philip Ayers – “Under the Dome”
Philip Ayers – “Trapped in a Maze”
Josef Stalin was warned time and again from a variety of sources of the German plans for invading the Soviet Union, and yet, he did NOT heed those warnings.
Written and Hosted by: Indy Neidell
Director: Astrid Deinhard
Producers: Astrid Deinhard and Spartacus Olsson
Executive Producers: Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson, Bodo Rittenauer
Creative Producer: Joram Appel
Post-Production Director: Wieke Kapteijns
Research by: Indy Neidell
Edited by: Mikołaj Cackowski
Sound design: Marek Kamiński
Map animations: Eastory (https://www.youtube.com/c/eastory)
Sources:
Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe
Bundesarchiv
Archive of I.M. Bondarenko
Mil.ru
From the Noun Project: Letter by Mochammad Kafi
Soundtracks from the Epidemic Sound:
Johannes Bornlof – “Deviation In Time”
Max Anson – “Maze Heist”
Johannes Bornlof – “The Inspector 4”
Fabien Tell – “Last Point of Safe Return”
Jon Bjork – “For the Many”
Philip Ayers – “Trapped in a Maze”
Skrya – “First Responders”
Trabant 33 – “When in Bavaria”
Howard Harper-Barnes – “London”
Mythical Score Society – “Infinity Pool & Pool Tables”
The Fly Guy Five – “Cocktail Hour”
Although we may picture panzers when we think of the German Army in WW2, it was very much an army that relied on horses — especially in the east — for a large part of its supplies and logistics, and the horse situation on the Eastern Front has grown dire. Japan’s economic situation has also grown dire and they are now looking south for new sources of raw materials.
The planning for Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, took nearly a year and went through a variety of scenarios. The basic plan was finalized in December 1940, and that month General Friedrich Paulus ran a series of war games to test its feasibility. Today we’ll look at his conclusions.
Written and Hosted by: Indy Neidell
Director: Astrid Deinhard
Producers: Astrid Deinhard and Spartacus Olsson
Executive Producers: Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson, Bodo Rittenauer
Creative Producer: Joram Appel
Post-Production Director: Wieke Kapteijns
Research by: Indy Neidell
Edited by: Mikołaj Cackowski
Sound design: Marek Kamiński
Map animations: Mikołaj Cackowski, Eastory (https://www.youtube.com/c/eastory)
Sources:
Bundesarchiv
Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe
SA Kuva
from the Noun Project: Target by RITASYA, soldier by Wonmo Kang
Soundtracks from the Epidemic Sound:
Reynard Seidel – “Deflection”
Johannes Bornlof – “The Inspector 4”
Phoenix Tail – “At the Front”
Johannes Bornlof – “Deviation In Time”
Fabien Tell – “Last Point of Safe Return”
Johan Hynynen -” Dark Beginning”
Johannes Bornlof – “Death and Glory 3”
Rannar Sillard – “March Of The Brave 4”
As the German armed forces stretch further and further into the USSR, the Wehrmacht command doesn’t seem to agree where they are really going. In the Middle East, the Fascist French forces are delivered a hard blow as the Allied Syrian campaign comes to an end.
When the German armed forces invade the USSR, they come with an order to exterminate from Hitler. Now the defending Soviet armed forces receive similar orders from Stalin. The bloodshed that follows defies human imagination.
Soundtracks from the Epidemic Sound:
Skrya – “First Responders”
Philip Ayers – “Trapped in a Maze”
Farrell Wooten – “Mystery Minutes”
Cobby Costa – “From the Past”
Cobby Costa – “Flight Path”
Gunnar Johnsen – “Not Safe Yet”
Farrell Wooten – “Blunt Object”
Fluow – “Endlessness”
Jon Bjork – “Icicles”
Jon Bjork – “For the Many”
A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.
From the comments:
World War Two
8 hours ago (edited)
However hard it is to watch this horror, it’s important that we document it, and learn from it. Each and everyone of us can, and we must for the sake of ourselves and our fellow human beings do so. The steps that led the people involved in these atrocities to this point were small, sometimes innocent, or at least uninformed decisions that took many years to reach this level of inhumanity. It starts with denying facts, imagining conspiracies as the root of your own problems, and demonizing your imagined enemies. In this void you are already on a slippery slope that may lead into the abyss. On that note, the events depicted here are based on solid research, and verified sources that are irrefutable. Wherever there is uncertainty, we have mentioned it. The purpose of this documentation is neither to scapegoat any one side, nor exonerate anyone from blame. These are the facts. This is what happened. Think about that, because the perpetrators here were like us, they didn’t come out of their mother’s womb with the intent to torture and murder anyone. And the victims were also like all of us, ordinary people just trying to get on with their lives according to their best ability. They had dreams and goals in life, some of them political perhaps, but mostly they just got on with their everyday life, banal and difficult as that might be, until they ended up in the hands of someone who had learnt to hate them without even knowing them. Remember that – this could have been anyone of us, on both sides of the events. To have that humility is the beginning of a journey to do good.
Spartacus
PS. and if you wonder how we put up with making this kind of content; it’s difficult. I cried bitterly after recording this, and tears still well up when I think about it. While we write it’s easier to turn off, switch on the coping mechanisms, pretend that its just absurd facts and numbers. But when you act out the words… that what defies imagination is suddenly horribly real.
Comments Off on Barbarossa, Hitler’s and Stalin’s Hell on Earth – War Against Humanity 014 – July 1941, Part 01
