Operation Barbarossa. The Beginning of the End for Nazi Germany

An exciting account of the largest military operation not only of World War II but of all time — the invasion of Nazi Germany into the territory of the Soviet Union in 1941.

Operation «Barbarossa», usually regarded as a turning point in the war in Europe, turned the parties bound by the non-aggression pact into deadly enemies and provoked atrocities that forever defined our understanding of the Holocaust. From the perspective of Hitler and other Nazi leaders, who planned the invasion even during the period of the treaty with the USSR, this operation was intended to destroy communism, exterminate «inferior races», and provide the German people with the resources necessary to establish world domination.

The result was a catastrophe. From June, when the invasion began, to December 1941, when it stalled, about six million people were killed, wounded, or went missing. The Germans committed atrocities on a scale that can only be compared to a few events in the history of wars. When the Wehrmacht commanders were forced to retreat, it became clear to the world that the German war machine was not only not invincible but also critically weakened.

Using memoirs, diaries, letters, and unpublished documents from recently opened Russian archives, Jonathan Dimbleby detailed the course of Operation «Barbarossa» for the broadest audience.