Editing Operation Barbarossa (section)

===Racial policies of Nazi Germany===
{{Main|Racial policy of Nazi Germany}}
As early as 1925, [[Adolf Hitler]] vaguely declared in his political manifesto and autobiography ''[[Mein Kampf]]'' that he would invade the [[Soviet Union]], asserting that the German people needed to secure {{lang|de|[[Lebensraum]]}} ('living space') to ensure the survival of Germany for generations to come.{{sfn|Stackelberg|2002|p=188}} On 10 February 1939, Hitler told his army commanders that the next war would be "purely a war of {{lang|de|[[Weltanschauung]]en}} ['worldviews']... totally a people's war, a [[racial war]]". On 23 November, once World War II had already started, Hitler declared that "racial war has broken out and this war shall determine who shall govern Europe, and with it, the world".{{sfn|Förster|1988|p=21}} The [[racial policy of Nazi Germany]] portrayed the Soviet Union (and all of Eastern Europe) as populated by non-Aryan {{lang|de|[[Untermenschen]]}} ('sub-humans'), ruled by [[Jewish Bolshevism|Jewish Bolshevik]] conspirators.{{sfn|Hillgruber|1972|p=140}} Hitler claimed in ''Mein Kampf'' that Germany's destiny was to follow the {{lang|de|[[Drang nach Osten]]}} ('turn to the East') as it did "600 years ago" (see {{lang|de|[[Ostsiedlung]]}}).{{sfn|Shirer|1990|p=716}} Accordingly, it was a partially secret but well-documented Nazi policy to kill, deport, or enslave the majority of Russian and other Slavic populations and repopulate the land west of the Urals with Germanic peoples, under {{lang|de|[[Generalplan Ost]]}} (General Plan for the East).{{sfn|Stackelberg|2007|p=271}} The Nazis' belief in their ethnic superiority pervades official records and [[pseudoscientific]] articles in German periodicals, on topics such as "how to deal with alien populations."{{sfn|Fahlbusch|1999|pp=241–264}}

[[File:Generalplan Ost-en.svg|thumb|200px|Plan of new German settlement colonies (marked with dots and diamonds), drawn up by the [[Humboldt University of Berlin|Friedrich Wilhelm University]] Institute of Agriculture in Berlin, 1942]]
While older histories tended to emphasize the [[myth of the clean Wehrmacht|myth of the "clean ''Wehrmacht,''"]] upholding its honor in the face of Hitler's fanaticism, historian [[Jürgen Förster]] notes that "In fact, the military commanders were caught up in the ideological character of the conflict, and involved in its implementation as willing participants".{{sfn|Förster|1988|p=21}} Before and during the invasion of the Soviet Union, German troops were indoctrinated with [[Anti-Sovietism|anti-Bolshevik]], [[anti-Semitic]] and [[anti-Slavic]] ideology via movies, radio, lectures, books, and leaflets.{{sfn|Evans|1989|p=59}} Likening the Soviets to the forces of [[Genghis Khan]], Hitler told the [[Croatia]]n military leader [[Slavko Kvaternik]] that the "Mongolian race" threatened Europe.{{sfn|Breitman|1990|pp=340–341}} Following the invasion, many ''Wehrmacht'' officers told their soldiers to target people who were described as "Jewish Bolshevik subhumans," the "Mongol hordes," the "Asiatic flood" and the "Red beast."{{sfn|Evans|1989|pp=59–60}} Nazi propaganda portrayed the war against the Soviet Union as an ideological war between German National Socialism and Jewish Bolshevism and a racial war between the disciplined Germans and the Jewish, Romani and Slavic {{lang|de|Untermenschen}}.{{sfn|Burleigh|2000|p=512}} An 'order from the Führer' stated that the paramilitary SS {{lang|de|[[Einsatzgruppen]]}}, which closely followed the ''Wehrmacht''{{'}}s advance, were to execute all Soviet functionaries who were "less valuable Asiatics, Gypsies and Jews."{{sfn|Burleigh|Wippermann|1991|p=100}} Six months into the invasion of the Soviet Union, the {{lang|de|Einsatzgruppen}} had murdered more than 500,000 Soviet Jews, a figure greater than the number of Red Army soldiers killed in battle by then.{{sfn|Lewy|2017|p=24}} German army commanders cast Jews as the major cause behind the "[[Partisan (military)|partisan]] struggle."{{sfn|Kershaw|2001|p=466}} The main guideline for German troops was "Where there's a partisan, there's a Jew, and where there's a Jew, there's a partisan" or "The partisan is where the Jew is."{{sfn|Kershaw|2001|p=467}}{{sfn|Förster|1988|p=28}} Many German troops viewed the war in Nazi terms and regarded their Soviet enemies as sub-human.{{sfn|Förster|2005|p=127}}

After the war began, the Nazis issued a ban on sexual relations between Germans and foreign [[Forced labour under German rule during World War II|slaves]].{{sfn|Majer|2003|p=180}} There were regulations enacted against the {{lang|de|[[Ost-Arbeiter]]}} ('Eastern workers') that included the death penalty for sexual relations with a German.{{sfn|Gellately|1990|p=224}} [[Heinrich Himmler]], in his secret memorandum, ''Reflections on the Treatment of Peoples of Alien Races in the East'' (dated 25 May 1940), outlined the Nazi plans for the non-German populations in the East.{{sfn|Himmler|1940|pp=147–150}} Himmler believed the [[Germanisation]] process in Eastern Europe would be complete when "in the East dwell only men with truly German, Germanic blood."{{sfn|Mazower|2009|p=181}}

The Nazi secret plan {{lang|de|Generalplan Ost}}, prepared in 1941 and confirmed in 1942, called for a "new order of ethnographical relations" in the territories occupied by Nazi Germany in Eastern Europe.{{sfn|Wildt|2006|p=133}} It envisaged [[ethnic cleansing]], executions and enslavement of the populations of conquered countries, with very small percentages undergoing Germanisation, expulsion into the depths of Russia or other fates, while the conquered territories would be Germanised.{{sfn|Wildt|2006|pp=129–137}} The plan had two parts, the {{lang|de|[[Kleine Planung]]}} ('small plan'), which covered actions to be taken during the war and the {{lang|de|[[Große Planung]]}} ('large plan'), which covered policies after the war was won, to be implemented gradually over 25 to 30 years.{{sfn|Rössler|Schleiermacher|1996|pp=270–274}}

A speech given by General [[Erich Hoepner]] demonstrates the dissemination of the Nazi racial plan, as he informed the [[4th Panzer Group]] that the war against the Soviet Union was "an essential part of the German people's struggle for existence" ({{lang|de|Daseinskampf}}), also referring to the imminent battle as the "old struggle of Germans against Slavs" and even stated, "the struggle must aim at the annihilation of today's Russia and must, therefore, be waged with unparalleled harshness."{{sfn|Ingrao|2013|p=140}} Hoepner also added that the Germans were fighting for "the defence of European culture against Moscovite–Asiatic inundation, and the repulse of Jewish Bolshevism&nbsp;... No adherents of the present Russian-Bolshevik system are to be spared." [[Walther von Brauchitsch]] also told his subordinates that troops should view the war as a "struggle between two different races and [should] act with the necessary severity."{{sfn|Förster|1988|p=23}} Racial motivations were central to Nazi ideology and played a key role in planning for Operation Barbarossa since both Jews and communists were considered equivalent enemies of the Nazi state. Nazi imperialist ambitions rejected the common humanity of both groups, declaring the supreme struggle for {{lang|de|Lebensraum}} to be a {{lang|de|[[Vernichtungskrieg]]}} ('war of annihilation').{{sfn|Ingrao|2013|pp=138–142}}{{sfn|Förster|1988|p=21}}