The Schutzstaffel (SS): Waffen-SS, Gestapo & Einsatzgruppen
From Barbarossa to Warsaw - The Road to Annihilation: Bach-Zelewski
13m
On 22 June 1941, Nazi Germany launches Operation Barbarossa, the largest invasion in history, and Belarus quickly falls under German control. What follows is not only a military campaign, but a war of racial extermination, as Jews and civilians across the region are forced into ghettos, starved, deported, and executed in mass shootings.
At the center of this system of terror stands SS commander Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski. As Higher SS and Police Leader in the East, he coordinates with the Einsatzgruppen and SS police units responsible for the murder of hundreds of thousands in Belarus, eastern Poland, and beyond. From helping establish Auschwitz to directing the brutal suppression of the Warsaw Uprising—where nearly 200,000 civilians are killed—his career traces the transformation of Nazi rule into organized mass murder.
After the war, Bach-Zelewski testifies at the Nuremberg Trials, admits his role in genocide, and yet largely escapes justice.
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