22 June 1941. Operation Barbarossa begins, launching the largest invasion in history and turning Eastern Europe into a landscape of fire and mass execution. Behind the advancing Wehrmacht — the German Armed Forces — follow killing units tasked with extermination.

Among the commanders stands Werner von Erdmannsdorff, a decorated First World War veteran shaped by Imperial military tradition. Rising through the Reichswehr and later the Wehrmacht, he welcomed Germany’s rearmament under Hitler.

On the Eastern Front, he led troops in the encirclement battles of Białystok, Minsk, and Smolensk, and later fought near Leningrad. Though awarded high military honours, he served in a war defined by starvation, executions, and devastation.

In 1945, after commanding German forces in the Balkans — where brutal reprisals against civilians became widespread — he was captured and handed over to Yugoslav authorities, where he faced the consequences of the war he had helped wage.