The cost of World War II
is uncalculable in human or financial terms. estimates indicate that
about 55 million people died in Europe during the World War II; of
these, about 8 millions were German. Death was not for soldiers –
civilians died in their millions too, and came from many different
directions through these cruel years. In the opening stages of the war,
as the German armies invaded Poland, Adolf Hitler wasted little time in
organizing the killing of large numbers of non-combatants.
He wanted to minimize the potential for trouble making amongst the Polish people, and so he tasked Himmler with eliminating the political and cultural elite. Since the job was effectively wholesale murder, it was given to the SS rather then a regular army. Several units of 400 to 600 men were assembled – these were not fighting forces, but death squads. Called Einsatzgruppen, their role was to go in after the invading armies had passed and arrest and murder certain categories of civilians. These included government officials, aristocrats, priests, and business people.
He wanted to minimize the potential for trouble making amongst the Polish people, and so he tasked Himmler with eliminating the political and cultural elite. Since the job was effectively wholesale murder, it was given to the SS rather then a regular army. Several units of 400 to 600 men were assembled – these were not fighting forces, but death squads. Called Einsatzgruppen, their role was to go in after the invading armies had passed and arrest and murder certain categories of civilians. These included government officials, aristocrats, priests, and business people.
Jews in Lodz train station