OSTKRIEG
OSTKRIEG
Hitlers
War of Extermination
in the East
STEPHEN G. FRITZ
Copyright 2011 by The University Press of Kentucky
Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth, serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fritz, Stephen G., 1949
Ostkrieg : Hitlers war of extermination in the East / Stephen G. Fritz.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8131-3416-1 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-8131-3417-8 (ebook)
1. World War, 1939-1945CampaignsEastern Front. 2. World War, 1939-1945CampaignsSoviet Union. 3. World War, 1939-1945AtrocitiesEurope, Eastern. 4. Soviet UnionHistoryGerman occupation, 1941-1944. 5. GermanyTerritorial expansionHistory20th century. 6. GermanyTerritorial expansionEconomic aspects. 7. GermanyTerritorial expansionSocial aspects. 8. GermanyMilitary policy. 9. Hitler, Adolf, 1889-1945Military leadership. I. Title.
D764.F737 2011
940.5421dc23 2011030914
This book is printed on acid-free paper meeting
the requirements of the American National Standard
for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials.
Manufactured in the United States of America.
| Member of the Association of American University Presses |
Contents
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Blau
Stalingrad, September 1942February 1943
Kursk and Ukraine, summer/fall 1943
Destruction of Army Group Center, summer 1944
Vistula-Oder-Berlin Operations, 1945
Generalplan Ost
Abbreviations
and Foreign Terms
AFV | armored fighting vehicle |
AK | Armeekorps (army corps) |
BA | Bundesarchiv (German Federal Archives) |
Bagration | Soviet offensive in Belorussia, JuneJuly 1944 |
Barbarossa | 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union |
Berghof | Hitlers Bavarian retreat (Obersalzberg) |
Blau | Blue, 1942 summer offensive in the Soviet Union |
blitzkrieg | lightning war |
commissar | political officer attached to Red Army units |
Commissar Order | Guidelines for the Treatment of Political |
Commissars; order of 6 June 1941 to shoot Red Army political officers |
Edelweiss | advance into the Caucasus, JulyNovember 1942 |
Einsatzgruppe | mobile killing squad |
Einsatzkommando | subunit of an Einsatzgruppe |
Fredericus | operation against the Izyum bulge, May 1942 |
Freikorps | German paramilitary groups |
front | Soviet equivalent of an army group |
Frhlingserwachen | Spring Awakening, German offensive toward |
Budapest, March 1945 |
Gauleiter | Nazi Party regional leader |
Generalplan Ost | General Plan East |
Gestapo | Geheime Staatspolizei (Secret State Police) |
Hiwi | Hilfswillige(r), Russian volunteers/auxiliaries who performed noncombat duties with the German army |
Kampfgruppe | battle group (usually formed of units seriously reduced in strength) |
Kessel | pocket; cauldron |
Kesselschlacht | a battle of encirclement |
Landser | German infantryman |
Lebensraum | living space |
Luftflotte | German air fleet |
Luftwaffe | German air force |
Mars | Soviet offensive against the Rzhev salient (Ninth Army), fall/winter 1942 |
NSV | Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt (National Socialist Peoples Welfare Organization) |
OKH | Oberkommando des Heeres (Army High Command) |
OKW | Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (Armed Forces High Command) |
Ostfront | Eastern front |
Ostheer | Eastern Army |
Ostkrieg | Eastern war |
panje | Russian horse-drawn wagon |
Panther position | proposed German defensive position in the east |
Panzerfaust | German one-shot anti-tank weapon |
Pz III | German tank, from 1942 with 50 mm antitank gun |
Pz IV | mainstay German tank with a long-barreled, high velocity 75 mm gun |
Pz V | Panther tank (from 1943, with a long-barreled, high velocity 75 mm gun |
Pz VI | Tiger tank (from 1942, with an 88 mm gun) |
rasputitsa | lit., time without roads; spring and fall rainy season in the Soviet Union |
Reichsfhrer-SS |
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