June 22, 1941
Germany Invades the Soviet Union
Historical context
On this day, June 22, 1941, Germany launched Operation Barbarossa. More than three million German soldiers, with allied troops, attacked across a front from the Baltic to the Black Sea.
Archive record
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- Date
- June 22, 1941
- Verified sources
- 1
- Archive threads
- 5
On this day, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union under the codename Operation Barbarossa. Three army groups, more than three million German soldiers, attacked across a front from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. About 650,000 troops from Romania and Finland supported the opening assault. Hitler had signed Directive 21 on 18 December 1940. He treated the 1939 German–Soviet pact as a temporary maneuver.
Einsatzgruppen of the Security Police and SD followed the army. USHMM records that they were tasked with killing Jews, Communists, and others judged dangerous to German rule. Mass shootings of Jewish men began at once; by late July entire communities were being murdered.
Research trail
Sources and further reading
- Invasion of the Soviet Union, June 1941 · United States Holocaust Memorial Museum · Holocaust Encyclopedia View source
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