Operation Barbarossa

In this episode, we explore Operation Barbarossa, Nazi Germany’s 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union, and how the campaign exposes the falsehood behind the Myth of the Clean Wehrmacht. We examine how the German military was deeply involved in a war of annihilation, with orders such as the Barbarossa Decree permitting brutal violence against Soviet civilians and helping create the conditions for mass atrocities and the Holocaust. Through major battles such as Smolensk and Kiev, the episode also considers the enormous scale, speed, and human cost of the German advance across the Eastern Front. Finally, we look at how wartime propaganda and later Cold War politics helped reshape memories of Operation Barbarossa, allowing former German officers to promote a misleading image of the Wehrmacht as an apolitical and honorable fighting force.