It would be insane and criminal in the event of allied action on the continent,

not to make use of troops prepared for the greatest sacrifices,

scattered and unorganized today,

but tomorrow capable of making up a united army of parachute troops already in place,

familiar with the terrain,

and having already selected their enemy and determined their objective.

Jean Moulin.

Welcome to the history of the 20th century.

Music of the 20th century. Episode 402, The Resistance, Part 1.

Before the German invasion of the Soviet Union began in June 1941, the German policy toward the European nations they occupied was relatively gentle.

The main exceptions were the occupied Czech lands, and especially

Poland. Hitler positively loathed Slavic peoples, such as Poles and Czechs, and his long-term

goal was the utter eradication of both nations and both peoples.

Then came Operation Barbarossa.

I've already described to you the abuse and killings of millions of Soviet POWs and the barbaric hunger plan intended to starve the Slavic populations of the Western USSR into extinction.

The Nazis regarded Slavs and Roma and Jews as little more than animals

and forced them into living in environments of deprivation, disease, starvation, and degradation.

Then, having reduced them to an animal-like existence, would call

attention to their humiliating state as proof of their racial inferiority, a sort of self-fulfilling

prophecy. Ironically, despite Hitler's loathing of Slavs, about a million Slavs from occupied Eastern Europe

served in the Vermacht and the Waffen-S.S. military units. Most of them were unarmed and served

in support roles, but some of them served, at least unofficially, as frontline soldiers.

...