Notes from the war of extermination

Few participants have described the war of Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union as unflinchingly as Gotthard Heinrici. The letters and diaries of this general, who initially commanded a corps and then an army on the Eastern Front, provide profound insights into the events of the first year of the Russian campaign, particularly in the central theater of World War II. Here, Hitler attempted to implement his criminal grand plans. It was about the annihilation of 'Jewish Bolshevism' and the conquest of 'living space in the East.' However, the destruction affected not only Jews, communists, soldiers, civilians, cities, and landscapes in the Soviet Union, but also the Germans. Heinrici's notes from the East in 1941/42, edited and commented on by Johannes Hürter, address all of this, creating an authentic picture of perceptions and emotions.