Ostkrieg
Authors: Stephen G. Fritz
OSTKRIEG
Hitler's
War of Extermination
in the East
S
TEPHEN
G. F
RITZ
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 : Hitlerâ²s 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) â ISBN 978-0-8131-3417-8 (ebook)
1. World War, 1939-1945âCampaignsâEastern Front. 2. World War, 1939-1945âCampaignsâSoviet Union. 3. World War, 1939-1945âAtrocitiesâEurope, Eastern. 4. Soviet UnionâHistoryâGerman occupation, 1941-1944. 5. GermanyâTerritorial expansionâHistoryâ20th century. 6. GermanyâTerritorial expansionâEconomic aspects. 7. GermanyâTerritorial expansionâSocial aspects. 8. GermanyâMilitary policy. 9. Hitler, Adolf, 1889-1945âMilitary leadership. I. Title.
D764.F737 2011
940.54â²21âdc23Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 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.
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Abbreviations and Foreign Terms
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Blau
Stalingrad, September 1942âFebruary 1943
Kursk and Ukraine, summer/fall 1943
Destruction of Army Group Center, summer 1944
Vistula-Oder-Berlin Operations, 1945
Generalplan Ost
and Foreign Terms
AFV | armored fighting vehicle |
AK | Armeekorps (army corps) |
BA | Bundesarchiv (German Federal Archives) |
Bagration | Soviet offensive in Belorussia, JuneâJuly 1944 |
Barbarossa | 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union |
Berghof | Hitler's 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, JulyâNovember 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 |
Frühlingserwachen | 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 |
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 People's 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 |
Reichsführer-SS | Himmler's title |
Reichsmarshall | Goering's title |
Ring | final Soviet offensive against Stalingrad, January 1943 |
Rollbahn | main highway in the Soviet Union |
RSHA | Reichssicherheitshauptamt |
SA | Sturmabteilung (Storm Troopers) |
Saturn | proposed Soviet offensive west of Stalingrad aimed at Rostov, November 1942 (“Little Saturn” actually executed) |
Schwerpunkt | focal point of an attack |
SD | Sicherheitsdienst (Security Service, part of the RSHA) |
Sonderkommando | smaller subunit of an Einsatzgruppe |
SS | Schutzstaffel (elite Nazi troops) |
Stavka | headquarters, Soviet Supreme Command |
Stuka | Sturzkampfflugzeug (German dive bomber; JU-87) |
T-34 | Soviet mainstay tank (76 mm, then after 1944 an 85 mm gun) |
Taifun | Typhoon, drive on Moscow, OctoberâDecember 1941 |
Trappenjagd | Bustard Hunt, operation on the Kerch Peninsula, May 1942 |
trek | German refugee column |
Uranus | Soviet counteroffensive at Stalingrad, November 1942 |
Vernichtungskrieg | war of annihilation |
Viking | Fifth SS Division |
Volk | people, nation |
Volksdeutsche | ethnic German |
Volksgemeinschaft | national community, people's community |
Volkssturm | “People's Storm” (German national militia) |
Waffen-SS | armed or combat SS |
Wehrkraftzersetzung | undermining of the war effort |
Wehrmacht | German armed forces, often used to refer specifically to the army |
Wintergewitter | Winter Storm, operation to relieve Stalingrad, December 1942 |
Wolfsschanze | Wolf's Lair (Hitler's headquarters at Rastenburg, East Prussia) |