Unfortunately, Ukrainians were unaware that in Nazi German ideology the Ukrainians were classed as Untermensch (sub-humans) and that their land Ukraine, the "Breadbasket of Europe," was the Lebensraum that Hitler wanted to colonize with German population. Germany in fact had in mind a war of total annihilation against the Ukrainians because they occupied the black earth which is one of the richest lands in the world. Hitler apparently planned that one year after the end of the war the bulk of the population of Ukraine would "disappear" or serve as slaves to the new German colonists. On December 16, 1942 Hitler ordered that the "most brutal means" be used by the German Army against guerillas in Ukraine "even against women and children." It took only a few weeks before the enormous crimes Adolf Hitler was perpetrating in Ukraine were realized by the Ukrainians who suffered three years under Nazi German occupation.
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Copyright © 1995 Andrew Gregorovich