More Holocaust stories

"STILLE HILFE ODESSA" By mid-1940, the Nazis had overrun almost all of Western Europe. Britain was left fighting by itself. (The United States did not enter the war until the end of 1941, forced to do so by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.) In mid-1941, Stalin’s intelligence agencies informed him that Hitler was about to attack the Soviet Union. Over four and a half million German soldiers were perched on the border. Stalin could not believe it! Click to Enlarge Battle of Stalingrad 1942 photo courtesy of National Archive People used to fight by the rules. Back in World War I, the holidays came up and there would be a big truce. Everyone went home, had a great time, and came back at a certain time, a certain hour, and started killing each other again. One of the things that Hitler taught the world was how to fight dirty. He broke treaties and showed that one’s word meant nothing. The day Russia was invaded, the still disbelieving Stalin sent a huge coal shipment by train into Germany. It was part of their treaty – the shipment was due, and Stalin felt bound by the treaty. On June 22, 1941, four million troops poured over the Russian border. Within one month, over two and half million Russians had been killed, wounded or captured. The Germans made tremendous advances into Russia – into portions of Moscow, Leningrad, and Stalingrad. Click here to receive Aish.com's free weekly email. Wounded in the Battle of Stalingrad photo courtesy of National Archive And then winter hit. The Germans were caught in summer uniforms, and it was a bitter, cold winter that year. Stalin, using sheer force of numbers, threw another two million soldiers at the Germans. The German offensive sputtered, and then stopped. The German army was about 1,800 miles away from home, and the railroads did not work. In the spring of the next year, another German offensive was launched especially around the approaches to Stalingrad. What followed can only be described as a nine-month titanic battle, with the result that the German Sixth Army in Russia was almost completely destroyed. That was the beginning of the end for Germany, but it would take three more years of desperate fighting, and millions and millions of people dead before it was all over.