Hitler. 1936-1945: Nemesis полностью

139. In fact, once the German blockade set in, around 2.5 million civilians would be practically trapped — apart from a path over the iced Lake Ladoga — in the city over an exceptionally icy winter and beyond. (The siege would finally be raised only at the end of January 1944.) With supply routes cut off, famine conditions quickly took hold. Horses and stray dogs were rapidly consumed. Bread and gruel were in exceedingly short supply. Most people had to resort to root vegetables and, when they dried up, an unholy concoction made from peat and paper. An estimated 850–950,000 are estimated to have succumbed to starvation, cold, and illness. (Osobyi Arkhiv (Sonderarchiv), Moscow, 500–1–25, ‘Ereignismeldung UdSSR Nr.191’, 10 April 1942, Fols.264–70; Oxford Companion, 683–6; Richard Overy, Russia’s War, London, 1997, 105–11.)

140. TBJG, II/1, 481–3 (24 September 1941).

141. TBJG, II.1, 486 (24 September 1941).

142. TBJG, II/1, 482 (24 September 1941). In fact, Hitler was hoping to be able to withdraw a good number of divisions after attaining the next military goals. Halder had decided as early as 8 July to make winter arrangements for an occupying rather than a combat force in the Soviet Union (Halder KTB, iii.53 (8 July 1941); Dallin, 62).

143. An attached cover-note by Keitel of 1 September states that Hitler had approved the Memorandum. Its circulation was restricted on Hitler’s orders to the Commanders-in-Chief of the branches of the Wehrmacht, and the Reich Foreign Minister (Ribbentrop). Chief of Staff Halder presumably saw it only several days after its initial distribution, since he noted extracts in his diary entry for 13 September. (ADAP, D, XIII, 345–53, quotation 352, No. 265; DGFP, D, 13, 422–33, quotation 431, No.265; Halder KTB, iii.226–9; DRZW, iv.507; Warlimont, 192–3.)

144. Halder KTB, iii.205 (29 August 1941).

145. DRZW, IV. 571.

146. See Leach, 220, 222.

147. Bonwetsch, 203ff. (though the change was only gradual, and from 1942 onwards). For an emphasis, diluting the blame attached exclusively to Stalin, on the structural weaknesses in the Red Army in 1941, but rapid remedial action taken, see Jacques Sapir, ‘The Economics of War in the Soviet Union during World War II’, in Kershaw and Lewin, 208–36, here 216–19. See also David M. Glantz and Jonathan M. House, When Titans Clashed. How the Red Army stopped Hitler, Kansas, 1995, 65ff.

148. Leach, 234–7 (and see also pp.118–23) for above.

149. Leach, 212, 223–4. Whether Soviet determination to stand and defend Moscow, backed by utterly ruthless butchery of those attempting to flee, would have been sustainable had Stalin fled from the capital might, however, be doubted. And such an eventuality was close in mid-October, when a special train was waiting under steam at one of Moscow’s stations ready to carry the Soviet dictator out of the city. Stalin seems to have pondered the likely consequences for morale, however, and decided to stay. (Volkogonov, 434–5; Edvard Radzinsky, Stalin, New York, 1996, 482–3; Rees, War of the Century, 71–4; Bonwetsch, 189; Glantz and House, 81; Heinz Magenheimer, Hitler’s War. German Military Strategy, 1940–1945, London, 1998, 117–18. For a guide through the labyrinth of interpretations, see Rolf-Dieter Müller and Gerd R. Ueberschär, Hitler’s War in the East 1941–1945. A Critical Assessment, Providence/Oxford, 1997, 85–104, especially 99ff.)

150. See Leach, 238–41.

151. Hauner, Hitler, 151–2.

152. Hauner, Hitler, 166–8. For Udet, whose death was attributed by the regime to an accident while testing a new aeroplane, see Wistrich, 280.

153. Rebentisch, 374.

154. Lang, Der Sekretär, 464.

155. Rebentisch, 374.

156. Steinert, 206–8.

157. Boelcke, Wollt Ihr, 236.

158. Steinert, 209–13; Boelcke, Wollt Ihr, 234–44; Seydewitz, 70–72.

159. Heinrich Breloer (ed.), Mein Tagebuch. Geschichten vom Überleben 1939–1947, Cologne, 1984, 63.

160. Breloer, 63.

161. StA Bamberg, K8/III, 18475, report of the Landrat of Ebermannstadt, 1 July 1941: ‘Nicht das geringste Verständnis besteht für die Verwirklichung von Weltherrschaftsplänen… Die überarbeiteten und abgewirtschafteten Männer und Frauen sehen nicht ein, warum der Krieg noch weiter nach Asien und Afrika hineingetragen werden muß.’