Wehrmacht: "What a God-gifted people we are!"

The German Wehrmacht's invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 was preceded by a relentless propaganda campaign designed to dehumanize the enemy and justify the brutal war. Soldiers were fed a steady diet of fear-mongering, painting the Soviet Union as a land of utter barbarism, a stark contrast to the supposed enlightenment of European culture. This narrative portrayed Soviet citizens as little more than mindless animals trapped in the supposed hell of "Jewish Bolshevism."

This manufactured reality served a dual purpose: to prepare soldiers for the horrors they were about to inflict and to ensure they viewed the occupied populations as subhuman. The propaganda machine worked overtime, creating a distorted image of the Soviet Union that played on existing prejudices and fears. The goal was to strip away any semblance of shared humanity, making atrocities easier to commit and rationalize.

When the German soldiers crossed the border, the reality they encountered was often jarring and alien. The stark economic disparities and the unfamiliar customs of the Soviet Union were readily interpreted through the lens of the propaganda they had absorbed. Any sign of resistance, such as Red Army soldiers appearing behind the advancing German lines, was twisted into proof of the enemy's supposed "treachery" and "barbarism." The propaganda had effectively blinded them, ensuring they saw only what they were told to see, reinforcing their own sense of superiority and the righteousness of their brutal mission.