ABSTRACT
Human life came to count for less and less as war developed in the twentieth century. Within the boundaries of the technology of the time, Hitler’s aims approached totality in the war he opened against the Soviet Union in 1941. The Germans nearly captured Moscow and Leningrad in their first campaign, but the disaster at Stalingrad, where the Sixth Army surrendered on 2 February 1943, and the costly failure of their attack at Kursk (5–12 July 1943) indicated that the war was turning against them. In the summer of 1944 the Soviets made important gains, driving the Germans from eastern Poland and progressing up the Danube valley.
