ABSTRACT
Hitler’s intentions toward Europe’s Jews might always have been genocidal. He used apocalyptic language regarding Jews throughout his career, and in 1939 he predicted their annihilation. Although Germany terrorized Jews in 1939 and 1940, it did not turn to mass murder until June 22, 1941, with the attack on the Soviet Union, code-named Operation Barbarossa. With this invasion, the Germans began the systematic murder of Jews in the USSR through mass shootings, first of men, then of women and children.
