On June 22, 1941, Hitler began what would be the most important campaign of the European theater. The war against the Soviet Union would leave tens of millions of Soviet citizens dead and large parts of the country in ruins. The death and destruction would result not just from military operations but also from the systematic killing and abuse that the German army, police, and SS directed against Jews, Communists, and ordinary citizens. In War of Annihilation, noted military historian Geoffrey P. Megargee provides a clear, concise history of the Germans' opening campaign of conquest and genocide in 1941. By drawing on the best of military and Holocaust scholarship, Megargee dispels the myths that have distorted the role of Germany's military leadership in both the military operations themselves and the unthinkable crimes that were part of them.

"Elegantly researched and written . . . this magnificent book serves as a bitter indictment of force without accountability and ranks as a cautionary saga of how this war of aggression ground to a halt. Highly recommended." - CHOICE

"Provides readers with thorough information and a good deal of up-to-date analysis, underlining popularly overlooked connections between German warfare and mass murders that belong to the most notorious in history." - American Historical Review

"An excellent synthesis . . . that manages to be both concise and yet surprisingly substantive. . . . Geoffrey Megargee has written a very fine, readable survey of the first six months of the Nazi-Soviet war, one that effectively demonstrates the relationships, on any number of levels, between the military sphere of strategy and operations and the political imperative, which encompassed ideology, economics, culture, and racial policy." - H-German

"Megargee's book appears particularly useful for the college classroom. His style is clear and concise." - The Journal Of Military History

"Combining evidence from untapped German documents and the wealth of scholarship on the Eastern Front, Geoffrey Megargee, of the Holocaust Memorial Museum, provides a concise and quite comprehensive look at the German campaign against Russia. . . . The book looks at events both at the front and behind it, providing detailed, grim evidence directly from German sources. War of Annihilation is an essential work for anyone with an interest in the Second World War." - The NYMAS Review