Why did Germany invade Russia at the time they did?

Germany and Russia had a truce going on, but then Germany decided to backstab them on June 22, 1941, I believe, during Operation Barbosa. Why at that time? Didn't they already have enough going on? Wouldn't it be better if they finished off the other Allied forces before taking on such a massive super-power?

And why did Russia help with the Poland invasion, but didn't help them in anything else after that (at least to my knowledge)?

How were Axis Jews treated, especially Germans?

 

same question being asked, here is the reply.. Answers.com - Why did Germany invade Russia

 

Russia's invasion of Poland occured for several reasons. The first was that Poland was part of the Russian Empire less than 35 yrs prior to 1939. Russia gave the land which after WW1 became Poland as a peace offering to Germany in order to withdraw from hostilities. When Stalin came to power he wanted that land back (along with others). The second reason is that Stalin knew that war with Germany was coming, he needed a "buffer" zone to protect Russian lands with. Stalin thought that when war would break out, it would be fought in Poland and Belarus, not mainland Russia.

Simplifying of course

 

The reason for Barbarossa was mainly military :Germany had no chance to eliminate Britain,war with the US was nearing,but,from Hitler's POV,these two would not be strong enough to defeat Germany :they would need,as in WWI,the help of the SU -Russia.If Hitler could make the SU an ally,or eliminate the SY if it refused to be an ally,there would be a compromise peace with the west .
About Poland:in august 1939,Stalin had the following choices:
1) remaining neutral,and doing nothing while Hitler occupied the whole of Poland
2) to ally himself with the west and to fight against Germany to protect Poland
3) to become a de facto ally from Germany,and,by doing nothing,have his reward :the eastern half of Poland .
Which of the three was the most advantageous for the SU ?

 

Germany was always under the financial gun. It needed gold reserves and Industrial production to win the war. I wonder if there could of been a underlying need for Germany to capture Russian Industry and resourses. After all in the beginning the Russian campaign was only going to take Germany a few months. LOL

 

1.) Why? Read Mein Kampf. Hitler himself explains why.

2.). When? Hitler was impatient and quite delusional. He was nearly successful, but still quite delusional.

 

This is a case of 'Easy questions, difficult answers'.

To answer those questions in detail would take many pages and reach back to the very roots of inter-war politics and Hitler's motivation. You may be better served by reading any one-volume WWII history, or watch a good documentary such as 'World At War' etc which will give you a good grounding in the basics.

 

the answer simply is...it was the right time for the germans to attack the soviets. At that time they were doing quite well in the war. The German war machine was moving strong, conquering territory. The problem with Hitler is that he underestimated his enemy.
Not to mention the brutally cold Russian winters


Hitler wanted to finish off the communists and his other enemies. liquidation as fast as humanly possible.

 

at the risk of going of topic :they were not doing quite well in the war :they had lost the BOB,the Blitz was a failure,dito for the UBoat war ,and ...the Yanks would coming .

 

Ever since Hitler started to voice his opinions to anyone who would listen the war against Bolshevist Russia was meant to be a conflict base on ideology. However, once it became clear that an invasion of the British Isles was completely out of the question the war against the Soviet Union became one of practical reasons - Hitler believed that only the possibilty of Soviet and American aid kept Britain in the war, and if the Soviet Union was smashed then the Japanese would gaing more power in Far East Asia and keep the attention of the USA on them, thus leaving Britain alone and forcing them to negotiate peace. Hitler was anxious to end the war in Europe, and his military staff had started to plan the possible operation against Russia as early as the summer of 1940. Germany would eventually have to wage war against Russia, so they thought they might as well do it while they still held the upper hand in Europe. Besides, most of the German commanders completely underestimated the military capabilities of the Soviets. After the abysmal preformance in the war against Finland in 1939-1940 and Stalins purges the Germans reasoned that the Red Army was in no condition to fight. The invasion was meant to start in the spring of 1941 and Hitler gave it 5 months to completely defeat the russians.

Why the operation was delayed until the 22th of June was because of the Yugoslavian coup and the reckless Italian attack on Greece, and Hitler needed to secure the southern front so the Wehrmacht could focus against the Soviet Union.

The German invasion would have eventually happened, but Hitler's anxiousness to end the war in Europe and the underestimation of the Red Army convinced them that 1941 was the right time to do it.

 

2 corrections:
1)Barbarossa was delayed,not because of Ygoslavia and Greece,but because of the bad spring weather in the SU
2)There were no 5 months to defeat the Russians ,only 1O weeks,if after 10 weeks the SU was not defeated ,it would become stronger and Germany weaker .If I am not wrong,the guidelines for Barbarossa were :defeat the SU in a quick (=short) campaign.

 

Another good source for at least background information on this is Tooze's Wages of Destruction. It'll give you a much better understanding of what was happening and why in Germany during this period.

 

If you had the money for only one book on WWII,do not hesitate:buy "the wages of destruction"

 

I've yet to finish it in part because I'll read something and a light bulb will come on. I then spend several minutes reflecting on at least some of the signifigance of what I just read. Much like reading A Book of Five Rings where there are all sorts of implications within what you read. A major difference being that Wages of Destruction is much longer.

 

But for Hitler that was a minor setback in the war...

He was confidant that with Russia taken it would all spell out victory. After victory over the soviets, Russia's natural resources would be be in Nazi control. That would fuel up and expand the German war machine. In turn the focus would be on to his western enemies, The Uk and the Americans.


But of course as we all know it didn't work out that way. He overcalculated and underestimaed his enemies.