A German soldier just wants to survive
9th August 1941: Not every member of the Wehrmacht wanted war
Max Kuhnert was a mounted trooper, part of a forward reconnaissance section for his division. They were soon to be diverted south to assist Army Group South seize the rich farmlands of the Ukraine.
It was this area - the bread basket of Russia - that Hitler envisaged as the frontier land of the new German empire. In this New Order, the 'slavs' would be largely wiped out, just like the American Indians had been, and German settlers would farm the land to supply food to Germany and western Europe. He even referred to the river Volga as the 'German Mississippi'. Food sent to Germany would be food denied to the rest of Russia - which, after waves of famine and starvation, would revert to sparsely populated forests.
In contrast to Karl Fuchs, who wrote his letters home at this time, this vision of a Russia populated by subhumans was not shared with all the front line troops:
