On the territory of the Soviet Union, the Wehrmacht waged a racial and ideological WAR OF DESTRUCTION, and the conquered “Eastern space” was supposed to become “killing fields” for the Jews of Europe. The extermination of six million Jews (almost half of them Soviet Jews) by Nazi criminals would not have been possible without the active cooperation of the armed forces of the Third Reich. The German army was one of four independent and interacting structures of the Nazi machine of destruction, along with the Hitlerite party, the bureaucracy and industry. Book by Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor A.M. Ermakova contributes to the deheroization of the Wehrmacht, the preservation of the historical memory of the Holocaust, World War II and the Great Patriotic War. The author tells in detail how and why the army, proud of its centuries-old traditions and code of officer honor, turned into the executioner of European Jews, for what reasons German generals, officers and soldiers consciously and actively became involved in repressive policies in the occupied territories, became not only accomplices and perpetrators, but also organizers of the genocide of “lower races”. 2nd edition, corrected and expanded