Hitler invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941. By November the Wehrmacht had occupied most of Soviet Ukraine. Not knowing what was to come next, many Ukrainians, even Jewish Ukrainians, at first welcomed the German troops. “Girls would offer the soldiers flowers and people would offer bread,” one woman recalled. “We were all so happy to see them. They were going to save us from the Communists who had taken everything and starved us.”
