With the large encirclement battles of 1941, tens of thousands of Red Army soldiers hid in forests and small villages and towns across the occupied Soviet territories as the Red Army began to win victories, thousands of men and women joined the partisans. Expecting an easy, quick victory, The Germans were not prepared to deal with a large network of separate partisan groups in their rear areas. Soviet Premier Josef Stalin called for massive partisan activity behind German lines in his radio broadcast on July 3, 1941. Issued before the start of Operation Barbarossa, Communist party members to be shot when captured. Generaloberst Alfred Jodl (May 10, 1890-October 16, 1946) Deputy Chief of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW, "Army High Command") signed the Commissar Order on June 6, 1941. Many German soldiers took souvenir photos and even sent them back home.
Often the executions were excuses to murder Jews.
Women were especially targeted some were hung for refusing sex with German soldiers, most for suspected alliances with or actually being partisans. The Germans preferred hanging to shooting, because the gallows made for a more public spectacle that they believed intimidated the civilian population in occupied territories. Three German soldiers pose for a photograph with the corpse of a woman identified as a partisan.
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