The Nazis had a sort of secret weapon --the assault gun which looked more or less like a tank. The StuG III Strumgeschutz that more or less allowed them to get through the Stalin Line which was the proper border of the USSR. The Red Army had a very smart Commander of the Western Forces (Bundyonny) who was able to escape [the 6th and 12th armies] at amazing speed which astounded even the Germans. Still the Nazis were able to form a pincher type of action which joined together at Uman which encircled the Red Army. Around that area was made a lot of very large prisoner of war camps. Most of the prisoners died because they were not provided with shelter, and also were given very sparse rations. In Uman itself there was a large murder of Jews as commemorated there on a place outside Privat Bank [on Lenina Street--the main street].
I might mention that even among the German lines there were good hearted people. In one of those prisoner of war camps, a woman from Uman passed by and pointed to a prisoner and said to one of the German guards, "That is my husband," (even though she and he had never met before then). That prisoner of war was then let go (and married her) and became the father of a KGB agent whose home I used to stay in when I came to Uman for Rosh Hashanah.
