The article sketches the consequences of the German defeat in Stalingrad inside the Third Reich. The German population, inadequately informed by state controlled media until the very last phase of the battle, went into a state of shock. While political opponents of Hitler’s dictatorship drew hope from its loss of popularity, the regime tried to overcome the critical situation by means of propagating «total war», which meant first of all radicalizing its criminal methods of suppression and enslavement.