Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Banditry" in English language version.
'All Germany is a gang of bandits and, among the nobles, the more grasping the more glorious' - a Roman cardinal thus summed up the state of the German nation in the late Middle Ages. [...] Friedrich C. Schlosser [...] mentioned [...] that 'the numerous robber-knights of Thuringia ... earned their living on the highways by [robbing] cities of their goods'.
Hitler's decision [...] called for the 'energetic combat' of the partisan threat and its elimination [...]. [...] With Himmler's political soldiers in charge, men tasked with upholding the racial and ideological precepts of the order and experienced in mass murder, the radicalization of the antipartisan effort was assured. One example of this radicalization involved Hitler's order to take the 'toughest measures' against all those who joined or supported the partisans.
During a private audience with the Duce, Benito Mussolini, in October 1942, Göring discussed the conduct of antipartisan operations in the East and explained the German practice of confiscating all livestock and foodstuffs as well as that of interning men, women, and children in work camps and burning down their villages.
