A chain of events led to General Friedrich Paulus being given command of the Sixth Army. Hitler’s disappointment in Army Group South led to replacements among the generals and Paulus’s promotion to Sixth Army commander.

In Paulus’s previous career, he had fought in the German army during the First World War, where he had been competent but uninspiring as a leader. He became a devoted follower of Hitler because of his dislike of Bolshevism and respect for the chain of command. However, his previous experience in high-level command had been solely centered on military planning. He had not yet commanded even a division in combat. Paulus was also notable for his sensitivity when it came to the well-being of his soldiers and his canceling of orders that encouraged atrocities against Jews and partisans, but this was countermanded during the Stalingrad campaign. Taking command of the Sixth Army, he controlled a force that had rounded up 33,771 Jews during the capture of Kyiv; it was a force already inured to committing atrocities. Hitler remained unusually skilled at manipulating his generals into following Nazi doctrine, supported by ideological belief in the ranks. This, and the social pressure against cowardice in the army, manifested as excessive violence against Russians, including starving and murdering prisoners.