Nazi ideology viewed Slavs as "untermensch", literally sub-humans. The war against the Soviet Union was a war intended to annihilate the Slavs, Jews and other "inferior" peoples of Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, take the territory, and make any survivors into slaves to serve the Aryans. French and British people however were viewed as Aryan peoples and thus were given better treatment. Americans received better treatment than Soviets mostly due to their good treatment of German POWs.