Nazi theory and practice differed greatly. What some Nazi bigwig dreams up in his office and what some frontline commander actually don't always give with each other.

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Despite thinking Slavs are inferior, the Nazis were perfectly willing to work with many of them. There was never a plan to wipe them out completely (like the Jews), but that they would be second class citizens. It is likely in the event of some fictional German victory that many of these people would have been Germanized, which wouldn't have necessarily been worse than being Russified (many of these people were NOT ethnic Russians).

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You also have to remember that much of what we know of Nazi racial policies and the Holocaust is informed by acquisition of knowledge at the end of the war and by pop culture. In real life the Nazis were not so organized as movies would make you believe and racial violence would be wildly different. Hitler did NOT have a blanket policy for pretty much anything and the Nazi regime's actions were often a result of a bunch of competing people and organizations doing what they thought Hitler might want, often completely at odds with each other. Combine this with exigencies, shortages, crises, and you can see how Nazi racial violence was applied rather unevenly. Some areas would be absolutely massacred, while others would be relatively calm. In a pre-Internet totalitarian (Soviet or Nazi) society with little access to accurate information it would be very difficult to get a picture of everything that is going on.

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People collaborated with the Nazis in huge numbers. It is estimated by the historian Antony Beevor that 25% of the "Germans" at Stalingrad were former Soviet citizens in German uniform.

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People did it for lots of reasons:

- Hatred of Stalin: He certainly had a heavy hand before the Nazis arrived, and the purges, ethnic resettlement, opposition to religion, and collectivization of farms certainly made him some enemies.

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- Ignorance: Many of these people KNEW Stalin was bad. They witnessed his oppression first hand. Many of them assumed the Nazis couldn't be any worse...

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- Survival: The Germans will pay you and feed you. If the choice is starvation or a Nazi uniform, most people will start goosestepping. For modern people to say that they wouldn't betrays a privileged upbringing and absorption of years of education and pop culture telling them that the Nazis were the worst people to ever walk the Earth. To many people they were a lifeline. You must also remember that the Soviets had a tendency to imprison or murder their OWN soldiers who they liberate from POW camps for being traitors, cowards, or unduly influenced by the West. If you're rotting in a POW camp on a starvation diet then working for the Germans could be quite attractive.

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- Personal gain/revenge: Many collaborators in these areas were only too happy to point out Jews and then round them up themselves with little Nazi intervention. It gives one a chance to revenge past slights or grievances, as well as enrich yourself by looting the possessions and property of persecuted people. A simple peasant could do quite well for himself by betraying his neighbor to the Nazis.

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