Europe under domination Nazi

the German Occupation indicates the historical period during which certain countries were entirely or partially occupied militarily and politically by the Wehrmacht during the Second world war. In the language running, one says often simply the Occupation .

Classification of the states under domination Nazi

The statute of the territories subjected to the German domination depends at the same time on the historical conditions which have consuit with this domination and of the projects that the Germans can have, in the long run on the countries concerned. One can try a coarse classification in three categories while knowing that certain countries can occupy of the intermediate positions compared to these three categories:

annexed Countries.
occupied Countries
Satellite countries

Thus, certain States were annexed to the Grand Reich. It is the case of the Austria, since the Anschluss, in 1938, of the Luxembourg in 1940. The Alsace and the the Moselle, to the east of France as well as the west of the Poland, they, are also annexed.

The Protectorat of Bohemia-Moravie, integrated into the Reich in 1939 is practically annexed, but it preserves an embryo of State with which are removed the kingly prerogatives which are the army and the diplomacy. As for the General Gouvernement of Poland, private of any indigenous authority is transformed into appendix colonial and is transformed into dump of Europe in the course of “ethnic purification” according to the terms of Yves Durand.

Other States, overcome militarily, are occupied by the Germans without the latter asserting the annexation of these countries. The Germans manage some of these countries directly where they installed occupying forces. It is the case of the Netherlands, the Belgium and the Norway until 1942. Other occupied countries preserved a national government. It is the case of Norway after 1942, of the Serbia, the Greece, the Denmark and the France. Until 1942, France preserves a nonoccupied zone.

One calls satellite countries States which are combined of Germany which preserves, in theory the totality of their attribution and their autonomy, but which in practice are very dependant on Germany and often obliged to accept on their ground of the German troops. It is the case of the Bulgaria, the Romania and the Hungary which are combined of Germany before the release of the hostilities. It is also the case of the Slovakia and the Croatia which owe their independence in the Nazi Germany.

As the German defeats accumulate, Reich cannot count any more on its allies, the satellite states, and passes to a direct occupation (Italy, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria).

Various forms of the domination Nazi in the east and the west

German domination in Europe revêt a different character according to the Nazis projects, and according to whether the inhabitants of the occupied countries were regarded as " race" more or less lower by Hitler.

This last intended to radically reorganize the demographic chart of Eastern Europe, essential tank of the " vital space " ( Lebensraum ) returning to the " Race of Seigneurs". In this immense space, it is at the same time a question of establishing German colonists, of germaniser of force the populations which can the being, to move, sterilize or make die million " under-hommes" ( Untermenschen ) Polish and of Slavic Soviet by using the survivors like slaves, finally to destroy the Jews and the Gypsies.

The world war in the East thus takes from the start the aspect deliberated on a war of extermination ( Vernichtungskrieg ) directed against the populations Slavic, gypsies and of course Jewish. The Kommissarbefehl signed by Keitel envisages the setting with systematic death of the communist police chiefs captive facts. A commission of experts installation by Göring to plan the future methodical exploitation of the resources of the USSR had concluded as of May 1941, that is to say before the invasion, that " our projects should result in the death of approximately 10 million personnes".

In the USSR, as in Poland and Yugoslavia, the massacres of mass to large scales and the starvation of the populations are the rule as of the first days of the invasion, which deprives the conquerors of possible supports in the Soviet population. Many dissatisfied with the mode with Stalin and the national minorities indeed held warm welcome with the Germans, before being turned over against them after the generalization of the massavres and various exactions. With the image of very brutal the gauleiter Erich Koch in Ukraine, the Nazis do not make any concession with the nationalists antirusses. They alienate the peasants while not calling into question the collective structures imposed during the Dékoulakisation. On the contrary, the system of the Kolkhozes and the Sovkhozes enable them to control the production more easily. The obligatory deliveries are even increased compared to the Soviet period, and any failure even more implacably punished.

The west is not regarded as a vital space to empty so that Germans can take seat there. In the new European order, a country like France keeps its place, but with a row lower than that of Germany. Certain countries or certain areas populated by populations considered as close relations of the Germans are dedicated to a reinforced germanisation. These territories are annexed to IIIe Reich. It is the case of Alsace and the Moselle, the Luxembourg and part of Poland. In Alsace, several tens of thousands of In spite of us are built-in of force in the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS. Many perishes on the face of the East, or, for the captured Alsatian-Natives of the Moselle region, are interned in the very hard Soviet camp Tambov. The other French do not have to fight at the sides of the Germans. Hundreds of thousands of European children " germanisables" are torn off with their families and are transferred in the Lebensborn opened by Martin Bormann. In these hearths, genuine " stud farm for SS" , it is also a question of studying the improvement of the " race aryenne". In parallel, Reich Nazi makes study on human guinea-pigs, in Ravensbrück and Auschwitz, a program of massive sterilization of the Slavic women.

In the West, the German occupant exerts a less terror, but does not subject of them less the resources of the countries conquered to systematic plundering. This one is radical: in 1942,40% of the Treasury of Reich is ridge of financial tributes taken on overcome.

The Germans are not subjected to rationing at the end of 1944 thanks to the massive agricultural levies in the occupied countries, condemned to the deprivations, with the food shortage even with the famine (Greece, the USSR). Many Germans and collaborators receive also skins of the Aryanisation (spoliation of the Jewish goods) carried out in all Europe.

Europe with the service of the saving in German war

General information

Hitler wants to gain the war and it needs weapons. Two great principles govern the policy of Germany in the countries of Europe which it subjected. Initially, the whole of the resources and economic capacities are put at the service of the saving in war of Reich, and at the same time, there is a prefiguration of what the Nazis in Europe dominated by Germany would like to set up:

The European resources are plundered: corn, ores, metals (road of iron in Norway) are conveyed in Allemagne.De many undertaken are obliged to produce equipment for the effort of war of Wehrmacht. Germany requires also an financial effort to support the saving in war, and which can be related with a tribute: the goods and the works of art of the European Jews are despoiled. The occupied countries must maintain the German troops of occupation. The prisoners of war work of force in the German camps. As from 1941, STO is instituted in all Europe; it consists in making come from the workers to Germany (6 million in 1943). On the spot, the populations are used for the effort of war: million people is forced to build the Atlantic Wall within the Todt organization. Lastly, the occupying forces, in a semi-official way, even control feed the black-market.

Agreements of clearing

The powers of the Axis, in general, the Nazi Germany in particular, have before the war little gold and currencies, which constitutes an obstacle to obtain the means necessary to the continuation of the war. The system which Germany sets up to face the situation was described as autarky imperialist, i.e. a kind of barter between country known under the name of clearing or compensation and inaugurated by Germany before the war with the Central Europe and of the countries as the Bulgaria whose economy is thus been dependant on that of Germany. In fact this system allows once Germany it is in strong position to provide itself to credit near country as the France with which an agreement of compensation is signed on November 14th, 1940. When a German industrialist buys in France, the Banque de France advances the required funds with the payment of the French supplier, whereas the German purchaser transfers the amount of money corresponding to the equalization fund from Berlin. The sum is registered with the credit of France, but it is the German state which can have this kind of bank deposit.

At the conclusion of the war, the German Reich accumulated with regard to all its european partners an enormous flow which will never be compensated following the bankruptcy of the state Nazi in 1945. the balance of the German purchases in Bulgaria is estimated at 37 billion raised. Certain companies of the subjected countries can nevertheless profit from this system while profiting from orders.

This mode of economic domination does not relate to only the countries allied or subjected by Germany, but also of the neutral countries like Sweden or Switzerland.

Plundering and exploitation in the West

In the territories conquered in the west, the German occupants take initially spoils of war: After their defeats, the armies Norwegian, Belgian, Dutch and French must deliver or deliver to the Wehrmacht weapons, ammunition, means of transport, stocks and fortifications.

Then, the tools allowing the exploitation of the subjected countries are the payment fee of occupation, quantified to Marks, but paid, under the terms of the agreements of clearing, in the local currency whose foreign exchange rate is fixed arbitrarily by the winners. For France, the expenses of occupation are of 20 million Marks per day, that is to say, with a rate of 1 mark for 20 francs, 400 franc million per day, the equivalent of 4 million working daily wages. Bulgarian, in theory allied ones of the Germans, must also pay maintenance costs of a German army stationed on the Bulgarian and supposed ground to defend Bulgaria. The justification of these expenses of occupation is that Wehrmacht gives its blood, to defend the various countries of a Anglo-American or Soviet invasion.

France is the first supplier of Reich. In March 1944, it already provided for nearly 35 billion Reichmark, including 80% under the expenses of occupation and the remainder within the framework of the clearing. This represents 40% of the totality of the liquidities coming from the countries and occupied territories. in 1943 in France, 50% of the rail traffic, 80% of the iron and steel industry, 100% of the car and aeronautics, the essence of the BTP were with the exclusive service of the effort of war hitlérien.

Plundering, extermination and colonization in the east

The policy of domination in Poland and in the territories conquered on the USSR takes as a starting point the racist prejudices of the Nazis with respect to the Slave S supposed to be of lower race and of the installation of the vital space asserted for the Germans.

In the Polish territories annexed by Reich (See article Poland during the Second world war]], the landowners and the Polish industrialists are expropriés with the profit of new German owners. In the General Government , a plundering with systematic dismantling is initially undertaken, but soon the general governor Hans Frank worries about the consequences of such excesses on the safety of the occupants and expropriation systematic is reserved to the Jewish owners.

In the USSR, as from June 1941, the invasion is accompanied by a plundering of the resources left by the Soviets. Wirtschaftskommandos accompany the army as well as possible to exploit the new conquered territories. 600 000 hectares are expropriés and transferred to the S, for future German establishments. Oswald Pohl is in charge of this plan of colonistion ( General Plan Ost ). These grounds must be delivered to colonists of Germanic race, at the same time as the “Germans of stock” ( Volksdeutsche ) living in the conquered territories are supposed being repatriated in Germany. It is expected that the Crimea becomes a military colonization. In fact, military reality prohibited to really implement this policy of colonization. On the other hand, the local populations are really controlled. The kolkhozes whose suppression had been issued are maintained, the collective form of work lending itself well to control production by the new Masters. Moreover, more than 2 million civilians are transferred in Germany for a forced labor.

The brutality of the forced labor practiced on the Slavic populations is often close to an extermination which is systematic only for the Jews, but which is also considerable for the not-Jewish civil populations. In testify some 7,7 million civilian victims and the USSR and 5,5 million in Poland.

From July 1944, with the final fold of the German armies, plundering makes place with the systematic destruction and the scorched earth policy.

Prisoners of war

Nearly 10 million prisoners of war of all nationalities will know the captivity in Germany of 1939 to 1945. Dice on September 18th, 1939, 100 000 encircled Poles are captured by the Germans. the table below gives an order of magnitude of the full number of prisoners of war having known the captivity in Germany.

The fate of the prisoners varied much, according to their nationality For the prisoners amenable to Western countries, France, Belgium and United Kingdom, the Geneva Conventions are about applied, including with the Jewish prisoners of war.

Conventions of Geneva, on the other hand, are not applied to the Soviet prisoners, maltreated, who undergo an enormous mortality. On the 5 700 000 captured, on the whole, of June 1941 with 1945,930 000 only remain prisoners at the end of the war. 1 000 000 passed in the Armée Vlassov or Hilfswillinge. The others died so much the transport conditions and of detention are appalling for them.

On the 1 810 000 captured French in May - June 1940, 250 000 manage to escape before arriving to Germany. The large majority of the soldiers is dispersed in Arbeitskommando , commandos of work, i.e., put at the service of industry or German agriculture. Between the end 1940 and 1944,475 000 are repatriated. As from 1942, within the framework of the policy of the raises carried out by the Vichy government, approximately 210 000 prisoners are " transformés" , i.e. they remain in Germany, but become in theory of the civil workers. In the same way, 500 000 of the 640 000 Internati Italian are also " transformés" as civilians.

Prisoners of war Norwegian, Dutch, Flemish, because they are supposed being of “Germanic” race are released. It is the same of the French prisoners of Alsatian origin or native of the Moselle region, if they agree to recognize “German stock”.

Displacements of labor

In addition to the prisoners of war, affected, as a whole to make turn the productive apparatus of Germany, million workers is drained towards Germany, of liking or force, starting from the occupied or combined countries.

To compensate for the mobilization of million workmen on the face of the east, Fritz Sauckel, plenipotentiary general for the use of the labor, transfers from force of 1942 to 1944 eight million civil workers in Germany, without counting the million prisoners of war put at work: half of agricultural employment and one the third of the industrial employment of the IIIe Reich are assumed by foreign workers in 1944.

If the Western workmen, whose French of the Service of obligatory work (STO), are rather well treated, on the other hand the Polish and Soviet workmen ( Ostarbeiter ) must carry a badge " P" or " Ost" quite visible on the chest; they generally touch miserable wages corresponding hardly at least physiological essential; they do not have the right to take the tram or to go up to bicycle, nor to enter a German church or a place of culture and leisures; the sexual relationships with Allemande are punished of died for the man, and the woman humiliated in public then off-set in camp the police force regularly practices raids which lead of them tens of thousands in Concentration camp to the least deviating gesture. In the last days of the IIIe Reich, thousands of forced workers Soviet and Polish escaped from their work places and wandering on the roads are massacred by Gestapo in the Ruhr, thus with the clearing of Bittermark with Dortmund where 355 civil workers several nationalities are assassinated the Good Friday 1945.

After Speer took in hand the saving in All-out war at the beginning of 1942, the German companies also exploit many prisoners provided by the Concentration camps of Himmler: approximately 1.500.000 deportees of all Europe know thus, in the camps or the kommandos of work, a particularly fatal exploitation in the state of Sous-alimentation.

Progressively of the years, foreign labor sustitue more and more in the factories with the German labor. January 1st, 1941, the foundries Krupp Ag of Essen the foreign workers account for 1,8% of total labor. One year later, this proportion goes up to 5,8%. At January 1st, 1943, it is assembled to 39,5%, and goes down again then slightly, to 27,4% on January 1st, 1944 and 29,7% the first January 1945.

Genocides, deportations, concentrations

The war and the domination of Europe which is resulted from it made it possible the Nazi regime to push with extreme its racist ideology. According to the terms of Goebbels " the war offers all kinds of possibilities to us that peace refused us "

Extermination of the Jews

Massacres of Gypsies

Massacres of the Slavic people

If the systematic extermination of the Slavic people as does not form part of the Nazi project, nevertheless the policy of domination in Poland and in the territories conquered on the USSR takes as a starting point the racist prejudices of the Nazis with respect to the Slavic ones supposed to be of lower race and of the installation of the vital esace asserted for the Germans. Million Pole, Russians and Belorusses will leave their life there, because of the exactions ds Einsatzgruppen or of the bad living conditions in the camps of prionniers of war. Heinrich Himmler it did not declare: “All the Polish people will disappear from the world. It is essential that the large German people consider major task that to destroy all the Poles. ”

Universe concentrationnaire and deportations

It is necessary to distinguish the Death camps of the prison camps of war for Westerners (Stalag) and of the concentration camps. The first have as a finality the extermination of the Jews and other qualified people “submen” by the Nazi regime. The concentration camps are established to keep captive the real or supposed opponents, of the common rights, etc (for example Buchenwald or Neuengamme). If the original intention of the concentration camps is not the extermination, the particularly hard conditions of detention and the ill treatments involve a very strong mortality there (40% of the French deportees perished into two or three years). Prison camps for Westerners (Stalag), where conventions of Geneva, wholesale, are respected, do not raise of this universe concentrationnaire. On the other hand, the Soviet prison camps are particularly fatal at the beginning of the Opération Barbarossa, until Speer worries about the problem of labor in the industry of war. The historian of Wehrmacht Omer Bartov estimates that this one carried out on the spot: 600000 Soviet prisoners with the second half-year of 1941 and let some die of hunger 1.4 million others, without forgetting that on the 5,3 million prisoners transferred in Germany, 3,3 million perished of deliberated malnutrition and wild treatments.

Terror and propaganda

To exploit the conquered countries economically, terror should be forced: the S, the Gestapo track the authors of crimes against Reich, the resistant ones and refractories with the STO. The German intelligence service ( Abwehr ) occupies the conquered territories. These forces are often pressed on the collaborators to maintain the order, like the Militia of Joseph Darnand in France, created in 1943.

Terror was particularly violent in the east of the continent, because Hitler regarded the Slaves as animals to be reduced in slavery: one will retain in particular the action of Einsatzgruppen (action groups special) in charge of operations of " ratissage" and of " nettoyage" conquered territories, with the back of the armies (summary executions of Jews, communist political police chiefs or simple civilians).

Control press, censures films and songs, posters are the essential features of propaganda Nazi in occupied Europe. The decree Nacht und Nebel ( night and fog ) of December 1941 condemns to the Déportation any person who opposes the German forces.

German domination, country by country

German occupation of Belgium

Beginning of the occupation: May 1940 - December 1944

German occupation of France

The France was occupied between May 1940, date of the release of the invasion by the troops Nazis, and December 1944 where certain parts of the French territory are not released yet.

Following the countryside of France and with the Armistice of the June 22nd 1940, France is divided in two zones: a occupied Zone in North and a free Zone in the South where seat the government French collaborationist of the Marshal Pétain with Vichy. Between the two zones is the Line of demarcation (which follows about the course of the the Loire) passable only with one to let pass ( Ausweis ). Alsace and part of Lorraine is directly ratachées in German Reich.

This division in zone ceases the November 11th 1942 when, following the unloading combined in North Africa the German, and the Italy NS invades the zone known as free.

The command of the troops of occupation is entrusted to the general Otto von Stülpnagel of November 1940 in February 1942, then with the general Carl Heinrich von Stülpnagel, his/her cousin.

German occupation of the Netherlands

German occupation of Luxembourg

Beginning of the occupation May 1940

Yugoslavia under German domination

See also: Yugoslavia in the Second world war

German occupation of Denmark

German occupation of Poland

German occupation of the Soviet Union

After the Opération Barbarossa in 1941, more than one third of the Russia of Europe, the Ukraine and the States Baltes found under German domination very hard until the Red Army drives back the German armed out of the the USSR.

Nearly two million Soviet lined up as regards German (Baltic, Ukrainian, Pole in others) during the occupation of their territory for reasons nationalist S or policies, the majority having been annexed by the USSR in 1939 - 1940. In 1943, certain divisions German counted more than 20% of Russian auxiliaries (Hiwis). There were two Russian divisions S, two divisions of the army Vlassov and the 15th S Kosaken-Kavalerie-Korps made up of Cosaques of the Don.

An example among others of the support which Germany in the local population in the USSR had: at certain places, the pro-Germanic militia were enough effective to make useless a policy of reprisals. Such was the case of the autonomous administrative district of Lokot; in the area of Orel - Koursk, in the south of Briansk, with 1.700.000 inhabitants; this district was defended by a completely Russian militia in 1942-1943.

Here the base of collaboration was of nature political (anticommunism) and the militia of Lokot created by the general Rudolf Schmidt of IIe Armée Panzer jointly with a Russian engineer (replaced later by the famous Bronislav Kaminsky), was known under the name of Russkaya Osvoboditelnya Narodnaya Armiya (Armed with Russian release).

A capital element of the transactions was that the S had prohibition to operate in all this area where the Germans agreed to abstain from any action of reprisals because of the activities of the Guérilla which always continued.

Such arrangements, although generally less formal, were currency in the areas occupied by the Germans. They found lawyers enthusiastic among the officers of Wehrmacht. The S were opposed in a way quite as vehement to it, because they refused to arm with the “submen”, but thereafter, the situation having worsened and the need for manpower being felt, the S were brought to change their attitude.

They were always opposed to the creation of militia but only because they wanted to recruit all the men available for their many “ethnic” units.

The protectorate of Bohemian-Moravie and Slovakia

Hungary

Romania

Bulgaria

Greece

Collaborations

There seeing a chance to release itself from the Soviet yoke, many Latvians enlist at the sides of Wehrmacht. Many young volunteers engaged on the face of the east or to defend Germany, in special units of Waffen-SS: one can quote the Belgians of SS-Wallonia or French of SS-Charlemagne.

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