Plan:
Introduction
2. Nazi Germany's capture of Denmark and Norway
3. Aggression against France. Defeat of the Anglo-French coalition
4. Fight for the British Isles
Conclusion
List of used literature
Introduction
An occupation(from lat. occupatio- capture, occupation) in general case- occupation by the armed forces of a state of territory that does not belong to it, not accompanied by the acquisition of sovereignty over it, usually temporary. Occupation should be distinguished from annexation, the act of a state annexing all or part of someone else's territory unilaterally.
Signs of occupation
Currently, there is no consensus among authoritative sources on defining an exhaustive list significant criteria, by which it would be possible to unambiguously determine whether a particular case corresponds to the concept of occupation. Typically, they note the following:
· Temporality of the mission, unstable status - stands out to almost everyone domestic sources, but not foreign. At the same time, the framework of temporality and clear criteria for its difference from permanence are not specified in the definitions.
· Mandatory presence of a victim state, the administration of the occupied territory as a party to the relationship - is highlighted by some domestic and foreign sources. Mandatory state of war de jure or de facto, the violent nature of the invasion by the armed forces of the occupying party.
· Mandatory assumption of management functions, establishing its administration in the occupied territory.
· Mandatory Compliance standards international law - otherwise, occupation becomes a form of aggression and entails international legal responsibility for its initiator.
· In addition, in some cases there are also special features. For example, you can occupy not only someone else’s, but also own territory, also considers the mandate of the UN Security Council mandatory.
Purpose In writing this work, to study and analyze in more depth the situation in Western Europe during its occupation by Nazi Germany before the start of the Second World War.
Basic tasks when writing a paper:
· analyze various sources, in which this topic was discussed.
· carry out the most complete selection of material that would reveal the topic of occupation of countries as fully as possible Western Europe by the Nazis.
· make up full picture period under review based on previous research.
1. German attack on Poland
On the night of August 31 to September 1, when all the measures for the invasion of Poland were carried out and the troops were waiting for the appointed hour to cross the border, a special operation "Himmler" was carried out to seize a radio station in the border German city Gleiwitz. It was carried out by a group of SS men and prisoners taken from concentration camps and who knew the Polish language, dressed in the uniform of Polish soldiers and officers and armed, they attacked the radio station in Gleiwitz and captured it. In the room, in front of the switched-on microphone, several shots were fired and phrases were spoken in Polish. This provocation was presented by radio and newspapers in Germany as an act of an unprovoked attack by the Poles, which caused an immediate response from the Wehrmacht. For ordinary people uninitiated in military matters, who did not suspect that troops were concentrated on the border in advance and that this required not hours, but weeks, the messages of German information services sounded quite convincing and the start of the war was perceived as justified. For security reasons, all participants in the attack on the radio station were subsequently destroyed.
The fate of Poland was predetermined in the spring. The plan of the German High Command provided for the defeat of the Polish army during one short-term campaign, by launching a surprise attack with large forces with extensive use of tanks and aircraft. The invasion force included five armies organized into two army groups.
Five German armies on the morning of September 1, 1939, from the north, west and south, suddenly invaded Poland and began to rapidly move towards the center of the country. Their rapid advancement was facilitated by the lack of strong strongholds in these directions. defensive lines and fortifications, as the rulers of Poland built them in the east, preparing for war with the Soviet Union. Arms depots, taking this into account, were located in the west and were quickly captured by German troops.
On September 1, when it became known about the invasion of Nazi troops in Poland, England, in accordance with its obligations, sent an ultimatum to the German government, in which it demanded: “if the German government does not give His Majesty’s government satisfactory assurances that it will stop all aggressive actions against Poland and is prepared to immediately withdraw its troops from Polish territory, then His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom will not hesitate to fulfill its obligations towards Poland."
By September 3 there was no response and at 9 o'clock Ribbentrop was given a second ultimatum, which stipulated that if by 11 o'clock the German government did not give satisfactory assurances, then from that hour between two countries will include due to the state of war. There was no answer and war began between England and Germany. On the same day, the French government made a statement to Germany that from 17:00 on September 3, France would fulfill its obligations towards Poland. Thus, all calls for peace were in vain and the fire of the Second World War began to flare up, gradually engulfing more and more states.
England and France, having declared war on Germany, did not provide real help Poland in these difficult days. The leadership of these countries looked on calmly as Nazi troops, taking advantage of a number of favorable circumstances and having an overwhelming superiority in tanks and aircraft, they crushed the armies and operational groups of their ally. At the same time, using their armed forces, they could stop the outbreak of aggression, and possibly the Second World War.
The ability of England and France to suppress German aggression was that they, together with Poland, had 172 divisions, about 4,000 tanks, more than 7,600 aircraft, and up to 36,000 guns and mortars at the beginning of September 1939. Germany at that time had 103 divisions, 3,200 tanks, more than 4,000 aircraft and 26,000 guns and mortars. In addition to having fewer forces, Germany was fighting a war on two fronts. It concentrated its main forces against Poland, and against England and France it had Army Group “West” under the command of Colonel General Ritter von Leeb, which had at its disposal 8 personnel and 25 reserve and Landwehr divisions. The latter still needed to be mobilized. Army Group West did not have tank formations. It consisted of 800 aircraft, the number of which was supposed to be increased in the event of the outbreak of active hostilities by transferring from the East.
From the available forces and the current situation it is clear that a decisive blow by the Allies in the west could radically change the course of the war in their favor. In this regard, Jodl said: “If we were not defeated back in 1939, it is only because approximately 110 French and British divisions, which stood during our war with Poland in the West against 23 German divisions, remained completely inactive.”
The chief of staff of the operational leadership of the Supreme High Command of the Wehrmacht, General Jodl, cited convincing evidence of the dangerous position of Germany when its formations were fighting deep in Polish territory. But the Allies did not take advantage of this and the German tank wedges continued to tear apart the Polish troops, at a fast pace moved towards the eastern border of Poland.
Under the current conditions, the Soviet Union could not indifferently observe how the fate of 6 million Ukrainians and over 3 million Belarusians living in the eastern regions of Poland, which it ceded to it in 1921 under the Treaty of Riga, would develop. But at this time there were battles with Japanese troops at Khalkhin Gol. Only after September 15, freed from the threat great war in the east, the Soviet Union could take military action in the west. The High Command of the Red Army received an order: on September 17, trained troops of the two created fronts should cross the border of Poland and take protection Western Ukrainians and Western Belarusians.
Meeting the advancing German armies with Soviet troops in the eastern regions of Poland the German High Command was not planning, although there were assumptions in this regard. Chief of the General Staff ground forces Halder, for example, wrote in his official diary on August 31 before the attack on Poland: “Russia is making certain troop transfers. (State of alert on alert!) It is possible that the Russians will come forward if our troops successfully advance.” But the war began, there was a successful offensive by the German troops, but the Russians did not cross the border and the Wehrmacht command calmed down. And then a message came about the entry of the Red Army into Poland. How to proceed? Meetings of Germany's top leadership have begun.
But the conditions for an attack on the USSR were extremely unfavorable. German troops had been conducting continuous fighting, advanced at a high tempo, were tired and dispersed over the vast territory of Poland. Supplies of ammunition and fuel prepared for a short campaign were running out. It was difficult to quickly concentrate dispersed troops in the required areas and build them in battle formations to strike the fresh armies of a new enemy. There was no plan for waging this war. Weather deep autumn and the approach of winter made it difficult to conduct large-scale combat operations using tanks and aircraft. Waging a war on two fronts in the west against England and France and in the east against such a powerful state as the Soviet Union did not promise success. The sad experience of the First World War was memorable.
3.1. Operations Weserubung and Gelb.
3.2. Truce of Compiègne and strengthening of the Berlin-Rome-Tokyo axis.
3.3. Balkan Campaign (April 1940).
3.4.Preparation of the Third Reich for war with the USSR.
On October 29, 1939, the German High Command adopted a directive for the defeat of France, codenamed “Gelb” (yellow). Before implementing this directive, Germany secured a strategic foothold and control over important sea lanes in Northern Europe. On March 1, 1940, Hitler signed a directive to conduct a simultaneous operation against Norway and Denmark under code name"Weserübung" ("teaching on the Weser"). On April 9, 1940, Germany began landing troops in Denmark and Norway. Within one day Denmark capitulated. Some complications for the German troops arose in Norway: military operations here dragged on for more than a month and a half. The British tried to help the fighting Norwegians. But on June 10, after the departure of King Haakon VII and the government to England, the Norwegian army laid down its arms.
On May 10, 1940, the active actions of the German army disrupted the sluggish progress " strange war" The day before, Luftwaffe planes bombed german city Freiburg, Hitler blamed French aviation for this. Without a declaration of war, German troops broad front moved to Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg. For the first time, airborne troops were used on a large scale and captured the most important strongholds of the Belgian and Dutch defensive systems.
Taking advantage of the fact that the French and English troops moved to the aid of Belgium, a German tank wedge struck further south - through the Ardennes Mountains, which were considered impassable for equipment, bypassing the Maginot Line. Having broken through the defenses, the Germans reached the English Channel and surrounded the main Allied forces in Flanders. Thanks to the slowness of the German troops, 330 thousand British and French soldiers managed to evacuate from Dunkirk. Although there were still significant forces in France, the mood in society and, most importantly, in the country’s leadership was not conducive to continuing the struggle. In conditions where defeat French troops It was already certain that Italy declared war on France. On June 14, the Germans entered Paris, declared by the government open city. On June 16, the new Prime Minister of France, Marshal Pétain, turned to Hitler with a request for a truce. The armistice was signed on June 22, 1940 in the Forest of Compiègne, in the same carriage in which the armistice was concluded in 1918, ending the First World War.
Under the terms of the armistice, French armed forces on land, sea and air had to cease resistance. They were subject to disarmament and demobilization. Weapons, equipment and defensive structures transferred to Germany or placed under German-Italian control. Two thirds of French territory was subject to occupation. France pledged to return German prisoners and hand over political emigrants, while French prisoners (about 1.5 million people) remained in Germany “until peace was concluded.” France was charged with paying the costs of maintaining the occupying army. In the unoccupied territory where the Vichy regime was established, France was allowed to maintain an army of 100,000. In the occupied zone, maintaining " internal order"was taken over by German troops.
German successes in military campaigns of 1939-1940. led to the strengthening of the Berlin-Rome-Tokyo axis. On September 27, 1940, a pact on a military alliance between Germany, Italy and Japan was signed in Berlin. The Berlin Pact provided for the division of the world between the allies and was one of the stages in the preparation of aggression against the USSR. The parties agreed on the dominance of Germany and Italy in Europe, and Japan in Asia. The Berlin Pact was joined by Spain, Thailand, Finland, in addition, the German-dependent governments of Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, the puppet governments of Manchukuo, Croatia, and the government of Wang Jing-wei, created by the Japanese in the occupied territory of China.
After France left the war, Great Britain alone could not prevent Germany from ruling Europe. In April 1941, German troops carried out a lightning-fast Balkan campaign, the goal of which was to defeat the Greek and Yugoslav armies and bring Greece and Yugoslavia into the sphere of German domination. Italian army back at the end of 1940, she unsuccessfully tried to defeat the Greek troops by carrying out Operation Marita. On April 6, 1941, more than 80 German, Italian and Hungarian divisions simultaneously launched an attack on Yugoslavia from the territories of Bulgaria, Hungary and Austria. The defense of the Yugoslav troops was easily broken through, and on April 12, German troops and their allies entered Belgrade. Already on April 17, Yugoslavia capitulated. The British Expeditionary Force (2 infantry divisions and tank brigade). After their defeat, the remnants of the army were transported to the island. Crete. On April 29, the Greek command signed an act of surrender.
The only state in Europe that continued the fight against Nazi Germany and its allies was Great Britain. Despite the fact that it did not have any significant ground forces, the government of W. Churchill, who came to power on May 10, 1940, categorically rejected the possibility of a peace agreement with Germany. Despite massive bombing and serious losses of the fleet from the Germans submarines, the British continued to fight. Nazi Germany failed to achieve complete dominance in the air and sea, which cast doubt on the success of the landing on the British Isles.
In the spring of 1941, the situation in the Southeast Europe near the southern borders of the USSR. On April 6, 1941, German troops invaded Yugoslavia and Greece, despite the fact that at the Berlin negotiations in November 1940, the Soviet leadership expressed an interest in keeping the war zone from extending to the Balkan Peninsula, as well as to the agreement concluded the day before. April 5, 1941, Soviet-Yugoslav Treaty of Friendship and Non-Aggression. In an effort to strengthen its influence in the southern neighboring countries of the USSR, Germany signed a treaty of friendship and non-aggression with Turkey on June 18, 1941, according to which the parties pledged to “enter into friendly contact in the future regarding all matters affecting their common interests.”
Since February 1941, Germany began secretly transferring troops to Soviet borders. Despite the alarming course of events, the Soviet government refused to take into account the numerous reports received since the beginning of 1941 about an impending attack on the USSR.
On July 31, 1940, Hitler stated that his primary goal at the new stage was a war with Russia, the outcome of which was to decide the fate of England. On December 18, 1940, Hitler signed “Directive No. 21,” codenamed “Barbarossa,” which outlined the plan for a military campaign against the USSR. The plan received its name from the nickname of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, one of the leaders crusades. The text of this document began with the words: “The German armed forces must be prepared to defeat Soviet Russia in a short-term campaign even before the war against England is over.”
Introduction
Occupation of Czechoslovakia (September 1938)
Occupation of Poland (September 1939)
Occupation of Norway (April 1940)
Occupation of France (May-June 1940)
Occupation of Yugoslavia (April 1941)
Occupation of Lithuania (June 1941)
Conclusion
Introduction
The Polish Wehrmacht Campaign (1939), also known as the Invasion of Poland and Operation Weiss (in Polish historiography the name “September Campaign” is accepted) is a military operation of the armed forces of Germany and Slovakia, as a result of which the territory of Poland was completely occupied, and its parts annexed neighboring states.
In response to the start of the operation, Britain (September 3) and France declared war on Germany, marking the beginning of World War II. The date of the start of the war is considered to be September 1, 1939 - the day of the invasion of Poland.
During a short campaign, German troops were defeated armed forces Poland. On September 17, USSR troops entered Polish territory, trying to include the eastern regions of Poland. The territory of Poland was divided between Germany and the Soviet Union (in accordance with the secret protocols to the Soviet-German non-aggression and friendship and border treaties), as well as Lithuania and Slovakia.
On September 1939, after a long political crisis, Germany invaded Poland. The German attack began at 4:45 a.m. when the warship Schleswig-Holstein opened fire on the Westeplatte. An hour later, the first German units crossed the border into Poland. On September 3, 1939, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany.
The invasion force was composed of five armies and a reserve (14 infantry, 1 tank and 2 mountain divisions) - all under the command of General Walther von Brauchitsch. The Germans attacked from three directions: Silesia/Slovakia, Western Pomerania and East Prussia. Army Group South, under the command of Colonel General Gerd von Rundstedt, consisted of the 8th, 10th and 14th armies (18 infantry, 1 mountain, 2 motorized, 4 light motorized and 4 tank division) and attacked from the direction of Silesia/Slovakia. 4th Army, under the command of General Gunther von Kluge, part of Army Group North, under the command of Colonel General Fedor von Bock, (8 infantry, 2 motorized and 1 tank division), attacked from Western Pomerania. The 3rd Army, under the command of General Georg von Kuechler, also part of Army Group North, (11 infantry and 1 tank divisions), attacked from East Prussia. All three attack directions were aimed at the capital of Poland - Warsaw.
The defending forces included 7 armies (Modlin, Pomorze, Poznan, Lodz, Krakow, Lublin and Karpaty), a separate task force (Narew) and a reserve ( separate army Prusy and 3 operational groups - Wyszkow, Tarnow and Kutno), all under the command of Marshal Edward Smigly-Rydz. The Polish army consisted of 39 infantry, 11 cavalry, 3 mountain brigades and 2 motorized armored brigades, along with some other units. The Polish army had not yet fully mobilized and was not ready for war, and therefore for the defense plan “Z” (Zachod - West). Fierce battles ensued on all fronts, in which Polish army tried to hold back the onslaught of the invading troops, and at times even counterattack. During the ensuing invasion, an additional army (Warszawa) and a separate task force (Polesie) were formed.
Occupation of Czechoslovakia
The occupation of Czechoslovakia was the logical conclusion of the process of eliminating the country's independence. The first stage of this process was the annexation of the Sudetenland, which took place between 1 and 10 October 1938 as a result of Munich Agreement. At the same time, as one of the leading Czech newspapers Narodni Listy wrote back in April 1938, “with the fact of the existence Greater Germany you need to come to terms with it as quickly as possible.”
Taking advantage of numerical and military advantages, Germany annexed the Sudetenland, which was 90% populated by Germans who, as Ernst Nolte put it, “were ingrained in the opinion that they had suffered injustice at the hands of the Czechs, and not at the hands of the general historical processes"and tried to defend "their privileged position", being essentially "the remnants of medieval East German colonization." Slovakia, in turn, renounced its rights to the southern and eastern regions of the country, which are 87% populated by ethnic Hungarians. The territory of Czechoslovakia was reduced by 38%, the country turned into a narrow and long, easily vulnerable stump state, which actually became a dependent protectorate of Germany. German troops found themselves 30 km from Prague. In addition, on December 3, 1938, a secret agreement was concluded with Czechoslovakia, according to which it could not “maintain fortifications and barriers on the border with Germany.” The fate of the remaining territory of the country was thus sealed.
On March 1939, by personal decree of Hitler, Bohemia and Moravia were declared a German protectorate. The head of the executive branch of the protectorate was the Reichsprotektor, appointed by the Fuhrer. Konstantin von Neurath was appointed the first Reich Protector on March 21, 1939. There was also a formal post of president of the protectorate, which was held by Emil Gaha throughout its existence. The personnel of departments similar to ministries was staffed by officials from Germany. Jews were expelled from government service. Political parties were banned, many leaders of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia moved to the Soviet Union.
Occupation of Poland
In the Polish lands annexed to Germany, “racial policies” and resettlement were carried out, and the population was classified into categories with different rights in accordance with their nationality and origin. Jews and Gypsies, according to this policy, were subject to complete destruction. After the Jews, the most powerless category were the Poles. National minorities had a better position. Privileged social group persons of German nationality were considered.
In the General Government with its capital in Krakow, an even more aggressive “racial policy” was pursued. The oppression of everything Polish and the persecution of Jews soon caused strong contradictions between the military authorities and the political and police authorities. executive bodies. Colonel General Johannes Blaskowitz, who was left in Poland as the commander of the troops, expressed a sharp protest against these actions in a memo. At Hitler's request, he was removed from his post.
After Himmler's first inspection, the elderly and mentally handicapped were torn from hospitals, and orphanages were searched for children suitable for the racial improvement program; were created in Auschwitz and Majdanek concentration camps for members of the Resistance. Carrying out cold-blooded genocide as part of the so-called "AB-Aktion", the Germans captured about 15,000 Polish intellectuals, civil servants, politicians and priests, who were then shot or sent to concentration camps. From late 1939, Europe's largest community of Jews was ordered to move into designated ghettos, which were then walled off, tightly locked, and completely isolated from the rest of the world; Jewish self-government was created, which, with the support of the Jewish police, administered these ghettos under the supervision of the Nazis.
To further fight against Germany and its allies, armed formations were created, composed of Polish citizens:
· Polish armed forces in the West · Anders Army (2nd Polish Corps) · Polish armed forces in the USSR (1943 - 1944) · Resistance to the German occupation regime on the territory of the newly created General Government was carried out by the Polish Underground State. · About the situation in Western Belarus and in Western Ukraine, which became part of the USSR, see the article Polish campaign Red Army (1939). Occupation of Norway
It has been estimated that about 10% of Norwegians supported the Nazi occupation, although this estimate is uncertain and takes into account different types support during the occupation. It is clear that the vast majority of Norwegians opposed the occupation. The resistance was largely supported by the activities of the government-in-exile in London, which regularly distributed an underground press to Norwegian, and also coordinated sabotage raids against the Nazi occupiers. The resistance took various shapes. Some Norwegians took part in armed resistance, others supported them, and many Norwegians committed acts of civil disobedience. Over time, armed resistance was organized, mostly under a single command. A distinction was made between rear (Norwegian: Hjemmefronten) and frontline operations (Norwegian: Utefronten). The Norwegian fleet and Norwegian troops operated as part of the British Royal Air Force. The unity of the command structure played a role important role in the orderly transfer of power in May 1945. Relatively few of the Norwegians were overt collaborators. About 15 thousand people were mobilized by the German administration, of which 6 thousand were sent to Soviet-German front. Some Norwegian police forces assisted in the arrest of Jews for deportation to Nazi concentration camps in November 1942. During the five years of occupation, several thousand Norwegian women gave birth to children German soldiers within the framework of a special German program. These mothers were ostracized and humiliated after the war, given offensive nicknames such as “whores of the Germans” (Norwegian: tyskert øser). Children from these unions were called “offspring of the Germans” (Norwegian tyskerunger), or, what was even worse, “Nazi caviar” (Norwegian naziyngel). The discussion about the rehabilitation of such children began with television appearances in 1981, but only recently have the descendants of these unions begun to feel quite free. Occupation of France
On May 10, 1940, German troops launched an attack on France, which declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939, in connection with its attack on Poland. As a result of the rapid advance of German troops using the tactics of lightning war - blitzkrieg, the allied forces were completely defeated, and on June 22 France was forced to sign an armistice. By this time, most of its territory was occupied, and practically nothing remained of the army. After the occupation of France, on September 27, 1940, a decree of the occupation authorities was published on conducting a census of the Jewish population. A total of 287,962 Jews were registered, of whom 60% were in occupied territory and 40% under the jurisdiction of the collaborationist regime of Marshal Pétain. On October 2, 1940, the Vichy regime adopted the first “Decree on the Jews” (French Statut de juifs), limiting their movement, access to public places and professional activities. In June 1941, a second decree was adopted, which further worsened the situation of the Jews. Vichy authorities actively persecuted foreign Jews but opposed the deportation of French citizens. On May 1942, in the occupied zone, the Germans issued an order obliging all Jews over 6 years of age to wear a yellow star. At the beginning of 1942, Dovid Knut, Abraham Polonsky with their wives Ariadna Skryabina and Ezhen Polonskaya created an underground organization in Toulouse, which was initially called Bnei David ("descendants of David"), but in June 1944 was renamed the Organization Juive de Combat (" Jewish army", abbreviated as OJC or EA). Ariandna Skryabina, who took the underground nickname Regina, came up with a special oath-taking ceremony when joining the organization. Over the four years of EA’s existence, 1,952 people took such an oath, among whom were many Jews from Russia. EA's first promotions were quite simple and harmless. For a whole year, EA members brought food to interned Jewish refugees from Germany. The refugees were kept in very difficult conditions; in the Resebedu camp, near Toulouse, they had to bribe the guards. Subsequently, the organization carried out about 2,000 military operations, including 750 sabotage on the railway and 32 explosions at military factories. Ariadna Scriabina died on July 22, 1944, in an ambush. Among the six founders of the Libération-Sud movement, three were Jews; the Frant-Tireur (Free Shooter) organization was commanded by Jean-Pierre Lévy, Joseph Epstein (Colonel Gilles) and Z. Gottesman ( "Captain Philip") One of the leaders of the Resistance in Lyon was famous historian and captain French army Mark Block. He was arrested by the Gestapo and executed after torture on June 16, 1944. Occupation of Yugoslavia
Power in the country belonged to the ultranationalist Ustasha movement. The goal of the movement was to transform Croatia into a 100% Catholic country, and the Serbs, Gypsies and Jews living in it were supposed to be destroyed. A few days after coming to power, the Ustasha prepared and adopted a number of laws that discriminated against representatives of other nationalities. On April 17, the law on the protection of the people and the state was approved, on April 25 - on the prohibition of the Cyrillic alphabet, on April 30 - on the protection of “Aryan blood and honor of the Croatian people” and on race, etc. Serbs were required to wear armbands with the letter “P”, which meant “Orthodox”. Croatia was the only European country allied with Germany to establish its own concentration camps, the largest of which was Jasenovac. In his speech in Gospic on June 22, 1941, one of the Ustasha leaders, Mile Budak, formulated a program of action in relation to the Serbs: “We will destroy one part of the Serbs, we will evict the other, we will convert the rest to the Catholic faith and turn them into Croats. Thus, their traces will soon be lost, and what remains will be only a bad memory of them.” In the same speech he said next sentence: “We have three million bullets for the Serbs, Gypsies and Jews.” On June 26, part of his speech was published by the Hrvatski List newspaper. After the Ustasha came to power, the Catholic clergy began a campaign to convert Orthodox Serbs to Catholicism. This is done accompanied by armed Ustasha units. The English historian Richard West, who studied this issue, in one of his books refers to the text of a Bosnian newspaper, which spoke about the conversion of 70,000 Serbs to Catholicism in the diocese of Banja Luka. He also wrote that the Catholic clergy directed their aspirations primarily to the Serbian peasants. According to him, all those who had secondary education, as well as teachers, merchants, wealthy artisans and Orthodox priests were considered bearers of “Serbian consciousness” and were subject to total destruction. Their first raids on Serbian settlements The Ustasha committed immediately after the surrender of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. After a significant number of occupation troops left the Balkans in June 1941 and German control over their ally weakened, the Ustasha terror gained momentum. In just six weeks of 1941, the Ustasha killed three Orthodox bishops and 180,000 Serbs. Great amount corpses were thrown into the waters of the Drina, Drava and Sava so that they could reach Serbia. Some had signs attached to them with inscriptions like “Passport for Belgrade”, “Dear for Serbia”, “To Belgrade for King Peter”. It was the Serbs who made up the vast majority of victims of the Ustasha regime. In Glina, Dvor na Una, Donje Lapce, Serbs accounted for 98% of the victims; in Voynich, Korenitsa, Vrginmost - 96%; in Novska and Nova Gradiška - 82%; in Slavonska Pozega - 80%. According to the American Holocaust Museum, the number of Ustasha victims in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia is 330-390 thousand Serbs. Branimir Stanojevic’s book “The Ustasha Minister of Death” states that 800 thousand people died in Croatia in 1941-1945. The same figure was named by the famous Serbian researcher in exile Mane M. Pesut in his book “The Land of Ratu 1941-1945”. An approximate picture of the scale of the Ustasha terror can be obtained by comparing population data before and after the war. In 1940, in the Gornokarlovac diocese of Serbia Orthodox Church There were 1,114,826 Serbs. And according to the 1948 census, only 543,795 people lived in this same territory. In addition, it must be remembered that not only the lands of the former Military Krajina, but also Bosnia and Herzegovina and the west of Vojvodina were in the genocide zone. Occupation of Lithuania
June Army Group North captured western and northern Lithuania, Army Group Center captured most of the Vilna region. The first Luftwaffe attacks killed about 4,000 civilians. Most of the Soviet aircraft were destroyed on the ground. During the Battle of Raseiniai, the Soviet military tried to launch a counterattack, reinforced with tanks, but suffered a heavy defeat. Lithuanians saw the Germans as liberators from repressive Soviet rule, hoping that the Germans would restore their independence or at least autonomy. Within a week, the Germans had lost 3,362 people, but controlled the entire territory of the country. Anti-Soviet Lithuanians took up arms to fight Soviet troops. Rebel groups took control strategically important objects(For example, railways, bridges, communications equipment, food and equipment warehouses), protecting them from possible attacks Soviet army. The Germans entered Kaunas without a fight, since it was already controlled by the anti-Soviet Lithuanian Activist Front (LAF). Front activists declared the independence of Lithuania and created the Provisional Government of Lithuania on June 23. Smaller and less organized anti-Soviet groups emerged in other cities and rural areas. The Germans, not recognizing the Lithuanian government, formed their own civil administration, the Reichskommissariat Ostland, at the end of July. Adrian von Rentelnom became Commissioner of Lithuania and took over all government functions. The provisional government resigned on 5 August, and some of its ministers became General Councilors in charge of local government. The Germans did not have enough manpower to staff the local administration, so most of the local branches were headed by Lithuanians. Political decisions will be accepted by high-ranking Germans, actions will be carried out by low-ranking Lithuanians. The Nazis prepared three versions of Plan Ost, its relationship with Lithuania. According to the first version, the majority of the population of Lithuania will be deported to Siberia, and the rest will be Germanized. The second plan provided for the resettlement of 235 thousand German colonists in the country over 15 years. The third version did not include Lithuanians among Aryan race, therefore 85% of the population had to be deported or exterminated, and the remaining few were Germanized. In any case, Lithuania was supposed to become German region within 20 years after the war. Most of The anti-Nazi resistance in Lithuania consisted of Polish and Soviet partisans. They began sabotage and partisan activities against German forces immediately after the Nazi invasion in 1941. The most important Polish resistance organizations in Lithuania, as in occupied Poland, are the Home Army. Polish commander of the Vilna region Alexander Krzhizhanovsky. The activities of Soviet partisans in Lithuania were partially coordinated by the command of the Lithuanian partisan movement, led by Antanas Snechkus, and partly by the Central Command of the partisan movement in the USSR. military occupied Nazi sabotage Conclusion
Summarizing everything written above, we can say that as many countries as there were, there were as many options for occupation. Some countries surrendered easily, while others fought for their freedom. Some countries were allies of Nazi Germany, and some were against it. In the occupied territories of their allies, German troops were humane, but in enemy territories the genocide of the Jewish population flourished. Probably the most big footprint which the Second World War left behind are victims of the Holocaust. How many people, how many old people and children were simply destroyed, and “why?” - complex issue. What if Germany had won this terrible war, what if Hitler had come to World Domination? As people say complete absence patriotism “We would go to Japanese cars and drink German beer..." These people should more often open textbooks on world history in the 8th grade, where they could read the notes of the children of ostarbeiters, who in their youth school age realized what death was and wrote farewell letters to their moms and dads. Or listen to elderly people who, fortunately, were able to return to their homeland. After reading these letters and listening to these people, can we say that we would live well? Would they even live?... Unfortunately, history teaches people little... It is in our power to prevent this from happening again, from having another war. To better understand the horror of that time, a new generation should read more books Vasil Bykov, Ivan Shamyakin and others, as well as watch more films in which you can see everything with your own eyes, such films as “The Boy in striped pajamas"Mark Herman, "Life is Beautiful" by Roberto Benigni, "The Pianist" by Roman Polanski, "Schindler's List" by Steven Spielberg... List of sources and literature used
1. Vaclav Kral. Crime against Europe / Moscow, “Mysl”, 1968. Kulish Vasily Mikhailovich. Prehistory of the second front in Europe / Moscow, Voenizdat, 1960. Lavrov Lev Pavlovich. The story of one surrender (how France was handed over to Hitler)/Moscow, International relationships, 1964. Norbert Muller. The Wehrmacht and the occupation/Moscow, Voenizdat, 1974. 5. Occupation of Lithuania [ electronic resource] - 2006 Access mode: Occupation of Poland [electronic resource] - 2009 Access mode: Occupation of Yugoslavia [electronic resource] - 2007 Access mode:
Introduction
Occupation of Czechoslovakia (September 1938)
Occupation of Poland (September 1939)
Occupation of Norway (April 1940)
Occupation of France (May-June 1940)
Occupation of Yugoslavia (April 1941)
Occupation of Lithuania (June 1941)
Conclusion
List of sources and literature used
Introduction
The Polish Wehrmacht Campaign (1939), also known as the Invasion of Poland and Operation Weiss (in Polish historiography the name “September Campaign” is accepted) is a military operation of the armed forces of Germany and Slovakia, as a result of which the territory of Poland was completely occupied, and its parts annexed by neighboring states.
In response to the start of the operation, Britain (September 3) and France declared war on Germany, marking the beginning of World War II. The date of the start of the war is considered to be September 1, 1939 - the day of the invasion of Poland.
During a short campaign, German troops defeated the armed forces of Poland. On September 17, USSR troops entered Polish territory, trying to include the eastern regions of Poland. The territory of Poland was divided between Germany and the Soviet Union (in accordance with the secret protocols to the Soviet-German non-aggression and friendship and border treaties), as well as Lithuania and Slovakia.
On September 1939, after a long political crisis, Germany invaded Poland. The German attack began at 4:45 a.m. when the warship Schleswig-Holstein opened fire on the Westeplatte. An hour later, the first German units crossed the border into Poland. On September 3, 1939, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany.
The invasion force was composed of five armies and a reserve (14 infantry, 1 tank and 2 mountain divisions) - all under the command of General Walther von Brauchitsch. The Germans attacked from three directions: Silesia/Slovakia, West Pomerania and East Prussia. Army Group South, under the command of Colonel General Gerd von Rundstedt, consisted of the 8th, 10th and 14th armies (18 infantry, 1 mountain, 2 motorized, 4 light motorized and 4 tank division) and attacked from the direction of Silesia/Slovakia. The 4th Army, under the command of General Gunther von Kluge, part of Army Group North, under the command of Colonel General Fedor von Bock, (8 infantry, 2 motorized and 1 tank divisions), attacked from Western Pomerania. The 3rd Army, under the command of General Georg von Kuechler, also part of Army Group North, (11 infantry and 1 tank divisions), attacked from East Prussia. All three directions of attack were aimed at. the capital of Poland - Warsaw.
The defending forces included 7 armies (Modlin, Pomorze, Poznan, Lodz, Krakow, Lublin and Karpaty), a separate task force (Narew) and a reserve (separate army Prusy and 3 task forces - Wyszkow, Tarnow and Kutno), all under the command of Marshal Edward and Smigly-Rydz. The Polish army consisted of 39 infantry, 11 cavalry, 3 mountain brigades and 2 motorized armored brigades, along with some other units. The Polish army had not yet fully mobilized and was not ready for war, and therefore for the defense plan “Z” (Zachod - West). Fierce battles ensued on all fronts, in which the Polish army tried to hold back the onslaught of the invading troops, and at times even counterattack. During the ensuing invasion, an additional army (Warszawa) and a separate task force (Polesie) were formed.
Occupation of Czechoslovakia
The occupation of Czechoslovakia was the logical conclusion of the process of eliminating the country's independence. The first stage of this process was the annexation of the Sudetenland, which took place between 1 and 10 October 1938 as a result of the Munich Agreement. At the same time, as one of the leading Czech newspapers, Narodni Listy, wrote back in April 1938, “one must come to terms with the fact of the existence of Greater Germany as quickly as possible.”
Taking advantage of the numerical and military advantage, Germany annexed the Sudetenland, which was 90% populated by Germans who, as Ernst Nolte put it, “were deeply rooted in the opinion that they had suffered injustice at the hands of the Czechs, and not at the hands of general historical processes” and tried to defend “their privileged position ", being essentially "remnants of medieval East German colonization." Slovakia, in turn, renounced its rights to the southern and eastern regions of the country, which are 87% populated by ethnic Hungarians. The territory of Czechoslovakia was reduced by 38%, the country turned into a narrow and long, easily vulnerable stump state, which actually became a dependent protectorate of Germany. German troops found themselves 30 km from Prague. In addition, on December 3, 1938, a secret agreement was concluded with Czechoslovakia, according to which it could not “maintain fortifications and barriers on the border with Germany.” The fate of the remaining territory of the country was thus sealed.
March 1939 Hitler summoned Czechoslovak President Emil Gacha to Berlin and invited him to accept German occupation Czech Republic. Gakha agreed to this, and German army invaded Czech territory with virtually no resistance. The only attempt at organized armed resistance was made by the company of Captain Karel Pavlik in the city of Mistek (the so-called battle for Chayankov barracks).
On March 1939, by personal decree of Hitler, Bohemia and Moravia were declared a German protectorate. The head of the executive branch of the protectorate was the Reichsprotektor, appointed by the Fuhrer. Konstantin von Neurath was appointed the first Reich Protector on March 21, 1939. There was also a formal post of president of the protectorate, which was held by Emil Gaha throughout its existence. The personnel of departments similar to ministries was staffed by officials from Germany. Jews were expelled from government service. Political parties were banned, and many leaders of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia moved to the Soviet Union.
Occupation of Poland
In the Polish lands annexed to Germany, “racial policies” and resettlement were carried out, and the population was classified into categories with different rights in accordance with their nationality and origin. Jews and Gypsies, according to this policy, were subject to complete destruction. After the Jews, the most powerless category were the Poles. National minorities had a better position. Persons of German nationality were considered a privileged social group.
In the General Government with its capital in Krakow, an even more aggressive “racial policy” was pursued. The oppression of everything Polish and the persecution of Jews soon caused strong contradictions between the military service authorities and the political and police executive bodies. Colonel General Johannes Blaskowitz, who was left in Poland as the commander of the troops, expressed a sharp protest against these actions in a memo. At Hitler's request, he was removed from his post.
After Himmler's first inspection, the elderly and mentally handicapped were torn from hospitals, and orphanages were searched for children suitable for the racial improvement program; Concentration camps for members of the Resistance were established in Auschwitz and Majdanek. Carrying out cold-blooded genocide as part of the so-called "AB-Aktion", the Germans captured about 15,000 Polish intellectuals, civil servants, politicians and priests, who were then shot or sent to concentration camps. From late 1939, Europe's largest community of Jews was ordered to move into designated ghettos, which were then walled off, tightly locked, and completely isolated from the rest of the world; Jewish self-government was created, which, with the support of the Jewish police, administered these ghettos under the supervision of the Nazis.
To further fight against Germany and its allies, armed formations made up of Polish citizens were created:
· Polish armed forces in the West
· Anders Army (2nd Polish Corps)
· Polish armed forces in the USSR (1943 - 1944)
· Resistance to the German occupation regime on the territory of the newly created General Government was carried out by the Polish Underground State.
· For information on the situation in Western Belarus and Western Ukraine, which became part of the USSR, see the article Polish Campaign of the Red Army (1939).
Occupation of Norway
It has been estimated that about 10% of Norwegians supported the Nazi occupation, although this estimate is uncertain and takes into account different types of support during the occupation. It is clear that the vast majority of Norwegians opposed the occupation. The resistance was largely supported by the government-in-exile in London, which regularly distributed underground press in Norwegian and also coordinated sabotage raids against Hitler's occupiers.
Resistance took various forms. Some Norwegians took part in armed resistance, others supported them, and many Norwegians committed acts of civil disobedience. Over time, armed resistance was organized, mostly under a single command. A distinction was made between rear (Norwegian: Hjemmefronten) and frontline operations (Norwegian: Utefronten). The Norwegian fleet and Norwegian troops operated as part of the British Royal Air Force. The unity of the command structure was instrumental in the orderly transfer of power in May 1945.
Relatively few of the Norwegians were overt collaborators. About 15 thousand people were mobilized by the German administration, of which 6 thousand were sent to the Soviet-German front. Some Norwegian police forces assisted in the arrest of Jews for deportation to Nazi concentration camps in November 1942.
During the five years of occupation, several thousand Norwegian women gave birth to children from German soldiers as part of a special German program. These mothers were ostracized and humiliated after the war, given offensive nicknames such as “whores of the Germans” (Norwegian: tyskert øser). Children from these unions were called “offspring of the Germans” (Norwegian tyskerunger), or, what was even worse, “Nazi caviar” (Norwegian naziyngel). The discussion about the rehabilitation of such children began with television appearances in 1981, but only recently have the descendants of these unions begun to feel quite free.
Occupation of France
On May 10, 1940, German troops launched an attack on France, which declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939, in connection with its attack on Poland. As a result of the rapid advance of German troops using the tactics of lightning war - blitzkrieg, the allied forces were completely defeated, and on June 22 France was forced to sign an armistice. By this time, most of its territory was occupied, and practically nothing remained of the army.
After the occupation of France, on September 27, 1940, a decree of the occupation authorities was published on conducting a census of the Jewish population. A total of 287,962 Jews were registered, of whom 60% were in occupied territory and 40% under the jurisdiction of the collaborationist regime of Marshal Pétain.
On October 2, 1940, the Vichy regime adopted the first “Decree on the Jews” (French: Statut de juifs), restricting their movement, access to public places and professional activities. In June 1941, a second decree was adopted, which further worsened the situation of the Jews. Vichy authorities actively persecuted foreign Jews but opposed the deportation of French citizens.
On March 1941, the General Commissariat for Jewish issues"(French: Commissariat general aux questions juives) under the leadership of Xavier Valla, who was involved in the transfer of Jewish property in the occupied territory into the hands of the Nazis. On May 6, 1942, the commissariat was headed by Louis Darquier de Pellepoix (English), who took up the same activities in the “free zone”.
On May 1942, in the occupied zone, the Germans issued an order obliging all Jews over 6 years of age to wear a yellow star.
At the beginning of 1942, Dovid Knut, Abraham Polonsky with their wives Ariadna Skryabina and Ezhen Polonskaya created an underground organization in Toulouse, which was initially called Bnei David ("descendants of David"), but in June 1944 was renamed the Organization Juive de Combat ("Jewish Army") ", abbreviated as OJC or EA). Ariandna Skryabina, who took the underground nickname Regina, came up with a special oath-taking ceremony when joining the organization. Over the four years of EA’s existence, 1,952 people took such an oath, among whom were many Jews from Russia.
EA's first promotions were quite simple and harmless. For a whole year, EA members brought food to interned Jewish refugees from Germany. The refugees were kept in very difficult conditions; in the Resebedu camp, near Toulouse, they had to bribe the guards. Subsequently, the organization carried out about 2,000 military operations, including 750 sabotage on the railway and 32 explosions at military factories. Ariadna Scriabina died on July 22, 1944, in an ambush.
Among the six founders of the Libération-Sud movement, three were Jews; the Frant-Tireur (Free Shooter) organization was commanded by Jean-Pierre Lévy, Joseph Epstein (Colonel Gilles) and Z. Gottesman ( "Captain Philip") One of the leaders of the Resistance in Lyon was the famous historian and captain of the French army, Marc Bloch. He was arrested by the Gestapo and executed after torture on June 16, 1944.
Occupation of Yugoslavia
Power in the country belonged to the ultranationalist Ustasha movement. The goal of the movement was to transform Croatia into a 100% Catholic country, and the Serbs, Gypsies and Jews living in it were supposed to be destroyed. A few days after coming to power, the Ustasha prepared and adopted a number of laws that discriminated against representatives of other nationalities. On April 17, the law on the protection of the people and the state was approved, on April 25 - on the prohibition of the Cyrillic alphabet, on April 30 - on the protection of “Aryan blood and honor of the Croatian people” and on race, etc. Serbs were required to wear armbands with the letter “P”, which meant “Orthodox”. Croatia was the only European country allied with Germany to establish its own concentration camps, the largest of which was Jasenovac.
In his speech in Gospic on June 22, 1941, one of the Ustasha leaders, Mile Budak, formulated a program of action in relation to the Serbs: “We will destroy one part of the Serbs, we will evict the other, we will convert the rest to the Catholic faith and turn them into Croats. Thus, their traces will soon be lost, and what remains will be only a bad memory of them.” In the same speech, he uttered the following phrase: “We have three million bullets for the Serbs, Gypsies and Jews.” On June 26, part of his speech was published by the Hrvatski List newspaper.
After the Ustasha came to power, the Catholic clergy began a campaign to convert Orthodox Serbs to Catholicism. This is done accompanied by armed Ustasha units. The English historian Richard West, who studied this issue, in one of his books refers to the text of a Bosnian newspaper, which spoke about the conversion of 70,000 Serbs to Catholicism in the diocese of Banja Luka. He also wrote that the Catholic clergy directed their aspirations primarily to the Serbian peasants. According to him, all those who had a secondary education, as well as teachers, merchants, wealthy artisans and Orthodox priests were considered bearers of “Serbian consciousness” and were subject to complete destruction.
The Ustasha made their first raids on Serbian settlements immediately after the surrender of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. After a significant number of occupation troops left the Balkans in June 1941 and German control over their ally weakened, the Ustasha terror gained momentum. In just six weeks of 1941, the Ustasha killed three Orthodox bishops and 180,000 Serbs. A huge number of corpses were thrown into the waters of the Drina, Drava and Sava so that they could reach Serbia. Some had signs attached to them with inscriptions like “Passport for Belgrade”, “Dear for Serbia”, “To Belgrade for King Peter”.
It was the Serbs who made up the vast majority of victims of the Ustasha regime. In Glina, Dvor na Una, Donje Lapce, Serbs accounted for 98% of the victims; in Voynich, Korenitsa, Vrginmost - 96%; in Novska and Nova Gradiška - 82%; in Slavonska Pozega - 80%.
According to the American Holocaust Museum, the number of Ustasha victims in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia is 330-390 thousand Serbs.
Branimir Stanojevic’s book “The Ustasha Minister of Death” states that 800 thousand people died in Croatia in 1941-1945. The same figure was named by the famous Serbian researcher in exile Mane M. Pesut in his book “The Land of Ratu 1941-1945”.
An approximate picture of the scale of the Ustasha terror can be obtained by comparing population data before and after the war. In 1940, there were 1,114,826 Serbs in the Gornokarlovac diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church. And according to the 1948 census, only 543,795 people lived in this same territory. In addition, it must be remembered that not only the lands of the former Military Krajina, but also Bosnia and Herzegovina and the west of Vojvodina were in the genocide zone.
Occupation of Lithuania
June Army Group North captured western and northern Lithuania, Army Group Center captured most of the Vilna region. The first Luftwaffe attacks killed approximately 4,000 civilians. Most of the Soviet aircraft were destroyed on the ground. During the Battle of Raseiniai, the Soviet military tried to launch a counterattack, reinforced with tanks, but suffered a heavy defeat. Lithuanians saw the Germans as liberators from repressive Soviet rule, hoping that the Germans would restore their independence or at least autonomy. Within a week, the Germans had lost 3,362 people, but controlled the entire territory of the country.
Anti-Soviet Lithuanians took up arms to fight Soviet troops. Rebel groups took control of strategically important objects (for example, railways, bridges, communications equipment, food and equipment warehouses), protecting them from possible attacks by the Soviet army. The Germans entered Kaunas without a fight, since it was already controlled by the anti-Soviet Lithuanian Activist Front (LAF). Front activists declared the independence of Lithuania and created the Provisional Government of Lithuania on June 23. Smaller and less organized anti-Soviet groups emerged in other cities and rural areas.
The Germans, not recognizing the Lithuanian government, formed their own civil administration, the Reichskommissariat Ostland, at the end of July. Adrian von Rentelnom became Commissioner of Lithuania and took over all government functions. The provisional government resigned on 5 August, and some of its ministers became General Councilors in charge of local government. The Germans did not have enough manpower to staff the local administration, so most of the local branches were headed by Lithuanians. Political decisions will be made by high-ranking Germans, actions will be carried out by low-ranking Lithuanians.
The Nazis prepared three versions of Plan Ost, its relationship with Lithuania. According to the first version, the majority of the population of Lithuania will be deported to Siberia, and the rest will be Germanized. The second plan provided for the resettlement of 235 thousand German colonists in the country over 15 years. The third version did not classify Lithuanians as an Aryan race, so 85% of the population had to be deported or exterminated, and the remaining few were Germanized. In any case, Lithuania was to become a German region within 20 years after the war.
Most of the anti-Nazi resistance in Lithuania consisted of Polish and Soviet partisans. They began sabotage and partisan activities against German forces immediately after the Nazi invasion in 1941. The most important Polish resistance organizations in Lithuania, as in occupied Poland, are the Home Army. Polish commander of the Vilna region Alexander Krzhizhanovsky.
The activities of Soviet partisans in Lithuania were partly coordinated by the command of the Lithuanian partisan movement, led by Antanas Sniečkus, and partly by the Central Command of the partisan movement in the USSR.
Jewish partisans in Lithuania actively participated in military operations against Nazi occupation. In September 1943, the United Partisan Organization, led by Abba Kovner, tried to start an uprising in the Vilna ghetto, and then engaged in sabotage and partisan activities against the Nazi occupation.
military occupied Nazi sabotage
Conclusion
Summarizing everything written above, we can say that as many countries as there were, there were as many options for occupation. Some countries surrendered easily, while others fought for their freedom. Some countries were allies of Nazi Germany, and some were against it.
In the occupied territories of their allies, German troops were humane, but in enemy territories the genocide of the Jewish population flourished. Probably the biggest mark left by the Second World War is the victims of the Holocaust. How many people, how many old people and children were simply destroyed, and “why?” - complex issue.
What if Germany had won this terrible war, what if Hitler had come to World Domination? As people with a complete lack of patriotism say, “We would drive Japanese cars and drink German beer...”. These people should more often open textbooks on world history in the 8th grade, where they could read the notes of the children of ostarbeiters, who at a young school age realized what death was and wrote farewell letters to their mothers and fathers. Or listen to elderly people who, fortunately, were able to return to their homeland. After reading these letters and listening to these people, can we say that we would live well? Would they even live?... Unfortunately, history teaches people little...
It is in our power to prevent this from happening again, from having another war. To better understand the horror of that time, the new generation should read more books by Vasil Bykov, Ivan Shamyakin and others, as well as watch more films in which you can see everything with your own eyes, such films as “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” by Mark Herman, “ Life is Beautiful" by Roberto Benigni, "The Pianist" by Roman Polanski, "Schindler's List" by Steven Spielberg...
List of sources and literature used
1. Vaclav Kral. Crime against Europe / Moscow, “Mysl”, 1968.
Kulish Vasily Mikhailovich. Prehistory of the second front in Europe / Moscow, Voenizdat, 1960.
Lavrov Lev Pavlovich. The story of one surrender (how France was handed over to Hitler) / Moscow, International Relations, 1964.
Norbert Muller. The Wehrmacht and the occupation/Moscow, Voenizdat, 1974.
5. Occupation of Lithuania [electronic resource] - 2006 Access mode:
Occupation of Poland [electronic resource] - 2009 Access mode:
Occupation of Yugoslavia [electronic resource] - 2007 Access mode:
Tags: German occupation of European countries (Second World War 1939-1945) Abstract History
On Defender of the Fatherland Day, it is worth recalling who the Russian soldier fought with and where the defenders of other fatherlands were at that time
This year we will celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Victory of the Soviet Union in World War II. Therefore, on Defender of the Fatherland Day, it is worth recalling once again who the Russian soldier fought with and where the defenders of other fatherlands were at that time.
It turns out that it would be more logical for many European countries to celebrate May 9 not as Victory Day in World War II, but to remember their shameful surrender. After all, almost all of continental Europe by 1941 one way or another became part of the Third Reich. Of the more than two dozen European countries that existed by June 1941, nine were Spain, Italy, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Croatia - together with Germany and Austria entered the war against the USSR.
The rest also did not resist the enemy for long:
Monaco - 1 day, Luxembourg - 1 day, Netherlands - 6 days, Belgium - 8 days, Yugoslavia - 12 days, Greece - 24 days, Poland - 36 days, France - 43 days, and then actually joined the aggressor and worked for his industry.
Even supposedly neutral countries - Switzerland and Sweden - did not stand aside. They provided fascist Germany the right of free transit of military cargo through their territory, and also received huge profits from trade. The trade turnover of “neutral” Portugal with the Nazis was so successful that in May 1945 it declared three days of mourning in connection with the death of Hitler.
But that's not all.
- Nationality It is difficult or even impossible to identify all those who died in battles on the Russian front. But the composition of the military personnel captured by our army during the war is known. Germans and Austrians - 2,546,242 people; 766,901 people belonged to other nations that declared war on us: Hungarians, Romanians, Italians, Finns and others, but another 464,147 prisoners of war were French, Belgians, Czechs and representatives of others who did not seem to be at war with us European countries, - leads scary numbers betrayal historian Vadim Kozhinov. - And while this multinational army was winning victories on the Russian front, Europe was, by and large, on the side of the Third Reich.
That is why, according to the recollections of the participants, during the signing of the act of surrender of Germany on May 8, 1945, the head of the German delegation, Field Marshal Keitel, seeing among those present at the ceremony people in French military uniform, he could not contain his surprise: "How?! And these also defeated us, or what?!”
I wonder what the field marshal would say today to Europeans calling for Victory Day to be celebrated without Russia’s participation. He would probably remind them that the Wehrmacht conquered their countries faster than a couple of houses in Stalingrad.
