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INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Chapter I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

HITLER’STHIRD REICH:GERMANY AND AUSTRIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Austria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Chapter II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

HITLERS’ ALLIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Bulgaria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Croatia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Finland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Romania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Slovakia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Hungary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Chapter III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

HITLER’S COLLABORATORS AMONGST THE OCCUPIED COUNTRIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Albania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Belgium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Belarus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Denmark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Estonia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Holland/The Netherlands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Lithuania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Luxembourg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Latvia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Norway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Russians and nations of the USSR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Serbia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Ukraine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Chapter IV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

HITLER’S ALLIES IN NEUTRAL COUNTRIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Switzerland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Sweden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Chapter V . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

JEWISH ALLIES OF THE THIRD GERMAN REICH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

All countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

5

Chapter VI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

COUNTRIES FIGHTING WITH THE THIRD GERMAN REICH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Czech Republic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Greece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Poland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Great Britain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Chapter VII . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

NEUTRAL STATES 1939–1945 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

THE LIST OF DONORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

6

Chapter III

HITLER’S COLLABORATORS

AMONGST THE

OCCUPIED COUNTRIES

ALBANIA

Support for Hitler:

7,000 volunteers in SS

1,000 as part of the Albanian militia Vulnetara

Albania

36

ITALIAN OCCUPATION

On April 7 1939, in breach of international obligations,

the Italians occupied Albania and overthrew the Al-

banian King Zogu I, who had fled to Greece. On April

16 1939, the King of Italy, Victor Emmanuel III, pro-

claimed himself King of Albania . After 1941, part of

Kosovo and Chameria were incorporated into the Al-

banian protectorate .

GERMAN-AUSTRIAN OCCUPATION

From September 10 1943, after the capitulation of It-

aly, Albania was occupied by German and Austrian

troops . There was a strong resistance movement, espe-

cially the communist one .

ADMINISTRATIVE COLLABORATION

During the years 1939-43, Albania formed an integral

part of Italy . After the occupation of Albania by the

Germans and Austrians, the Albanian administration

began to cooperate with the occupiers .

POLITICAL COLLABORATION

After the occupation of Albania in 1943, the Germans

and Austrians established a puppet Albanian govern-

ment with the police and the army . The fascist Nation-

al Union ( Balli Kombetar) was active in Albania .

Albanians in Waffen-SS Skanderbeg

MILITARY COLLABORATION

After the occupation of Kosovo in 1943, the Germans THE ATTITUDE TOWARDS

and the Austrians organized a paramilitary militia THE EXTERMINATION OF JEWS

called Vulnetara consisting of 1,000 Albanians . It’s task About 500 Jews lived in Albania before the war . After was ethnic cleansing aimed at Jews, Serbs, Gypsies and Kosovo and parts of Macedonia were incorporated into people of other nationalities . 7,000 Albanian volunteers Albania in April 1941, the number of Jews increased served in the 21st Mountain Division of Waffen-SS significantly (refugees from Macedonia, Serbia, Ger-Skanderbeg (1st Albanian); the core of the formation many, Austria and Poland) . The occupation of Albania was a reinforced battalion of about 300 Albanians by the Third Reich in November 1943 changed the who had previously served in the 13th SS Division . position of the Jews, whose number is estimated at 800-The Albanian division gained notoriety . Most of the 2,000 . It is estimated that several hundred Albanian Albanians serving in the SS did not want to fight for Jews survived the war in hiding .

the Germans and Austrians . From the beginning, they

were primarily occupied with the massacres of the PUNISHMENT FOR HELPING JEWS

Serb population in Kosovo and Metochia . The purpose There were no regulations penalizing helping Jews .

of these massacres was to expel or murder the non-Al-

banian population living in Western Macedonia, en-

END OF THE WAR

suring there are no Jews, Serbs or Gypsies, and create In November 1944 the Germans and Austrians and an ethnically and religiously pure and homogeneous shortly thereafter also the Greek partisans stationed in

[Muslim] Greater Albania .

the country left Albania14 .

14 Andrew S ., Williamson G ., German Mountain Ski Troops 1939-45, Oxford 2001; Andrew S ., Williamson G ., The Waffen SS (3) 11 . to 23 . Divisions, Oxford 2004; Bishop Ch ., Zagraniczne formacje SS, Zagraniczny ochotnicy w Waffen SS w latach 1940-45, Warszawa 2006; Blond P . W ., Siepacze Hitlera, Oddziały SS do zwalczania partyzantki, Warszawa 2008; Czekalski T ., Albania, Warszawa 2003; Koreski A ., Albania. Krótki zarys dziejów, Warszawa 1988; Piekałkie-wiecz J ., Wojna na Bałkanach 1940-45, Warszawa 2008 .

37

BELGIUM

Support for Hitler:

40,000 Belgians served in the SS

Country occupied from: 10 May 1940

Belgium

38

DEFENSIVE FIGHT:

Belgium’s armed forces numbered 90,000 soldiers in 1932

and fought the German aggressor for over two weeks .

CAPITULATION

Belgium signed the capitulation on 28 May 1940 . The

King remained in Belgium, whilst the royal family and

the highest authorities evacuated to Great Britain .

COLLABORATION AT THE ADMINISTRATIVE LEVEL

Volunteers from Waffen-SS „ Wallonien”

Belgium was managed by the pre-war authorities who

during training in Bavaria, July 1943 r.

cooperated with the Third Reich at the level of secre-

(Photo: ul stein bild/ul stein bild/Getty Images)

taries of ministries .

Germany since the end of the war. The benefit received

POLITICAL COLLABORATION

by Belgian SS men ranges from EUR 425 to EUR 1,275 a

Parties that collaborated with Germany and the Aus-

month . The time they spent in Belgian prisons for col-

trians: the German-Flemish Labor Union (De Vlag – es-

laboration with Germans during the war is counted as

tablished in 1936), The Flemish National Union headed their “years of work”, while Belgians, who had to work by Staf de Clerq, Rexists, who from 1935 preached the as forced laborers in Germany during the war, received idea of creating Greater Belgium, the Algemeene SS – compensation of EUR 50 a month after the war .

Vlaanderen organization established in 1940 .

THE ATTITUDE TOWARDS

MILITARY COLLABORATION

THE EXTERMINATION OF JEWS

40,000 Belgian volunteers served in the voluntary for-

The Belgians aided the Germans and Austrians in

mations of the SS .

the extermination of the Jews . In September 2012, the

The French-speaking Wallons and Dutch-speaking Belgian Prime Minister, Elio Di Rupo, stressed that the Flemish, whose ancestors were Germanic tribes living Belgian authorities “conducted unworthy cooperation in Belgium . In all likelihood, this was the reason Hitler with the German occupier” in the extermination of considered the Flemish a pure Germanic race . Initially, Jews . Between 1942 and 1944, over 25,000 Jews and only Flemish were admitted to the Waffen SS . After Roma people were deported from Belgium, mainly the occupation of the Netherlands by the troops of the from Brussels and Antwerp . “By aiding the extermi-Third Reich, the recruitment of the first Flemish volun-

nation carried out by the Nazis, the authorities, and

teers to the SS “Westland” regiment began in May 1940.

through them the Belgian state, did not fulfill their

Encouraged by this quick recruitment, the Nazis be-

duty. They were involved in the most heinous crime”

gan forming a second regiment that was called “Nor-

– said the Belgian Prime Minister . The city of Brussels

dwest”. Ultimately, Belgian volunteers, Flemish and has officially admitted its complicity in the deportation Wallonians, formed within the Waffen SS: the 27th SS of Jews during World War II, especially in the role it Volunteer Grenadier Division Langemarck (Flemish played in registering them, confiscating their property, No . 1); 28th SS Volunteer Grenadier Division Wallonien and removing them from various professions .

( Legion Belge Wallonie) . After the creation of the 5th Mo-torized SS Division “Viking”, the Flemish became part PUNISHMENT FOR HELPING JEWS

of its regiment “Westland”. It was the most valiant of In Belgium, imprisonment or a fine was provided for the non-German divisions of the Waffen SS, and its sol-hiding Jews . There is no information that a Belgian had

diers were considered the elite of the German army15 .

ever been punished16 .

On February 19 2019, the Belgian daily “De Morgen”

revealed that seven Belgians who fought in the German LIBERATION

Waffen SS formations, are to this day receiving from the The Poles liberated Belgium . On September 6 1944, the German government an additional pension granted to Polish 1st Armored Division established in 1942 and them by the order of Hitler for “loyalty and obedience”. commanded by General Stanisław Maczek, crossed the As reported by the Belgian newspaper, up to 38,000 French-Belgian border . Poles fought bloody and victori-Belgians have received this additional benefit from ous battles with Germans and liberated successive town .

15 Chris Bischop, Zagraniczne formacje SS, Warszawa 2005 .

16 Jan Bodakowski, w: fronda, pl/a/kary-za-pomoc-zydom-w-polsce-a-w-europie, 12856,html 39

BELARUS

Support for Hitler:

Tens of thousands of Belarusians in the Wlasow’s

Army, Belarusian Self-defense and Belorusian SS

Soviet Union

40

On 17 September 1939, the Red Army occupied West-

largely recruited from among prisoners of war. Unoffi-

ern Belorussia (pre-war this was part of the Polish cially, they were known as the Russian People’s Army Republic) and incorporated it into the Soviet Union as or the Narodniks [ narod meaning people] . In March 1943, the Belarusian Socialist People’s Republic . The Soviet these formations were joined to the Russian Liberation occupation of this territory lasted until the German Army of General A . Vlasov [this was a collaborationist invasion of the USSR on 22 June 1941 .

formation] . In June 1942, on the initiative of Wilhelm

Kube, Generalkommissar for Weissruthenien (i .e . Be-DEFENSIVE FIGHT

larus), the Belarusian Self-Defense was established

Belarusians did not conduct an independent defensive – Belarusian military units controlled by German and fight.

Austrian officers. The large influx of Belarusian vol-

unteers resulted in the formation of approximately

CAPITULATION

twenty battalions . Belarusian leaders saw in the Belar-

Belarus was not a sovereign state and it therefore did usian Self-Defense “the embryo of a future Belarusian not sign a formal surrender .

army”20 . The vast spectrum of Belarusian collaboration

with Germany was complemented by the Belarusian

COLLABORATION AT THE ADMINISTRATIVE LEVEL

Youth Union with twelve and a half thousand mem-

Within the territory of Belarus, the Soviets firstly bers . The Youth Union promoted fascist ideology and administered the territory and then Germany with anti-Semitism . Belarusian military formations took Austria introduced their own administration after part with the Germans and Austrians in extermination the 1941 invasion . At the convention of the Belarusian actions against the Jewish population and in numerous People’s Self-Assistance in March 1943, activists passed pacifications. Several hundred Belarusians served in a memorandum declaring the autonomy of Belarus the 13th Byelorussian Police Battalion SD (German under the patronage of the Germans and the formation Weissruthenische-Polizei-Bataillon № 13) known as of the Belarusian government in conjunction with the the Belarusian SS .

establishment of the Belarusian army17 .

THE ATTITUDE TOWARDS

POLITICAL COLLABORATION

THE EXTERMINATION OF JEWS

Belarusians did not take up the fight against the Red Belarusians serving in the German-Austrian military Army during the Soviet occupation from September and police formations took an active part in the exter-1939 to June 1941 and they fully cooperated with the So-

mination of the Jewish population .

viets18 . When Hitler declared war on the Soviets in June

1941, the Belarusians immediately began to cooperate PUNISHMENT FOR HELPING JEWS

with the Germans and Austrians occupying their terri-

There were no regulations penalizing the helping of

tory: “They wanted to use the occupation to introduce Jews . In Western Belarus that was formerly within Belarusians to the local administration, develop their the borders of Poland before the war, the Germans national consciousness and create their own army . It and Austrians used the same punishment they used is also true, however, that many started to cooperate against the Poles [i .e . Polish citizens before the war]

[with the occupiers] not for ideological reasons, but for hiding and helping Jews, i .e . the death penalty . In for material reasons” – wrote a Belarusian historian19 . the Polish convent of the Sisters of the Immaculate Belarusian volunteers organized themselves into the Conception in Słonim (now in the territory of Belarus), Fascist Party of Belarusian Nationalists that worked the Germans murdered two Polish nuns for hiding closely with the Germans and Austrians .

a Jewish family .

MILITARY COLLABORATION

END OF THE WAR

At the beginning of 1942, the Germans and Austrians 9 May 1945

organized Belarusian police units who reported to the

occupiers (i .e . Germans and Austrians) . They were

17 Zachar Szybieka, Historia Białorusi 1795-2000, Lublin 2002, s . 344 .

18 Ibidem, s . 331 .

19 Ibidem, s . 346 .

20 Ibidem, s . 345 .

41

DENMARK

Support for Hitler:

Ca. 10,000 Danes served in SS

Denmark

42

In 1939, Denmark declared its neutrality and concluded pected attack by the occupiers . Some units and individ-a non-aggression pact with Hitler . However, the Ger-

ual officers managed to escape to Sweden. The Danes

mans and Austrians attacked Denmark on April 9, 1940 .

mined, blew up and sunk 29 ships (their own ships,

so they would not end up in German hands), whilst 14

DEFENSIVE FIGHT

ships fell into the hands of the Germans and Austri-

Only a few Danish soldiers resisted . Several dozen ans . Danish resistance to the occupiers resulted in the were killed and several dozen were injured .

establishment of the underground Danish Freedom

Council on 16 September 1943, which evolved into a

CAPITULATION

political nucleus of government over the country . After

9 April 1940 .

the war, 40,000 people were arrested on charges of col-

laboration, high treason, murder and torture, including

POLITICAL COLLABORATION

Danes serving as volunteers in the SS formations . Light

During the war, Denmark was under Danish admin-

sentences were passed against 13,500 of the people;

istration, which collaborated extensively with the Ger-

whilst 78 people were sentenced to death (46 sentences

mans and Austrians in every aspect of life . After April were carried out) . The question of what to do with the 9, the Danish government and parliament implement-collaborators-traitors in administration and industry

ed a “collaboration policy” (Danish samarbejdspoltik-

remained . The Danish government had continually

ken) . The goal of Danish politicians was to preserve the encouraged them to cooperate with the Germans and greatest amount of sovereignty and lead the country Austrians from the beginning of the war . Some were through the war as painlessly as possible .

acquitted, the rest were sentenced to 4 years in prison .

In 1943, after a wave of protests against the policy of

collaboration with the Third Reich, the Germans and MILITARY COLLABORATION

the Austrians dismissed the incumbent Danish gov-

Danes supported Hitler by serving in three SS for-

ernment . The Danish government was formally “put mations . On June 28 1941, the Danish government to sleep” and survived in this state until liberation. announced the creation of the Danish legion in service On August 29 1943, the Danish armed forces (kept in a to the Third Reich . The Danish Volunteer Legion was reduced capacity by the Third Reich), were disbanded . given the official German name of SS-Freiwilligen Twenty three Danish soldiers were killed in this unex-Verband Dänemark (Volunteer Group Denmark) by

the Germans and Austrians . It was more commonly

known as the Freikorps Danmark . This name also ap-

peared on the standard German Waffen-SS uniforms

attached to the left sleeve worn by the Danes serving

their German protectors . 6,000 Danes served in this

formation of the SS .

THE ATTITUDE TOWARDS

THE EXTERMINATION OF JEWS

When it was revealed in the first half of October 1943,

that the Germans were planning to exterminate the

Danish Jews, the Danes transported about 7,000 Jews to

neutral Sweden . The Germans subsequently only man-

aged to arrest 477 people (6-7% of the Danish Jewish

population), who were sent to the Theresienstadt camp,

built by Germans and Austrians in the Czech Republic .

PUNISHMENT FOR HELPING JEWS

In Denmark, there was no stated punishment for help-

ing Jews21. Some Danish fishermen were sentenced to

up to three months under the people smuggling law .

Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs Erik Scavenius

LIBERATION

and plenipotentiary of the Third Reich in occupied

Denmark and SS-Obergruppenführer Dr. Werner Best

5 May 1945

21 Jan Bodakowski, w: fronda, pl/a/kary-za-pomoc-zydom-w-polsce-a-w-europie, 12856,html 43

ESTONIA

Support for Hitler:

Ca. 25,000 volunteers

Estonia

44

tion] alongside the Germans and Austrians . In the

OCCUPIED FROM

summer of 1941, 12,000 Estonian soldiers from the

The secret Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact concluded on Au-

underground – Forest Brothers, joined the Germans

gust 23 1939, between Hitler and Stalin, placed Estonia and Austrians to fight for the independence of their in the zone of Soviet influence. In October 1939, 35,000 homeland . During the German occupation, active ser-Red Army soldiers crossed the border and formally vice was undertaken by 50 Estonian battalions and occupied Estonian . Six months later on June 16 1940, companies of approximately 10,000 soldiers . Addi-160,000 Soviet soldiers occupied the three Baltic states, tionally another 25,000 Estonians were given arms .

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania . Estonia was incorporat-

These soldiers primarily fought in the Soviet Union . In

ed into the USSR on August 6 1940, as the Estonian So-

1943, the Germans and the Austrians enlisted a further

viet Socialist Republic . The Soviets arrested and deport-

12,000 conscripts from Estonia . Most of these soldiers

ed the Estonian President Konstantin Päts, exiling him died in the Battle of Narva . Estonians fought in the fol-deep into Russia, where he died in a Soviet labor camp lowing German SS formations: 5th SS Panzer Division in 1956 . The remains of murdered president were only Wiking as the Estonian SS legion (est . Eesti SS-leegion); returned to Estonia by the Soviets on 21 October 1990 .

11th SS Panzer Grenadier Division Nordland; 20th SS

Grenadier Division22 .

DEFENSIVE FIGHT

After the Soviet annexation of Estonia in 1940, the Es-

THE ATTITUDE TOWARDS

tonians resisted the Soviet invaders . Well-organized THE EXTERMINATION OF JEWS

and armed underground resistance structures called Before the war ca . 19 million people lived in the Baltic Forest Brothers were established . The Soviets respond-states, including 310,000 Jews (1 .6%) . Following the

ed by exterminating the Estonian resistance or by invasion of the Soviet Union by the Third Reich in deproting them to Soviet labor camps . These camps June 1941, various anti-Jewish operations under the were filled with Estonians and most never returned to command of the SS – the German-Austrian military their homeland . Estonia lost 25% of its population as formations called Einsatzgruppe – commenced in the a result of the Soviet occupation . The Estonian Forest Baltic countries and in occupied eastern Poland . In Brothers continued to fight the Soviets until 1973.

Estonia, soldiers from the Einsatzgruppe inspired po-

groms of the Jewish population . In 1943, approximate-

CAPITULATION

ly 1,600-2,000 Jews were brought to Estonia from the

7 July 1941

now liquidated (23 September 1943) ghetto in Vilnius .

Vilnius Jews were imprisoned in the Vaivara concen-

COLLABORATION AT THE ADMINISTRATIVE LEVEL

tration camp built by the Germans and Austrians . The

The occupiers created their own administration .

occupiers proceeded to murder almost 125,000 people,

including 6,500+ Estonian citizens, including 929 Jews

POLITICAL COLLABORATION

and 243 Gypsies23 .

Estonians did not support fascism, but with no other

options, they fought alongside the Germans and Aus-

PUNISHMENT FOR HELPING JEWS

trians in the fight against their main aggressor, the There was no stated punishment for helping Jews Soviet Union .

END OF THE WAR

MILITARY COLLABORATION

In August 1944, Soviet troops re-occupied Estonia and

The Estonians did not collaborate with the Third Re-

re-incorporated it into the USSR as a socialist republic .

ich, but – like the Finns – took up the fight for Estonia’s Estonia regained finally its independence in 1991.

freedom [i .e . to get liberated from the Soviet occupa-

22 Lewandowski Jan, Historia Estoni , Ossolineum, Wrocław 2002; Chris Bishop, Zagraniczne formacje SS 1940-1945, Warszawa 2005, s . 92-95 .

23 Darski Józef, Historia Estonii do lat 50. XX wieku [w:] [http://www .eesti .pl/historia-estonii-do-lat-50-xx-wieku-1824 .html](http://www .eesti .pl/historia-estonii-do-lat-50-xx-wieku-11824 .html)]

45

FRANCE

Support for Hitler:

Ca. 105,000 volunteers

France

Meeting between Phil ippe Pétain and

Adolf Hitler, 24 October, 1940 r. (Photo:

Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-H25217 / CC-BY-SA 3.0 /

Source: Wikimedia Commons)

46

Paris. The southern zone, the so-called “French State”

COUNTRY OCCUPIED FROM

was semi-autonomous and was home to Marshall Pe-

France declared war on the Third Reich on September tain’s government located in Vichy . Petain had an army 3 1939, three days after Germany invaded Poland [This of 100,000 French soldiers . In both zones, the French ad-was a formal fulfillment of the pre-war agreement ministration, offices and the police collaborated with the that France and Britain would aid Poland in the event Germans and Austrians . General Charles de Gaulle ap-of German aggression] . On the Western Front in Sep-

pealed to the French people to leave their occupied coun-

tember 10 1939, the French undertook local offensive try on June 18 and join the French [independent] army actions in the Saar region however, they ceased after being formed in England . This army was to continue to a few days . There was now silence on the Western fight the occupiers. On August 7 1940, de Gaulle signed Front (la drôle de guerre) . The Germans and Austrians an agreement with representatives of the English gov-crossed the French frontier on May 10 1940 .

ernment, establishing the Committee of the Free French

and commenced to build an army based on forces from

DEFENSIVE FIGHT

the colonies . On October 27 1940, the Defense Council of

On May 21 1940, German-Austrian troops reached the the French Empire was established, and in September English Channel . From May 26 to June 4, approximate-1941, the National Committee of the Free French was

ly 330,000 British, French and Polish troops were evac-

established . Charles de Gaulle was sentenced to death in

uated to Great Britain from the Dunkirk area . On June absentia by the Vichy government for treason .

14 1940, German-Austrian divisions entered Paris . The

newly appointed Prime Minister of France, Marshal MILITARY COLLABORATION

Petain asked for a truce .

The Third Reich forcibly enlisted 140,000 inhabitants

of Alsace and Lorraine into its armed forces . A further

CAPITULATION

150,000 were recruited into the Todt Organization, and

France signed the capitulation on June 22, 1940

25,000 French workers staffed the German Kriegg-

smarine in the ports of Brittany and the Bay of Biscay .

COLLABORATION AT THE ADMINISTRATIVE LEVEL

Some 45,000 French men donned German uniforms of

The French administration, offices and the police coop-

their own free will .

erated with Germany .

As volunteers, they served in various armed for-

mations and paramilitary groups of the Third Re-

POLITICAL COLLABORATION

ich . More than 6,000 French volunteers served in the

The French state was divided into two zones: the north-

French Legion (Legion des Volontaires Francais – LVF),

ern one, occupied by the Germans and Austrians, cov-

while the French company La Phalange Africane con-

ered the majority of the country’s territory including sisting of over 200 soldiers – part of the 754th Panzer Grenadier Regiment – fought in North Africa against

the British . Nearly 20,000 French volunteers served in

the Waffen SS and at least two were in the ranks of the

SS-Leibstandarte, Hitler’s bodyguard . French SS men

defended Hitler’s bunker to the very end . As soldiers

in the 11th SS Nordland Panzer Grenadier Division

and the 33rd SS Charlemagne Grenadier Division, the

French wore the green Waffen-SS uniforms . They were

distinguished only by the shield with the inscription

“France” against the background of the tricolor na-

tional colors . At the end of the war, the French fought

against the Poles in Poland . In hopeless situations, the

French SS men tried to surrender to the Poles of the

1st Polish Army arriving from the east . Waffen-Unter-

sturmführer, Christian de la Maziére, a Frenchman

from the Waffen-SS, described the first meeting with

Poles as follows: “They approached us . Their com-

mander, a young blond man, spoke a little French .

Meeting between Phil ippe Pétain and

What are you doing here? So I say that we are SS Char-

Adolf Hitler, 24 October, 1940 r. (Photo:

lemagne . Finally he said – Get off those SS badges right

Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-H25217 / CC-BY-SA 3.0 /

now . If the Soviets see them, you’re done . Find yourself

Source: Wikimedia Commons)

some civilian clothes and vanish . If anybody asks say

47

you are French deported to work in the Reich.” Chris-

outspoken fascists and penned anti-Semitic “crusades”

tian de la Maziére was not the only French SS man who

for the Germans and Austrians . The leader among these

owed his life to Poles24 .

fascist groups was the weekly “Je suis partout” (“I am

The French 4th Regiment of the NSKK however, turned

everywhere”), founded in Paris in 1930. It was led by the

out to be the most useful for the Third Reich . This reg-

writer Robert Brasillach, who, apart from the anti-Semit-

iment was part of the NSKK Motorgruppe Luftwaffe, ic propaganda campaign, revealed through the maga-formed from the pre-war Nazi automotive organiza-

zine the names of Jews hiding in the Vichy state .

tion and consisted of 2,500 French drivers and engi-

On September 21 1940, the Third Reich ordered by de-

neers . They played an important role in the German cree that the entire Jewish population of the occupied army as a supply and transport unit . Approximately zone report to the nearest police prefecture . In the city 10,000 Frenchmen also served in the German police, of Paris and its environs, about 15,000 Jews fulfilled who employed an additional 30,000 French civilian this obligation . All names and addresses obtained helpers and informers . Many collaborated directly in this way were stored in the so-called Tulard file, with the intelligence services of the Third Reich, the named after André Tulard, who was responsible for Abwehr and the Gestapo . Moreover, the right-wing the “Jewish question” in France. The French police Vichy militia called Milice cooperated with Germany provided the Gestapo with all the documentation, and the Austrians . In German occupied Europe, the containing addresses, and the full details of the targets scale of French collaboration was the largest .

origins and occupations. The first manhunts targeting

the Jewish population were predicated on the basis of

THE ATTITUDE TOWARDS

the material supplied by the police . On May 10 1941

Arests of Jews in Paris by the French police

THE EXTERMINATION OF JEWS

alone, 4,000 Jews were arrested and more arrests fol-

(Photo: wikipedia/bundesarchiv/lic. CC)

The French press was continuously published through-

lowed in June 1942 . The captured Jews were sent to the

out the German-Austrian occupation . Some publishers camps in Pithiviers and Beaune-La-Rolande .

were eager to please the occupiers at all cost . Others were The largest anti-Jewish action in France was the Vel

d’Hiv manhunt . On July 16 and 17 1942, some 9,000

French policemen were ordered by the French police

chief to arrest all the French Jews . The arrests were to

be carried out as quickly as possible under the directive

to not engage the Jews in any conversations . French po-

licemen were supported by approximately 3,400 volun-

teers from Jacques Doriot’s French fascist organizations .

Finally, on 16 July, 13,152 people were arrested, includ-

ing 5,082 women and 4,051 children . It has not been

established how many people managed to escape . The

detained Jews were only permitted to take two shirts,

a pair of shoes, a blanket and one set of warm clothing .

Families were separated many times . The detainees

were held on the Vel d’Hiv indoor cycling track near

the Eiffel Tower, where the crowds of Jews only had 5

toilets and 1 water tap at their disposal. After five days,

they were sent to transit camps from where they were

taken to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp

built by the Germans and Austrians on occupied Polish

soil. In 1995, French President Jacques Chirac officially

recognized the guilt of the French state for the deporta-

tion of approximately 76,000 French Jews:

These dark hours will forever remain a stain on our

country’s history, offending it and our tradition. Yes,

the criminal insanity of the occupant was supported

by the French, the French state.

French esesman on a street in Paris

(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

–stated the President of France .

24 Francuscy SS-mani. Do samego końca bronili bunkra Hitlera, w: „Do Rzeczy Historia”, Warszawa 7/2013.

48

LIBERATION

On August 26 1944, the French resistance movement,

de Gaulle’s the Free French forces and the American

3rd Army of General Patton liberated Paris. In the first

weeks of September 1944, the remainder of France was

liberated from German-Austrian occupation with the

exception of some parts of Alsace and Lorraine and

a few German defensive points of resistance on the

shores of the Atlantic and in Dunkirk . According to

historians, about 50,000 Poles partook in this historic

success of the underground armed struggle against

the Third Reich, in indigenous Polish units, but also in

armed Franco-Polish units and groups .

The commanders of these groups and individual sub-

units were officers and non-commissioned officers

from the resistance movement . On the French side, the

groups were commanded by Major H . Thevenon and

on the Polish side by Major B. Jeleń. Approximately

Arests of Jews in Paris by the French police

10,000 soldiers of this 50,000 Polish army scattered all

(Photo: wikipedia/bundesarchiv/lic. CC)

over France were killed. It was a sacrifice of Polish

blood in the fight “For Our Freedom and Yours”:

During World War II, the German-Austrian authorities

in France received 3 million letters, the majority writ-

this is one of the unofficial mottos of Poland which

ten to denounce the Jews or reveal their whereabouts . goes back to the times when Polish soldiers, exiled

The French blackmailed and tortured rich Jews and from the partitioned Poland, fought in various inde-

extorted them and ransomed their families . They also pendence movements all over the world.

sent the poor to their deaths. The first train to leave

France with 1,112 French Jews was sent to Auschwitz The Commander of the 1st French Army on the Rhine on March 27 1942 and it was escorted to the French and Danube (1ère Armée Française Rhin et Danube), border by French gendarmes25 .

General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, who signed the act

of surrender of Germany on behalf of France – army

PUNISHMENT FOR HELPING JEWS

order No. 1109 July 26 1945, recognized their signifi-

In France, there was no stated punishment for helping cant contribution and expressed appreciation to the Jews . The French were punished for breaking other commanders and soldiers of the 19th and 29th Polish laws while providing aid . The highest penalty was Infantry Groupings for their participation in the ranks imprisonment for three months . Several Frenchmen of the French resistance movement . The actions he cit-were sent to German-Austrian concentration camps for ed included the liberation of Lyon and numerous cities helping Jews26 .

in northern and south-western France, the victorious

actions of the 1st French Army, action in the Rhine

and the Danube from February to May 1945 and in the

Vosges in Alsace and finally in Germany.

25 Doylde, Paul, The forgotten story of … the France football captain who murdered for Hitler, The Guardian, 16 listopada 2009 r.; Jacques Delarue, (tłum. Savill, Mervyn), The Gestapo: a History of Horror, Londyn, Frontline Books, 2008, str .

224; Henri Longuechaud, Conformément à l’ordre de nos chefs: Le drame des forces de l’ordre sous occupation, Paryż, Plon, 1985, str . 58 .

26 Jan Bodakowski, w: fronda, pl/a/kary-za-pomoc-zydom-w-polsce-a-w-europie, 12856,html 49

HOLLAND/

THE NETHERLANDS

Support for Hitler:

55,000 volunteers in SS

The Netherlands

50

COUNTRY OCCUPIED FROM

10 May 1940 .

DEFENSIVE FIGHT

On May 13, 1940 the royal family left the country .

CAPITULATION

14 May 1940 .

COLLABORATION AT THE ADMINISTRATIVE LEVEL

The Netherlands was managed by the Dutch admin-

istration in cooperation with Germany and the Aus-

trians . Under the occupation, the country functioned

as it did before the war . The Dutch railways partnered

with the Germans and Austrians; Dutch railway men

Celebration of the 10th anniversary

transported Dutch slave laborers and Jews, as well as

of NSB in Utrecht 10/12/1941

looted Dutch property on Dutch trains . Two compa-

nies, Philips and Unilever made a deliberate decision Nederland, there were fanatical Nazis and concentra-to collaborate with the Third Reich .

tion camp wardens . The archives in the Netherlands

and Berlin contain the names of Dutch citizens who

POLITICAL COLLABORATION

served in the SS and Wehrmacht .

The influence of fascism became obvious in the Neth-

erlands at an early stage . Various organizations and THE ATTITUDE TOWARDS

parties of a fascist nature, began to be established in THE EXTERMINATION OF JEWS

the Netherlands as early as 1923; the most significant of In comparison to both France and Belgium, the per-which were the National Socialist Movement and the centage of Jewish survivors in the Netherlands was National Socialist Dutch Workers’ Party (Nationaal-So-the lowest . In proportion to the number of inhabi-

cialistische Beweging der Nederlanden – NSB), which tants, the Dutch handed over the largest number of was modeled on the German NSDAP . After the Dutch Jews in Europe to the Germans and the Austrians . The capitulation, 800,000 Dutch people of the 10 million Dutch railroads transported Dutch Jews to extermina-inhabitants, declared their fascist beliefs by joining the tion camps built by Germans and Austrians in occu-fascist party, known as the Dutch Union and openly pied Poland . The Netherlands operated the so-called collaborated with Germany . The Dutch Union was the Henneicke Column that pursued Jews for profit. This largest organization in the history of the Netherlands . group of 40 Dutch fascists received 7 .5 guilders (then Apart from the rare exceptions of the resistance move-40 guilders) from their German superiors for each

ment, the entire country collaborated with the occupi-

ers . At the CABR Institute [ translator’s comment – Central Archives for Special Criminal Jurisdiction, forerunner of the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation (NIOD)], there are approximately half a million files detailing

Dutch citizens who collaborated with the Germans

and Austrians, including members of the fascist NSB .

Access to these files is extremely difficult, even secret

to this day .

MILITARY COLLABORATION:

In the voluntary Dutch legions, 50,000 Dutch volunteers

served Hitler in the Vrijwilligerslegioen Nederland and

also served in three SS divisions in: the 11th SS Panzer

Grenadier Division Nordland alongside representatives

of other European nations; the 23rd Volunteer Gren-

adier Division of the SS Nederland; and the 34th SS

Volunteer Grenadier Division Landstorm Nederland .

Among the estimated 3,000 soldiers of the Landstorm

Hitler was loved not only in Germany

51

the Gestapo28 . It is estimated that 16,100 Jews survived

the occupation in the Netherlands thanks to organized

and individual aid .

PUNISHMENT FOR HELPING JEWS

In the Netherlands, people caught helping the Jews

ended up in prisons or Dutch camps . On May 9 1943,

1,604 Dutch were held in custody in Amsterdam for

hiding Jews . Several months later, their number in-

creased to 1,997 .

LIBERATION

The southern Netherlands: Flanders, Zeeland, Brabant

and Limburg were liberated from the German-Austri-

an occupation in autumn of 1944 . In September 1944

Maastricht was liberated and in October Breda, both

by by the Polish 1st Armored Division under the com-

Among the nations col aborating with Germany. Dutch

mand of brilliant General Maczek, see chapter about

volunteers were the most numerous in the Waffen SS

Poland . Amsterdam, Haga, Rotterdam and Utrecht

remained in the hands of the Germans and Austri-

captured Jew . It is estimated that this group was re-

ans . Cut from the world from autumn 1944 until May

sponsible for the deaths of almost 9,000 Jews27 . In total, 1945, without reliable food supply and without fire-107,000 Jews were deported from the Netherlands to wood, these cities lived through the winter of Hunger German-Austrian extermination camps . The Dutch po-

(Honger-winter); 20,000 people perished from hunger

lice too, eagerly pursued and handed over the Jews to and cold. Holland was finally liberated on 5 may 1945.

27 The Persecution of the Jews in the Netherlands, 1940-1945. New perspectives, red. P. Romijn, B. van der Boom, P. Griffio-en, R . Zeller, M . Meeuwenoord, J . Houwink ten Cate, Amsterdam 2012; M . Croes, Zagłada Żydów w Holandii a odsetek ocalałych, „Zagłada Żydów. Studia i materiały”, 2008, nr 4; B. J. Flim, T. J. Michman, The Netherlands [w] The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations. Rescuers of Jews during Holocaust, red . I . Gutman, Yad Vashem 2004; E . Fogelman, Conscience and Courage. Rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust, New York 1995; R . Hilberg, Zagłada Żydów Europejskich, t . II, tł. J. Giebułtowski, Warszawa 2014; D. Michman, Społeczeństwo holenderskie i los Żydów: skomplikowana historia, „Zagłada Żydów. Studia i materiały”, 2016, nr 12.

28 https://www .wiatrak .nl/74511/czarni-zolnierze-holendrzy-w-szeregach-waffen-ss .

52

53

LITHUANIA

Support for Hitler:

Ca. 40,000 volunteers

Lithuania

54

anian soldiers serving in the army of the Third Reich

COUNTRY OCCUPIED FROM

could only serve under Lithuanian command and fight

In accordance with the provisions of the secret pro-

only in the territory of Lithuania .

tocol concluded on August 23 1939, between Hitler The Lithuanian formations within Hitler’s army, and Stalin, known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, known as Schutzkorps Litauen [Lithuanian National Lithuania found itself in the zone of Soviet influence. Defense Corps], numbered 19,000 volunteers . 1,500

On September 18 1939, the Red Army occupied Vilni-

Lithuanians volunteered to serve in the Waffen SS

us that was formerly belonging to Poland before the about 20,000 Lithuanians served in Polizei-Bataillonen, 1939 invasion . The Soviets handed the city over to the commonly known as ponar shooters or shaulis .

Lithuanians . On September 18 1939, the USSR moved

its troops to Lithuanian territory . On July 21 1940, the THE ATTITUDE TOWARDS

Soviets announced that Lithuania had become the THE EXTERMINATION OF JEWS

Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic within the bor-

When the Soviets were withdrawing at the end of

ders of the USSR . Between 1940 and 1941, the Soviets June 1941, Lithuanians from the underground orga-deported 10,000 Lithuanians and Poles and 7,000 Jews nization Front of Lithuanian Activists (LAF) began who were living in Vilnius to Siberia . On June 22 1941, murdering Jews who had collaborated with the So-in conjunction with Germany’s invasion of the Soviet viet authorities in 1939-41 . During the second half Union, Hitler’s troops entered Lithuania .

of the year, in collaboration with the Germans and

Austrians of the Einsatzkommando No . 3, the Lithu-

DEFENSIVE FIGHT

anians murdered the majority of the Jewish popula-

Lithuania did not undertake an open fight.

tion living in Lithuania; only 40,000 remained of the

initial 250,000 Lithuanian Jews. Of these, 20,000 fled

COLLABORATION AT THE ADMINISTRATIVE LEVEL

abroad . In April 1943, Lithuanians serving in auxil-

On June 24 1941, after two years of cruel Soviet occu-

iary units, partnered with Ukrainians and Latvians,

pation, Lithuanians welcomed the Wehrmacht soldiers were used in the suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto entering Lithuania as saviors . Many Lithuanians oc-Uprising .

cupied high ranking positions in the new occupiers’

administration .

PUNISHMENT FOR HELPING JEWS:

In Vilnius and in the southern part of Lithuania, which

POLITICAL COLLABORATION

was within Poland’s borders before 1939, the Germans

Lithuanian Jews collaborated with the Soviets to a imposed the death penalty for helping or hiding Jews .

large extent and the Lithuanians collaborated with There were no regulations penalizing assisting the the Germans and Austrians following Germany’s Jews in the rest of Lithuania .

occupation .

END OF THE WAR

MILITARY COLLABORATION

On July 13 1944, units of the underground Polish Home

The Germans and Austrians did not trust Lithuanian Army, together with the Soviet Red Army, liberated Catholics, just as they did not trust Poles . Himmler Vilnius from its occupation by Hitler’s army .

considered the Lithuanians to be the least trustworthy The Soviets however, quickly arrested the Poles and among the Baltic peoples and therefore, Lithuanians took them to labor camps and another Soviet occupa-did not enter the structures of the SS . Additionally, the tion began for Lithuania . Lithuania did not regain its Lithuanian authorities made it a condition that Lithu-freedom from Soviet occupation until 199129 .

29 Kierończyk Przemysław, Aneksja Litwy przez ZSRR w roku 1940 jako element współczesnej dyskusji politycznej i prawnej, „Studia Iuridica Toruniensia”, vol. 14, 2014; Ochmański Jerzy, Historia Litwy, Ossolineum, Wrocław 1990; Chris Bishop, Zagraniczne formacje SS 1940-1945, Warszawa 2005, s . 109-113 .

55

LUXEMBOURG

Support for Hitler:

Ca. 12,035 volunteers

Luxembourg

56

ish Nuremberg laws) and also censored the press .

COUNTRY OCCUPIED FROM

Severe punishments were imposed by the Special

Hitler’s troops invaded the Duchy of Luxembourg on Tribunal and terror intensified in the country. It even the night of May 9-10 1940, and within a few hours took

became a crime to use the French language . All of

it almost entirely .

this sparked the rise of a resistance movement . On

August 14 1940, the Duchy of Luxemburg was incor-

porated into the Third Reich .

MILITARY COLLABORATION

In the initial phase of the war, of the total popula-

tion of 290,000 inhabitants in the Duchy of Luxem-

burg, 2,000 people volunteered to serve in the ranks

of the Third Reich army . In 1942, the Germans and the

Austrians announced compulsory conscription . The

Luxembourgers responded with a wave of strikes .

Occupying forces shot several dozen of the strik-

ers and many were sent to the concentration camps .

Threatened with conscription to the German-Austri-

an army, some citizens chose to flee and if they man-

aged to reach Great Britain, joined the Luxembourg

armed detachment . During the war, approximately

five thousand seven hundred Luxembourg citizens

Heinrich Himmler in Luxembourg, 1940

died fighting, almost 3,000 of whom served in Hitler’s

army . Volunteers and conscripts from Luxembourg,

totaling 12,035 soldiers, served in various units of Hit-

DEFENSIVE FIGHT

ler’s forces: the Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine and Waffen-

SS . However, the Germans do not mention this in

The Duchy of Luxemburg did not fight the invaders.

their documents, as they considered the Luxembourg-

ers to be Germans .

CAPITULATION

Representatives of the Duchy of Luxembourg signed THE ATTITUDE TOWARDS

the armistice on May 10 1940; the princely family and THE EXTERMINATION OF JEWS

the government took refuge in Spain and subsequently During the German occupation, the Grand Duchy of in Portugal and Canada . From Canada they started Luxembourg was actively involved in the persecution cooperating with Great Britain .

of Jews . The Luxembourg authorities, as well as offi-

cials, teachers and the local administration, were often

COLLABORATION

involved in the persecution of Jews; 1,300 Jews were

The only remaining governing body in the Principality

sent from Luxembourg to German-Austrian extermi-

of Luxembourg was the parliament, which set up a nation camps30 .

government commission during the occupation, pre-

serving pre-war administrative structures .

PUNISHMENT FOR HELPING JEWS

Some politicians, encouraged by what was initially There were no regulations penalizing the helping of mild treatment by the occupants, wanted to com-Jews .

promise, this is because while the German-Austrian

governments were still strict and imposed requisi-

LIBERATION

tions there were however no mass arrests and shoot-

Luxemburg was liberated by the Americans on Sep-

ings . A collaborative party, the People’s German tember 20, 1944 . Together with the Americans, the Movement was even formed . Gradually however, princely family and the government returned to sympathy for this solution decreased as the Germans Luxemburg .

and Austrians began intensive Germanization of The armed forces of Luxemburg were rapidly orga-the Duchy, dissolving political parties and associa-

nized and fought with the Germans at the end of 1944

tions, introducing Nazi law (including the anti-Jew-

leading into 1945, in the Battle of the Bulge .

30 Vincento Artuso, La collaboration au Luxembourg Durant la Seconde Guerre mondiale 1940-1945, Luxembourg 2013 .

57

LATVIA

Support for Hitler:

Ca. 80,000 volunteers

Latvia

58

menced military operations in the Baltic countries and

SOVIET OCCUPATION

eastern Poland . Following the invasion of Latvia, they

In accordance with the provisions of the secret proto-

began the mass executions of the Jewish population .

col concluded on August 23 1939, between Hitler and In the summer of 1941, assistance was offered by Lat-Stalin known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Latvia vians from the nationalist formations (Aizsargi and found itself in the zone of Soviet influence. On June Peronkrust) together with Latvian soldiers and police, 16 1940, the Soviets used an army of 160,000 soldiers with the full consent of the occupiers and formed vol-against the three Baltic countries: Estonia, Latvia and unteer “self-defense squadrons”. The Latvians from Lithuania . On August 5 1940, the Soviets incorporated these formations served the Germans and Austrians Latvia within the borders of the Soviet Union as the by carrying out searches, arrests, manhunts and mass Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic . The political and shootings of Jews and communists . In 1941 alone, tens intellectual elite of Latvia and the Latvian peasants of thousands of people died at their hands . In the fall who resisted the Soviets were arrested by the Soviets, of 1941, the Germans and the Austrians reorganized murdered or deported deep into Russia to Soviet labor the Latvian “self-defense squadrons” into regular po-camps from which, few returned alive .

lice battalions and by the end of the war, 40 such bat-

talions were established, ranging from 200 to 600 men .

GERMAN-AUSTRIAN OCCUPATION

In 1942, the volunteer Latvian SS legions were formed .

From 10 July 1941 .

A year later, compulsory conscription of Latvians to

the army and as workers into important branches of

DEFENSIVE FIGHT

the military industry was introduced . Latvians who

The Latvians did not put up any armed resistance to refused were sent to the Salapils concentration camp .

Hitler . When the troops of the Third Reich entered Lat-

During World War II, 150,000 Latvians fought on the

via in June 1941, Latvians, forcibly conscripted into the side of the Third Reich – voluntarily or under duress .

Red Army organized a revolt and surrendered to the The Latvians also joined the SS legions and fought new occupiers .

in the following formations: 8th SS Cavalry Division

Florian Geyer; 15th SS Grenadier Division (Latvian No .

CAPITULATION

1); 19th SS Grenadier Division (Latvian No . 2); 32nd SS

10 July, 1940

Volunteer Grenadier Division31 .

COLLABORATION AT THE ADMINISTRATIE LEVEL

THE ATTIUDE TOWARDS THE

Administration in Latvia during the Soviet occupation EXTERMINATION O JEWS

was carried out by the Soviets; during the occupation Latvians actively participated in the extermination of of the Third Reich, by the Germans and the Austrians .

Latvian Jews and in 1943 they took an active part in the

suppression of the uprising in the Warsaw ghetto .

POLITICAL COLLABORATION

Before the war, Latvia had a few nationalist parties, PUNISHMENT FOR HELPING JEWS

with a total of about 5,000 members that included the There was no stated punishment for helping Jews Peasants’ Army of Unity (Aizsargi) and Thunderous Cross (Peronkrust) . Both parties actively promoted the idea END OF THE WAR

of persecution of non-Latvians, especially Jews . In July The Red Army defeated the Germans in Latvia on Oc-1941 these organizations subordinated themselves to tober 13, 1944 . The Soviet occupation then began again the German-Austrian occupying forces .

for the Latvians . Latvia regained its freedom from So-

viet occupation in 1991 .

MILITARY COLLAORATION

After the Third Reich’s invasion of the USSR in June

1941, the German-Austrian formations known as

Einsatzgruppen under the command of the SS, com-

31 Chris Bishop, Zagraniczne formacje SS 1940-1945, Warszawa 2005, s . 85-89 .

59

NORWAY

Support for Hitler:

Ca. 8,000 volunteers

Norway

60

COUNTRY OCCUPIED FROM

9 April 1940 .

DEFENSIVE FIGHT

The Norwegian army numbered 50,000 soldiers . By

April 10 1940, the Germans and Austrians had captured

7 cities, including the capital . King Haakon refused to

surrender his arms, resulting in the Battle of Midtsko-

gen . The Royal Guard prevented the Wehrmacht from

capturing the royal family or the members of Parlia-

ment and secured the evacuation of the royal family

and the state treasury. While fighting in the south of

the country was slowly ending, the north was boiling

Norwegian SS-man

over . At the end of May 1940, British and French troops

accompanied by the Polish Independent Podhale Rifle gians from the SS fought in 1944 against Poles in the Brigade came to the aid of Norway . The Battles of Nar-Warsaw Uprising32 .

vik were Norway’s first tactical victory over the Third Additionally, 1,500 Norwegians served in the land Reich. The fighting ceased at the beginning of June and forces of the Third Reich . In the Wehrmacht, along on June 7 1940, the King and Parliament left the country with Norwegian airmen and sailors, the Norwegian to represent Norway in exile from Great Britain .

Wachdienst Norwegen, a kind of territorial defense,

and 350 Norwegian nurses also fought for Hitler .

CAPITULATION

Norway capitulated on June 10 1940, on the day of the THE ATTITUDE TOWARDS

surrender of the port of Narvik . However, many Nor-

THE EXTERMINATION OF JEWS

wegian troops continued fighting until 1945.

According to official data, about 2,100 Jews were living

in Norway at the time of the deportation decision . The

COLLABORATION AT THE ADMINISTRATIVE LEVEL

arrests were carried out by the Germans, Austrians and

The Germans and Austrians introduced their own ad-

Norwegians . They managed to catch about 750 Jews .

ministration in Norway .

Those not captured managed to flee to Sweden. Con-

scious voluntary participation in the extermination of

POLITICAL COLLABORATION:

the Jews and Quisling’s collaborationist government are

After the capitulation, Vikund Quisling, who was a the greatest flaws in Norwegian history during the Ger-leader of the pro-fascist group Nasjonal Samling (NS man occupation – Norway behaved like France Vichy .

– National Unity Party) from 1933, proclaimed himself Norway produced its own anti-Jewish legislation and Prime Minister of Norway . Quisling however, was not used its own human and material resources to dis-supported by the Norwegians and the occupiers intro-

criminate against Jews and seize their property . Such

duced their own management .

actions were carried out even before the Germans and

Austrians demanded it, as noted by Paul Levine, a his-

MILITARY COLLABORATION

tory professor at Uppsala University in Sweden . – Nor-

Even before the complete capture of Norway, the Third wegians carriexd out arrests, drove deportation trucks Reich announced the recruitment of volunteers to the etc . and all this happened on Norwegian soil – added German-Austrian army . Throughout the war, 6,000 Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg33 .

Norwegians served in the ranks of the Waffen-SS dis-

persed into the following units: SS-Standarte Nord-

PUNISHMENT FOR HELPING JEWS

land, later incorporated into the SS Viking Division; There was no penalty in Norway . A dozen or so NorThe Norwegen Viken Legion (SS uniforms, a lion in wegians, members of the resistance, were killed for place of the SS runes, a stripe with the Norwegian flag helping Jews .

on the sleeve); German SS Norge; the SS guard battal-

ion “Norway”, that is, the SS-Wachbataillon Norwegen THE END OF THE WAR

that served as guards in concentration camps . Norwe-

8 May 1945 .

32 Michał Korbiniak, Norwegowie też pacyfikowali Warszawę, w: „Bibuła”, Oslo, 18 sierpnia 2009.

33 https://tvn24 .pl/swiat/norwegia-po-raz-pierwszy-przeprasza-za-holokaust-ra198689-3489053 .

61

RUSSIANS

AND NATIONS

OF THE USSR

Support for Hitler:

Ca. 800,000 volunteers

Soviet Union

62

In August 1939, Stalin signed trade agreements with Hit-

teers fought against the Soviets, hoping to regain the

ler that allowed the exchange of military technology and freedom of their nations . They wore the uniforms of equipment to the Soviets to provide the Germans and the Third Reich, guarded communication lines, fought Austrians with a Soviet raw materials and food . In the partisans, but sometimes also defended German po-period September 1939 – June 1941, Stalin provided Hitler sition on the front lines . Ostttruppen were organized with: 1 .6 million tons of grain; 900,000 tons of kerosene; according to ethnicity . Among the Ostttruppen units, 200,000 tons of cotton; 140,000 tons of manganese; 200,000 two categories were distinguished: Ost-Bataillonen, in tons of phosphates; 20,000 tons of chrome ore; 18,000 tons which Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians served, of rubber; 100,000 tons of soybeans; 500,000 tons of iron and Turk-Bataillonen, in which representatives from ore; 300,000 tons of scrap and iron crude; 2,000 tons of the Asiatic republics served, including Kalmyk’s and platinum . Trade between Stalin and Hitler was so great Turkmen .

that in October 1940, it reached 80% of the total imports RONA – The Russian National Liberation Army (Russ-into Germany and Austria . By June 1941, it had not fallen kaya Osvoboditielnaya Narodnaya Army) . Founded by below 50% . However, the transport of Soviet food and Bronisław Kamiński near Bryansk, it was transformed raw materials ceased with Hitler’s attack on the Soviet into the 29th Waffen-SS Grenadier Division (1st Rus-Union; the last trains carrying Soviet goods crossed the sian). In August 1944, Kamiński’s RONA participated border a few days before the attack by the Third Reich . in the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising, commit-The rapid conquest of Europe by Hitler’s troops in 1939-

ting particularly brutal crimes against Polish insur-

1941, would not have been possible without the food and gents and the civilian population of Warsaw . Kamińs-raw material support of the Soviet Union34 .

ki’s fate is not fully understood . Some sources say that

he died in an ambush organized by Polish partisans;

COUNTRY OCCUPIED FROM

others state that his crimes in Warsaw disturbed even

22 June 1941 .

the Germans and Austrians and he was shot by them .

SS Rodionowa (BSRN – Bojewoj Soyuz Ruskogo Naro-

DEFENSIVE FIGHT

da), the formation was established in April 1941, in

The Soviet Union fought from June 1941 to May 8, 1945 .

Suwałki, Poland and was headed by the chief of staff

of the Soviet 227 division pseud. “Rodionov”; it was a

CAPITULATION

unit of about 500 soldiers that become part of the SS . In

The Soviet Union did not sign the surrender .

December 1942, a second Russian unit was formed un-

Collaboration at the administrative level

der the command of NKVD Major E. Błażewicz. Both

The Third Reich introduced its own administration in formations were combined into the Russian SS regi-the occupied territories of the Soviet republics .

ment under the command of “Rodionov”. On August

16 1943, the regiment’s soldiers destroyed the German

POLITICAL COLLABORATION

officers’ quarters and joined the Soviet partisans.

Due to the terrible living conditions in the Soviet States The Russian Nationalist National Army (RNNA Rus-under Stalin, the Soviet peoples surrendered en masse kaja Nacjonalnaja Narodnaja Army) was formed in to the Germans and Austrians; 3 million people there-1941, from Soviet prisoners of war and deserters . In

fore, found themselves in German-Austrian captivity .

1942, it comprised 7,000 soldiers dressed in Soviet uni-

forms with tsarist insignia, believing themselves to be

MILITARY COLLABORATION

the nucleus of the Russian liberation army . The Ger-

The Third Reich made the decision to utilize the Soviet mans and Austrians dismembered the formation and prisoners of war in their army . The Russians and rep-dressed it in their own uniforms . Many Russians then

resentatives from all the nations of the USSR, estimat-

deserted and the unit was dissolved .

ed at 800,000 to one million soldiers, fought alongside The Germans and Austrians formed numerous eastern Hitler in the following formations:

legions (Ost-Legionen) from the Soviet prisoners of

Hiwis units (volunteer helpers) serving as orderlies, war . In May 1943, there were 10 regiments, 170 bat-workers and drivers from the fall of 1941 .

talions, 221 companies and 11 independent platoons .

Szumas self-defense units, from the turn of 1941/42; These formations were created according to national they were eventually reorganized into regular police identity: the Armenian Legion (Armenische Legion), forces . They fought at the front and collaborated in the Azerbaijani Legion (Aserbeidschanische Legion), mass executions .

the Georgian Legion (Georgische Legion), the North

The Osttruppen Volunteer Units were formed by na-

Caucasian Legion (Nordkaukaschische Legion), the

tions that lived in Russian and Soviet captivity . Volun-

Turkmen-Kalkaschische Legion ), Turkmen Legion

34 Marcin Dobrowolski, Jak ZSRR wykarmił III Rzeszę, w: „Puls Biznesu”, Warszawa 19 sierpnia 2016.

63

(Turkestanische Legion), Legion of Volga Tatars (Vol-

formations were even – despite their opposition – sent

gatatarische Legion) . In August 1944, the Turkmen to France and Yugoslavia .

Legion transformed into the Mussulmanischen SS-Di-

In July 1942, Soviet general Andrei Vlasov was captured

vision Neu-Turkistan, and was responsible for murder-

by the German-Austrian army . He argued that Germa-

ing Poles, both soldiers and civilians in Warsaw (Wola ny should create a Russian interim government and a district) during the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 . It was Russian army under his command . In September 1942, common practice to slit throats with daggers and burn he wrote an appeal to Soviet soldiers and the Russian in-people alive .

telligentsia and called for the overthrow of Stalin, whom

he blamed for all the catastrophes of Russia and the Rus-

sians and the Russian Liberation Army was established .

The Russian National Committee was established in

December in Smolensk . The vision of a free Russia was

however, opposed by Hitler, who had no intention of

supporting the idea of a Bolshevik-free Russia – the East

was to be a space for the Germans . The Russian National

Committee and General Vlasov therefore, never had

the opportunity to implement the idea of a free Russia .

The Russian Liberation Army existed only on paper and

its units were scattered all over Europe under German

and Austrian command . At the end of the war, Vlasov

created the Committee for the Liberation of the Russian

People (Komitet Oswobożdienia Narodow Rasiji) with

troops under his command. During the fighting with

Muslim soldiers in the Dirlewanger formation. Soldiers

the Soviets on May 2 1945, Vlasov found himself in

of the 13th Mountain Division of the SS “Handschar”

Prague . At the request of the Czechs, he went to their

(Foto. Propagandakompanien der Wehrmacht –

side and saved the city from murder and destruction . In

Waffen-SS (Bild 101 III)/ Creative Commons)

the last days of the war, many of Vlasov soldiers died at

the hands of the Soviets, others were captured by the So-

The Azerbaijani Field Battalion Dönmec served under viets . Those who surrendered to the British and Ameri-the orders of General Oskar Dirlewanger . The Aze-

cans were handed over by the Americans to the Soviets .

ri’s also took part in the cruel pacification of War-

About 17,000 soldiers were deported to Russia . Most of

saw’s Wola district in the first days of August 1944, them were executed . The rest of the prisoners were sen-committing genocide against the civilian population . tenced for life in Soviet labor camps . On August 2 1946, Working with German criminals as well as Russians, General Andrei Vlasov and his officers were murdered Belarusians and Ukrainians, they murdered – often by the Soviets; who hung them on butcher’s hooks stuck burning alive or slitting their throats with daggers – in the back of their heads .

tens of thousands of defenseless people . Among the 29th SS Grenadier Division (Russian No . 1); arose from Dirlewanger fighters there were also two battalions Russian volunteers serving in the SS RONA Assault Bri-of the Eastern Muslim Regiment of the SS, in total 800 gade, whose commander was Bronisław Kamiński. The soldiers – Turkmen, Azerbaijani, Kyrgyz, Tajiks, Tatars RONA brigade was one of the first Russian volunteer and Uzbeks . They were commanded by German and formations to fight in the German-Austrian ranks. It was Austrian officers headed by SS Major Franz Lieber-infamous for being one of the cruelest units of the SS .

mann . In the Eastern Legions (Ostlegionen), formed The 30th SS Grenadier Division (Russian No . 2), was by the Germans and Austrians from former Soviet cit-created in August 1944, in occupied Poland from Rus-

izens, at least 2/3 of the 170,000 soldier, were Muslim . sian volunteer units withdrawn from the front . The Among these were Kyrgyz, Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Tajiks, commanding staff were Germans, most of the sol-Turkmen, Volga Tatars and Chechens . There were 78 diers were Russians . They also fought with the French infantry battalions, including 54 purely Islamic, as resistance .

well as the auxiliary troops .

The Cossacks (Don, Kuban, Orenburg, Ural and Astra-

THE ATTITUDE TOWARDS

khan), persecuted since the Russian Revolution by the THE EXTERMINATION OF JEWS

Soviet authorities, took up the fight against the com-

After the Soviet invasion of Poland on September 17

munist regime alongside the Third Reich . At the front, 1939, about 1 .2 million Polish Jews found themselves 250,000 Cossack soldiers fought against the Soviet under Soviet occupation . In addition, at the turn of partisans, protecting the (German) base . Some Cossack 1939/40, about 300,000 Polish Jews escaped from the 64

German occupied Polish area to the Polish lands occu-

pied by the Soviets . In 1940/41, the Soviets sent about

two-thirds of them back to the German occupied Po-

land or to Soviet labor camps . From February 1940

to June 1941, the Soviets deported from the occupied

Polish eastern territories, about 1,000,000 Polish cit-

izens to Siberia and Kazakhstan; 30% of them were

Polish Jews (mainly merchants, industrialists and the

intelligentsia) . [Translator’s comment: This was a part of the Soviets’ plan to annihilate Polish citizens particularly those from the intelligentsia. ] Some of the Poles and Polish Jews who were deported from Poland were murdered

by the Soviets, the rest were imprisoned, sent to labor

camps or sent to slave labor in the kolkhozes and sovk-

hozes of Siberia and Kazakhstan . A typical example of

Israeli Priminister Menachem Begin,

the fate of a Polish Jew under the Soviet occupation in

Photo from Soviet prison, 1940.

1939-41, was the experience of Israel Menachem Begin,

the Prime Minister of Israel from 1977-83 . Menachem and political prisoners (Polish Jews were sent to labor Begin was born in Poland, in Brest-Litovsk . He grad-camps and prisons for various reasons including for

uated from the University of Warsaw and became the refusing to give up their Polish citizenship for Soviet leader of the Jewish national radical movement Beitar . citizenship) . There were also people who knowing the After the Soviet invasion of Poland, he was arrested by Soviet reality, believed that they had a better chance the Soviets, imprisoned and sentenced to eight years in of survival there than under the German-Austrian a labor camp . Released under the Sikorski-Majski pact occupation . The majority however, were Jewish com-signed in July 1941, between Poland and the Soviets, munists, Polish citizens, who fled to the USSR in 1939

he joined about 4,000 other Jewish prisoners and labor as it was the realization of their dreams . They returned camps survivors in the newly forming Polish Army to Poland in 1945, together with the Red Army and under the command of General Anders and travelled entered the structures of the Bolshevik governance with them to Palestine . In Palestine, acting against installed in Poland .

the orders of the English but with the tacit consent of In June 1941, the Germans and Austrians seized the the Polish general Anders, Begin and several hundred lands of eastern Poland, which had been under Soviet other Jewish soldiers deserted and formed the founda-occupation for the previous two years and immedi-

tions of the state of Israel . [Translator’s comment: General ately started implementing the Endlösung plan – the Władysław Anders, also imprisoned by the Soviets after the final solution, a German plan for the genocide of Jews invasion of Poland, and also released under the Sikorski-Ma-during the 2nd World War . Wehrmacht and Einsatz-

jski pact signed between USSR and Polish Government in gruppen troops began mass executions of Jews . In the Exile when the Soviets, following Hitler’s invasion of Russia, eastern part of Poland, the Germans and Austrians changed sides and became a part of the allied forces, was (with the active participation of Ukrainians) mur-charged with the task of forming a Polish Army that was to dered around 500,000 Jews; the survivors were im-consist of the soldiers and civilians now being released from prisoned in ghettos and later murdered in extermina-Soviet labour camps. They were to become an army to fight tion camps . The difference between the extermination against the Germans with the Red Army. Continual friction of the Jews by the Germans and the murders commit-with the Soviets, who never intended to fully cooperate with ted in the Soviet Union was that in the Soviet Union, the independent Polish Government in Exile, led to the An-people – Jews, Poles, Estonians and others – died not

ders decision to evacuate the forming army from the Soviet because of racism, but because of a sick communist Russia – into Iran, Iraq and finally into Palestine, where they ideology that hated people, all people . That is why all joined the allied forces. In Palestine, Anders gave orders not starved, toiled and died equally . The racist ideology to pursue the Polish soldiers of Jewish background who were of fascist Germany and Austria was directed mainly deserting his army to join the Jews fighting for the inde-against Jews .

pendent Jewish state. Anders went on to become one of the most important leaders of allied forces, whose Polish soldiers PENALTY FOR HELPING JEWS

fought and liberated Italy, and became famous for their heroic There was no penalty for helping Jews .

and successful Battle of Monte Casino].

In 1945, about 200,000 Polish Jews returned to Poland END OF THE WAR

from the Soviet Union . Among them were labor camp 9 May 1945 .

65

SERBIA

Support for Hitler:

Ca. 9,000 volunteers

Slovenia

Croatia

Bosnia

and

Herzegovina

Serbia

Yugoslavia

Monte-

negro

Macedonia

66

On December 1, 1918, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats years, it grew to 9,000 troops and was renamed the Ser-and Slovenes (SHS) was established, on the ruins of the bis Frewilligen Korps (Serbisches Frewilligen Korps) Austro-Hungarian monarchy and the European pos-Volunteer Corps; the soldiers wore the uniforms of the

sessions of the Turks . In 1929 the Kingdom’s name was pre-war Yugoslav royal army .

changed to Yugoslavia35 . When Hitler invaded Yugo-

slavia in 1941, Germany’s allied states divided the terri-

THE ATTITUDE TOWARDS

tories of Yugoslavia among themselves: Italy occupied THE EXTERMINATION OF JEWS

Slovenia; Hungary and Bulgaria took Macedonia; the About 16,000 Jews lived in the Serbian region of Yugo-area of central Serbia, northern Kosovo and the Banat slavia that was occupied by the Germans and Austri-region came under the military administration of the ans . From July 1941, as retaliation for partisan actions, Third Reich, that is, the Germans and the Austrians .

the Germans and Austrians massacred Serbians . By

November 1941, they had murdered about 5,000 Jews

COUNTRY OCCUPIED FROM

as well as tens of thousands of Serbs . In December

6 April 1941 .

1941, the Germans and Austrians deported Jewish

women and children to the Sajmište concentration

CAPITULATION

camp near Belgrade, where the victims were gassed

18 April 1941

in a special car . Until May 1942, the Germans and the

Austrians murdered 7-10,000 people in the Sajmište

DEFENSIVE FIGHT

camp . In August 1942, the Germans and Austrians

During World War II, the peoples of Yugoslavia fiercely announced that the so-called Jewish problem in Serbia fought against the German-Austrian-Italian occupiers “ceased to exist”. Apart from German occupied Poland, (the communist partisans of the Croat Josip Broz Tito) Serbia was the only country where the Third Reich did and at the same time, zealously collaborated with the not deport Jews to extermination centers but murdered occupier (Croatian Ustashe, Serb monarchists called them on the spot . The number of Jewish victims in Chetniks, Muslims) . At the same time, they carried out Serbia is estimated at around 14,800 . The actions of bloody ethnic cleansing among themselves . During the Germans and Austrians against Jews were actively World War II, Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats supported by the Serb civil administration, the police played the main role in the fighting, as well as Turkish of the Nedić government, the subordinate Serbian Na-Muslims, who settled there after centuries of Turkish tional Guard and the Serbian Volunteer Corps of the occupation of Balkans and who were living in almost fascist ZBOR party headed by Dimitrije Ljotić.

all regions of the country .

Collaboration

PUNISHMENT FOR HELPING JEWS

On September 1 1941, the Germans and the Austrians Serbia was the only country outside of Poland where established the puppet National Salvation Government the death penalty was imposed for helping Jews .

of Milan Nedic in Serbia that collaborated with the

occupiers .

THE END OF THE WAR

Outside of the circles of the pre-war fascist organi-

After the war ended on May 9 1945, Serbia was once

zation Zbor and the government of Milan Nedic, the again incorporated into Yugoslavia, which was headed Serbs did not collaborate with the Germans and Aus-by the Croatian Josip Broz Tito . Serbia lost its inde-

trians at the political level .

pendence and found itself in the communist bloc . The

In September 1941, based on the fascist organization peoples of Yugoslavia regained freedom almost half a Zbor that was under the command of Dimitrij Ljotiae, century later and created the independent states: Slo-the Serbian Volunteer Command was established to venia, Serbia and Macedonia in 1991; Montenegro in fight the communist underground. In the following 2006; and Kosovo in 2008 .

35 From April 10, 1941, Croatia declared independence and became an independent state under the protectorate of Germany and in the following days joined the Pact of Three as an ally of Hitler and declared war on the British (see the chapter on allies) .

67

UKRAINE

Support for Hitler:

220,000 volunteers

Soviet Union

68

During World War II, Ukraine did not exist as an inde-

political activists from Bandera’s OUN-R arrived in

pendent state . Eastern Ukraine formed the Ukrainian Ukraine and after agreeing with Archbishop Szeptycki Soviet Socialist Republic and was part of the USSR . [Orthodox Church], proclaimed the independence of Western Ukraine resided within the borders of Poland .

Ukraine on June 30 1941. Jarosław Stećko was tasked

After the Soviet invasion of Poland on September 17 by this group with a mission to form the Ukrainian 1939, the Soviets incorporated the eastern territories government . The Germans, who had no intention of of Poland, i .e . Western Ukraine, into the borders of the supporting Ukrainian efforts to build an independent USSR .

state, reacted quickly and in the first half of July 1941,

the newly formed government and a number of OUN

COUNTRY OCCUPIED FROM

activists were arrested and transferred to Berlin . Erich

22 June 1941 .

Koch, who took up the position of the Reich Commis-

sar for Ukraine, announced that he would rule over

DEFENSIVE FIGHT

Ukrainians with ‘the help of machorka (rolling tobac-

The Ukrainians did not conduct an independent defen-

co), vodka and a whip’ .

sive fight.

MILITARY COLLABORATION:

CAPITULATION

The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN)

Ukraine did not sign capitulation the surrender .

began to cooperate militarily with Germany in the

1930’s . In the spring of 1939, the OUN Ukrainian Le-

COLLABORATION AT THE ADMINISTRATIVE LEVEL

gion consisting of approximately 600 soldiers was

During the occupation, Ukraine was administered by formed under the command of Col . Roman Suszka .

the Soviets, Germans and the Austrians .

They were trained by the Germans and wore Ger-

man uniforms . These soldiers fought alongside the

POLITICAL COLLABORATION

Germans and Austrians in the invasion of Poland in

In the autumn of 1939, the Ukrainian left, represented September 1939 . The moment Hitler’s troops entered by the Communist Party of Western Ukraine (KPZU), Ukraine in 1941, Ukrainians participated in the Ger-the Ukrainian Union of the Socialist Peasant Union (Sel-

man-Austrian extermination actions against Poles and

Soyuz), the People’s Freedom Party and the Ukrainian Jews (including the shooting of professors at the Uni-Socialist Workers’ Union (Sel-Rob), joined activities to versity in Lviv) and provided to the German-Austrian legalize the annexation of the south-eastern parts of special groups (Einsatzgruppen) proscription letters Poland that was undertaken by the Soviet Union .

[translators’ comment – lists of people to be extermi-

The Ukrainian Military Organization and its political nated] and often relieved the Nazis in murdering the representation, the Organization of Ukrainian Nation-most valuable people, especially representatives of the

alists (OUN), was established in 1929, in order to build Polish intelligentsia . Many Ukrainian Polish citizens an independent Ukrainian state . The organization was were also members of the Ukrainian auxiliary police modeled on Italian fascism and was used to carry out established by the Germans . On the front there were terrorist actions in Poland .

two Ukrainian battalions “Rolland” and “Nachtigall”,

From the 1930’s onwards, the OUN’s hopes of gaining supporting Hitler’s army . A total of 220,000 Ukrainian independence for Ukraine were linked to Nazi Ger-volunteers served in the army of the Third Reich, in-

many . The OUN was led by Konovalec, Melnyk and cluding 13,00036 in the following SS formations: Bandera, and by the mid-1930’s, they had approximate-The SS Volunteer Division Galizien (Ukrainian No . 1),

ly thirty thousand well-trained fighters. During the commanded by General I . Freytag having a strength of period 1939-41, when all Ukrainian lands were an inte-four regiments and auxiliary units37 .

gral part of the USSR, the Ukrainians united under the The SS Galizien Rifle Division, famous for its cruelty, OUN, which had been previously divided from 1940, participated in among other acts, in the suppression of into the OUN-R (“revolutionary faction”) led by Stepan the Slovak National Uprising .

Bandera and the OUN-M, under the leadership of An-

The 8th SS Cavalry Division Florian Geyer; a multi-

drei Melnyk and were unable to achieve their objectiv-

national unit (Volksdeutsche comprising Hungarians,

ities . This unification was only possible after Ukrainians, Latvians and Lithuanians) . In 1943, this June 1941, when Hitler’s war with the Soviets broke division took part in the suppression of the Warsaw out . Following Hitler’s troops, a group of Ukrainian Ghetto Uprising .

36 Marek Chodakiewicz, Ukraińcy w brygadach międzynarodowych Hitlera, w: http://prawica .net/node/13188 .

37 W . Serczyk, Historia Ukrainy, Wrocław 1990, s. 436-439.

69

The 24th SS Mountain Division (Karstjäger) also destroyed by the Ukrainian Organization of Ukrainian known as the SS Karstjäger Battalion who fought with Nationalists (OUN) . From 1941, in line with this plan, Italian partisans from 1942 . The unit consisted mainly Ukrainians were actively involved and participated of Italian volunteers, but also included some volun-in the extermination of the Jewish population; they

teers from Ukraine .

supported the extermination actions of the Germans

and carried out independent actions against Jews and

all other nations living within their lands . In 1942,

Ukrainian nationalists using the slogan, Smert Żydam , smert Lacham, tu de bude dobre us [Death to the Jews, death to Poles – then we’ll be fine for the Ukrainians],

began ethnic cleansing in Ukraine that had been until

1939, within the borders of the Western Republic of

Poland . The wave of slaughter took tens of thousands

of human lives, mainly Poles and Jews38 . The only

exception was the Greek Catholic Archbishop of Lviv,

Andrzej Szeptycki (1865-1944), who, despite his initial

acceptance of the Third Reich’s policy, when he real-

ized that the Germans and Austrians were committing

acts of terror even greater than the Bolshevik authori-

ties, called for an agreement with the Poles and helped

the Jews . It is estimated that he saved several hundred

Jewish lives .

Ukrainian volunteers from SS-Galizien Division

PUNISHMENT FOR HELPING JEWS

In Western Ukraine, which was part of Poland be-

THE ATTITUDE TOWARDS

fore 1939, aiding and abetting Jews was punishable by

THE EXTERMINATION OF JEWS

death . In Eastern Ukraine, there is no information on

the applicable penalties .

At the leaders conference of the Third German Reich,

held on September 12 1939, in Ilnau (now Jełowa) near THE END OF THE WAR

Opole, it was agreed that Jews and Poles should be 9 May 1945 .

38 Ibidem, s. 431-459. Patrz także: Okrutna Przestroga, opr. J. Dębski i L. Popek, Lublin 1997; A. Paczkowski, Pół wieku dziejów Polski, Warszawa 1995, s . 93-96; W . Poliszczuk, Dowody zbrodni OUN-UPA, Toronto 2000; W .

Poliszczuk, Gorzka prawda. Zbrodniczość OUN-UPA, Toronto–Warszawa–Kijów 1995; E . Prus, Holocaust po bande-rowsku, Wrocław 1995; Zbrodnie nacjonalistów ukraińskich dokonane na ludności polskiej na Wołyniu 1939-1945, red . J .

Turowski, W . Siemaszko, Warszawa 1990 .

70