Un saludo.
Pongamos en antecedentes, que parece ser que hace falta a algun compañero que se entere bien que es lo que pasaba en el Este y a que iban nuestros amigos arios.
NAZI Objectives
There were three major aspects to the NAZI invasion of the Soviet Union. There were political, militry, racial, and economic goals. Hitler made it very clear that war in the East was to be like no other war fought by Germany. A Führer Degree issued in May 1941 before the invasion made German soldiers imune from prosecution for actions against civilians. The 3 million German soldiers to participate in the invasion were issued guidelines for the conduct of Barbarossa. The Wehrmacht ordered "ruthless and energetic measures against Bolshevistic agitators, guerillas, saboteurs, Jews, and total elimination of all active and passive resistance. [Nuremberg document NOKW-1692] Notice that this was guidelines issued by Wehrmacht OKW. After the war, the Wehrmacht attempted to blame the attrocities on the SS. There is ample evidence that the Wehrmacht was extensively involved in NAZI attricities. All of this had horific consequences for the Soviet people. No one know precisely how many Soviet citizes died in the War, but most extimates exceed 20 million people.
NAZI Operations
The NAZIs employed the same ruthless tactics developed in Poland, but on a far larger scale. Heydrich issued at order in the days leading up to the invasion that Jews, Asiantic "inferiors" Communist officials, and gypsies were to be killed. {Krausnick, pp. 363ff.] The most horific operations were conducted against the Jews. The Holocaust in the Soviet Union began nearly a year before the mass killings began in the NAZI death camps. The NAZIs with Barbarossa made no pretense of isolating and transporting Soviet Jews, their were military groups organized to kill Jews in large numbers where they found them--the Einsatzgruppen. German operations were not limited to Jews. Communist Party anf government officials were executed. Many villages were destroyed. Here we are not yet fully aware of what occurred. The NAZIs seized livestock and food supplies and shipped it back to Germany. We are not sure, however, who was responsible for the destruction of thousands of villages. The Soviets persued a scoarced earth policy. The Germans also destroyed many villages. Here I am not sure what the purpose was because this reduced the economic potential of the occupied areas. I think much of these destruction occurred after Stalingrad when the Wehrmacht began the long retreat west. This subject requires further investigation.
Collaboration
There was considerable collaboration with the NAZIs in the early phase of the NAZI invasion. This was especially the case in the Baltics which probably should not be treated as a true part of the Soviet Union. (The three Baltic Republics were invaded and annexed by the Soviets in 1940.) Because of the brutal Soviet occupation and deportations (1940-41) the Communists were hated by most of the population. It was also true in the Ukkraine where the Soviets created a famine to force the people to submit and at the time of the invasion were involved in a campaign to destroy Ukrakian nationalism. We do not yet have few details on the extent of local collaboration with the NAZIS, but it is subject we hope to research in greater detail. Had the NAZIs not have comined their anti-Bolshevik campaign with a racial war gainst the Slavs it seems likely tht they could have hained considerable support from the Soviet population. NAZI racial policies toward the Slavs, however, quickly turned even the Ukranians against the NAZIs. Even so the NAZIs were able to organize a anti-Soviet Russian army to fight with them
Generalplan Ost/General Plan East
The SS Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA -- Reich Security Office) was the NAZI agency which drafted Generalplan Ost (General Plan East). This was the NAZI blueprint for the most horendous crime ever envisioned in human history. The Holocaust directed at Europe's 11 million Jews was just one part of Generalplan Ost. The basic outline for Generalplan Ost was sketched out by Hitler in Mein Kampf. The invasion and occupation of Czechoslovakia gave the NAZIs the first slice of eastern territory to begin their transformation of eastern Europe (March 1939). But the NAZIs considered the Czechs to be the most advanced Slavs. Anbd they needed Czech industry for arms production. So the Czechs were left with a pupet government and Germinization was put off least it disrupt arms production. Polandd was the next slize of the East. It was auch bigger slice and the Poles were Slavs that Hitler dispised. Himmler launched into aminization process in the EWartergau, but Frank protested with Himmler began dumping Jews and Poles in the General Government. So again Germinization and whole-scale deportations had to be delayed. Himmler and NAZI Party officials argued about Eastern policy. Himmler wanted to settle Germans in the East and to carefully select the existing populations for German blood. Some NASZI Party officials wanted to pursue a less biolgically oriented policy and to accept large numbers of the existing population which was anti-Bolshevik. The dbate over Eastern policy raged in NAZI circles for 2 years. With the stunning success of Opperation Barbarossa (June 1941), Hitler finally decided. He essentially acceopted Himmler's approach and SS planners began preparing Generalplan Ost. It was developed in secret. Himmler was anxious to put it into operation. The major impediment to carrying it out was the Red Army.
Ressistance
Assessment
We also have to assess how effective the German policies were. We know that politically they were a dissaster. They turned the Ukranians and others from a people willing to make common cause with the Germans to fight Stalinist totalitarianism to a hostile population. The Germans had occupied enough of the Sovie Union in 1941 that they could have recruited large formtions that could have addressed the in balance in population between Germany and the Soviet Union. Less clear is the economic impact. A major goal of the German invasion was to exploit the ecionomic resources of the Soviet Union. Here the orimary interest was the agruicukltural and raw materials. We do not yet know enough about the German occupation to assess how effective the occupation polices were. We do know that they were far below Hitler's expectations. Rather than obtaing huge quanyities of food, the food seized inthe East was barely sufficient to feed the invading Wehrmacht. And the Germans were unable to make much progress of brimning mines and other facilities on line before the Red Army began their drive East. The Germans actually got more raw materials from the Soviet Union before Barbarossa than afterwards.
Sources
Dallin, Alexander. German Rule in Russia 1941-1945: A study in Occupation Policies (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1957), 677p. The documents and informatin collected by Professor Dallin make this one of the most important studies of German occupation policies in the East.
Hitler. Adolf. Mein Kampf.
International Miliatry Tribunal (IMT). XXXVII, pp. 86 ff (221-L).
Krausnick. "Judenverfolgung" in Anatomie des SS-Staates.
Nuremberg document NOKW-1692
Padfield, Peter. Himmler: Reichsführer-SS (Henry Holt: New York, 1991), 656p.
Bueno, llevo dias ojeando el foro por todos lados. Hay inervenciones que son para enmarcarlas haciendo del foro una herramienta de información muy valiosa por su calidad didactica, pero hay otras intervenciones...
Hombre, faltaría más que alguien tuviese el valor de defender a las SS, elementos de elite del Fürer, los soldados mas adoctrinados, más fanaticos y por que no decirlo como ya se ha dicho, autenticos psicopatas , por ende , los mejores hijos arios de la Germania de Hitler.
El simple hecho de mencionar " es que todos cometieron crimenes " y dar algun tipo de honorabilidad probablemente a la organización militar, más criminal de la historia belica de la humanidad, es realmente creerse muchos mitos y sobre todo, HACER por creerselos.
Me hace muchisima gracia, para variar que cuando se habla de andanzas de estos se menciona sus atrocidades en el Oeste de Europa. Sinceramente, no lo entiendo. Para ver la actividad psicopata de estos elementos, pues hay que irse a donde hay que irse, al frente del Este y explicarse
como es posible que 1/4 de la población de Polonia, en 5 años de ocupación( que NO DE GUERRA), fue exterminada.
Como Bielorusia, perdió el mismo porcentaje de población, como miles de ciudades, cientos de pueblos y aldeas desaparecieron junto a su población dentro. No entiendo como cuentas tan obvias y datos como los casi
20 millones de civiles masacrados durante la guerra ( sin contar los 3 millones de prisioneros de guerra asesinados en el mayor genocidio de prisioneros de la historia ), no hacen una estimación sobre lo que paso en el frente del este con estos elfos arios, que si por algo hicieron miticas sus hazañas fue por probablemente la mayor bestialidad jamás vista, que ni siquiera las culturas más "salvajes" y no arias, se habrían permitido el simple hecho de pensar algo así. El ejemplo de como los que más predicaban la civilización, y su superioridad evolutiva ante el salvajismo de otros pueblos, superaron con creces y con sobresaliente a cualquier indio canibal del Amazonas.
"band of criminals" se le queda corto al titulo del hilo.
Ahora veremos como se usa la proapaganda anticomunista más comercializada, para intentar contraargumentar.
Esperemos pues.
Otras perlas.
Decir que en la URSS existia una especie de adoctrinamiento RACIAL, POLITICO, ASESINO Y GENOCIDA intentando compararlo al NAZI, no se si es simple ignorancia sobre el tema, o esta permitido ese tipo de afirmaciones que no infringen actividad troll mientras que no sean rebatidas. Solo queda decir, ante una opinión semejante, que , o no se sabe lo que era el NAZIsmo o no se sabe lo que eran los bolcheviques. En serio, que es grave esa falta de información. Muy muy grave, por no decir, ya , indecente intelectualmente.
Después en otros hilos como el de Gulag, y esto, creo que queda más que claro, que pese a tener acceso a inforamción en internet, los mitos de la Guerra Fria, siguen bien presentes. Ya no eso, si no encima se pretende comparar a lo que habia en la URSS con el adoctrinamiento supremacista, racista , y imperialista del pueblo alemán.
Igual como los subhumanos asiaticos mongoles no son ciertamente humanos, pues como que importa menos, claro, es que Stalin mato a 110 millones de personas de su propio pueblo!!!
Y
si,
las SS eran una organización criminal, como lo fue la Wehermatch, bajo un estado y una ideologia CRIMINAL, liderada por psicopatas, al servicio de los grandes industriales internacionales y sobre todo, alemanes que acabaron con los bolsillos llenos a costa de la sangre de millones de personas. Que me explique alguien, solo una organización semejante a lo largo de miles de años de la historia de todas las culturas modernas y primitivas, una aberración semejante, que si en algo destaca a parte de su "especial" visión y actuaciones, es que proviene supuestamente de la parte del mundo más civilizado y culturalmente desarrollado.
Himmler, ese gran cerebro, estaba al cargo de las politicas raciales de Hitler en el Este, y para ello, operaba libremente a las SS que tenian misión de acondicionar los territorios conquistados para la "germanización" de los colonos alemanes.
De hecho, las matanzas sistematicas perpetradas contra judios eran solo el inicio de un genocidio mucho mayor, que en caso de que los Sovieticos hubiesen perdido la Guerra, habría supuesto la esclavización y el exerminio de los pueblos eslavos del Este dejando empequeñecido, el holocausto judio a su lado.
¿ Es una broma ese argumento de " todos cometen crimenes " ? ¿ En una broma el intentar comparar a los NAZIs con los aliados ?
Espero poder ampliar la información, sobre a que se dedicaban las criminales SS y el ejercito NAZi en territorio ocupado. Solo hay que ver el genocidio contra los eslavos, perpetrado en Polonia y en la URSS. Las cifras de las muertes civiles dan un margen claro de lo que pasaba en ese infierno por iniciativa de los educados y caballerescos elfos arios.
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Hitler's plans for the occupied East are difficult to describe because the Red Army liberated the East before any coherent German plan coud be agreed on and implemented. The German occupation of Poland provides the best example of just what Hitler had in mind. Major figures and institutions in the NAZi regime had their own often very different ideas about the appropriate Ostpolitik. Goebbels, Göring, Himmler, Heydrich, Ribbentrop, Rosenberg as well as the Wehrmacht all had ideas about the appropriate course in the East. And Hitler's leadership style generate such competition. There were advocates of a moderate approach in the East. One scholar sets the general prameters of NAZI policy. He quotes a German interpreter who thought that the Russians should be treated properly so that"many a poor devil will become a hard-working and kindly helper". [Dallin, p. 72.] The other extreme was expressed by the Kreisleiter who proclaimed thsat any Russian in his area who "show signs of intelligence will be shot". [Dallin, p. 149.] Many historians believe that a moderate occupation policy might have attracted considerable support to help fight the Bolshevicks, especially in the Ukraoine. The moderate policies, however, were never attemted. From the onset the German policy was extrondinaraliy brutal and explotative. This probably results from both the the growing influence of the SS and a reflection of what Hitler himself desired. The most severe policies were routinely supported by Hitler whose bliefs about the East are clearly expained in Mein Kampf. Hitler saw the vast sweep of the Eastern steep as an area to be cleared of most of its Slavic population which he saw as threatening Aryan people. The East would become a vast NAZI empire to be settled and reshaped by German colonists commanding a much reduced class of uneducated, mannual workers. And he saw no need to temporaize in 1941 or even 1942 by appealing to the Ukranians and others to make a joint effort against the Bolsheviks.
Hitler and the NAZIs
Occupied Poland
Hitler's plans for the occupied East are difficult to describe because the Red Army liberated the East before any coherent German plan coud be agreed on and implemented. The German occupation of Poland provides the best example of just what Hitler had in mind. The occupation of Poland was one of the most brutal in European history. Occupation aithorities, especially the SS, were under no legal or moral constraints as regards their conduct and the execultion of occupation policies. Poles had no recourse. The NAZI set out to eliminate the Polish intelgencia and reduce the rest of the country to a vast population of slave labor. It is estimated that a quarter of the population of Poland perished during the occupation. Hitler did not view Poland as a legitimate nation. He saw it as a creation of the hated Versailles Treaty ending World War I. Poland had split Germany through the Polish Corridor. He was determined that Poland would never again threaten Germany or limit Germany's drive for lebensraum. The NAZI plan was simple. First they plan to eliminate the Polish inteligencia. Second they would expel Poles and colonize the former Polish areas with Germans. The was given orders to kill Polish prominent civilians and indiviaduals such as government officials, the nobility, teachers, and priests throughout Poland, any would which could promote Polish nationalism or offer leadership. Today their are countless memorial stones and plaques througout Poland where these executions took place. And it was not just men, women and children were also killed. The invasion of Poland brough a much larger area an numbers of foreigners under German control (September 1939). Himmler had asigned the Main Office for the Consolidation of German Nationhood (SS-RKF) the task of preparing a plan for Germanizing Poland. The Chief of SS-RKF Department II (Planning) SS-Oberführer Professor Dr. Konrad Meyer was responsible for preparing the plans. An important part of the program for the program was to reclaim as much suitable generic material as possible which meant kidnapping Polish children and raising them as Germans.
Differences of Opinion
Major figures and institutions in the NAZi regime had their own often very different ideas about the appropriate Ostpolitik. Goebbels, Göring, Himmler, Heydrich, Ribbentrop, Rosenberg as well as the Wehrmacht all had ideas about the appropriate course in the East. And Hitler's leadership style generate such competition. There were advocates of a moderate approach in the East. One scholar sets the general prameters of NAZI policy. He quotes a German interpreter who thought that the Russians should be treated properly so that"many a poor devil will become a hard-working and kindly helper". [Dallin, p. 72.] The other extreme was expressed by the Kreisleiter who proclaimed thsat any Russian in his area who "show signs of intelligence will be shot". [Dallin, p. 149.]
Benefits of a Moderate Occupation Policy
Many historians believe that a moderate occupation policy might have attracted considerable support to help fight the Bolsheviks, especially in the Ukraine. There were large numbers of individuals in the Soviet Union with anti-Soviet attitudes. It is imposible to determine the numbers with any certainty, but the Germans were welcomed as liberators in the western Ukrain and the Baltics. And there were other areas as well, such as the Muslim areas of the Caucauses and Central Area that had large numbers of disaffected people.
Actual Policies in the Soviet Union
The moderate policies, however, were never attemted. From the onset the German policy was extrondinaraliy brutal and explotative. The NAZIs invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. Radidly the Baltic Republics (occupied by the Soviets in 1940) and large areas came under NAZI control. The NAZIs employed the same ruthless tactics developed in Poland, but on a far larger scale. Heydrich in 1941 ordered the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) (SS Security Service) in 1941 to begin the necessary planning for the Germinization of occupied territories in the Soviet Union. The Reichs-Sicherheitsdienst (RSHA) (Reich Security Head Office). The initial report submitted in November 1941 by the RDHA estimated that 31 million peole should be "evacuated". The SS-RKF was ordered to extend its planning for the Germinization to the occupied area of the Soviet Union. [Padfield, p. 363.] There were differences of opinion within the SS and between the SS and Alfred Rosenberg's Ostministerium (Ministry for the Occupied East) over how to claim the East. There was agreement that large numers of Slavs had to be removed to Siberia. There were differences as to the extent to which forcible evictions should take place. Given the scale of movement involved, such discussions probably were not relistic. [Padfield, p. 363.] The NAZIs looked on the people of the Soviet Union in starkly racial terms. They were willing to work with the native Baltic population and some in the Baltics were willing to work with the NAZIs. The NAZIs were determined that the Slav population in Russia proper and the Ukraine would have to be substantially reduced. Some Slavs would be kept, at least for a while to serve as a slave population to do mannual labor, at least until the region could be Germanized.
Hitler's Influence
This probably results from both the the growing influence of the SS and a reflection of what Hitler himself desired. The most severe policies were routinely supported by Hitler whose bliefs about the East are clearly expained in Mein Kampf.
Hitler's Vision
Hitler saw Germany as being hemmed in by enemies and deprived of needed resources. He was convinced that Germany needed to acquire resources to compete with the great powers and those resources existed in the East in lands occupied by Slavic peoples. Thus he grafted the modern great power struggle on to the Medieval struggle between Germans and Slavs. Hitler saw the vast sweep of the Eastern steep as an area to be cleared of most of its Slavic population which he saw as threatening Aryan people. The East would become a vast NAZI empire to be settled and reshaped by German colonists commanding a much reduced class of uneducated, mannual workers. And he saw no need to temporaize in 1941 or even 1942 by appealing to the Ukranians and others to make a joint effort against the Bolsheviks.
Race
Many historians writing about World War II treat the NAZI Holocaust as a aboration and side show. This was surely the case for the Allies. Their aim was to defeat the NAZI menace and saving Jews was just one of many ancilery benefits flowing from Hitler's defeat. Perhaps this explains the treatment of race. For Hitler and many NAZIs, however, race was not a side show. It was in fact the main goal of the War. And several modern historians have identified race, including the sytemized eliination of Jews, as central to NAZI policy. [Manzower] This explains why Hitler had no real desire after the defeat of France to continue the War with Britain and would have offered fairly favorable terms. (The British of course understood by this time the value of Hitler's assurances.) What he wanted was to reshape the ethnic demographics of the East. And as grotesque as it may seem, the Holocaust of the Jewish people was just a preliminary step. Hitler was determined that the Slavic people would never again threat Aryan Germany. This was the primary goal of the War. Hitler saw history as a struggle between Aryan Germany and the Slavic peoples of Eastern Europe. It is unclear just how many Germans shared this vision. Here historians vary. One historian believes that large numbers of Germans agreed. [Mazower] We are not as convinced of this, but it is a diificult questioin to answer.
Unanswered Question
There is one unanswered question about the NAZI occupied East. And that is just how much of the Slavic people of Eastern Europe. Some NAZIS spoke about a sollution in thirds, one-third to be killed which of course would have dwarded the Holocaust of the Jewish people. One third were to be deiven beyond the Urals, which would have meant tens of millions of more deaths. And the final thirs were to be turned into slave laborors. This may have been over an interim sollution to the East. This would have recreated Spartan society with a slave working population to support the warrior elite. But the NAZIs were strong believers in the value of work. And there are indications that the fonal goal was an East completely populated with a German Aryan population which would have meant millions more would have been slated for eliminsation. Some see a NAZI vision as an East completely populated with Aryans. This is what the Germans did in the area of Western Poland they occupied and there is every reason to believe that they would have dome in the Government General had they won the War. It is also what Heydrich was preparing to do in Czechoslovakia at the tome he was killed by British-trained Czechs (942).
Sources
Dallin, Alexander. German Rule in Russia 1941-1945: A Study in Occupation Policies (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1957), 677p. The documents and information collected by Professor Dallin make this one of the most important studies of German occupation policies in the East.
Mazower, Mark. Hitler's Empire: How the Nazis Ruled Europe.
Padfield, Peter. Himmler: Reichsführer-SS (Henry Holt: New York, 1991), 656p.
The SS
The ReichsKommissars in each of the three regions under NAZI control were in fact not in fact totally in control of their Kommissariat. Rosenberg's Ostministerium was only a minor irritant. Himmler's SS was, however, a major power to contend with and often operated independently. THe SS often acted outside the law and formal administrative structure. And Himmler and the SS was much more in conformity with the racial program Hitler wanted to wage in the East. The first SS action in the East was conducted by the SS Einsatzgruppen (special action groups) which followed in the wake of the Panzers as the Wehrmacht moved easr. There were four Einsatzgruppen of about 3,000 men each.They were under the overall command of SS General Erich von dem Bach-Zelewsky. The real power lay with the SS. The plan was to reduce the population of Poles and Russians in these territories through outright murder and forced expulsions. Some would remain to serve as slave laborers. Many would be killed outright. Millions more would be expelled or "evacuated" with the understanding that large numbers would die in the process. The goal was to make the east ethnically German. Here Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler had the responsibility for persuing this effort. He appears to have assigned his deputy Reinhard Heydrich to coordinate this effort and essentially the SS's entire eastern operations.
NAZI Occupation Policies in Specific Countries
We have collected the following information on German occupation policies in specific countries. There were significant differences in the level of oppression in the many different countries occupied by the NAZIs before and during World War II.
Czechoslovakia
Hitler remiliatized the Rhineland (1935) and conducted the Anschluss bringing Austria into the Reich (April 1938). Hitler's next target was the Sudetenland. The Czechs were prepared to fight. The British and French were not. British Primeminister Nevil Chamberlin delivered the Sudetenland to Hitler at the Munich Conferece (October 1938). The Sudetenland was incorporated into the Reich. Slovakia suceeded and a pro-NAZI regime seized power. Hitler ordered the Wehrmacht to seize the rest of the country (March 1939). Here Hitler step over another milestone, for the first time he seized control of non-Germans. NAZI policies varied depending on the area of Czecheslovakia (the Sudetenland, Bohemia and Moravia, and Slovakia). We note that some Czechs were forcibly removed from the Sudentenland, but we have few details at this time. NAZI policies in Bohemia and Moravia were much more begin that later implemented in Pland, but vecame more secere as the occupation progressed, especially after the appointment of Teynhard Heydrich as Governor. The Czechs as the first occupied country, were the first to be drafted for forced labor in Germany. The Czech arms industry played an importan role in the German war effirt. Hitler convinced that the Czeches were being treated to lightly, appointed Reinhard Heydrich to replace the first NAZI governor. His assasination by British-trained patriots ere the cause of horendous reprisals by the SS.
Poland
Hitler did not view Poland as a legitimate nation. He saw it as a creation of the hated Versailles Treaty ending World War I. Poland had split Germany through the Polish Corridor. He was determined that Poland would never again threaten Germany or limit Germany's drive for lebensraum. The NAZI plan was simple. First they plan to eliminate the Polish inteligencia. Second they would expel Poles and colonize the former Polish areas with Germans. The was given orders to kill Polish prominent civilians and indiviaduals such as government officials, the nobility, teachers, and priests throughout Poland, any would which could promote Polish nationalism or offer leadership. [Gilbert, p. 265.] Today their are countless memorial stones and plaques througout Poland where these executions took place. And it was not just men, women and children were also killed. The Army Chief of Staff, Genderal Halder discussed the Führer's orders with his senior officers. One a Colonel Eduard Wagner wrote in his diary, "It is the Führer's and Goering's intentions to destroy and exterminate the Polish nation. More than that cannot even be hinted at in writing." [Gilbert, p. 269.] The instructions were secret. Some SS men carrying these instructions were arrested by the Wehremacht accussed of brutality. [Gilbert, p. 278.] Admiral Canaris, the head of the Abwehr, German military intelligence, visited the Polish front on September 10 and was horrified. He went to Hitler's headquarters planning to protest which he told General Keitel, the Chief of the Armed Forces High Command. Keitel advised him, "If I were you I would not get mixed up in this business. This 'thing' has been decided by the Führer himself." Keitel explained that that each army command would have a NAZI civilian chief attached to its military commander. He would have the responsibility for the "racial extermination" effort. [Gilbert, p. 271.] Hitler on October 4, even before the fighting was over, declared an amnesty for the arressted SS men. There were no further arressts of SS men by the Wehremact in Hitler's future campaigns. The invasion of Poland brough a much larger area an numbers of foreigners under German control (September 1939). Himmler had asigned the Main Office for the Consolidation of German Nationhood (SS-RKF) the task of preparing a plan for Germanizing Poland. The Chief of SS-RKF Department II (Planning) SS-Oberführer Professor Dr. Konrad Meyer was responsible for preparing the plans. [Padfield, p. 363.]
The Soviet Union
The NAZIs invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. Radipdly the Baltic Republics (occupied by the Soviets in 1940) and large areas came under NAZI control. The NAZIs employed the same ruthless tactics developed in Poland, but on a far larger scale. Heydrich in 1941 ordered the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) (SS Security Service) in 1941 to begin the necessary planning for the Germinization of occupied territories in the Soviet Union. The Reichs-Sicherheitsdienst (RSHA) (Reich Security Head Office). The initial report submitted in November 1941 by the RDHA estimated that 31 million peole should be "evacuated". The SS-RKF was ordered to extend its planning for the Germinization to the occupied area of the Soviet Union. [Padfield, p. 363.] There were differences of opinion within the SS and between the SS and Alfred Rosenberg's Ostministerium (Ministry for the Occupied East) over how to claim the East. There was agreement that large numers of Slavs had to be removed to Siberia. There were differences as to the extent to which forcible evictions should take place. Given the scale of movement involved, such discussions probably were not relistic. [Padfield, p. 363.] The NAZIs looked on the people of the Soviet Union in starkly racial terms. They were willing to work with the native Baltic population and some in the Baltics were willing to work with the NAZIs. The NAZIs were determined that the Slav population in Russia proper and the Ukraine would have to be substantially reduced. Some Slavs would be kept, at least for a while to serve as a slave population to do mannual labor, at least until the region could be Germanized.
Belorussia
ReichsKommissar Kube in Belorussia quickly quarled with the SS. Kube had no problem with the use of fore to rule Belorussia. His problen with the SS was irrationality of the SS. He complained to Berlin about SS actions. He in particular objected to shooting Slavs that were performing useful work for the occupation authorities. Kube had no way of controlling the SS units in his area.
The Ukraine
The Ukraine was the agricultural breadbasket of the Soviet Union. It also had important natural resources and an expanding industrial base. It was for Hitler perhaps the great prise of World War II with enormous Lebensraum for the German people. The agricultural idea appealed to the NAZIs--especially to Himmler. The Ukraine was populated primarily with Ukraians along with important Russian, Polish, and Jewish minorities. The Ukranians were Eastern Slavs cloesly related to the Great Russians. For the NAXZIs this meant a population to eliminated or deported or enslaved to make room for German settlers. Stalin had brutalized the Ukranians creating wide-spread anti-Soviet sentiment. Had the NAZIs not been committed to genocide against the Slavs, large numbers of Ukranians would have received the NAZIs as linerators. The Ukraine was placed in the hands of ReichsKommissar Koch who believed in ruling with an iron fist.
Baltic states
ReichsKommissar Lohse had in NAZI terms beign concept of ruling, at least in comparison with his counterparts in Belorussia and the Ukraine. Lohse essentially agreed with Rosenberg that there was no sence in gratuitous violence toward the Balts as long as they fell in line with the new NAZI order. Here of course there are racial factors. The Balt were not Slavs and Hitler was willing to accept a place for them in the New Order. The place for the Balts may not sound very promsing to modern readers, but it was better than the place Stalin was offering them in the Soviet Union. Questions of morality aside, the question arises as to which approach yielded the maximum benedit to the Reich. As far as we can determine, the relatively small Baltic states comtributed more to the German war effort than the much larger areas of Belorussia and the Ukraine. This gives rise to question that hangs over the war in the East. What would have happened if the NAZIs had persued the same approach in the Ukraine that they did in the Baltics, enlisting the local population as brothers in the struggle against Bolshevism,
Eindeutschung ( Germanisation )
A key elment in the Germanization of the east was finding Germans to populate it with. An important part of this process was to "reclaim" Aryan stock from the occupied territories and turning them into Germans. This process was termed Eindeutschung. The SS section responsible for Eindeutschung was Rasse und Siedlungshauptamt--RuSHA (Race and Settlement Head Office). Here the SS's authority also overlapped with Alfred Rosenberg's Ostministerium (Ministry for the Occupied East). While there were differences within the SS, there was agreement that the most of the population of the occupied East was not suitable for Eindeutschung and would have to be expelled to Siberia. The differences within the SS was the extent to which force should be used to bring about the emmigration to Siberia. [Padfield, p. 363.]
Genocide
An essential apect of the Germanization process was making room for an expnded German population. The best studied aspect of this is the genocide of the Jews--the Holocaust. Actually the Holocaust was just the beginning of NAZI plans to remake the ethnic mao of Europe through genocide. NAZI plans were much more expansive than the Holocaust. They also targeted the Slavs. Had the NAZIs succeeded in their war in the East, the result would have been a genocide that would have dwarfed the Holocaust. NAZI planners were planning to kill outright about 30 million of the 90 million Soviet Slavs. The mechanics of this were not worked out, but there is no reason that hey would have been different than tthose employed in the Holocaust. Another 30 million Slavs were to be reduced to uneducated slave laborers. The remaining 30 million were to be deported beyond the Urals. Given conditions at the time, it was undrstood that many of these people would have perished as a result.
Sparta
The German conquest of Western and Eastern Europe occurred so rapidly that a well prepared and coordinated program did not exist on how to administer the occupied East. While there was considerable agreement in some areas such as the need to Germanize the East, there were diferences as to how to achieve this. There were elements in the SS who looked upon the Spartan city state of ancient Greece as to how the East should be administered. SS-Hauptstrumführer who attended coordinating meetings with the Ostministerium as the junior RKF representative expressed Himmiler's and Heydrich's view that the German occupation of the East was similat to Spartan control of the Peloponnesus Peninsula. He explined that the Germans would carry out the role of the Germans. The Lithuanians, Estonians, and "the like" would be the Perioeci and the Russians the helots. [Padfield, pp. 363-364.]
Economic Exploitaion
Individuals
One task of historians is to judge the Germans who carried out German occupation policies in the East. The enormity of the brutlity and barbarity make it difficult to understand how it could have been conducted by a civilized people. This of course is particularly true od the SS Einsatzgruppen that followed in the wake of the Wehrmacht. But that was just the initinal phase of NAZI barbarity. One historian writes, "Many of the men who carried out the Ostpolitik were neither fanatically or diadiabolically predisposed. Yet they slid into the abyss and too often wallowed in its mud. A dichotomy of private and public morals obtained, and in an era dominated by Hittlerism they bared unwittingly 'the Hitler in theselves'." [Dallin, p. 673.]
Assessment
There is of course no question about immorality of NAZI policies in the East. Another question is were thry effective? Did they cobntribute to the Germnan war effort. Here the assessment has to be aken country by country. Germnan occupation policies in Czechoslovakia seemn to have been on the whole successful. The Czechs were cowed by the use of violence. The Slovaks even supported Germany politucally and militarily. The Czech Skoda arms complex was an important part of the German war economy. The situation in Poland is less clear to us. The Poles were not cowed like the Czechs, but paid a terrible price. The loss of life in Poland was per capita one of the highesl in the war. The Poles even rose up in 1944. Polish units that eascaped east made important bsattlefiekd contributions both in the East and Italy. The Poles made other contributions to the war effort, bith in code breaking and in reopoting on the German rocket proigram. We are mot sure yet about the effectiveness of the German economic exploitation of Poland. The Germans arguavly made the biggesT mistake of the War in not persuoing a moderate occupation policy in the Soviet Union to aobrain the support of anyi-Bolshevicks. We do not yet have enough information to assess the effectivebness of economic policies in the Soviet Union. Of course factors here are the shorter period of occupation and the Soviet scoirched earth policies.
Sources
Dallin, Alexander. German Rule in Russia 1941-1945: A study in Occupation Policies (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1957), 677p. The documents and informatin collected by Professor Dallin make this one of the most important studies of German occupation policies in the East.
Gilbert, Martin. A History of the Twentieth Century Vol. 2 1933-54 (William Morrow and Company, Inc.: New York, 1998), 1050p.
Padfield, Peter. Himmler: Reichsführer-SS (Henry Holt: New York, 1991), 656p.
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un cordial saludo!!
Siento muchisima curiosidad y sobre todo, ganas de recopilar todo el material concerniente al genocidio de 10 millones de civiles sovieticos y 6 millones de civiles polacos por estos caballeros germanos de la "prestigiosa" SS.
me pregunto que honorabilidad le queda a un ejercito cuando perpetra matanzas sobre la población civil. ¿ Desde cuando un ejercito o una organización militar se ha dedicado a ejecutar sistematicamente a millones de civiles ? Pues lo dicho, organización de psicopatas.