Figure 1.-Here we see Russian boys with German soldiers. We are not entirely sure what is going on here. The boys seem to be helping the Germans clean up. We are not sure, however, just what happened here. Notice the Germans are unarmed. This suggests that these boys are somehow working with the Germans. Unfortunately we do not know precisely where or when this photograph was taken. |
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. I'm less sure about the areas seized from Poland (1939) and Bylorussia. 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 combined 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. There was also considerable sympathy for the NAZIs when they reached the Caucusses (1942).
The NAZIs today are viewed with such infamy that those who collaborated with them during the War are viewed as not only evil but also treasonous. There is some validity for this view in Western Europe. In the East the assessment is much more complicated. In the Baltics which were invaded and occupied by the Soviets (1940) and where thousands of people were arrested, short or deported, the NAZIs seemed more like liberators. Many Russians were brutalized by the Stalinist police state with loved ones executed or inslaved in the Gulag. Stalin's henchmen had killed millions in the Ukraine through both the famine and police state arrests and execultions designed to destroy Ukranian nationalism. The Soviets had attacked religion which was still an important force in areas of the Soviet Union, including the Islamic population of the Caucasusas. The point is these peopke were caught between to evil, brutal regimes. The decessions they made have to be vewed in terms of the choices open to them. Another factor affecting collaboration was survival and obtaining the basic necessitgies. Conditions in NAZI camps holding Soviet POWs were horendous. This was a factor in the decession if some to join anti-Soviet military formations. Civilians were also desperate. Thus some collaborated to obtain desperately needed food rations in order to survive.
The reaction of the local pipulation varied greatly depending on the area of the Soviet Union.
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. This was a factor in the support the NAZIs got from the local populatin in the killing of the Jews. Because Jews were often active in the local Communist parties, the local populations assoiciated the Jews with the NAZIs.
I'm less sure about the areas seized from Poland (1939) and Bylorussia. Stalin in cooperation with Hitler had seized easter Poland (1939). This area had a diverse population of Poles, Bylorusians, Lithanians, Ukranians, and Jews. The Russian population was limited. As the Wehrmact moved east they encountered more Bylorussians. The attitude of the local poplation to the Germans varied, depending to an extent on their ethnicity and religious orientation.
World war II accounts generally stress the large areas of Russia seized by the NAZIs in Operation Barbarossa during 1941. This is a misnomer. The NAZIs did seize a large area of the Soviet Union. They seize a much more limited area of Russia inhabited by ethnic Russians. Much of the occupied area occupied by the NAZIs was the Baltics, eastern Poland, Bylorussia, and the Ukraine. While the NAZIs were seen in a sympathetic light by some in these non-Russian areas, there was much less sympathy and collaboration in the ethnically Russian areaS.
Sympathy for the NAZIs was especially strong in the western Ukraine. Here 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 combined 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. A reader writes, "You are absolutely right about the mood of many Russians and Ukrainians who hated the communists and welcomed the Germans as liberators. The Germans were stupid. Here was a golden opportunity for them to coach the population in becoming friends, but no, they wasted no time to treat the Slavs as "Untermenschen", inferior human beings."
There was also considerable sympathy for the NAZIs when they reached the Caucasusas (1942). A Dutch reader writes, "As a boy, I remember seeing soldiers in occupied Holland wearing in German Wehrmacht uniforms who did not look German at all. They looked Middle Eastern. When I asked one of them where he came from, he said: "I am from Yerevan, Armenia". I was reluctant to ask what they were doing in the Netherlands. I was curious at the time and still am." [Stueck]
Stueck, Rudi. E-mail message, February 22, 2005.
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