* war and social upheaval: World War II -- Axis occupation policies








World War II: Axis Occupation Policies


Figure 1.--Wageing aggressive war was judged a war crime, but the Germans began commiting more traditional war crimes as sson as the Panzers smashed into targeted countries. One of the first washostage taking. They were then held as ready group of civiluans to be shot if the occupied civilians resisted the Germans. This was a policy the Germans folloed in Belgium during World War I and outraged world public opinion at the time. The German Army in World war II continued the same behavior, only on a much larger scal. Note that this was done by the Whermacht. At the time the Wafen SS was a very small formation. Often but not always the individuals selected were Jews, giving the Germans an excuse if they neded one to shoot Jews. We have been unable to find much information about the incident recorded here One source suggests it is the shooting of a 15-tear old French hostage in 1940. We can not confirm this. It looks like it may be France, but the Germans usully shot hostages in groups, not as individuals. We suspect that the boy here may have committed some offense, possibky a very minor offence like pilfering German equipment or disrecring German soldiers. The pole in paricular is an indication that this was an execution and not a hostage shooting. This ws not only normally done in grouos, but against a wall. There was little photographic evidence of German World war I attrocities. The Germans were so proud of what they were doing in World War II that there is an extensive photographic record.

Axis occupation policies varied widely, especially German policies. One consistent them with the Axis was economic exoloitation and efforts to annex some areas and suppres foreign elements in those areas. Here German racial policies had a major impact. In line with Holocaust actions, Generalplan Ost, and the Hunger Plan. The goal becme to murder all Jews that came into their hands (including those working in war industries) and to substantially reduce the Baltic and Slavic population and convert the survivors to slave labor. While Germany, Italy, and Japan were the principal Axis countries, smaller countries like Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania were given their own occupation zones by the Germans. Axis policies were in one sence nesitated by the fact that they launched the War withouth the industrial or resource base needed to conduct global war. The War was launched to obtain the resources needed to wage war and thus the industry and resources of the occupied countries were an important part of the Axis war plan. For a range of reasons, this did not work as the Axis countries planned. The Germans did make considerable use of Western Europe (especially France) to support their war effort, but failed to use the coveted resources of the East when the Red Army did not collapse as anticipated. The Wehermacht was sent into the East without supplies. Barbarossa was designed on the basis of living off the nds with disaterous results for the civilian populatiion from whom food and other supplies were taken. The Japanese in the Paific did seize their Southern Resource Zone with needed resources like oil and rubber. Getting the resources back to the Home Islands, however, proved a very difficult undertaking as the U.S. Navy perfected its submarine campaign on the Japanese Marus. Axis racial policies (especially German and Japanese) proved deadly and were persued irrespective of economic concerns or impact on the war effort.

Germany

Germans occupation policies varied geographically depending largely on the racial makeup of the occupied countries. German racial policies had a major impact. In line with Holocaust actions, Generalplan Ost, and the Hunger Plan. The goal becme to murder all Jews that came into their hands (including those working in war industries) and to substantially reduce the Baltic and Slavic population and convert the survivors to slave labor. The goal was to turn Eastern Rurope into a vast German colony. In the West, the goal was more economic and political. The Germans also wanted to exploit the economies and make political changes, but not to reduce the population--with the exception of Jews. And here the Germans exploted Axis allies as well as occupied countries. The German policies were nesitated by the fact that Hitler launched the War withouth the industrial or resource base needed to conduct global war. The War was launched to obtain the resources needed to wage war and thus the industry and resources of the occupied countries were an important part of the Axis war plan. For a range of reasons, this did not work as the Germans planned. The Germans did make considerable use of Western Europeean (especially France) industrial caoacity to support their war effort, but failed to use the coveted resources of the East when the Red Army did not collapse as anticipated. The Wehermacht was sent into the East without supplies. Barbarossa was designed on the basis of living off the nds with disaterous results for the civilian populatiion from whom food and other supplies were taken. The resources of the East were used to support the Whermacht in the Eastern Front, but the anticipted resources proved much smaller than anticipated. very little got back to the Reich to support the War economy. The primacy of racial policies should not be neglected. Hitler pursued deadly racial policies even when they interfered with the German war effort.

Italy


Japan

The Japanese after the outbreak of the War in Europe discussed for 2 years how to best take advantage of the situation. Their Chinese adventure proved to be a never ending struggle and enormously expensive. There were already extensive discussions within the military that dominated the Government concerning the two principal options open to them, strike North at the Soviet Union or South at the Americans and British. Hitler's decesion to ally Germany with the Soviet Union with the NAZI-Soviet Non-Agression Pact (August 1939) undercut the Strike North Faction. This led to the ascendity of the Strike South Faction and the decision to seize the Southern Resource Zone (SRZ), even if it meant war with the United States. The SRZ had all the resources that the Japanese miklitary most desperately needed, most importantly oil. The United States largely decided the debate when after several years of diplomatic efforts to convince the Japanese to withdraw from China, the Roosevelt Administrationed embargoed oil exports. This forced Japan to either make peace and withdraw from China or mAke war. They launched the War in a daring carrier attack on Pearl Harbor. In a spectacular military campaign, the Japanese managed to seize the largely undamaged SRZ in only a few months and with minimal losses. The SRZ which not only had oil, but other vital resources like rubber, tin, and rice. The Japnese system for exploiting the SRZ was the Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere. In had ahen propagand venner of 'Asians for the Asians', but in fact was even more explotitive thn the Western colonial regimes and without their growing legl system. Japanese Occupation policies not only were grossly explotive, but proved deadly in the occupied areas, especially China. There were also terriblr famines created in the Dtch East Indies, Tonkin (northern Indochina), norther Burma, and other areas. This was similar to the German occupation of Europe where the NAZIs instituted a Hunger Plan with the policy objective of starving millions. The Japanese did not have the same objective, but starvation was the result of mismanagemnent and incomptence. Their primary objective was getting the the SRZ resources back to the Home Islands to support their greatly expanded war effort. This proved, however, a very difficult undertaking, especially after the U.S. Pacific Fleet perfected its submarine campaign on the Japanese merchant marine (Marus). Axis racial policies (especially German and Japanese) proved deadly and were persued irrespective of economic concerns or impact on the war effort. The principal victim of Japanese racial policies were the Chinese.

Smaller Axis Partners

While Germany, Italy, and Japan were the principal Axis countries, smaller countries like Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania were given their own occupation zones by the Germans. While historians focus on German occupation policies, some of these countries conducted terrible attrocities in the areas they occupied. Jews were the most common, but not the only targets.








CIH








Navigate the CIH World War II Section:
[Return to Main World War II occupation policies page]
[Return to Main World War II Axis page]
[About Us]
[Biographies] [Campaigns] [Children] [Countries] [Deciding factors] [Diplomacy] [Geo-political crisis] [Economics] [Home front] [Intelligence]
[Resistance] [Race] [Refugees] [Technology]
[Bibliographies] [Contributions] [FAQs] [Images] [Links] [Registration] [Tools]
[Return to Main World War II Holocaust page]
[Return to Main World War II page]
[Return to Main war essay page]




Created: 7:23 PM 4/18/2011
Last updated: 12:46 AM 7/30/2014