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Members of the Hlinka Guard march in Slovakia, a Nazi satellite state. Date uncertain. See more photographs |
COLLABORATION |
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In Europe, antisemitism, nationalism, ethnic hatred, anti-communism, and opportunism induced citizens of nations occupied by Germany to collaborate with the Nazis in the genocide of Europe's Jews. Such collaboration was a crucial element of the "Final Solution". Collaborators committed some of the worst atrocities of the Holocaust. A number of German allies (the Axis countries) cooperated with the Nazis by promulgating and enforcing anti-Jewish legislation and by assisting in the deportation of Jews to extermination camps. In German-allied states, fascist paramilitary organizations terrorized, robbed, and murdered local Jews, either under German guidance or on their own initiative. The Hlinka Guard in Slovakia, the Iron Guard in Romania, the Ustasa in Croatia, and the Arrow Cross in Hungary were responsible for the deaths of thousands of Jews in their home territory. |
The pro-Nazi Ustasa government of Croatia built its own concentration camps. By the end of 1941, two-thirds of Croatia's Jews (more than 25,000) were deported to the camps. Most were killed on arrival. The Croats also killed at least 250,000 Serbs. The collaborationist regimes of Italy and Hungary did not hand over Jews for deportation until Germany directly occupied those countries. Bulgaria cooperated with the Nazis in deporting foreign Jews, but would not deport Jews with Bulgarian citizenship. Romanian police and military units murdered both deported Romanian Jews and Ukrainian Jews in Romanian-occupied Ukraine, but refused to deport Jews in Romania proper. |
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In addition to the Axis nations, many people in the Nazi-occupied countries collaborated with the Nazis. Baltic and Ukrainian collaborators played an especially significant role in killing Jews throughout eastern Europe. Many served as guards in extermination camps and were involved in the gassing of hundreds of thousands of Jews. Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Belorussians, and Ukrainians spontaneously formed groups which the German SS and police then organized; these units became ruthless and reliable police auxiliaries that supported the SS and German police in the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Jews in the occupied Soviet Union. |
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The government of Vichy France cooperated with the Nazis by enacting the Statut des Juifs (Jewish Law), which defined Jews by race and restricted their rights. Vichy authorities also actively collaborated by establishing internment camps in southern France, arresting foreign Jews and French Jews, and aiding in the deportation of Jews (mostly foreign Jews residing in France) to extermination camps in occupied Poland. After the German invasion of Norway in April 1940, Vidkun Quisling, a Norwegian fascist, proclaimed himself prime minister. The Germans quickly became disillusioned with him and established their own administration, but intermittently used Quisling as a figurehead. Norwegian police and paramilitary formations assisted SS and German police units in the deportation of Jews to Auschwitz-Birkenau. The collaboration of Axis nations and pro-Nazi governments was essential for the Nazis to implement the "Final Solution." Pro-Nazi governments and police aided in the arrest and deportation of Jews to extermination camps, actively participated in the murder of Jews, and in several cases committed atrocities against their Jewish fellow citizens within their own national borders. Further Reading Curtis, Michael. Verdict on Vichy: Power and Prejudice in the Vichy France Regime. New York: Arcade Pub, 2002. Davies, Peter. Dangerous Liaisons: Collaboration and World War Two. Harlow: Pearson Education, 2004. Dahl, Hans Fredrik. Quisling: A Study in Treachery. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999 Deák, István, Jan T. Gross, and Tony Judt. The Politics of Retribution in Europe: World War II and Its Aftermath. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000. Gaunt, David, Paul A. Levine, and Laura Palosuo, editors. Collaboration and Resistance During the Holocaust: Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania. Bern: Peter Lang, 2004. Tomasevich, Jozo. War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941-1945: Occupation and Collaboration. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. |
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