, "the cruelty of the occupation regime was such that, according to the most conservative estimates, one in five of the seventy million Soviet citizens who were under occupation did not live to see the Victory."
The inscription on the blackboard: "The Russian must die so that we can live." Occupied territory of the USSR, October 10, 1941
According to Taylor, the U.S. prosecution representative at the Nuremberg trials, "the atrocities committed armed forces and other organizations of the Third Reich in the East, were so stunningly monstrous that human mind can hardly comprehend them ... I think analysis will show that it was not just madness and bloodlust. On the contrary, there was a method and a goal. These atrocities took place as a result of carefully calculated orders and directives issued before or during the attack on the Soviet Union and which constitute a coherent logical system.
As the Russian historian G. A. Bordyugov points out, in the cases of the Extraordinary State Commission "on establishing and investigating the atrocities of the Nazi invaders and their accomplices" (June 1941 - December 1944), 54,784 acts of atrocities against the civilian population in the occupied Soviet territories were recorded . Among them are such crimes as "the use of the civilian population in the course of hostilities, the forcible mobilization of the civilian population, the execution of civilians and the destruction of their homes, rape, the hunt for people - slaves for the German industry."
| Additional images online |
|
|---|---|
| On the occupied territory, the thematic catalog of photographic documents of the Rosarchive. | |
The Nazi occupation of the USSR and its initiators were publicly condemned by an international tribunal during the Nuremberg trials.
As the German historian Dr. Wolfrem Werte noted in 1999, “the war of the Third Reich against Soviet Union was from the very beginning aimed at capturing the territory up to the Urals, exploitation natural resources The USSR and the long-term subordination of Russia to German domination. Not only the Jews, but also the Slavs who inhabited the Soviet territories occupied by Germany in 1941-1944 faced a direct threat of systematic physical destruction ... The Slavic population of the USSR ... along with the Jews was proclaimed an "inferior race" and was also subject to destruction.
The following documents, in particular, testify to the military-political and ideological goals of the "war in the East":
The chief of staff of the operational leadership of the OKW, after the corresponding correction, returned the draft document “Instructions on special problems of directive No. to the Führer after revision in accordance with the following position:
“The upcoming war will be not only an armed struggle, but at the same time a struggle of two worldviews. In order to win this war in conditions where the enemy has a huge territory, it is not enough to defeat his armed forces, this territory should be divided into several states headed by their own governments, with which we could conclude peace treaties.
The creation of such governments requires great political skill and the development of well thought out general principles.
Every revolution on a large scale brings to life phenomena that cannot simply be brushed aside. Socialist ideas in today's Russia can no longer be eradicated. These ideas can serve as an internal political basis for the creation of new states and governments. The Jewish-Bolshevik intelligentsia, which is the oppressor of the people, must be removed from the scene. The former bourgeois-aristocratic intelligentsia, if it still exists, primarily among emigrants, should also not be allowed to power. It will not be accepted by the Russian people and, moreover, it is hostile to the German nation. This is especially noticeable in the former Baltic states. In addition, we must by no means allow the replacement of the Bolshevik state by a nationalist Russia, which in the end (as history testifies) will once again oppose Germany.
Our mission is to, as quickly as possible, least cost military efforts to create these socialist states dependent on us.
This task is so difficult that one army is not able to solve it.
30.3.1941 ... 11.00. Big meeting with the Fuhrer. Almost 2.5 hour speech...
The struggle of two ideologies... The great danger of communism for the future. We must proceed from the principle of soldier's camaraderie. The communist has never been and never will be our comrade. It's about fighting for destruction. If we do not look like this, then, although we will defeat the enemy, in 30 years the communist danger will arise again. We are not waging war in order to conserve our enemy.
Future political map Russia: Northern Russia belongs to Finland, protectorates in the Baltic states, Ukraine, Belarus.
The struggle against Russia: the destruction of the Bolshevik commissars and the communist intelligentsia. The new states must be socialist, but without their own intelligentsia. We must not allow a new intelligentsia to form. Here only the primitive socialist intelligentsia will suffice. We must fight against the poison of demoralization. This is far from a military-judicial issue. Unit and subunit commanders are required to know the aims of the war. They must lead in the struggle ..., firmly hold the troops in their hands. The commander must give his orders, taking into account the mood of the troops.
The war will be very different from the war in the West. In the East, cruelty is a boon for the future. Commanders must make sacrifices and overcome their hesitation...
Diary of the Chief of the General Staff of the Ground Forces F. Halder
The economic goals are formulated in the directive of Reichsmarschall Goering (written no later than June 16, 1941):
I. According to the orders of the Führer, it is necessary to take all measures for the immediate and possible fullest possible use of the occupied regions in the interests of Germany. All activities that could hinder the achievement of this goal should be postponed or completely abandoned.
II. The use of the areas subject to occupation should be carried out primarily in the field of the food and oil sectors of the economy. To get as much food and oil for Germany as possible is the main economic goal of the campaign. Along with this, other raw materials from the occupied regions must also be provided to German industry, as far as it is technically possible and with due regard for the preservation of industry in these regions. As regards the type and scope industrial production occupied areas to be preserved, restored or reorganized, this should also be determined in the very first place in accordance with the requirements that the use of agriculture and the oil industry places on the German war economy.
German propaganda poster "Hitler's soldiers are friends of the people".
This clearly expresses the guidelines for managing the economy in the occupied regions. This applies both to the main goals and to individual tasks that help achieve them. In addition, this also suggests that tasks that are not consistent with the main goal setting or prevent it from being met should be abandoned, even if their implementation in certain cases seems desirable. The point of view that the occupied regions should be put in order as soon as possible and their economy should be restored is completely inappropriate. On the contrary, the attitude towards individual parts of the country should be differentiated. The development of the economy and the maintenance of order should be carried out only in those areas where we can extract significant reserves of agricultural products and oil. And in other parts of the country that cannot feed themselves, that is, in Central and Northern Russia, economic activity should be limited to the use of discovered reserves.
Main economic tasks
In the Caucasus, it was supposed to create an autonomous region (Reichskommissariat) as part of the Third Reich. The capital is Tbilisi. The territory would cover the entire Soviet Caucasus from Turkey and Iran to the Don and Volga. As part of the Reichskommissariat, it was planned to create national entities. The basis of the economy of this region was to be oil production and Agriculture.
As the Russian historian Gennady Bordyugov writes, “the political and military leadership of Germany from the very beginning ... demanded that the soldiers be ready for unlawful, criminal, in fact, actions. Hitler's ideas on this subject were a consistent development of those political principles that he outlined in his books written back in the 1920s ... As mentioned above, on March 30, 1941, at a secret meeting, Hitler, speaking to 250 generals, whose troops were to participate in Operation Barbarossa, called Bolshevism a manifestation of " social crime“. He stated that " it's about the fight to the annihilation“».
According to the order of the head of the Wehrmacht High Command, Field Marshal Keitel of May 13, 1941 “On military jurisdiction in the Barbarossa region and on the special powers of the troops”, signed by him on the basis of Hitler’s orders, a regime of unlimited terror was actually declared on the territory of the USSR occupied by German troops. The order contained a clause that actually freed the occupiers from responsibility for crimes against the civilian population: “ Initiation of prosecution for acts committed by military personnel and service personnel in relation to hostile civilians is not mandatory even in cases where these acts simultaneously amount to a war crime or misdemeanor».
Gennady Bordyugov also points to the existence of other documentary evidence the attitude of German military leaders towards the civilian population who found themselves in the combat zone - for example, the commander of the 6th Army, von Reichenau, demands (July 10, 1941) to shoot " plainclothes soldiers, easily recognizable by their short hair", and " civilians whose manners and behavior appear to be hostile", General G. Hot (November 1941) -" immediately and ruthlessly stop every step of an active or passive resistance ", Commander of the 254th division, Lieutenant General von Weschnitta (December 2, 1941) -" fire without warning at any civilian of any age or gender who approaches the front line" and " immediately shoot anyone suspected of espionage».
There was no food supply to the population by the occupying authorities, and urban residents found themselves in especially difficult conditions. In the occupied territories, fines, corporal punishment, taxes in kind and money were imposed everywhere, the amounts of which were for the most part set arbitrarily by the occupying authorities. The invaders applied various repressions to tax evaders, up to execution and large-scale punitive operations.
Nazi demonstration on Freedom Square in Minsk, 1943.
The operation proceeded according to plan, excluding shifts in some of its stages in time. Their main reason was as follows. On the map, the settlement of Borki is shown as a compactly located village. In fact, it turned out that this village extends for 6 - 7 km in length and width. When this was established by me at dawn, I expanded the cordon on the eastern side and organized the coverage of the village in the form of pincers while increasing the distance between the posts. As a result, I managed to capture and deliver to the gathering place all the inhabitants of the village, without exception. It turned out to be favorable that the purpose for which the population was rounded up was unknown to him until the last moment. Calm reigned at the gathering place, the number of posts was reduced to a minimum, and the released forces could be used in the further course of the operation. The team of gravediggers received shovels only at the place of execution, thanks to which the population remained in the dark about what was to come. imperceptibly mounted lungs machine guns suppressed the panic that had risen from the very beginning, when the first shots were fired from the place of execution, located 700 m from the village. The two men tried to run, but after a few steps they fell down, hit by machine-gun fire. The firing started at 9:00. 00 min. and ended at 6 pm. 00 min. Of the 809 rounded up, 104 people (politically reliable families) were released, among them were the working estates of Mokrana. The shooting took place without any complications, preparations turned out to be very useful.
The confiscation of grain and implements took place, except for a shift in time, systematically. The number of supplies turned out to be sufficient, since the amount of grain was not large and the points for pouring unthreshed grain were not very far ...
Household utensils and agricultural implements were taken away by carts with bread.
I give the numerical result of the execution. 705 people were shot, including 203 men, 372 women, and 130 children.
The number of collected livestock can only be determined approximately, since no accounting was made at the collection point: horses - 45, large cattle- 250, calves - 65, pigs and piglets - 450 and sheep - 300. Poultry could only be found in isolated cases. What was found was handed over to the released residents.
Collected from inventory: 70 carts, 200 plows and harrows, 5 winnowers, 25 straw cutters and other small inventory.
All the confiscated grain, implements and livestock were handed over to the manager of the Mokrana state estate...
During the operation in Borki, the following were used up: rifle cartridges - 786, cartridges for machine guns - 2496 pieces. There were no losses in the company. One shiftmaster with suspected jaundice was sent to a hospital in Brest.
Deputy company commander Ober-Lieutenant of the security police Müller
In the occupied territory of the USSR, the destruction of Soviet prisoners of war, who fell into the hands of the advancing German troops, was going on.
, "the cruelty of the occupation regime was such that, according to the most conservative estimates, one in five of the seventy million Soviet citizens who were under occupation did not live to see the Victory."
The inscription on the blackboard: "The Russian must die so that we can live." Occupied territory of the USSR, October 10, 1941
According to Taylor, the U.S. prosecution representative at the Nuremberg Trials, “the atrocities committed by the armed forces and other organizations of the Third Reich in the East were so amazingly monstrous that the human mind can hardly comprehend them ... I think analysis will show that these were not just madness and bloodlust. On the contrary, there was a method and a goal. These atrocities took place as a result of carefully calculated orders and directives issued before or during the attack on the Soviet Union and which constitute a coherent logical system.
As the Russian historian G. A. Bordyugov points out, in the cases of the Extraordinary State Commission "on establishing and investigating the atrocities of the Nazi invaders and their accomplices" (June 1941 - December 1944), 54,784 acts of atrocities against the civilian population in the occupied Soviet territories were recorded . Among them are such crimes as "the use of the civilian population in the course of hostilities, the forcible mobilization of the civilian population, the execution of civilians and the destruction of their homes, rape, the hunt for people - slaves for the German industry."
| Additional images online |
|
|---|---|
| On the occupied territory, the thematic catalog of photographic documents of the Rosarchive. | |
The Nazi occupation of the USSR and its initiators were publicly condemned by an international tribunal during the Nuremberg trials.
As the German historian Dr. Wolfrem Werte noted in 1999, “The Third Reich’s war against the Soviet Union was from the very beginning aimed at seizing territory up to the Urals, exploiting the natural resources of the USSR and long-term subordination of Russia to German domination. Not only the Jews, but also the Slavs who inhabited the Soviet territories occupied by Germany in 1941-1944 faced a direct threat of systematic physical destruction ... The Slavic population of the USSR ... along with the Jews was proclaimed an "inferior race" and was also subject to destruction.
The following documents, in particular, testify to the military-political and ideological goals of the "war in the East":
The chief of staff of the operational leadership of the OKW, after the corresponding correction, returned the draft document “Instructions on special problems of directive No. to the Führer after revision in accordance with the following position:
“The upcoming war will be not only an armed struggle, but at the same time a struggle of two worldviews. In order to win this war in conditions where the enemy has a huge territory, it is not enough to defeat his armed forces, this territory should be divided into several states headed by their own governments, with which we could conclude peace treaties.
The creation of such governments requires great political skill and the development of well thought out general principles.
Every revolution on a large scale brings to life phenomena that cannot simply be brushed aside. Socialist ideas in today's Russia can no longer be eradicated. These ideas can serve as an internal political basis for the creation of new states and governments. The Jewish-Bolshevik intelligentsia, which is the oppressor of the people, must be removed from the scene. The former bourgeois-aristocratic intelligentsia, if it still exists, primarily among emigrants, should also not be allowed to power. It will not be accepted by the Russian people and, moreover, it is hostile to the German nation. This is especially noticeable in the former Baltic states. In addition, we must by no means allow the replacement of the Bolshevik state by a nationalist Russia, which in the end (as history testifies) will once again oppose Germany.
Our task is precisely to create these socialist states dependent on us as quickly as possible and with the least expenditure of military effort.
This task is so difficult that one army is not able to solve it.
30.3.1941 ... 11.00. Big meeting with the Fuhrer. Almost 2.5 hour speech...
The struggle of two ideologies... The great danger of communism for the future. We must proceed from the principle of soldier's camaraderie. The communist has never been and never will be our comrade. It's about fighting for destruction. If we do not look like this, then, although we will defeat the enemy, in 30 years the communist danger will arise again. We are not waging war in order to conserve our enemy.
Future political map of Russia: Northern Russia belongs to Finland, protectorates in the Baltic States, Ukraine, Belarus.
The struggle against Russia: the destruction of the Bolshevik commissars and the communist intelligentsia. The new states must be socialist, but without their own intelligentsia. We must not allow a new intelligentsia to form. Here only the primitive socialist intelligentsia will suffice. We must fight against the poison of demoralization. This is far from a military-judicial issue. Unit and subunit commanders are required to know the aims of the war. They must lead in the struggle ..., firmly hold the troops in their hands. The commander must give his orders, taking into account the mood of the troops.
The war will be very different from the war in the West. In the East, cruelty is a boon for the future. Commanders must make sacrifices and overcome their hesitation...
Diary of the Chief of the General Staff of the Ground Forces F. Halder
The economic goals are formulated in the directive of Reichsmarschall Goering (written no later than June 16, 1941):
I. According to the orders of the Führer, it is necessary to take all measures for the immediate and possible fullest possible use of the occupied regions in the interests of Germany. All activities that could hinder the achievement of this goal should be postponed or completely abandoned.
II. The use of the areas subject to occupation should be carried out primarily in the field of the food and oil sectors of the economy. To get as much food and oil for Germany as possible is the main economic goal of the campaign. Along with this, other raw materials from the occupied regions must also be provided to German industry, as far as it is technically possible and with due regard for the preservation of industry in these regions. As regards the type and volume of industrial production in the occupied regions, which must be preserved, restored or reorganized, this should also be determined in the very first place in accordance with the requirements that the use of agriculture and the oil industry places on the German war economy.
German propaganda poster "Hitler's soldiers are friends of the people".
This clearly expresses the guidelines for managing the economy in the occupied regions. This applies both to the main goals and to individual tasks that help achieve them. In addition, this also suggests that tasks that are not consistent with the main goal setting or prevent it from being met should be abandoned, even if their implementation in certain cases seems desirable. The point of view that the occupied regions should be put in order as soon as possible and their economy should be restored is completely inappropriate. On the contrary, the attitude towards individual parts of the country should be differentiated. The development of the economy and the maintenance of order should be carried out only in those areas where we can extract significant reserves of agricultural products and oil. And in other parts of the country that cannot feed themselves, that is, in Central and Northern Russia, economic activity should be limited to the use of discovered reserves.
Main economic tasks
In the Caucasus, it was supposed to create an autonomous region (Reichskommissariat) as part of the Third Reich. The capital is Tbilisi. The territory would cover the entire Soviet Caucasus from Turkey and Iran to the Don and Volga. As part of the Reichskommissariat, it was planned to create national entities. The economy of this region was to be based on oil production and agriculture.
As the Russian historian Gennady Bordyugov writes, “the political and military leadership of Germany from the very beginning ... demanded that the soldiers be ready for unlawful, criminal, in fact, actions. Hitler's ideas on this subject were a consistent development of those political principles that he outlined in his books written back in the 1920s ... As mentioned above, on March 30, 1941, at a secret meeting, Hitler, speaking to 250 generals, whose troops were to participate in Operation Barbarossa, called Bolshevism a manifestation of " social crime“. He stated that " it's about the fight to the annihilation“».
According to the order of the head of the Wehrmacht High Command, Field Marshal Keitel of May 13, 1941 “On military jurisdiction in the Barbarossa region and on the special powers of the troops”, signed by him on the basis of Hitler’s orders, a regime of unlimited terror was actually declared on the territory of the USSR occupied by German troops . The order contained a clause that actually freed the occupiers from responsibility for crimes against the civilian population: “ Initiation of prosecution for acts committed by military personnel and service personnel in relation to hostile civilians is not mandatory even in cases where these acts simultaneously amount to a war crime or misdemeanor».
Gennady Bordyugov also points to the existence of other documentary evidence of the attitude of German military leaders to the civilian population in the combat zone - for example, the commander of the 6th Army, von Reichenau, demands (July 10, 1941) to shoot " plainclothes soldiers, easily recognizable by their short hair", and " civilians whose manners and behavior appear to be hostile", General G. Hot (November 1941) -" immediately and ruthlessly stop every move of active or passive resistance", Commander of the 254th division, Lieutenant General von Weschnitta (December 2, 1941) -" fire without warning at any civilian of any age or gender who approaches the front line" and " immediately shoot anyone suspected of espionage».
There was no food supply to the population by the occupying authorities, and urban residents found themselves in especially difficult conditions. In the occupied territories, fines, corporal punishment, taxes in kind and money were imposed everywhere, the amounts of which were for the most part set arbitrarily by the occupying authorities. The invaders applied various repressions to tax evaders, up to execution and large-scale punitive operations.
Nazi demonstration on Freedom Square in Minsk, 1943.
The operation proceeded according to plan, excluding shifts in some of its stages in time. Their main reason was as follows. On the map, the settlement of Borki is shown as a compactly located village. In fact, it turned out that this village extends for 6 - 7 km in length and width. When this was established by me at dawn, I expanded the cordon on the eastern side and organized the coverage of the village in the form of pincers while increasing the distance between the posts. As a result, I managed to capture and deliver to the gathering place all the inhabitants of the village, without exception. It turned out to be favorable that the purpose for which the population was rounded up was unknown to him until the last moment. Calm reigned at the gathering place, the number of posts was reduced to a minimum, and the released forces could be used in the further course of the operation. The team of gravediggers received shovels only at the place of execution, thanks to which the population remained in the dark about what was to come. Imperceptibly mounted light machine guns suppressed the panic that had risen from the very beginning, when the first shots were fired from the place of execution, located 700 meters from the village. The two men tried to run, but after a few steps they fell down, hit by machine-gun fire. The firing started at 9:00. 00 min. and ended at 6 pm. 00 min. Of the 809 rounded up, 104 people (politically reliable families) were released, among them were the working estates of Mokrana. The execution took place without any complications, the preparatory measures turned out to be very appropriate.
The confiscation of grain and implements took place, except for a shift in time, systematically. The number of supplies turned out to be sufficient, since the amount of grain was not large and the points for pouring unthreshed grain were not very far ...
Household utensils and agricultural implements were taken away by carts with bread.
I give the numerical result of the execution. 705 people were shot, including 203 men, 372 women, and 130 children.
The number of collected livestock can only be determined approximately, since no census was made at the collection point: horses - 45, cattle - 250, calves - 65, pigs and piglets - 450 and sheep - 300. Poultry could be found only in separate cases. What was found was handed over to the released residents.
Collected from inventory: 70 carts, 200 plows and harrows, 5 winnowers, 25 straw cutters and other small inventory.
All the confiscated grain, implements and livestock were handed over to the manager of the Mokrana state estate...
During the operation in Borki, the following were used up: rifle cartridges - 786, cartridges for machine guns - 2496 pieces. There were no losses in the company. One shiftmaster with suspected jaundice was sent to a hospital in Brest.
Deputy company commander Ober-Lieutenant of the security police Müller
In the occupied territory of the USSR, the destruction of Soviet prisoners of war, who fell into the hands of the advancing German troops, was going on.
For 1942, the map shows the maximum advance fascist troops deep into the Soviet Union. On the scale of the Soviet Union, this is a small part, but what were the victims in the occupied territories.
If you look closely, then in the north the Germans stopped in the area of \u200b\u200bthe current Republic of Karelia, then Leningrad, Kalinin, Moscow, Voronezh, Stalingrad. In the south we reached the region of the city of Grozny. You can't describe it in two words.
From the school history course, we know that the Nazis in the USSR reached such cities as Moscow, Leningrad, Stalingrad (now Volgograd), Grozny, Kalinin, Voronezh. After 1942, when the Nazis advanced as far as possible across the territory of the USSR, they began to retreat. You can see the progress of their progress on the map in more detail:
The Germans quite advanced deep into the territory of the Soviet Union. But they never managed to take strategically important cities: neither Moscow nor Leningrad were subdued. In the Leningrad direction, they were stopped near the town of Tikhvin. On the Kalinin direction - near the village of Mednoye. Near Stalingrad we reached the Volga, the last outpost - the village of Kuporosnoye. On the western front in the area of the city of Rzhev, the Germans managed to be knocked out at the cost of incredible efforts (recall famous poem Tvardovsky I was killed near Rzhev). They also fought furiously for the Caucasus, which was of strategic importance - access to the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf. Were stopped near the city of Maykop.
Where the Nazis got to is already a well-known matter, and every historian can accurately tell everything in detail, about every point, about every city and village in which fierce battles took place, everything is especially well described and remains in memory in books that can be through many years just to pick up and read.
And this is what the map looks like:
A lot of maps are shown, but I will say in words: During the Great Patriotic War, the Nazis came close to Moscow, they were only 30 km from Moscow, but they were stopped there. Naturally, I know everything about the blockade of Leningrad, Battle of Kursk, Rzhev direction. Here is a map of the battle for Moscow.
http://dp60.narod.ru/image/maps/330.jpg
This is the line of maximum advance of the Germans amp; Co deep into Soviet territory.
There are many types of cards.
To be honest, I don’t really trust the Internet, I trust history textbooks more.
I myself live in Belarus and therefore the map may not be much different.
But here's a photo I took, just for you!
The Nazis went far, but, as you know, they failed to capture Moscow. Not so long ago I was interested in information when the Nazis began to retreat. It was possible to find only some facts of events near Moscow. You can quote:
The map shows the territory of the USSR, which the Germans managed to pass before November 15, 1942 (after which they went a little deeper and began to retreat):
The German attack on the USSR was in 1941, they almost achieved their goal, and the Nazis only had about thirty kilometers to reach Moscow, but they still failed, and here is a map where everything is described in detail
They were near Moscow - 30 km, and they were defeated there, it’s better to read it on Wikipedia, everything is described in detail there and there are dates from the video, see here. And here is the map in the pictures below, everything is marked with black arrows.
During the Great Patriotic War, Nazi Germany captured a significant territory of the former USSR.
The troops of the Third Reich occupied many republics of the then union. Among them are part of the RSFSR, Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Belarus, the Baltic republics.
Below on the map you can see the border (thick red line), where the Nazis entered during the hostilities:
After capture Nazi Germany The Baltic States, Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine and a number of western regions of the RSFSR, tens of millions of Soviet citizens found themselves in the zone of occupation. From that moment on, they had to live in fact in a new state.
In the zone of occupation
On July 17, 1941, on the basis of Hitler's order "On Civil Administration in the Occupied Eastern Regions", under the leadership of Alfred Rosenberg, the "Imperial Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories" was created, which subjugates two administrative units: the Reichskommissariat Ostland with the center in Riga and the Reichskommissariat Ukraine with the center in Rivne.
Later it was supposed to create the Reichskommissariat Muscovy, which was supposed to include the entire European part Russia.
Not all residents of the regions of the USSR occupied by Germany were able to move to the rear. By different reasons about 70 million Soviet citizens remained behind the front line, who suffered severe trials.
The occupied territories of the USSR, first of all, were supposed to serve as a raw material and food base for Germany, and the population - a cheap labor force. Therefore, Hitler, if possible, demanded that agriculture and industry be preserved here, which were of great interest to the German war economy.
"Draconian Measures"
One of the primary tasks of the German authorities in the occupied territories of the USSR was to ensure order. In the order of Wilhelm Keitel, it was reported that, in view of the vastness of the areas controlled by Germany, it was necessary to suppress the resistance of the civilian population by intimidating them.
"To maintain order, commanders should not call for reinforcements, but take the most draconian measures."
The occupation authorities kept strict control of the local population: all residents were subject to registration with the police, moreover, they were forbidden to leave places without permission permanent residence. Violation of any regulation, for example, the use of a well from which the Germans took water, could result in severe punishment up to and including the death penalty by hanging.
The German command, fearing protest and disobedience of the civilian population, gave more and more frightening orders. So on July 10, 1941, the commander of the 6th Army, Walther von Reichenau, demanded "to shoot soldiers in civilian clothes who are easily recognizable by their short haircut," and on December 2, 1941, a directive was issued calling for "shoot without warning at any civilian of any age and floor that is approaching the front line" and also "immediately shoot anyone suspected of espionage."
The German authorities expressed every interest in reducing the local population. Martin Bormann sent a directive to Alfred Rosenberg, in which he recommended to welcome the occupied eastern territories abortion of girls and women of the "non-German population", as well as to support the intensive trade in contraceptives.
The most popular method of reducing the civilian population used by the Nazis remained executions. Liquidations were carried out everywhere. Entire villages were exterminated, often based solely on the suspicion of an illegal act. So in the Latvian village of Borki, out of 809 inhabitants, 705 were shot, of which 130 were children - the rest were released as “politically reliable”.
Disabled and sick citizens were subject to regular destruction. So already during the retreat in the Belarusian village of Gurki, the Germans poisoned two echelons with soup with local residents who were not subject to export to Germany, and in Minsk in just two days - on November 18 and 19, 1944, the Germans poisoned 1,500 disabled old people, women and children.
The occupying authorities responded with mass executions to the killings of the German military. For example, after the murder in Taganrog German officer and five soldiers in the yard of plant No. 31, 300 innocent civilians were shot. And for damaging the telegraph station in the same Taganrog, 153 people were shot.
Russian historian Alexander Dyukov, describing the cruelty of the occupation regime, noted that, "according to the most conservative estimates, one in five of the seventy million Soviet citizens who were under occupation did not live to see the Victory."
Speaking at Nuremberg Trials a representative of the American side noted that "the atrocities committed by the armed forces and other organizations of the Third Reich in the East were so amazingly monstrous that the human mind can hardly comprehend them." According to the American prosecutor, these atrocities were not spontaneous, but represented a consistent logical system.
"Hunger Plan"
Another terrible means that led to a massive reduction in the civilian population was the "Hunger Plan", developed by Herbert Bakke. The "hunger plan" was part of the economic strategy of the Third Reich, according to which no more than 30 million people were to remain from the former number of inhabitants of the USSR. The food reserves released in this way were to be used to meet the needs of the German army.
One of the notes of a high-ranking German official stated the following: "The war will continue if the Wehrmacht in the third year of the war is fully provided with food from Russia." As an inevitable fact, it was noted that "tens of millions of people will die of hunger if we take everything we need from the country."
The "hunger plan" primarily affected the Soviet prisoners of war, who received practically no food. During the entire period of the war, according to historians, almost 2 million people died of starvation among Soviet prisoners of war.
No less painful famine hit those whom the Germans expected to destroy in the first place - Jews and gypsies. For example, Jews were forbidden to purchase milk, butter, eggs, meat and vegetables.
The food "portion" for the Jews of Minsk, who were under the jurisdiction of the Army Group "Center", did not exceed 420 kilocalories per day - this led to the deaths of tens of thousands of people in winter period 1941-1942.
The most severe conditions were in the "evacuated zone" 30-50 km deep, which was directly adjacent to the front line. The entire civilian population of this line was forcibly sent to the rear: the settlers were placed in the houses of local residents or in camps, but in the absence of places they could be placed in non-residential premises- sheds, pigsties. The settlers living in the camps for the most part did not receive any food - at best, once a day "liquid gruel".
The height of cynicism is the so-called “12 commandments” of Bakke, one of which says that “Russian people have been accustomed for hundreds of years to poverty, hunger and unpretentiousness. His stomach is distensible, so [not allow] any fake pity.”
The academic year 1941-1942 never began for many schoolchildren in the occupied territories. Germany counted on a lightning victory, and therefore did not plan long-term programs. However, by the next school year, a decree of the German authorities was promulgated, which announced that all children aged 8 to 12 years old (born 1930-1934) were obliged to regularly attend 4-grade school from the beginning school year appointed on October 1, 1942.
If for some reason the children could not attend school, the parents or persons replacing them within 3 days had to submit an application to the head of the school. For each violation of school attendance, the administration levied a fine of 100 rubles.
The main task of the "German schools" was not to teach, but to instill obedience and discipline. Much attention was paid to hygiene and health issues.
According to Hitler, a Soviet person had to be able to write and read, and he did not need more. Now the walls school classes instead of portraits of Stalin, images of the Fuhrer were adorned, and the children, standing in front of the German generals, were forced to recite: “Glory to you, German eagles, glory to the wise leader! I bow my peasant head low, low.
It is curious that the Law of God appeared among school subjects, but history in its traditional sense disappeared. Pupils in grades 6-7 had to study books promoting anti-Semitism - "At the origins of great hatred" or "Jewish dominance in modern world". From foreign languages only German remained.
At first, classes were held on Soviet textbooks, however, any mention of the party and the works of Jewish authors was removed from there. This was forced to do by the schoolchildren themselves, who at the lessons on command sealed “unnecessary places” with paper. Returning to the work of the Smolensk administration, it should be noted that its employees took care of the refugees to the best of their ability: they were given bread, free food stamps, and sent to social hostels. In December 1942, 17,307 rubles were spent on disabled people alone.
Here is an example of the menu of Smolensk social canteens. Lunch consisted of two courses. For the first, barley or potato soups, borscht and fresh cabbage were served; for the second was barley porridge, mashed potatoes, stewed cabbage, potato cutlets and rye pies with porridge and carrots, meat cutlets and goulash were also sometimes served.
The Germans mainly used the civilian population for hard work - building bridges, clearing roads, peat extraction or logging. They worked from 6 am until late at night. Those who worked slowly could be shot as a warning to others. In some cities, such as Bryansk, Orel and Smolensk, Soviet workers were assigned identification numbers. The German authorities motivated this by the unwillingness to "pronounce Russian names and surnames incorrectly."
Curiously, at first the occupying authorities announced that taxes would be lower than under the Soviet regime, but in reality they added taxes on doors, windows, dogs, extra furniture and even a beard. According to one of the women who survived the occupation, many then existed according to the principle “they lived one day - and thank God.”
Wars in different times not only foot soldiers, cavalry, tanks, guns and aircraft helped to win, but also at least one more element that can be called population information processing. The Nazi machine, which in June 1941, moved to the Soviet Union, having managed to crush almost the whole of Europe before it, tried to effectively use propaganda levers so that among the population remaining in the occupied territories, sow as a steady hostility to Soviet power and to involve this population in active cooperation with the occupying forces.
Historians admit that in the first months of the Great Patriotic War, Nazi propaganda brought tangible results to the Third Reich in the occupied territories of the USSR. The propaganda "brain" of the entire Third Reich can be considered Joseph Goebbels, who, over the years of his work as Reich Minister of Education and Propaganda, managed to hone the sting information war to extreme sharpness.
Even from several of his theses, it is clear what methods one of Hitler's closest associates used to achieve his goals:
Propaganda must, especially in time of war, renounce the ideas of humanism and aesthetics, however highly we value them, because in the struggle of the people it is about nothing else but its being.
Another thesis of Goebbels:
Propaganda must necessarily be limited to a minimum, but at the same time repeated constantly. Perseverance is an important prerequisite for her success.
It was these main theses that the Nazi propaganda machine used to develop success on the territory of the USSR at the first stage of the war. Realizing that one of the important components of the success of the German army on the territory of the Soviet Union is the loyal attitude of the local population towards it, the main ideologists of the information processing of Soviet citizens decided to play the main trump card. This trump card was simple and, at the same time, extremely effective for certain categories of people. It consisted in the fact that the occupied territories of the USSR were literally inundated with narrowly targeted materials that openly, let's say, advertised Wehrmacht soldiers as liberators from the "Bolshevik yoke". The “liberators” were portrayed either with radiant smiles against the background of groups of joyful “liberated” Soviet children, or with formidable faces that showed what “righteous” anger they harbor towards the Bolsheviks and other “undesirable elements” of Soviet society.
Third Reich propaganda poster
At the same time, the Nazi occupying forces used the power they had gained to build on their success with a principle that was actively applied even in Ancient Rome. The principle is well-known, and it says: "divide and rule." The first part of this principle manifested itself in the exposure of the so-called Jewish question in the occupied territories, when a baited hook was thrown to the citizens in the form of "in all troubles Soviet people world Jewry is to blame." It's amazing how easily tens of thousands Soviet people swallowed this bait, not without enthusiasm fulfilling the will of the "liberators" in terms of the total destruction of the Jewish population of such cities as Riga, Kyiv, Minsk, Smolensk. Propaganda did its job: people were divided into classes, in which one class was to be embodied in accomplices of Nazism and executioners, and the other - to become a victim of the sick fantasy of one person.
Citizens were urged to participate in Jewish pogroms, search for the families of political workers who did not have time to get out of the territories occupied by the Germans. Some tried to protect themselves from the collapsed propaganda flow coming from Germany, while others actively tried on the role of assistants to the "liberation army", willingly signing up for police squads to establish a new order on the territory of the so-called Reichskommissariats.
Propaganda promised literally mountains of gold to those who were ready to cooperate with the German troops: from a solid monetary allowance at that time, food rations to the opportunity to exercise their power against persons in the entrusted territory. Mass registration in the police (polizei) was noted on the territory of the Reyskomissariat Ostland, which included the Baltic Republics, eastern Poland and western Belarus. The status of a policeman attracted all those who saw in the German army something that was "seriously and for a long time." At the same time, among the policemen, let's say, recruited by the German side, there could be people who a few weeks ago (before the German occupation) declared their active support for the Soviet regime ... A sort of overt hypocrisy, based on the basest human feelings, skillfully used by the German occupation authorities to solve their problems.
In the photo - policemen of the city of Rivne
And among these tasks was the task of cultivating collaborationism, which grew on the soil of opportunism. The problem was solved different ways: somewhere it was outright intimidation - the same whip, somewhere attraction with the help of a "carrot" in the form of a description of all bright colors the life of a man collaborating with the new authorities. The propaganda press was used constantly.
As one of the methods of the Nazis in the occupied territories, there was a propaganda method associated with the fact that the Third Reich was supposedly going to restore Russian Orthodox Church. Orthodox believers, especially representatives of the clergy, greeted the news very positively, which came from the lips of the occupying troops. Initially, the priests were indeed given a certain freedom in the occupied territories, however, only the person who firmly sits on his convictions can call what the Nazis did in the occupied regions of the USSR the restoration of the church and the spiritual traditions of the Russian people.
The move with the "revival" of the role of the ROC is a bright and attractive picture, which in fact had nothing to do with reality. The church eventually became one of the mechanisms for a propaganda attack on the people, who found themselves literally face to face with the enslavers.
Tells Tatyana Ivanovna Shapenko(born 1931), resident of the city of Rylsk, Kursk region. This ancient Russian city from October 5, 1941 to August 30, 1943 was under German occupation.
When the Germans entered the city, my younger sister and I hid behind a long wooden fence and peered out into the street through a crack. I remember how, a few minutes before, a local clerk, or whatever his rank was called in the church, ran down the street with a large circle of black bread and kept trying to beg someone for a clean towel. He shouted something like: come out, don't be afraid, these are our saviors coming. While he was running he was joined by several other people whom I did not know. It seems that they didn’t wait for the towel, but they treated the Germans with bread ... I remember this picture, and I also remember how these “saviors” then shook out every house, looked for food, something else ...
I also remember how the Germans first turned on their music at full volume, and then some voice told for a long time in such bad Russian that their army had come to help us, and the German authorities would now give us bread and work. This was before the houses were robbed.
I remember how a flag with a black swastika stuck out from the window of the bell tower for a long time. Then one of the boys took it off. They searched for him for a long time, they said: if they don’t catch him, ten others will be shot ...
Says a resident of the Voronezh region Anastasia Vasilievna Nikulina(born 1930). In 1941-1957 she lived in the city of Bryansk (occupied from October 6, 1941 to September 17, 1943).
I was then 11-12 years old. Unfortunately, I don't remember much. I will tell you what stuck in my memory until the end of my days. The three of us lived together: me, my mother and my older sister. My sister was already 19, she worked in the shop before the arrival of the Germans. So when the Germans occupied the city, a guy - our Russian - often began to drop in on us. Kind of like a boyfriend to his sister. Misha, it seems ... As I later found out, he and Olga (sister) still worked at the factory. Then the mother was still surprised - why Mishka was not at the front, how he remained in the city. In general, I walked and walked, and then in the evening somehow (either late autumn, then winter was already) this Misha suddenly collapses in black high boots, the jacket is also black, a hat, I remember, and a white bandage on my arm. We already knew then that this is how the policemen dress up. Went into the house. His mother saw him with this bandage, got up from the table (she, I remember, sewed something for me) and said quietly like this: get out of my house, German henchman.
And my sister also stood next to her mother ... He stood, stood, swore, turned around and left, and then, maybe half an hour later, he returns, and with him two more - all with rifles. Mother was seized, Olga was seized, they barely let her put on her shoes and took her somewhere. I - sobbing ... I fell on the porch, my leg was severely dislocated, and they were taken away into the night. Then Olya returned ... Dirty, torn clothes, blood on her face. There are no tears. Eyes, I remember, some kind of inhuman ... He says: mother ... mother ... So detached. It wasn't even her voice...
Then I found out what happened. And with Olya ... And with her mother ... Only Olya was released, and her mother was killed ... With the butt of a rifle ... We were not even allowed to bury her in a Christian way ...
And when our city was liberated in 1943, several policemen (this Misha was no longer there) said that they were partisans in the forests. But how they partisans, everyone in our area knew ... Now I remember: forgive me, Lord, I was so happy when they were hanged right from our car. I kept saying to myself: this is for you, you bastards, for your mother! .. And I myself was looking for that Misha in the crowd with my eyes ...
The propaganda machine used every opportunity to win more people over to the side of the Third Reich. One of these moves was film screenings in cinemas (improvised cinemas) of the occupied cities. These screenings began with the invariable "Die Deutsche Wochenschau" - a propaganda film magazine telling about the "glorious" victories of the Wehrmacht. These magazines were broadcast, including on the territory of Germany, demonstrating what "non-humans" the "Aryan" soldiers had to fight with. Propaganda used Red Army soldiers from Central Asia or, for example, Yakutia as "non-humans". In general, if the Red Army soldier had a Mongoloid appearance, then he was just the perfect “hero” for Wochenschau, a magazine designed to show the superiority of the German army and the Aryan race over everything and everyone.
propaganda poster
Only now the same magazines tried not to tell that the Reich even encourages other representatives of the Mongoloid race (Japanese, for example). They tried not to tell the citizens of the Reich that the "dirty and dark Slavs" in the person of the Romanian regiments were actively fighting on the side of the Wehrmacht. Otherwise, the very fact of the “Aryan conquest of the world” would have been clearly smeared ...
But in these and other similar "film sketches" it was often shown how "wonderful" life is for those Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians who "left" to work in the Third Reich. Coffee with cream, pressed uniforms, leather boots, rivers of beer, sausages, sanatoriums and even swimming pools…
Nazi propaganda poster
Like, you just recognize the Third Reich together with Adolf Hitler as a legitimate authority, you just betray your neighbor, take part in anti-Jewish pogroms, swear allegiance to the new order ...
However, with all the power of this propaganda machine, it never managed to capture the minds of the majority. Yes - there were those who could not resist the temptation to touch the new government, there were those who naively believed that the new government really sees individuals in them and protects their interests. But no propaganda attempts could break the will of the people, which was stronger than any idea of division, segregation, enslavement.
The enemy realized that no posters and no scrupulously selected shots could force these people to their knees.
