Nazi Rule in Eastern and Western Europe (OCR GCSE History B (Schools History Project)): Revision Note

Summary

By 1942, much of Europe had been conquered by the Nazis. The treatment of people in the occupied countries varied from country to country. Nazi racial beliefs meant that the populations in Eastern Europe often received worse treatment than those in Western Europe.

Regardless of where they lived, Jewish populations were treated appallingly and were rounded up and sent to concentration camps and death camps.

Nazi occupation of Europe

• World War 2 began with a series of significant military victories for Hitler and the Nazis

  • By 1942, they had conquered and occupied territory that stretched from France's Atlantic Coast in the west to the gates of Moscow in the east

• Each country occupied by the Nazis was treated differently

  • Due to the Nazi's racist beliefs, the populations in countries to the east generally suffered worse treatment than the Nazi-occupied countries in western Europe

  • This can be seen in the different experiences of the populations of Poland and the Netherlands

NOTE: Please insert Nazi controlled Europe map here

The Nazi occupation of Poland

• The Poland that existed in 1939 had been created at the end of the First World War in 1918

  • Its creation had angered many Germans because it cut Germany in two

    • The 'Polish Corridor" gave Poland access to the Baltic Sea

    • This meant the German province of East Prussia was separated from the rest of Germany

  • The Nazis saw the land in western Poland as belonging to Germany, as it had done in the 1800s

    • They were determined to regain this land

    • The aim was to use it as Lebensraum or living space for the German population

The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

• In August 1939, Nazi Germany signed an agreement with the Soviet Union in which they promised not to attack each other

  • This became known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

• The following month, Hitler invaded and occupied western Poland

  • The Soviet Union occupied eastern Poland shortly after

• The central region of Poland was renamed the General Government and was governed by the Nazis

  • The name Poland had been erased from the map

NOTE: Please insert Map of Poland

Nazi policy in Poland

• The Nazis removed Polish or Slavic people from the areas that had become part of Germany

  • Most were moved to the General Government region

  • Their homes and lands in the west were taken over by 500,000 ethnic Germans or Aryans

• The General Government region was placed under the control of Hans Frank

  • Frank tried to destroy the Polish culture and identity by closing schools and universities

  • He arrested around 30,000 prominent and influential Polish people

    • Many died during torture or imprisonment

Deportation to Germany

• Over 1.5 million Polish people were sent to Germany and forced to work in labour camps

  • Polish forced labourers had to wear a letter P on their clothing to mark them out

The Polish Jewish population

• Jewish people in Poland were immediately singled out

  • From 1940, they were forced to live in overcrowded and walled-in areas of towns known as ghettos

  • As the Nazis constructed a network of concentration camps and death camps across Poland, Jewish people were moved to these camps and systematically murdered

    • It is estimated that around 3 million of Poland's 3.5 million Jewish people were killed during the Nazi occupation

Polish resistance to the Nazis

• When the Nazis invaded in 1939, the Polish government escaped to London

  • From London, they worked to coordinate a secret resistance movement within Poland

• In August 1944, as the Nazi armies retreated across Europe, in Poland, an uprising was launched to overthrow the Nazi occupiers

  • The uprising lasted for two months before it was finally ended by the Nazis

  • An infuriated Hitler ordered the destruction of Poland's capital city - Warsaw

    • Around 200,000 Polish people were killed during the uprising

The Nazi occupation of the Netherlands

• The Nazi invasion of the Netherlands began on 10th May 1940

• After the port city of Rotterdam was heavily bombed and 800 people were killed, the government of the Netherlands surrendered

  • The Dutch royal family escaped to London

  • The Netherlands were put under the control of a Nazi governor named Arthur Seyss-Inquart

• The Nazis had a favourable view of the Dutch because they believed they were of the same ethnic background

  • As a result, they were not treated as harshly as the Polish population

  • The education system was left untouched

  • Civil servants were allowed to keep their jobs

Why did the Nazis change their policy towards occupation in the Netherlands in 1943?

• The Nazis had hoped that the Dutch population would:

  • Respect the Nazis

  • Comply with Nazi regulations and laws

• At first, there was little resistance to Nazi rule

• Then the Dutch Jewish population began to be targeted and rounded up

  • This led to strikes by Dutch transport workers

    • This aimed to prevent the deportation of Jewish people in 1942

  • The Nazis responded by executing some of the strikers

  • This marked a hardening of the Nazi attitude towards the Dutch people

  • The targeting of the Dutch Jewish population continued

    • It is believed that 107,000 of the 140,000 Dutch Jews were deported to concentration camps and death camps

• A shortage of labour also changed the treatment of the Dutch people by the Nazis

• In April 1943, the Nazis announced that 300,000 Dutch men would be taken to Germany to work as labourers

  • This triggered strikes, protests and the deaths of protestors

  • It did not stop the Nazi policy of forcing Dutch men to go and work in Germany

• In 1944, the Nazis announced that all Dutch men aged between 16 and 60 were required for forced labour in Germany

  • Around 500,000 Dutch men were eventually sent to Germany to work

Dutch Resistance

• The increasingly harsh treatment led to the development of a Dutch resistance movement

  • Many people helped men who were hiding from being sent to Germany as forced labourers

  • Others printed anti-Nazi leaflets on secret printing presses

  • Some people used violence and attacked Nazi soldiers and officials

  • It is estimated that some 2000 members of the Dutch resistance were murdered by the Nazis

Starvation

• In the final months of the war, there were severe food shortages in the Netherlands

  • The Nazis prioritised food going to their own population and armies

  • The situation was possibly made worse in the Netherlands by the Dutch railway workers going on strike and 30,000 of them going into hiding

  • Around 20,000 Dutch people died of starvation in the final years of the war

• The Nazi occupation of the Netherlands came to an end on 5th May 1945 when Canadian soldiers entered the country