2-WWII+Yugoslavia+OT

//Background//: The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was invaded by the Axis powers in an attack led by Germany on April 6th, 1941. The immediate reason for the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav government announcement that it would not honor its obligations under an agreement announced on March 25, 1941, by which Yugoslavia joined the Axis and would permit transit through its territory to German troops headed forGreece. The Axis invasion involved the German, Italian, Hungarian, and Bulgarian militaries. The invasion ended shortly thereafter with the signing of an armistice on the 17th of the same month. The armistice was based on the unconditional surrender of the Royal Yugoslav Army. The terms were extremely harsh, doling out parts of Yugoslavia between the Axis countries. Thus, Yugoslavia became an occupied territory. Some areas of Yugoslavia were annexed by neighboring Axis countries, some remained occupied, and in others Axis puppet states were created.

//What were the circumstances in the Occupied Territory that compelled the policies implemented by the occupying power there? How was policy shaped to address these circumstances? //

Before the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia, there was already considerable ethnic tension in the country. Generally speaking, there were two major ethnic groups - the Serbs and the Croats - and three other smaller ethnic groups - Albanians, Macedonians, Slovenes. The invading powers took advantage of these tensions to shape and maintain new territorial boundaries. For example, Germany annexed northern and eastern Slovenia and occupied the Serb Banat, which had a significant ethnic German minority. It also established a military occupation administration in Serbia proper, based in Belgrade. Italy annexed southern and eastern Slovenia and occupied the Yugoslav coastline along the Adriatic Sea, including Montenegro. Thus, the territorial policies of the invading powers were based largely on already existing ethnic tensions.

//A map of occupied Yu goslavia to the left. //

The ethnic tensions also caused the Axis countries to implement brutal policies of persecution against certain ethnic groups. Germany unleashed a wave of terror and “Germanization” in northern Slovenia. This involved uprooting Slovenes and resettling them in Serbia, moving German colonists onto Slovenian farms, and attempting to eradicate much of Slovenian culture. Germany wished to completely dominate the areas of Yugoslavia that it controlled, which meant that it had to make the people in those territories more compliant by Germanizing them.

As part of the domination and subjugation of Serbia, the Axis powers supported the Ustasa, also called the Croatian Revolutionary Movement, which was a Croatian fascist and terrorist organization which was active before and during World War II. Its members, Ustase, were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of citizens of Yugoslavia, particularly Serbs. Ustase storm troopers began eliminating the Serbs, Jews, and Gypsies in the Independent State of Croatia, an Axis puppet state, through forced religious conversion, deportation, and systematic violence. However, the Axis countries’ support of the Ustase did not last long due to the overly brutal and chaotic nature of their campaign. Even the Germans were appalled by Ustase violence, and Germany feared the slaughter would provoke greater Serbian resistance. The Ustasa was ultimately unable to maintain control over Croatia because it was too unstable, so Italy and Germany were forced to intervene more heavily. In all, Croat authorities killed between 320,000 and 340,000 ethnic Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina between 1941 and 1942. By the end of 1941, Croat authorities had arrested about two-thirds of the approximately 32,000 Jews of Croatia and put them in camps throughout the country.

Jews and Serbs were also massacred in areas occupied by the Albanians and the Hungarians. Thousands of Serbs fled to Serbia, where the Germans had established a puppet regime under former Yugoslav General Milan Nedic. In the south of Yugoslavia, many Macedonians actually welcomed Bulgarian forces at first, believing that they would be granted autonomy. However, a harsh Bulgarianization campaign that sought to destroy the region’s culture quickly killed their support. The assimilation of the people of Yugoslavia and the destruction of their various cultures was a huge part of Axis policy while Yugoslavia was occupied.

In addition to massacring Jews across Yugoslavia, the Axis countries that were occupying Yugoslavia also sent a great number of them to German concentration camps. For example, in Macedonia and in the Serb province of Pirot, Bulgarian military and police officials rounded up nearly the entire Jewish population—more than 7,700 people— into a transit camp in March of 1943. The Bulgarian authorities then handed the Jews over the Germany at the Serb border, from which the Germans took custody of the transport and sent the train to theTreblinkakilling center in German-occupied Poland. Almost none of the Macedonian and Pirot Jews whom the Bulgarian authorities deported survived. In addition to the puppet Nedic government in Serbia, the Germans relied on Albanian bureaucrats, Bulgarian military and police officials, Hungarian gendarmes, and the Croat government establishment along with the Ustasa militia to implement German policy in occupied and dismembered Yugoslavia. All were involved in the deportation and murder of Jews, Roma, Communists, and other political opponents in Yugoslavia.In fact, German authorities recruited heavily for theWaffen SS—a multi-ethnic, multi-national military force of Germany—among ethnic Germans in the Banat, Slovenia, Croatia, and other areas in Yugoslavia. Many ethnic Germans across Yugoslavia actually welcomed the invading Axis powers. In the Banat and Slovenia, ethnic Germans were subject to the German draft, though many volunteered for service in the Waffen SS and police forces in the Banat and Serbia. Some ethnic Germans were conscripted—in some cases involving the use of force.

//What were the effects of the occupation of your territory on the occupying power's war effort?//

For the invasion of Yugoslavia, Germany deployed the German 2nd Army and parts of the 12th Army, along with significant support from the air force. There were nineteen German divisions. The German force included three well-equipped independent motorized infantry regiments and was supported by over 750 aircraft. The Italian 2nd Army and 9th Army sent a total of 22 divisions and 666 aircraft for the invasion. The Hungarian 3rd Army also participated in the invasion, with support from over 500 aircraft.

There were certain ethnic groups that welcomed the Axis powers, or at least certain countries in the Axis alliance. For example, many ethnic Germans in Yugoslavia embraced the arrival of German troops. However, for the most part, relations between the invading countries and the Yugoslavs were extremely hostile and strained. In the summer of 1941, there was an uprising based in Serbia and Bosnia and initiated by the Communist-led Partisan Movement and by the Serb nationalist Cetnik Movement. It inflicted serious damage upon German military and police personnel. Hitler issued a decree that for every German killed—including ethnic Germans in Serbia and the Banat— German authorities were to shoot one hundred hostages from the resistance. Thus, during the late summer and autumn of 1941, German military and police units, using this order as justification, shot nearly all male Serb Jews (approximately 8,000 people), roughly 2,000 confirmed or suspected communists, many Serb nationalists, and about 1,000 male Roma. By mid 1942, there were essentially no Jews left alive in Serbia unless they had joined the Partisan movement. Similar brutality was seen in other areas as well. In January of 1942, troops from the Hungarian Military shot roughly 3,000 people—some 2,500 Serbs and 600 Jews— in city of Novi Sad. It was supposedly punishment for some act of subterfuge the Serbs and Jews had committed.

Clearly, the invading Axis powers viewed most of the Yugoslavs—in particular the Yugoslavs who were of a different ethnicity than them—as subhuman. Serbs, Jews, and Roma in particular suffered greatly at the hands of these countries. The local population by and large feared and detested the Axis powers because those countries systematically destroyed their culture and often slaughtered them. In turn, the occupiers’ destruction of local culture indicates that they had no respect whatsoever for the people of Yugoslavia and did not care how they suffered. The invading countries committed a number of atrocities there. The occupation of Yugoslavia reinforced the occupiers’ view that certain ethnic groups were inherently inferior and deserved to be eradicated and subjugated. However, it is important to note that the relationship between the occupiers and the occupied was very much dependent on ethnicity. During the war, Yugoslavian minorities— with the exception of Czechs, Slovaks, and Turks—generally cooperated with the occupation forces. Ethnicity was one of the main driving forces behind nearly everything that happened in Yugoslavia.

The effect that Yugoslavian resistance had on the occupying powers’ war efforts will be discussed below.

//What were the motivations/methods/outcomes of resistance and collaboration? How did this affect the Occupied Territory after the war? Use case studies to illustrate.//

The communist Partisan Movement, which was mentioned above, eventually became Yugoslavia’s largest, most active resistance group against the occupying forces. The movement’s slogan was “Death to fascism, freedom to the people.” The motive for this resistance was ideological—all the invading countries were more or less fascist, and communism and fascism are diametrically opposing ideologies. The members of this movement fought against the Axis powers on principle. There was also resistance based on ethnic relations, of course. For example, there was the Serbian nationalist Chetnik movement, which was anti-Axis, although it selectively collaborated with the Axis powers. The Chetniks claimed that they collaborated with the Axis powers because they were “using the enemy.” Their long-term goal was to create a “Greater Serbia” that was purely Serb, and to do this they engaged in extensive slaughter, such as the massacring of Muslims in Bosnia, Herzegovina and Sandzak. They ultimately failed in this goal. Unlike the Partisan movement, the Chetniks received support from virtually only the Serbs in occupied Yugoslavia. Another major group that collaborated with the Axis powers was the Ustasa. The motivations, methods, and outcomes of this collaboration have been explained above.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">At the beginning of the resistance the Partisan forces were relatively small, poorly armed, and without any organized infrastructure. However, they had a major advantage over the axis powers in that the Partisans were founded on ideology rather than ethnicity. They could therefore expect at least some measure of support from almost every area in the country, unlike other military groups that were limited to territories with certain ethnic majorities, such as Serb or Croat. Because of this, their forces were more mobile and they could pull from a larger pool of potential recruits. This advantage became more obvious in the later stages of the war. As time went on, the Partisans fought an increasingly successful guerrilla campaign against the Axis occupiers and their local collaborators. They enjoyed gradually increased levels of success and gained popularity amongst the general populace, and succeeded in controlling large chunks of Yugoslav territory. People's committees were organized to act as civilian governments in areas of Yugoslavia liberated by the Partisans. The Partisans were supported by the Soviet Union, with the Russians sending in troops to aid the resistance. The Partisan movement could be seen as quite successful—as a result of the Soviet Union’s troops advancing upon Germany in Yugoslavia, Partisan forces managed to liberate Belgrade, the capital of Yugoslavia, on October 20 of 1994.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">media type="custom" key="24502628" //Video of Partisan forces//

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The fighting in Yugoslavia continued until the end of WWII, and lasted even some time after that, with numerous conflicts and some massacres occurring. For example, in the aftermath Partisans forces executed at least 30,000 Croat Ustase troops and many civilian refugees. The<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> resistance and conflict had left behind considerable chaos, with Yugoslavia more torn apart and divided than before. Ethnic tensions were at historic extremes.

//What were the effects of occupation on women & youth in the Occupied Territory? Use case studies to illustrate.//

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The women and children of Yugoslavia suffered in various ways. As pointed out multiple times above, many Jewish, Serb, and Roma men were killed at the hands of various occupying powers. These deaths left many families husbandless and fatherless, which was both psychologically scarring and financially devastating. It would be difficult to get by without a steady source of income. In addition, women and children were themselves sometimes the targets of Axis brutality. In late 1941, the German Security Police rounded up Jewish women and children and incarcerated them in the Semlin detention camp. In the winter of 1942, Germany sent a gas van--a truck with a sealed compartment that served as a gas chamber--to Belgrade. Between March and May of 1942, German Security Police personnel killed around 6,280 people, almost all Jews and mostly women and children from the Semlin camp. In addition to being specifically targeted, women and children were often massacred along with men indiscriminately. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Croat authorities murdered almost the entire Roma population of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina—at least 25,000 men, women and children. Women and children suffered greatly during the occupation.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">//Bibliography// <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">

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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"AXIS INVASION OF YUGOSLAVIA." Holocaust Encyclopedia. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 10 June 2013. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. <http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005456>. =====

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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Hart, Stephen A. "Partisans: War in the Balkans 1941 - 1945." BBC News. BBC, 17 Feb. 2011. Web. 22 Nov. 2013. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/partisan_fighters_01.shtml>. =====

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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Trueman, Chris. "The Resistance Movement in Yugoslavia." History Learning Site. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. <http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/resistance_movement_in_yugoslavi.htm>. =====

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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Library of Congress. Federal Research Division. A Country Study: Yugoslavia (Former). 1992. Washington D.C.: United States Government Printing Office. Country Studies. Web. 22 November 2013. < http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/yutoc.html>. ===== =<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> = <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">