Lend-Lease for Nazi Germany
During the war years, some American companies supplied fuel and weapons to both their army and the Nazis.
On October 1, 1941, the first lend-lease protocol was signed between the USA and the USSR, which received assistance from America in tanks, aircraft, fuel, food and other materials. However, American companies generously supplied all of this to their own enemies, Germany. Business and nothing personal.
American components for "V"
Some American companies, in fact, supplied fuel and weapons to both the Nazis and their own belligerent army. It would seem, why also supply the fascists with everything they need? In fact, this demarche is explained quite simply: Germany paid much more.
In addition, not a single German shell fell on the territory of America itself. But if this projectile is intended for someone else, even for an ally, England - that's okay - it's not the United States.
Apparently, the corporation decided so. International Telephone and Telegraph(ITT) and arranged the supply of components and even complete units for missiles " Fau". And they, as you know, the Germans bombed London. Such cynicism and greed cannot but amaze.
What cannot be bought for a lot of money can be bought for a lot of money. They also bought politicians who turned a blind eye, in particular, to the big contract of the same ITT with the Nazi government at a time when America was already at war with it.
According to the contract, ITT conscientiously supplied Germany with special communications equipment, high-frequency equipment, selenium rectifiers, fuses for artillery shells (30,000 each month), radar equipment, telephones, switches and much, much more.
It is known that the car tycoon Henry Ford sympathized Hitler and even before the Second World War, he invested a huge fortune in the economy of Nazi Germany. And already in 1940, his factories began mass production of five-ton trucks for the Nazis.
Ford V 3000S-SSM Maultier
The Ford plant in Europe also worked at all its capacities, supplying the Nazis with cars for various purposes, car tires, aircraft engines, auto parts and many others. At the same time, the production of engines for cars for the British was reduced... And the release of aircraft engines for the English "Spitfires" and "Hurricanes" discontinued altogether.
German Ambassador to the United States awards Henry Ford for helping the Nazis!
IBM concentration camp computers
No less "moral" people led the company IBM, which supplied calculating machines, spare parts for them and special paper for ... concentration camps... Apparently, so that the contingent of the death camps was replenished, the Americans increased the supply of cars that helped the Nazis quickly count the population of those countries where the Wehrmacht's boot had already stepped, and identify persons under arrest.
This was done through cross-sectional and comparative analysis - the method made it possible to identify Jews who had been hiding their nationality for more than one generation. After the war, the iBeem members fought for a long time in the courts from the victims of the Holocaust, demanding compensation. However, there was something to pay: during the war, the company's capital increased threefold.
The monstrosity of the situation lies in the fact that this capital was the profit received after the "investment" in this "concentration camp" business. After all, it was with gold extracted from crowns, cigarette cases, watches and other things taken from prisoners that the Nazis paid with American suppliers - and the total amount of such "extraction" amounted to almost 400 million dollars in gold.
And the Germans paid generously. For example, companies “ Standard Oil", Which supplied Germany with millions of barrels of oil. In the Canary Islands, a refueling base for German submarines was generally set up. In addition, this corporation held a patent for tetraethyl, which was part of the fuel for aircraft. And the payment of, say, the British Air Force patent royalties for it actually meant refueling the German planes that bombed the capital of Foggy Albion.
Moreover, " Standard Oil", Which supplied the Nazis in larger quantities with oil than their own army, in 1942 generally went to a sharp reduction in the supply of methanol to the United States. A scandal broke out. After all, we were talking about such components as acetic acid (explosives are made on its basis), fuels and lubricants, synthetic rubber, etc.
At the height of the war Rockefellers, who owned the company, supplied the Nazis through shell companies with a gigantic shipment of cotton (10,000 tons), from which gunpowder is made. And also 25,000 tons of explosives. But all this was so lacking both in America itself and in the Red Army, which was suffocating without Lend-Lease assistance.
Shaving with a Gillette, drinking Coca-Cola, or enjoying Warner Brothers cartoons, remember that you owe all of this, including to Hitler, who generously paid the Americans for his support ...
60th Prime Minister of Great Britain 1937-1940 Arthur Neville Chamberlain in Munich
Hands clasped in friendship, Adolf Hitler and England's Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, are shown in this historic pose at Munich on Sept. 30, 1938. This was the day when the premier of France and England signed the Munich agreement, sealing the fate of Czechoslovakia. Next to Chamberlain is Sir Neville Henderson, British Ambassador to Germany. Paul Schmidt, an interpreter, stands next to Hitler. (AP Photo)
What do we think about when we climb escalators " Otis"Or using checks" American Express"? It's easier to say about what we are not thinking about at this moment. But we do not think that these American companies during World War II invested gigantic sums in ... Nazi Germany.
However, their contribution is ridiculous compared to other American companies. Tens of millions of dollars - these are the amounts that the companies pumped into the Reich Rockefeller, Rothschild and Dupont... We will talk about them today.
The story of the very interesting relationship of American companies with the National Socialist regime should start with Bank for International Settlements- currently the European subsidiary body of the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The BIS was founded in 1930 by the Central Banks England, France, Belgium, Italy, Germany, three private banks USA and private banks Of Japan.
During the hostilities in Europe, the Bank for International Settlements accumulated and transferred to the Reichsbank most of the gold reserves of the countries occupied by Germany - the financial representatives of these powers did not fit in their heads that the Germans and the allies could be at the same time, so they naively tried to transfer their capital to Western banks through the BIS ... In addition, since 1942 in Reichsbank valuables confiscated from the Jews began to be deposited. Gold items - monocles, eyeglass frames, watches, cigarette cases and crowns, obtained by the Gestapo, were melted into 20 kilogram ingots and sent to the BIS. In total, gold was obtained in this way for a total of $ 378 million.
Now let's move on to those who regularly transferred and received money through BIS... The palm in this matter is rightfully held by the company " Standard Oil of New Jersey"(Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey), which can now be found at gas stations Esso(trademark ExxonMobil, which was renamed Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey). This company put so much effort into supporting Hitler that it was sometimes confusing who actually worked for. Rockefellers who owned this company.
One of the most interesting moments of cooperation is associated with the patent for tetraethyl(a component of aviation fuel) owned by Standard Oil. Tsimes is that the Royal Air Force, making patent royalties to the British firm " Ethyl", Actually refueled the Luftwaffe planes bombing London -" Ethyl "immediately deposited money in the banks of the Hitlerite concern" I.G. Farben”, Which also produced aviation fuel.
However, the bulk of Standard Oil's collaboration with the Nazis consisted of selling oil. The company's tankers under a neutral Panamanian flag (bypassing the British blockade) carried oil to the Spanish in hundreds of thousands of barrels. Canary Islands where it was pumped into German tankers bound for Hamburg... Moreover, part of the oil was refined here at the plant built with the money of Standard Oil, and the fuel was poured on the spot into German submarines, which were sent to hunt in the Atlantic.
Such a flow of fuel looked especially wild to Hitler against the background of the fuel crisis of the American armed forces - while the US General Staff was seriously considering the prospects of moving infantry on roller skates to save fuel. Standard Oil pumped more oil to Germany than it transferred to the US Army!
Fighter for the Fuhrer
If Standard Oil is the leader among American companies in terms of the quantity and cost of supplies, then the company “ Ford Took its toll on the Allied economy with targeted strikes. So, in 1940, she stopped the production of aircraft engines for the British " Hurricanes" and " Spitfires"- the vacated plant capacity was transferred to the production of 5-ton trucks for the German armed forces. For the sake of German interests, the supply of car engines to Great Britain was also reduced, and car tires went mainly only to the Reich - despite the fact that they were sorely lacking in the American army.
« General motors", Which in Germany belonged to" Opel”, Also worked hard for the Fuhrer. It is curious that 50% of the power units of bombers " Junkers-88"Was produced at the Opel factories, and in 1943 the German branch of General Motors developed and produced motors for" Messerschmitt-262"- the first jet fighter of the Luftwaffe.
"Junkers-52" with American engines helps the Wehrmacht to bomb Soviet cities!
The most interesting things he did during the war and the concern SCF Is the world's largest manufacturer of ball bearings. At a time when gigantic shipments of bearings (more than 600,000 pieces annually) were received by Nazi customers through South America, « Curtis-Wright Aviation Corporation ", which produced engines for the American Air Force, for a long time did not receive the coveted steel balls at all. " Pratt-Whitney”, Which also produced aircraft engines, was also forced to cut production due to disruptions in supplies from SCF.
It is curious that when on October 14, 1943, the commander of the US Army Aviation, General Henry Arnold gave the order to carry out an air raid on the SCF ball bearing plant in the German Schweinfurt, the enemy somehow found out about the operation and managed to prepare a defense, shooting down 60 American aircraft as a result. On October 19, Arnold bluntly told the London News Chronicle: "They would not have been able to organize a defense if they had not been warned in advance."
The activities during the Second World War and the American Company were very interesting. ITT("International Telephone and Telegraph"), whose products today almost every one of you can find in your home. It is especially interesting that the directors of ITT were Walter Schellenberg(Chief of the Reich Political Intelligence Service) and SS Brigadefuehrer Kurt von Schroeder who was also a member of the board of directors BIS.
In 1938, the American company acquired 28% of the shares of the company " Focke-Wulf", Thereby making all possible assistance in air raids on Great Britain. However, ITT's assistance to the Nazis was not limited to the purchase of shares: after the United States entered the war, the company entered into a major contract with the Germans for the production of switches, telephones, aerial reconnaissance and warning systems, as well as radar equipment and fuses for artillery shells. Rockets " Fau"Falling on the UK also carried some of the finished goods supplied by ITT. Finally, the company provided uninterrupted telephone, telegraph and teletype communications between Latin America and the Axis. The situation was sometimes marasmic: American intelligence, transmitted through ITT channels, turned out to be Berlin and Rome faster than in Washington.
Horror Nazism in the USA, Henry Ford, Rockefeller, Dupont
10 famous corporations that collaborated with fascists (IBM, Kodak, Ford, Coca-Cola, BMW, Nestle, etc.)
More detailed and a variety of information about the events taking place in Russia, Ukraine and other countries of our beautiful planet, can be obtained at Internet Conferences, constantly held on the website "Keys of Knowledge". All Conferences are open and completely free... We invite all those waking up and interested ...
Alexander Medem is a high school student. Voronezh, 1890s Photo from the site pravoslavie.ru
Generous Medem
Count Alexander's father, Otton Ludvigovich Medem, was the governor of Novgorod. When a riot broke out in the city in 1905, he resolutely entered the middle of the rioting assembly, took off his cap, bowed to the people and spoke in a low voice with the rioters. And the people soon dispersed, reassured.
In Novgorod, the kind governor interceded for the widow, who became the victim of a dishonest merchant's deception: he fished out large sums of bills from a poor woman. The governor himself went to the deceiver and asked to see the promissory notes. As soon as the securities were in the hands of the governor, he threw them into the fireplace with the words:
"I had no right to do this, and you can sue me."
The merchant did not sue, and the widow's property was saved.
Otton Ludwigovich with Alexandra Dmitrievna. 1890s, parents of Alexander. Photo from the site pravoslavie.ru
The best character traits of his father were inherited by his son, Count Alexander (1877-1931). He was raised in the Lutheran faith, like his father. His kindness surprised, and his generosity knew no bounds. Instead of living in a densely populated western city, the count chose to stay in the family estate of Alexandria (now the village of Severny in the north of the Saratov region). Introduced the latest agricultural technologies.
More than once he had to help out local residents. It was completely natural for the Medemov family to give a horse to a poor peasant, a cow to a large family, to give a ride to the peasant in his carriage, and get out of it himself, so that it would be easier for the horse to enter the mountain ...
According to the testimony of contemporaries, he knew every hired peasant and selected only the best workers, personally traveled around the property and monitored the progress of work. His daughter Alexandra wrote that her father easily communicated with people and attracted everyone to himself. He knew how to behave accordingly in any society, but did not like to be in those aristocratic circles where there were many conventions. And when, during the revolutionary riots, they began to plunder the estates of the landowners, in the Saratov province people shouted: “Death to the landowners! Except Medem! "
Daughter's illness
Alexander Medem with his daughter Elena. 1910s Photo from the site pravoslavie.ru
Count Alexander Medem had a lot of pain in his life, so he shared the suffering of other people and tried to help with all his might.
The beloved wife Maria fell ill with cholera during pregnancy.
The medications that the doctors gave her did harm: her daughter Elena was born sick: she could not speak, did not control her body, could not even chew.
But for all the severity of the disease, consciousness was preserved, and the girl's face was unusually pretty. Elena reacted to the way she was treated: she cried from a stern tone, and laughed from an affectionate tone. She rejoiced at the sight of her mother, whom she looked like more than other children: huge blue eyes, black eyebrows and hair, delicate skin ... The girl often had seizures of the whole body, during which she screamed loudly in pain.
The parents' loving hearts were breaking. The count was very worried about the child, this grief was the last decisive moment in his acceptance of Orthodoxy. On his estate, he built a church in honor of Saints Equal to the Apostles Constantine and Helena, the patron saint of his sick daughter. In total, Alexander Medem had four children. He himself grew up in a friendly large family.
Civil War
Alexander Ottonovich Medem at the First World War. ... Photo from the site pravoslavie.ru
When the civil war began, Alexander Ottonovich agreed with his two brothers that, being "Russians," they would not raise their hand against their own people and would not take part in the civil war.
Count Alexander Ottonovich met Christmas 1915 at the forefront of the Western Front together with the soldiers: he accompanied there carriages of gifts for the military. A few months later, Medem returned to the combat zone as the head of the medical and nutritional detachment. Often he had to under fire, together with other volunteers, take out the wounded soldiers and provide first aid.
The count has faced death face to face on more than one occasion. He had seen the action of German technology of mass destruction, used by soldiers of the enemy army. He saw Russian soldiers die from chemical burns inflicted by the weapons of the inventive German mind. His heart was infinitely kind, but fragile: in the war with the count, he had a heart attack. Then he returned to his estate of Alexandria.
Imprisonment
Temple in honor of Saints Equal-to-the-Apostles Constantine and Helena at the Medemov estate in Alexandria. 1916-17 Photo from the site pravoslavie.ru
In 1918, the Bolsheviks arrested Count Alexander and sentenced him to death, but before the execution of the sentence they were allowed to go home and say goodbye to their relatives. The count was ready to return to prison the next morning, but the next day the Bolsheviks were driven out of the city by the Whites, and the sentence was canceled by itself.
In the summer of 1919, Alexander Medem was again imprisoned. Returning from prison, he said that nowhere did he pray so well as in prison, where death knocks at the door at night, and whose turn is unknown. His letter to his son has survived, very touching, full of care, faith, love.
Here are his last lines: “Believe firmly, without hesitation, always pray fervently and with faith that the Lord will hear you, fear nothing in the world, except for the Lord God and your conscience guided by Him - do not reckon with anything anymore; Never offend anyone (of course, I'm talking about a blood, life offense that remains forever) - and I think that there will be good. Christ is with you, my boy, my beloved. Mom and I constantly think about you, thank God for you and pray for you ... I hug you tightly, baptize and love you. The Lord is with you. Your father".
They say that the war hardens, corrupts, etc. But something completely different happened to Count Alexander.
His wife, no matter how anyone knew him, wrote about her husband: “Over the years, he has grown unusually morally. Such faith, such peace and tranquility of the soul, such true freedom and strength of mind, I have never seen in my life. This is not only my opinion, which can be biased - everyone sees it, and this is how we live - nothing more, for the very fact that we exist as such a family, having nothing but hope in the Lord God, proves this ... ”.
"Tell me one more word goodbye"
Alexander Medem. Photo from criminal case No. 7. 1929 Photo from the site pravoslavie.ru
In December 1925, the count buried his wife, who died of tuberculosis. Before that, he prayed long and fervently for her recovery, believing in the possibility of healing. Only when her phlegm ceased to flow, Alexander began to prepare for the death of his wife. Before her death she was given communion, the pain subsided. The husband held his dying wife by the hand. She began to call and bless the children, pray for those relatives who were not there at that moment.
The count recalled: “My heart was breaking, and I told her that the Lord would call me sooner -“ I cannot live without you. ”
She pressed my head tightly and said: "Don't cry, my dear - I know you will be with me soon." All the time her eyes were fixed on the icon of the Mother of God, which hung on the wall of the hall, and she prayed until the last minute. "
But Alexander desperately wanted to hear his favorite voice, which he asked: "Manyushenka, tell me at least one more word." Maria, firmly squeezing her husband's hand for the last time, said: "My dear, I feel so good, so good - only I feel sorry for you." These were her last words. But even in that terrible hour, he did not lose his trust in God: “Obviously, this is necessary, and, obviously, it is better. His will be done. "
Soon after her mother, daughter Elena also died.
Alexander Ottonovich himself died on April 1, 1931 in the Syzran prison hospital from pulmonary edema. In prison, the count showed rare fortitude and calmness. Was canonized in 2000. Now books have been written about the holy martyr, films are being made, a gymnasium has been named in his honor, a museum has been opened and a church has been restored on the site of his former estate.
Bronislav Kaminsky: "the bastard is worse than General Vlasov"
Almost everyone knows about the Soviet general Andrei Vlasov and his Russian Liberation Army who went over to the side of the Nazis. However, Vlasov is not the only major figure in the chronicle of treason to the Motherland. An even more cruel and cold-blooded traitor was Bronislav Kaminsky, the SS brigadeführer, the leader of the Russian People's Liberation Army, she was also the 29th SS Grenadier (First Russian) Division.
Nothing boded
Bronislav Kaminsky was born in Vitebsk. At the time of the Great October Revolution, he was a student at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic. Having dropped out of school, Kaminsky became interested in revolutionary ideas - not only volunteered for the Red Army (Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army), but also became a member of the CPSU (b). Returning to a peaceful life, Kaminsky became a chemical engineer, worked at a factory, and participated in socialist competition. However, this did not prevent him from driving moonshine in his free time. Kaminsky's father was a Pole, so Bronislav ardently defended the idea of including Poland in the USSR as a special autonomy.
Kaminsky did not escape the wave of repressions. In 1935 he was expelled from the party, and in 1937 he was sent to a camp, where he served as a technologist in the production of alcohol. In an effort to alleviate his fate, Bronislav Kaminsky becomes an informant-informant of the NKVD. This allows him to be released early in 1941. Before the start of the war and the arrival of the Germans, Kaminsky worked in the village of Lokot (present-day Bryansk region, then the center of the Brasovsky district in the Oryol region) at a distillery.
The war made it possible to unfold
On October 4, 1941, the 17th Panzer Division under the command of Lieutenant General von Arnim entered the village of Lokot. The Germans were greeted with joy by those who strove to achieve "the final and complete defeat of Judeo-Bolshevism." The leaders among the collaborators were the teacher of the technical school Konstantin Voskoboinik and the engineer of the distillery Bronislav Kaminsky. The first was appointed head of the village.
With the full approval of the German authorities, Kaminsky and Voskoboinik formed police and administrative bodies with the aim of maintaining the "new order" of the Nazis. The infamous Lokot self-government was created. Collaborators began an active armed pursuit of the partisans who went into the forests to fight the Nazis.
Kaminsky gains power
In early 1942, on Christmas night, Voskoboinik was killed by partisans from Saburov's detachment. Kaminsky immediately tells the Nazis about his "Aryan origin", remembering his mother - a Russianized German woman. The German command gives the go-ahead for the transfer of Lokot autonomy into his hands.
Kaminsky sincerely believed in Hitler's propaganda, which presented Germany as a "state of national labor." The manifesto of the People's Socialist Party of Russia, created with his participation, echoes Nazi propaganda brochures and leaflets in its hatred of the Bolsheviks and anti-Semitism.
Kaminsky believed: after the end of the war, "Great Russia" should be organized in the spirit of fascist ideology. Nazi reformer - such an apt nickname was given to him by the Slavic historian from the United States Alexander Dallin.
There is no place for Jews
Lokot autonomy followed the example of the Hitler state in everything. A special instruction prohibited Jewish marriages with representatives of other nations. The newspaper Voice of the People published anti-Semitic articles. The Labor Code adopted in the autonomy included an article with the characteristic heading "Zhidovskaya labor force".
In 1943, Kaminsky, together with the Russian People's Liberation Army (RONA), created by him, was redeployed to the city of Lepel. The newspaper Novy Put (Vitebsk) described Kaminsky's policy as follows: “When appointing an employee to a position, only his business qualities are taken into account. As for the party, social, national (there is no place for Jews) position, it does not matter. "
Words were not at odds with deeds. In some villages and townships of the Lokot Autonomy, Jewish ghettos were created. The authorities, represented by Kaminsky, decided: everyone who harbors communists and Jews should be shot.
In September 1942, policemen of the Lokotsky self-government shot all Jews living in the village of Navlya as revenge for the explosion of a bridge across the river by partisans. The executions continued in the Suzemsky and Sevsky regions. In one district alone, 223 people were brutally killed - simply because they are Jews.
Close friendship with the fascists
The Hitlerite command did not leave Kaminsky's "independent autonomy" unattended. Elbow served as the base of the Nazi communications headquarters and the deployment point of the SD Sonderkommando. A. Dollert supervised the Abwehr Kaminsky. He survived the defeat of Hitler and wrote a great work about the collaborationists of the USSR under the name of Sven Steenberg.
Dollert regularly reported to his superiors on the state of affairs in the supervised autonomy. One of the reports contains a mention: "With the population, enemies and military units led by Kaminsky behaves like a typical Russian - infinitely magnanimous and infinitely cruel."
Massacres of the population
Kaminsky and his military formations carried out a brutal terror against those who were waiting for the return of Soviet power. His agents, posing as partisans, walked through the villages. Having found out who was breathing what, the provocateurs called in an escort and drove the arrested to the former building of the stud farm No. 17, which had been turned into the Lokot prison.
It was here, in the service of Kaminsky, that the notorious Tonka the machine-gunner, the executioner Antonina Makarova, performed her atrocities. In 1945, 22 pits full of corpses were found near the prison at the bottom of the foundation pit. In total, more than 2,000 people were shot there.
Executions were also carried out in anti-tank ditches (the village of Kholmetsky Khutor) - 95 bodies were found, in Voronovy Log (the village of Gorodische) - 800 bodies, at the Pogreb dachas in the copse - 2500 bodies. Among the dead were underground fighters, partisans, communists, their relatives and many Jews. Cases of reprisals against all residents of some villages and burning of houses were recorded.
Fighting partisans
Good organizational skills and charisma of Bronislav Kaminsky allowed him to inspire many people to atrocities. Soldiers and former civilians who had gone over to the side of the Nazis fiercely rushed into battle with the "people's avengers". The first anti-fascist brigade (commander Gil-Rodionov) lost 1,026 men in the battles with the fireplaces.
In just one month of 1944, from April 11 to May 15, according to the information of the Chief of Staff of the 3rd Panzer Army of Heidkemper, as part of the RONA operation "Merry Holiday", the partisans lost 14,288 people. The Polotsk-Lepel partisan zone actually ceased to exist. Thanks to this, the Nazis for some time were able to secure the rear areas of Army Group Center.
For the successful conduct of the operation, RONA was separately noted by the fascist command. Kaminsky himself received the 1st Class Iron Cross.
Brigadenfuehrer SS
British historian Colin Heaton wrote: "Kaminsky's brigade committed many atrocities, fighting well on the side of the Germans." Kaminsky was asked to join the SS forces with the assignment of the rank of Brigadenfuehrer.
On August 1, 1944, RONA was reorganized into the 29th SS Grenadier Division. Kaminsky himself received the rank of Waffen Brigadefuehrer and Major General of the SS troops.
Warsaw uprising and inglorious death
While participating in the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising (August 1944), Kaminsky's troops, without looking, shot everyone who turned up under their arm. The soldiers robbed shops, warehouses, apartments, raped women. The massacres lasted for several weeks. Not only Poles were raped, but also two German girls - members of the pro-Nazi organization. According to historians, up to 30 thousand people became victims of executions.
Even seasoned fascists shuddered at the degree of atrocity and looting shown by the troops of the Russian division. On August 28, 1944, after a short field trial, Bronislav Kaminsky, along with the lower leaders of the 29th division, was shot by the SS Sonderkommando "according to the laws of wartime for encouraging requisitions and robberies."
Khivi: how many Soviet citizens helped the German occupiers
From the first weeks of the invasion of German troops into the USSR, not only the heroism of the Soviet people, but also the compromising, and sometimes outright hostile, position of some of the country's citizens was manifested.
Militia fighters, soldiers of the Red Army (Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army) and civilians of the occupied territories went over to the side of the enemy.
Who are hivi?
The name of the collaborators comes from the German word hilfswilliger, which means "who wants to help." The fascist command used this term to refer to all residents of the occupied countries who served in the German army or worked for the good of Germany. These included prisoners of war, voluntary defectors, local residents of the occupied areas, including those who were forcibly driven away. Initially, the Nazis called such people "our Ivans", but rather quickly the term "hivi" was officially established.
What did the Khivi do with the Germans?
The Nazis used the citizens of the occupied countries in the army as drivers, cooks, grooms, security guards in the rear, loaders, sappers, storekeepers, orderlies. Those who confirmed their loyalty and showed it in practice were allowed to take part in punitive measures, sorties against partisans, and also to participate in combat operations of the regular army. They could also become police officers in occupied areas.
Khivi were actively used as propagandists - on the front line, with the help of megaphones, they called upon the soldiers of the Red Army to drop their weapons and go over to the Germans - “civilized progressive people”. Volunteers from among the Red Army also served in the combat units of the Wehrmacht, having received the status of hilfswilliger. Their presence worked to increase the influx of defectors.
In 1943, the headquarters of the 6th army of the Nazis developed the "Basic guidelines for the training of volunteer assistants." The document stated that the purpose of training and education is to prepare the hilfswilliger as "reliable companions in the fight against Bolshevism."
The Khivi did not include prisoners of war who were used for forced labor in concentration camps, and almost 5 million Ostarbeiters - residents of the occupied territories, driven to Germany for forced labor. There were many women and teenagers among them.
The Red Army men who were captured by the Germans made a choice between death and betrayal of their homeland in favor of survival. They were afraid to flee back to the troops of the Red Army or the partisans - those who were captured and the survivors were usually considered traitors. It seemed unforgivable to shoot at their own people, but to join the auxiliary services, why not? There were not so many ideological opponents of Soviet power among the prisoners of war.
Civilians in the occupied territories went over to the side of the fascists for various reasons. Some residents of the republics annexed to the USSR in 1940 did not forget how Soviet power was implanted with "fire and sword". They sincerely believed that the Germans are better and more civilized.
Many coveted for the benefits from the occupiers, guaranteed rations, monetary rewards. When a dilemma arose - a half-starved life for themselves and their children, or a paid job and loyalty to the authorities - not everyone could resist.
In addition, at all times there have been selfish and unprincipled people, ready for the sake of power and money for betrayal and cruelty. They were also in demand by the Germans and took their places in the ranks of the Khivi.
The scale of the phenomenon
The experiment on the use of hivi produced results that surpassed the wildest expectations of the Germans. By the spring of 1942, the rear units of the German army included at least 200 thousand volunteers, and by the beginning of 1943 their number reached a million.
The lack of an unambiguous interpretation (who is considered hivi, and who is forcibly mobilized) and the loss of German archives do not allow us to give an exact figure. According to the archives of the NKVD, in the period until March 1946, proceedings were initiated against 283 thousand Vlasovites, representatives of the Cossack units and the eastern legions, and these are only those who survived and were discovered.
Researcher SI Drobyazko believes that the SS, Wehrmacht, police and paramilitary units on the side of Hitler (ROA, RONA, Cossacks, Eastern and Baltic divisions) for the entire period of the war consisted of over a million people.
According to the estimates of the German Directorate of the Eastern Troops, as of February 2, 1943, the total number of Soviet citizens in German military service reached 750 thousand, including the Khivi - from 400 to 600 thousand. These statistics do not include the Navy, Luftwaffe and SS. In February 1945, the number of Khivi was determined at 600 thousand people in the Wehrmacht, 15 thousand in the navy and 60 thousand in the Luftwaffe.
Few got monuments
Unusual fact: in August 2011, a monument to three Soviet hivis was erected in the French city of Brebier in the Pas-de-Calais department (Lens metropolitan area). Four volunteers were assigned to the German air defense battery. On September 1, 1944, the day before the Allies entered Lens, the Germans decided that they no longer needed the Khivi. Grigory Malinin and Alexey Teslenko were shot on the spot, Alexander Milaykov was killed while trying to escape. Ilya Lavrentyev managed to escape - later the allies handed him over to the USSR.
The inscription on the memorial plate reads: “In memory of three Russian soldiers, prisoners of war of the German air defense unit Dienststelle Feldpost 49300. They were shot by the Germans during the retreat on September 1, 1944, on the day of Brebier's liberation, and were buried in this cemetery. For us - memory, for them - immortality. "
High ranks and an inglorious end
Among the Khivi there were quite successful officers of the Red Army. This is not only Lieutenant General Andrei Vlasov, the head of the ROA, but also the chief of staff of the Red Army division, Lieutenant Colonel Gil-Rodionov, who in 1943 again defected to the side of Soviet power, Hero of the Soviet Union, squadron commander Bronislav Antilevsky, commander of the 41st Infantry Division, Colonel Vladimir Baersky.
All of them went over to the side of the Nazis after being captured. Their fate ended in a natural ending: Baersky was hanged in May 1945 by Czech partisans under the command of Soviet captain Smirnov, Vlasov was hanged after the trial in 1946, Antilevsky was shot in the same year, posthumously deprived of the title of Hero and orders in 1950.
Khivi, who lived to the end of the war and returned to the USSR, were condemned as traitors and traitors to their homeland. Those who participated in the hostilities were sentenced to be shot or hanged, the rest went through camps and exile. 148 thousand people were sentenced to 6 years of special settlement.
Samson MADIEVSKY (Germany)
OTHER GERMANS
About those who helped Jews during the Nazi years
According to historians, in 1941-45, 10-15 thousand Jews lived illegally in Germany (more than 5 thousand of them lived in Berlin). These are the people who “went to the bottom” - went underground to escape deportation to the death camps. Only 3-5 thousand survived (in Berlin - 1370 people). The rest were extradited by their Aryan neighbors, seized while checking documents on the streets and in public transport, died in bombings or due to lack of medical assistance, became victims of Jewish informants to the Gestapo (alas, there were some). Almost every underground survivor owes his salvation to the Germans who took part in their fate. Compared to the millions who endorsed anti-Jewish policies, there was very little help. But they were.
The Jews were helped by Germans from different strata of society: workers and peasants, artisans and entrepreneurs, employees and people of free professions, priests and professors, aristocrats and even prostitutes. The considerations by which they were guided were different: political, religious and ethical, sympathy for Jews in general or for some of them. In almost all cases, Jews were rescued by people who could not help but respond to the request for help from those who were in mortal danger.
Deciding whether to help or not help was not an easy task. It took a lot of strength of character. The man put at stake not only his own life, but also the well-being of the family, went beyond the notorious "German national community." He could only count on the sympathy and support of his own family members and closest trusted friends - the risk was too great and the price for a mistake was too high.
According to the order of the Gestapo of October 24, 1941, those convicted of helping Jews were not destroyed, but taken into custody and then sent to a concentration camp, which often ended in their death. Men were usually punished more severely than women. As the collapse of the Third Reich approached, the ferocity of the Nazis grew. It should be noted that in the territories of the Soviet Union and Poland occupied by the Germans, the retribution for "aiding the Jews" (Judenbegünstigung) was unambiguous - the death penalty. The difference in punitive measures was explained by political and ideological considerations. The Nazi leadership sought to present the help of the Germans to the Jews not as a conscious resistance to the policy of persecution and genocide, but as anomalous behavior of certain "misled people", "cut off from the life of eccentrics." However, according to Professor Ursula Bütner, the actions of such Germans "defy generalization and typification." The conclusion of Professor Wolfgang Benz is consonant: these are isolated cases, which each need to be treated separately.
Some knew the people being rescued well, others did not, or even saw them for the first time - it happened that way. For example, there is an episode when one of the inhabitants of Berlin spontaneously offered a pregnant Jewish woman she didn’t know about asylum at her place. At the very end of the war, even individual members of the NSDAP sheltered Jews with the obvious goal of using this service as a mitigating circumstance after the collapse of Nazism.
As a rule, several, or even dozens of people participated in the rescue of each of the survivors. So, the future publicist Inga Deutschkron and her mother sheltered, provided documents and food to about 20 Germans. In some cases, the number of helpers reached 50-60. However, there are examples when just one person hid an entire family for a number of years.
It was harder than others to survive underground for men of draft age - they attracted more attention, especially during raids on deserters. Without reliable false documents, they could not appear on the streets; during a personal search, they were circumcised. Childless women found apartments and earnings more easily - they were usually hired as servants. It was more difficult for women with children and pregnant women, for whom it was most dangerous to provide shelter. Of course, for all those who were hiding, the degree of "expressiveness of Jewish appearance" was of no small importance.
In fairness, we note that there were cases when the desperate situation of the persecuted was exploited. The survivors avoided talking about it so as not to look ungrateful. One of the few confessions belongs to the Jewish communist Ilse Shtilman, who has been hiding in Berlin since February 1943: "I experienced [all this on my own] experience - women wanted cheap servants, men wanted to sleep with someone."
In some cases, the owners who sheltered the Jews completely disinterestedly assumed the costs of their upkeep, in others, the Jews paid for their upkeep themselves. Only a few of those who helped Jews cross the border with Switzerland took payment for services, but, as a rule, their material interest was intertwined with other motives - opposition to the regime, religious and humanitarian motives, love of adventure.
In the post-war decades, the fate of the Germans who rescued Jews was not easy. Neither the FRG nor the GDR were they considered members of the Resistance, which included only those whose actions were directly aimed at overthrowing the Nazi regime. However, the behavior of the saviors, which after the war was recognized as "normal human", was undoubtedly resistance, since it struck the ideological nerve of the regime - the theory and practice of the racial policy of the Nazis.
The names of the rescuers remained practically unknown to the general public: the media, the authorities did not mention them. The main reason for this attitude, the German historian Peter Steinbach, considers the reluctance of most Germans to remember their own behavior, which is often inglorious. Public attention was mainly focused on the “people of July 20,” whose conspiracy against Hitler had long been presented in the FRG as almost the only manifestation of the Resistance. Therefore, to the question "could I, a small common man, do something against the regime?" millions calmly answered no. However, if the same powerless, non-influential people who dared to sabotage the policy of the fascists were in the center of public attention, then all this silent majority would no longer look so rosy.
The health of the rescuers could not but be affected by the consequences of prolonged stress, people got sick, became disabled, so many of them earned only tiny pensions. The occupation authorities began, and from 1953 the FRG government continued to "compensate for the damage." However, the law was formulated in such a way that few could receive the promised compensation. Only in West Berlin was the situation different. In 1958, on the initiative of Heinz Galinsky, chairman of the Jewish community, a fund was created for the moral and material encouragement of "unsung heroes" (a term from the book of the same name by Kurt Grossman, published in 1957). Galinsky's initiative was supported by joining the magistrate and the city treasury, West Berlin senator for internal affairs Joachim Lipschitz, a half-Jew, who himself had been hiding underground since 1944. In 1958, the first certificates of honor were presented; since 1960, the procedure for their award has been regulated by the land law. The right to honor, and, if necessary, to material assistance (one-time or in the form of a pension), were given to the inhabitants of Berlin, who "disinterestedly and to a large extent" helped the persons persecuted under Nazism. The celebration was held in public, usually in the building of the Jewish community on Fasenenstrasse. Until 1966, 738 people received certificates. Attempts to induce other lands to take similar actions were unsuccessful at that time. Only in the 70s, when the social atmosphere changed as a result of the student unrest in 1968, the "unsung heroes" began to be honored at the federal level - the President of the Federal Republic of Germany presented them with the "Cross of Merit". In the 90s, the turn came to the eastern lands.
In 2001, at a ceremony in Berlin dedicated to the memory of the Jews hiding in the underground and the Germans who helped them, the President of the Federal Republic of Germany Johannes said: "We have every reason to be proud of these men and women." Inga Deutschkron, who participated in the ceremony, formulated the goal of her books about saviors: to show new generations of Germans that some of their ancestors were ready to confront injustice at a very high risk for themselves.
Markus Wolfson was one of the first to study the activities of "unsung heroes", he believed that its popularization could contribute to the formation of conscientious citizens of a democratic society. After all, reliable stories with their exciting drama are fertile material for schoolchildren. Such stories reflect the whole range of positions, all the variety of motives that took place in society. Abstract categories - "Germans", "Nazis", "Jews" acquire concrete content; the meaning of generalizing concepts - Nazism, Holocaust, Resistance is comprehended; value judgments that are inseparable from historical knowledge are gradually formed.
Nevertheless, in general, the attitude towards this issue in Germany remains the same. According to Christoph Hamann, in none of the schools in the 16 German states the curriculum contains the theme “Salvation and Survival”. The Holocaust is not associated with the Resistance, which continues to include only organized activity. The textbooks only talk about the July 20, 1944 conspiracy, about some youth groups, cells of the labor movement, about church oppositionists. If there are examples of helping the persecuted, then only the most famous are the activities of Schindler and Countess Maltsan.
What's the matter? Is it really a complex of guilt and shame for what you have done? And in a defensive reaction: they say, how much more to repent and how much, by the way, to pay?
Maybe. Professor Benz, who heads the Center for the Study of Anti-Semitism in Berlin, considers this complex and the reaction to it more significant components of modern anti-Semitism in Germany than traditional Christian anti-Judaism or racism.
The calls to “finally draw the line under the past” are heard louder and louder, which for many means simply forgetting it. Survey data indicate that these appeals find a response among a certain part of the youth. However, preserving the memory of the past, including the "unsung heroes", is a guarantee that the times witnessed by the living generations will never repeat itself.
Prepared for publication by Sophia Kugel (Boston)
In the late 1920s and 1930s, Germany did not have to strain its forces, as we do, creating new industries, building factories and blast furnaces, opening hundreds of institutions. She occupied the industrialized countries and made them work for her.
Just one fact: the weapons that Germany captured in the defeated countries were enough to form 200 divisions. No, this is not a mistake: 200 divisions. We had 170 divisions in the western districts. To provide them with weapons, the USSR took several five-year plans. In France, after its defeat, the Germans immediately seized up to 5,000 tanks and armored personnel carriers, 3,000 aircraft, 5,000 steam locomotives. In Belgium, they appropriated half of the rolling stock for the needs of their economy and war, etc.
But the main thing, of course, is not the seized weapons, not the trophies.
A special prize for Germany in March 1939 was Czechoslovakia, which had an efficient army and a developed industry. Back in 1938, during the Munich Agreement, according to which Czechoslovakia pledged to transfer the Sudetenland to Germany, Hitler warned British Prime Minister N. Chamberlain and French head of government E. Deladier that, following the Sudetenland, the whole of Czechoslovakia would soon be occupied. But Deladier and Chamberlain did not put a finger on a finger to protect the interests of this country. It must be admitted that the Czechoslovak leaders, having a modern army at that time, were able to offer powerful resistance to Germany, but slavishly gave their country to Hitler's mercy. And Czechoslovakia was a tasty morsel for preparing for a future war. The country's weight in the world arms market in those years was 40%. In this small country, 130 thousand rifles, 200 guns of about 5,000 different machine guns were produced monthly ... Only due to Czechoslovakia, the German Air Force increased by 72%, having received 1,582 aircraft. German tank units added 486 tanks from Czechoslovak factories to their 720s. As a result, Hitler, at the expense of Czechoslovakia alone, was able to arm and equip 50 divisions. In addition, fascist Germany also received a gold reserve (80 tons) of this country, as well as the people who uncomplainingly worked for the criminal Nazi regime during all the years of the war. A particularly large contribution to the production of guns, trucks, tanks was made by the factories of the well-known company "Skoda". With the beginning of the war, German soldiers fought on Czech tanks in Poland, France, Greece, Yugoslavia, and then in the USSR ...
Ribbentrop, Chamberlain and Hitler during negotiations in Munich, where the fate of Czechoslovakia was decided
From 1933 to 1939 alone, in the six years that Hitler was in power, the size of the German army increased 40 times. Despite the Versailles accords, the leaders of Great Britain and France stubbornly did not notice ... And the strengthening of the military-technical potential of Germany after the rapid victories of the Wehrmacht in 1939-1940. also contributed to the economies of France, Holland, Belgium, Norway ... Even neutral Sweden and Switzerland supplied the German military industry with iron ore for steel production and precision instruments ... Spain supplied a significant amount of oil and petroleum products ... The industry of almost all of Europe worked for the war machine of Hitler, who 30 June 1941 declared that he viewed the war with the USSR as a joint European war against Russia.
W. Churchill, after the war, wrote, for example, about Czechoslovakia: “There is no doubt that due to the fall of Czechoslovakia we lost forces equal to about 35 divisions. In addition, the Škoda factories, the second most important arsenal in Central Europe, which in the period from August 1938 to September 1939 produced almost as many products as all British factories in the same time, fell into the hands of the enemy. "
This arsenal, far from the only one in Europe, worked for the Hitlerite army until the end of 1944. And how he worked! Every fifth tank delivered to the Wehrmacht troops in the first half of 1941 was manufactured at the Skoda factories.
Czech enterprises, in German - and, one must think, accurate! - data, constantly increased military production. In 1944, for example, every month they shipped for Germany 300 thousand rifles, 3 thousand machine guns, 625 thousand artillery shells, 100 self-propelled artillery pieces. In addition, tanks, tank guns, Me-109 aircraft, aircraft engines, etc.
In Poland, 264 large, 9 thousand medium and 76 thousand small enterprises worked for Germany.
Denmark covered the needs of the German civilian population by 10 percent for oil, 20 percent for meat, and 90 percent for fresh fish. And, of course, the Danish industry fulfilled all German orders.
France (population 41 million), headed by the collaborationist government of Laval, and French entrepreneurs willingly cooperated with the Germans, were their main supplier. By the beginning of the war with the USSR, 1.6 million people were employed in the French "defense industry" that worked for the Wehrmacht. According to incomplete German data, by January 1944 they supplied Germany with about 4,000 aircraft, about 10 thousand aircraft engines, 52 thousand trucks. The entire locomotive industry and 95 percent of the machine tool industry worked only for Germany.
Belgium and Holland supplied the Germans with coal, cast iron, iron, manganese, zinc, etc.
Most interestingly, all the occupied countries ruled by collaborators did not require cash payment. They were promised to pay after the victorious - for the Germans - the end of the war. They all worked for Hitler for free.
In addition, these countries also helped Germany by taking upon themselves the costs of maintaining the German occupation forces. France, for example, since the summer of 1940 has allocated 20 million German marks daily, and since the fall of 1942 - 25 million each. These funds were enough not only to provide the German troops with everything they needed, but also to prepare and conduct a war against THE USSR. In total, European countries "presented" Germany for this purpose more than 80 billion marks (of which France - 35 billion).
And what about the neutral countries - Sweden and Switzerland? And they worked for Germany. The Swedes supplied bearings, iron ore, steel, and rare earth elements. They actually fed the German military-industrial complex until the end of 1944. The rapid advance of the Germans to Leningrad was connected, in particular, in order to "lock up" our navy and to secure the supply of Swedish steel and ore. Significant deliveries from Latin America went through Swedish "neutral" ports for Germany. Our military intelligence reported, for example, that from January to October 1942 more than 6 million tons of various cargoes were imported to Germany through Swedish ports, mainly strategic raw materials. Unlike the occupied countries, Sweden made good money in the war. How many? Such data have not yet been published. Swedes have something to be ashamed of. As well as the Swiss. The latter supplied precision instruments, and Swiss banks were used to pay for urgently needed purchases in Latin America.
It would be interesting to compare in detail what Germany received from the occupied, allied and neutral countries of Europe (and, as it turned out, mostly free) with the volume of American aid to the Soviet Union (we paid for it). It turns out that there is neither a general figure for European aid to Hitler, nor for individual countries. Only fragmentary data. For the Germans, even judging by the Skoda alone, this assistance was extremely important. As for us, for example, the supply of American Studebakers after the Battle of Stalingrad, which made the Red Army mobile and maneuverable. But, I repeat, historians do not have at their disposal complete data on assistance to Germany. And she, judging by the available data, was huge. In the four-volume book World Wars of the 20th Century, the following figures are given: the industrial potential after the capture of Europe from Germany doubled, and the agricultural potential tripled.
Europe helped Hitler not only with its arsenals. A number of Catholic bishops hastened to call the invasion of the USSR a "European crusade." 5 million soldiers broke into our territory in the summer of 1941. 900 thousand of them are not Germans, but their allies. Apart from Germany, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Croatia and Finland have declared war on us. Spain and Denmark did not declare war, but they dispatched their soldiers. The Bulgarians did not fight with us, but they put forward 12 divisions against the Yugoslav and Greek partisans and thereby enabled the Germans to transport part of their troops from the Balkans to the Eastern Front.
It was in the summer of 1941 that 900 thousand Europeans opposed us. In general, during the war, this figure increased to 2 million people. In our captivity were the Czechs (70 thousand), Poles (60 thousand), French (23 thousand) and further down the line Belgians, Luxembourgers and ... even neutral Swedes.
This is a special topic or a special conversation why the Europeans were so willing to help Hitler in the war against the USSR. Anti-communism undoubtedly played a significant role. But not the only one, and perhaps not the main one. Perhaps we should return to this topic separately.
And finally, European countries helped Germany to eliminate the constantly growing shortage of its labor force due to the conscription of Germans into the army. According to incomplete data, 875.9 thousand workers were delivered from France to German factories, from Belgium and Holland - half a million each, from Norway - 300 thousand, from Denmark - 70 thousand. This made it possible for Germany to mobilize almost a quarter of its population, and they, as soldiers, in all respects surpassed their allies - Italians, Romanians or Slovaks.
All this taken together ensured Germany's significant superiority at the initial stage of the war, and then gave her the opportunity to hold out until May 1945.
But what about the Resistance movement? A number of Russian authors believe that its role and significance in the occupied industrial countries of Western Europe is extremely exaggerated. To some extent, this is understandable: it was important to emphasize in those years that we are not alone in the struggle. V. Kozhinov, for example, cites the following figures: in Yugoslavia, almost 300 thousand members of the Resistance were killed, in France, whose population was 2.5 times larger, - 20 thousand, and about 50 thousand Frenchmen died in the ranks of the German army. Doesn't the comparison of these losses say anything? Was it by chance that the Germans kept 10 divisions in Yugoslavia? Of course, the heroism of the French participants in the Resistance is undeniable and the memory of him is sacred. But try to put on one side of the scale all the damage they inflicted on the Nazis, and on the other - all the real assistance that European countries obligingly provided to Germany. Which bowl will outweigh?
No, the question should be posed more broadly, historians answered. Take the first two weeks of the war in France and the USSR. Already on the fifth day of the war, a real war that began on May 10, 1940, and not the one that the Germans called "sedentary", the Americans and the British - "strange", when there was simply no fighting, the new French Prime Minister Reine called Churchill and said, "We were defeated." Churchill immediately flew to Paris, hoping to raise the spirits of the allied government. But he did not succeed. Did the French troops try to break out of the encirclement, did they have their own Brest fortress, their own battle of Smolensk? Your heroic battles surrounded by Vyazma? Did the Parisians go out to dig anti-tank ditches? Has anyone called them to action? Proposed a program of struggle? No, the leadership - both civilian and military - led France to become a collaborator and work for Germany throughout the war. The country has lost its honor. For the most part, the French fled to the south and west, they did not want to fight, the main thing was to save their wallets. De Gaulle called to them from London, but only hundreds of people responded.
It is believed that on June 22, 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union. In fact, this is not entirely true, several countries began a war against the USSR, among them:
Romania - about 200 thousand soldiers,
Slovakia - 90 thousand soldiers,
Finland - about 450 thousand soldiers and officers,
Hungary - about 500 thousand people,
Italy - 200 thousand people,
Croatia as part of the security division
And these are only those countries that have officially declared war on the Soviet Union. According to various sources, from one and a half to two and a half million volunteers who fought in parts of the Wehrmacht and the Waffen SS took part in this "crusade" against the USSR.
They were representatives of such countries as: Holland, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Sweden, Finland, France, Switzerland, Spain, Luxembourg. As in the Patriotic War of 1812, the whole of Europe, in fact, took up arms against Russia.
The famous American historian George G. Stein, in his book The Waffen SS, describes the ethnic composition of these units:
Dutch - 50 thousand people, Belgians - 20 thousand people, French - 20 thousand people, Danes and Norwegians - 6 thousand people each, 1200 people each from Sweden, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and other European countries.
One of the best divisions of the Reich, the Viking, consisted of the European SS volunteers. The name symbolized that representatives from the Aryan peoples of Nordic blood were gathered in its ranks.
So on March 10, 1942, the Norwegian Legion was transferred to the Leningrad Front, it helped to keep the city in the blockade ring until the spring of 1943. But due to heavy losses, most of the legionnaires refused to renew the contract, and were replaced by the Latvian SS Legion on the orders of Himmler.
The blockade of Leningrad can generally be considered a pan-European enterprise. In addition to the Norwegians, the Netherlands legion and the Belgian battalion operated under Volkhov. Spanish volunteers from the Blue Division fought here, Finnish and Swedish troops besieged Leningrad from the north, Italian sailors were preparing for battle on Ladoga.
The German historian Müller-Hillebrandt, who during the war was a Major General of the General Staff of the Wehrmacht, recalls that many Frenchmen who were refused admission to their armed forces by the Germans were greatly offended.
It all started with the fact that Heinrich Himmler had a conflict with the leadership of the Wehrmacht because he was trying to take the best for his SS units. The best in terms of physical fitness, health, intellectual condition. He selected the really guards, and the Wehrmacht got, as his leadership believed, the second grade, so to speak.
After the army generals "complained" to Hitler, a limit was set for Himmler on the recruitment of Germans into the Guards units. But Himmler quickly found a way out, he began to recruit representatives of the so-called Volksdeutsch, Germans living outside Germany, into his units. They could have been Germans from Holland, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, and anywhere else.
“I swear to you, Adolf Hitler, as a leader, to be faithful and brave. I vow to obey you and your appointed leader until my death. And God help me. ”
Unlike the oath that the Germans took, the text did not mention Hitler as the Chancellor of the Reich, this is a kind of psychological trick that this is not service in the ranks of the German occupiers, but in the pan-European parts of the SS.
Among the Alpine riflemen, there were also not only Germans, there were a total of twelve mountain rifle divisions, of which two were Austrian, one was from the Yugoslav Germans, one was from the Bosnian Muslims, another consisted of Albanians, and one more consisted of Austrians and Norwegians. So we can assume that every second German mountain shooter was born outside the borders of the Third Reich in 1937.
Such a large number of volunteers from the European countries captured by Hitler is explained by many reasons, this is the racial theory fashionable at that time in Europe and the bright successes of the National Socialist ideology, and just a desire to profit.
According to Himler's plans, the racially inferior peoples of the USSR were to be thrown back beyond the Urals, and their number was reduced several times. Aryans of Nordic blood were to settle in the occupied territories of the eastern lands.
The Second World War is unique of all wars; never before in history have there been such cases of mass transition of citizens of conquered countries to the service of the occupiers. Almost a large part of the population voluntarily became under Hitler's banners.
In the war against the USSR, not only the armed formations of the European Waffen SS and foreign units of the Wehrmacht took part, the entire industry of Europe also worked for the war machine of the Third Reich. In the first years of the war, almost every second shell was cast from Swedish ore.
In the summer of 1941, every fourth tank in the German army was Czech or French. Germany won its first victories largely thanks to the Scandinavian iron and Swiss optics for scopes.
Few people know that the most powerful tank of the Wehrmacht during the attack on the USSR was the French B2. Half of the super-heavy guns that fired at Leningrad and Sevastopol were produced in France and the Czech Republic.
In 1938, in Munich, representatives of England and France treacherously surrendered Czechoslovakia to Hitler. If not for this conspiracy, Germany, for economic reasons, might not have been able to start a full-scale war.
The Czech defense industry was at that time one of the largest in Europe. From its factories, the Reich received more than one and a half million rifles and pistols, about 4 thousand guns and mortars, over 6600 tanks and self-propelled guns.
The supply of raw materials was of particular importance to Germany. American oil companies, through their branches in Latin America, transferred tens of millions of dollars of gasoline to Hitler. Rockefeller's Standard Oil delivered $ 20 million worth of fuels and lubricants and fuels to the Third Reich.
Henry Ford, a great admirer of Hitler, had branches of his enterprises in Germany, which until the very end of the war supplied the Germans with very good trucks, only about 40 thousand pieces. For America, war has become good business.
It is worth noting that on the occupied territory of the USSR, the Germans, out of 32 thousand enterprises, were able to launch only two hundred. They gave products three times less than a country like Poland.
“If we see that Germany is winning, we must help Russia. And if Russia gains the upper hand, we must help Germany. And let them kill each other in this way as much as possible. All this is for the good of America. ”This statement was made on June 24, 1941 by the future US President Harry Truman to the American newspaper The New York Times.
In 2000, Nestlé, in connection with its use of slave labor at one time, paid more than $ 14.5 million to an appropriate fund to settle the claims of victims of its actions and Holocaust survivors, as well as Jewish organizations. The firm made a confession that in 1947 it acquired a company that used forced labor during the war years, and also stated: regime, they exploited forced laborers. " Nestlé provided monetary aid to the Nazi Party in Switzerland in 1939, winning a lucrative contract to supply chocolate for the entire German army during World War II.
Allianz
Allianz is ranked as the twelfth largest financial services company in the world. Founded in 1890 in Germany, it's no surprise that it was Germany's largest insurer when the Nazis came to power. As such, she quickly found herself caught up in affairs with the Nazi regime. Its leader, Kurt Schmitt, was also Hitler's minister of economics, and the company provided insurance for the facilities and personnel of Auschwitz. Its CEO is responsible for the practice of paying insurance compensation for Jewish property destroyed by Kristallnacht to the Nazi state in lieu of eligible beneficiaries. In addition, the company worked closely with the Nazi state to track the life insurance policies of German Jews sent to death camps, and during the war, it insured property taken from the same Jewish population for the Nazis.
Novartis
While Bayer is infamous for starting as a division of the Zyklon B gas producer used by the Nazis in gas chambers, it is not the only pharmaceutical company with skeletons in its closet. The Swiss chemical companies Ciba and Sandoz merged to form Novartis, best known for its drug Ritalin. In 1933, the Berlin branch of Ciba terminated all Jewish board members and replaced them with more “acceptable” Aryan cadres; meanwhile Sandoz was engaged in similar activities with its chairman. During the war, companies produced dyes, medicines and chemicals for the Nazis. Novartis openly confessed its guilt and tried to make amends for it in a way typical of other partner firms - donating $ 15 million to the Swiss fund for compensation for victims of Nazism.
BMW has confessed to using 30,000 bonded unskilled workers during the war. These POWs, forced laborers and concentration camp inmates produced engines for the Luftwaffe and were thus forced to help the regime defend itself against those who tried to save them. During wartime, BMW concentrated exclusively on the production of airplanes and motorcycles, with no claim to anything other than being a supplier of military vehicles to the Nazis.
Reemtsma
Reemtsma was founded in 1910 in Erfurt, Germany. In 1918, production was automated. In 1923, production was moved to Altona, now part of the city of Hamburg.
During Hitler's time, despite the NSDAP's official anti-smoking policy, the company flourished. In 1937, the company owned 60% of the country's cigarette market. In 1939, Philip F. Reemtsma was appointed head of the Fachuntergruppe Zigarettenindustrie (the cigarette production department in the Wehrwirtschaftsführer - an association of companies that worked for the front).
In 1948, the company was resumed, and in 1980 the majority of the shares were taken by the coffee company Tchibo, which sold its share in 2002 to Imperial Tobacco. It is noteworthy that now the Reemtsma company has representative offices in Kiev and Volgograd, near which the Battle of Stalingrad took place.
The history of the Nivea brand dates back to 1890, when a businessman named Oskar Troplowitz bought the Beiersdorf company from its founder.
In the 1930s, the brand positioned itself as a product for active life and sports. Protective creams and shaving products were the main products. During World War II, Ellie Hayes Knapp, who became the first lady under Theodore Hayes, was in charge of the advertising part of the brand. According to her, in her advertising campaigns, she tried to bypass the militaristic component, focusing on the display of an active life in peaceful circumstances. However, the sporty smiling girls from the Nivea posters could inspire the Wehrmacht soldiers no less, if not better, than Hitler's mustachioed face from the NSDAP posters.
It is noteworthy that during the war, several countries at war with Germany, appropriated the rights to the trademark. The process of buying up the rights by Beiersdorf was completed only in 1997.
Maggi was founded in 1872 in Switzerland by Julius Maggi. The entrepreneur was the first to enter the market with ready-made soups. In 1897 Julius Maggi founded Maggi GmbH in Singen, Germany, where it is still based today. The rise to power of the Nazis had little effect on business. In the 1930s, the company became a supplier of semi-finished products for the German troops.
Considering that no one from the organization's management was noticed in a particularly active political life, the brand has retained itself and continues to delight. This time also the residents of the ex-USSR.
And what about our neutrals?
“... In the very first days of the war, a German division was allowed through the territory of Sweden for operations in Northern Finland. However, the Swedish Prime Minister, Social Democrat P.A. Hansson, immediately promised the Swedish people that no German division would be allowed through Swedish territory anymore and that the country would in no way enter the war against the USSR. Sweden undertook to represent the interests of the USSR in Germany, and yet the transit of German military materials to Finland began via Sweden; German transport ships transported troops there, hiding in the territorial waters of Sweden, and until the winter of 1942/43 they were accompanied by a convoy of Swedish naval forces. The Nazis achieved the supply of Swedish goods on credit and their transportation mainly on Swedish ships ... "
“... It was the Swedish iron ore that was the best raw material for Hitler. After all, this ore contained 60 percent pure iron, while the ore obtained by the German military machine from other places contained only 30 percent iron. It is clear that the production of military equipment from metal smelted from Swedish ore was much cheaper for the treasury of the Third Reich.
In 1939, the same year that Hitlerite Germany unleashed the Second World War, she was supplied with 10.6 million tons of Swedish ore. Wow! After April 9, that is, when Germany had already conquered Denmark and Norway, the supply of ore increased significantly. In 1941, 45 thousand tons of Swedish ore were delivered daily by sea for the needs of the German military industry. Little by little, Sweden's trade with Nazi Germany grew and eventually accounted for 90 percent of all Swedish foreign trade. From 1940 to 1944, the Swedes sold over 45 million tons of iron ore to the Nazis.
The Swedish port of Luleå was specially converted to supply iron ore to Germany through the Baltic waters. (And only Soviet submarines after June 22, 1941 at times caused the Swedes great inconvenience, torpedoing Swedish transports, in the holds of which this ore was transported). The supply of ore to Germany continued almost until the moment when the Third Reich had already begun, figuratively speaking, to give up the spirit. Suffice it to say that back in 1944, when no one doubted the outcome of the Second World War, the Germans received 7.5 million tons of iron ore from Sweden. Until August 1944, Sweden received Nazi gold through Swiss banks.
In other words, Norschensflammann wrote, “Swedish iron ore provided the Germans with success in the war. And it was a bitter fact for all Swedish anti-fascists. "
However, the Germans did not receive Swedish iron ore only in the form of raw materials.
The world-famous SCF concern, which produced the best ball bearings on the planet, supplied these, not so, at first glance, cunning technical mechanisms to Germany. As many as ten percent of the ball bearings Germany received came from Sweden, according to Norsensflammann. Anyone, even a completely inexperienced person in military affairs, understands what ball bearings mean for the production of military equipment. Why, without them, not a single tank will move, not a single submarine will go out to sea! Note that Sweden, as noted by Norschensflamman, produced bearings of "special quality and technical characteristics" that Germany could not get from anywhere else. The import of bearings from Sweden became especially important for Germany when the VKF bearing plant in Schweinfurt was destroyed in 1943. In 1945, economist and economic adviser Per Jakobsson provided information that helped disrupt the supply of Swedish bearings to Japan.
Let's think: how many lives were cut short because formally neutral Sweden provided Nazi Germany with strategic and military products, without which the flywheel of the Nazi military mechanism would, of course, continue to unwind, but certainly not as fast as it was?
In the fall of 1941, that very cruel autumn, when the existence of the entire Soviet state was at stake (and therefore, as a result, the fate of the peoples inhabiting it), King Gustav V Adolf of Sweden sent Hitler a letter in which he wished “dear Reich Chancellor further success in the fight against Bolshevism "..."
Sweden received even more military orders after the outbreak of World War II. And these were mainly orders for Nazi Germany. Neutral Sweden became one of the main economic pillars of the national Reich. Suffice it to say that only in 1943, out of the mined 10.8 million tons of iron ore, 10.3 million tons were sent to Germany from Sweden. In the Baltic, there was not only a fight against fascist ships, but also the destruction of ships from neutral Sweden carrying cargo for the Nazis.
Well, what did the Nazis pay with the Swedes for the goods received from them? Only by the fact that they plundered in the territories they occupied and most of all in the Soviet occupied territories. The Germans had almost no other resources for settlements with Sweden. So, when they tell you about "Swedish happiness" again, remember who paid the Swedes and at whose expense.
The war in Europe was more about political influence and control of territories, the war on the eastern front was a war of destruction and survival, these are absolutely two different wars, they just happened at the same time.
Civilized Europe always diligently erases from the history of the Second World War these shameful facts of its cooperation with the bloodiest and most inhuman regime of the twentieth century, and this is the truth about war that you need to know and remember.
19th century English publicist T. J. Dunning:
Capital ... avoids noise and abuse and has a fearful nature. It's true, but it's not the whole truth. Capital is afraid of lack of profit or too little profit, as nature is afraid of emptiness. But once there is sufficient profit, capital becomes bold. Provide 10 percent, and capital agrees to any use, at 20 percent it becomes lively, at 50 percent it is positively ready to break its head, at 100 percent it violates all human laws, at 300 percent there is no crime that it would not risk, even on pain of the gallows. If noise and abuse are profitable, capital will do both. Proof: smuggling and slave trade
sources
http://www.warmech.ru/war_mech/tyl-evr.html
http://www.theunknownwar.ru/korporaczii_kotoryie_obyazanyi_naczistam_svoim_uspexom.html
And I will remind you again The original article is on the site InfoGlaz.rf The link to the article this copy was made from is