Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Didn't Bulgaria allow the Nazis to deport the Jews in the Bulgarian-controlled parts of Greece and Yugoslavia (specifically, Macedonia) to extermination camps, though?
Slovakia: Sort of an occupied nation, sort of allied with Germany. I think they were largely incooperative in turning over local Jews.
Actually, as far as I know, Slovakia agreed to deport about 2/3rds of its pre-war Jewish population to Nazi death camps due to it having the mistaken assumption that these Jews were going to be used as forced labor rather than be killed. When Slovakia found out that these Jews were being killed, though, then it refused to deport any additional Jews to Nazi death camps. Thus, about 1/3rds of Slovakia's pre-war Jewish population was still alive in late 1944, when the Nazis occupied Slovakia and killed thousands of additional Slovak Jews.
Didn't Bulgaria allow the Nazis to deport the Jews in the Bulgarian-controlled parts of Greece and Yugoslavia (specifically, Macedonia) to extermination camps, though?
In case of Bulgaria, the refusal to deport the Jews had probably a lot to do with maintaining sovereignty. The Bulgarian king was also a German prince (his father was called to the Bulgarian throne) and he wasn't about to let some Austrian corporal dictate him what to do with his subjects. For the same reason Hitler would be hesitant to press the issue, German aristocracy made up a large part of German officer corps, they stuck together and at least until von Stauffenberg's assassination attempt Hitler tried to not alienate them. But Boris did enact anti-Jewish laws similar to Nuremberg laws.
I'm currently in Western Europe, following the trail of my Grandfather who fought from Normandy all the way into Germany.
You need to make the distinction between the people who collaborated with the Nazis and the rest of the population. In Belgium, about 5% of the people willingly collaborated, of those, the majority collaborated for political or monetary gains. They usually did not hand over the Jewish population. However, there were some actual antisemitic collaborators who did cooperate to the full extent.
The entire war history of Belgium, France and the Netherlands is riddled with examples of ordinary citizens who were hiding Jews. The Germans had a really hard time rounding them all up and getting them deported.
Actually, as far as I know, Slovakia agreed to deport about 2/3rds of its pre-war Jewish population to Nazi death camps due to it having the mistaken assumption that these Jews were going to be used as forced labor rather than be killed. When Slovakia found out that these Jews were being killed, though, then it refused to deport any additional Jews to Nazi death camps. Thus, about 1/3rds of Slovakia's pre-war Jewish population was still alive in late 1944, when the Nazis occupied Slovakia and killed thousands of additional Slovak Jews.
Thanks for the details.
Hungary, another German ally, also showed varying degrees of cooperation in the Holocaust. Initially, they refused to deport Jews, but were willing to harass them, draft them for forced labor etc. . Then, in 1944, the moderately antisemitic Hungarian government was over thrown, and the Germans together with Hungarian Arrow Cross militias began the last stage of the holocaust.
Keep in mind many of these countries had issues with Jewish communities [historically Jews would have their own separate communities with their own schools and systems] and the way that they operated their businesses - predominately making money 'trading' not actually doing work.
Therefore, you had many Poles, Ukrainians, French, Dutch etc helping the Germans in rounding up Jews.
You do realize that historically in most European countries the Jews were by law prohibited from owning land - which, not accidentally, accounted for most of the economic activities until the late XIX century ?
And the guilds would stop them from entering into the crafts. To become a member of a guild one had to take an oath on a Christian Bible, which automatically excluded the Jews (or Muslims, although there were too few of them in Europe to make any difference). One also could not become a lawyer or hold a public office without taking a Christian oath.
So between agriculture and crafts there's really not much left, for most of the European history.
The vast majority of Jews were extremely poor, primarily because they were excluded from participating in the biggest part of economy.
Outside of trying to make living within their own communities - which was a small and poor market - the only occupations opened for them were money lending (which only the small percentage of wealthy Jews could afford) or small time peddling.
So, the Jews were deliberately forced into activities that were considered morally reprehensible, and then blamed for engaging in these activities.
A good example is Russian Empire - the government had a monopoly on manufacturing alcohol, and took the lion share of profits from it's sale, but in the Pale of Settlement the Jews were primarily issued licenses to sell it. So the Russian government made immense profits from selling alcohol and the Jews took all the blame for "encouraging" drunkenness and "corrupting" the Christians.
In the countries in which the Jews were not as restricted in economic activities, such as the Netherlands, they were actively engaged in many of the same crafts as the Christians - maritime trade and diamond cutting, where they became very successful. They were still denied entry into the guilds though.
In Germany, by the end of XIX century the majority of the Jews were extremely patriotic, considered themselves German first and Jewish second, actively engaged in all trades and sciences that they were allowed into, served in the Army (Hitler's own commanding officer was Jewish) and were basically some of the most assimilated Jews in Europe. Much good it did them.
Last edited by Ummagumma; 06-04-2015 at 08:52 PM..
The Swiss were no good. They had a Jewish American POW camp called Berga. I believe Finland and Denmark put up a good fight to protect its Jewish populations.
The Swiss were no good. They had a Jewish American POW camp called Berga. I believe Finland and Denmark put up a good fight to protect its Jewish populations.
The Swiss also robbed survivors of their family savings - e.g. they demanded an official death certificate before they would release money to the surviving relatives (and of course the Nazis didn't issue death certificates to the Jews they were murdering. ) The Swiss banks held on to that money until just about 15 years ago the US forced them to return at least part of it.
The Finns had a field military sinagogue operating right next to German positions. I think it was Finnish Prime Minister Ruuti who, when told by a high ranking German visitor that they needed to discuss the "Jewish question" answered "Finland does not have a Jewish question" and that was it. Mannerheim also said something like "while the Jews serve in my army I will not allow their persecution". Now, this was related to the Finnish Jews, of whom there were only a couple thousands if that. I read that early on Finland did deport several Jewish refugees who were promptly killed by the Nazis, when this was published in Finnish newspapers it caused a wave of outrage and a parliamentary debate and there was no more deportations. In many other ways, too, Finland managed to remain a fully democratic country despite fighting on the "wrong" side (but this was by necessity rather than by choice). Despite being a small country fighting in a massive total war, they've only outlawed two parties - one was Nazi-like and the other were Communists, which again was clearly by necessity. I read somewhere that Finland was the only Continental country engaged in the war that remained democratic.
The Swiss also robbed survivors of their family savings - e.g. they demanded an official death certificate before they would release money to the surviving relatives (and of course the Nazis didn't issue death certificates to the Jews they were murdering. ) The Swiss banks held on to that money until just about 15 years ago the US forced them to return at least part of it.
The Finns had a field military sinagogue operating right next to German positions. I think it was Finnish Prime Minister Ruuti who, when told by a high ranking German visitor that they needed to discuss the "Jewish question" answered "Finland does not have a Jewish question" and that was it. Mannerheim also said something like "while the Jews serve in my army I will not allow their persecution". Now, this was related to the Finnish Jews, of whom there were only a couple thousands if that. I read that early on Finland did deport several Jewish refugees who were promptly killed by the Nazis, when this was published in Finnish newspapers it caused a wave of outrage and a parliamentary debate and there was no more deportations. In many other ways, too, Finland managed to remain a fully democratic country despite fighting on the "wrong" side (but this was by necessity rather than by choice). Despite being a small country fighting in a massive total war, they've only outlawed two parties - one was Nazi-like and the other were Communists, which again was clearly by necessity. I read somewhere that Finland was the only Continental country engaged in the war that remained democratic.
Thanks for sharing!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
