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| Occupation of the Baltic states |
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After theGerman invasion of the Soviet Union, theBaltic states were undermilitary occupation byNazi Germany from 1941 to 1944. Initially, manyEstonians,Latvians, andLithuanians considered the Germans liberators from the Soviet Union. The Balts hoped for the restoration of independence, but instead, the Germans established aprovisional government. During the occupation, the Germans carried outdiscrimination,mass deportations, andmass killings, generating Balticresistance movements.
The Germans agreed to leave the Baltic states, except for Lithuania (which was later ceded in exchange for oil-rich regions of Poland), under the Sovietsphere of influence in the 1939German–Soviet Pact. The Germans lacked concern for the fate of the Baltic states, and initiated the evacuation of theBaltic Germans. Between October and December 1939, the Germans evacuated 13,700 people from Estonia and 52,583 from Latvia, and resettled them in Polish territories incorporated into Nazi Germany. The following summer, theSoviets occupied and illegally annexed all three states. On 22 June 1941, the Germans carried outOperation Barbarossa. The Soviets had already implementedsovietization earlier, including the first mass deportation on 14 June, just eight days earlier, so the majority of Balts welcomed the German armed forces when they crossed the frontiers of Lithuania.[1]
In Lithuania, arevolt broke out on the first day of the war, and aprovisional government was established. As the German armies approachedRiga andTallinn, there were attempts to re-establish national governments. It was hoped that the Germans would re-establish Baltic independence. Such political hopes soon evaporated and Baltic cooperation became less forthright or ceased altogether.[2] A growing proportion of the local populations turned against the Nazi regime as Germany turned the Baltic states—except for theMemel (Klaipėda) region annexed intoGreater Germany in 1939—and most ofBelarus into theReichskommissariat Ostland, acolony in all but name in which the four predominant nationalities had little role in governance.Hinrich Lohse, a German Nazi politician, was Reichskommissar until he fled in the face of theRed Army's advance in 1944. Furthermore, Nazi Germany rejected the recreation of the Baltic states in any form in the future, as it unilaterally declared itself thelegal successor to all three of the Baltic countries, as well as the Soviet Union, which it expected would collapse due to the German invasion.[3]
Germans immediately initiated anti-Jewish persecution by deploying its mobile death squads, theEinsatzgruppen. The remainder of the Baltic peoples were deemed by the Nazis to be "a dying race" that needed to be "replaced by a more dynamic people", meaning Germans.[4] The main Nazi plan for thecolonization of conquered territories in the east, referred to asGeneralplan Ost, called for the wholesale deportation of some two thirds of the native population from the territories of the Baltic states in the event of a German victory. The remaining third were either to be exterminatedin situ, used asslave labour, orGermanized if deemed sufficiently "Aryan", while hundreds of thousands of German settlers were to be moved into the conquered territories. AsAdolf Hitler explained in a conference on 16 July 1941, the Baltic states were to beannexed to Germany at the earliest possible moment,[5] and some Nazi ideologists suggested renaming Estonia asPeipusland and Latvia asDünaland and integrating them as German provinces.[4] During the course of the war, the main thrust ofNazi racial policies was directed against the Jews, not so much the majority Baltic peoples.[6]
Towards the end of the war, once it became clear that Germany would be defeated, manyBalts and Estonians joined the Germans once again. It was hoped that by engaging in such a war, the Baltic countries would be able to attract Western support for the cause of independence from the USSR.[7] In Latvia, an underground nationalist Central Council of Latvia was formed on 13 August 1943. An analogous body, theSupreme Committee for the Liberation of Lithuania, emerged on 25 November 1943. On 23 March 1944, the underground National Committee of the Estonian Republic was founded.
After Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, theWehrmacht reachedEstonia in July.
Although initially the Germans were perceived as liberators from the USSR and its repressions by most Estonians who hoped for the restoration of the country's independence, it was soon realized that they were merely another occupying power. Germans pillaged the country for the war effort and unleashed theHolocaust. Estonia was incorporated into the German province ofOstland. That made many Estonians unwilling to side with the Nazis to join the Finnish army to fight against the Soviet Union. TheFinnish Infantry Regiment 200 (soomepoisid – 'Boys of Finland') was formed out of Estonian volunteers in Finland. 70,000 Estonians were recruited to the German armed forces (includingWaffen-SS). Most of them joined in 1944, when the threat of a new invasion of Estonia by the Red Army had become imminent and it was clear that Germany would not win the war.
By January 1944, the front was pushed back by the Red Army almost all the way to the former Estonian border.Narva was evacuated.Jüri Uluots, the last legitimate Prime Minister of the Republic of Estonia (according to the constitution of Estonia) before its fall to the Soviet Union in 1940, delivered as a private citizen a radio address that implored all able-bodied men born from 1904 through 1923 to report for military service. (Before this, Uluots had opposed Estonian mobilization.) The call drew support from all across the country: 38,000 volunteers jammed registration centers. Several thousand Estonians who had joined the Finnish army came back across the Gulf of Finland to join the newly-formed Territorial Defense Force, assigned to defend Estonia against the Soviet advance. It was hoped that by engaging in such a war, Estonia would be able to attract Western support for the cause of Estonia's independence from the USSR and thus ultimately succeed in achieving independence.[7]
By 10 July 1941, theGerman armed forces had occupied all ofLatvia's territory. Latvia became a part ofNazi Germany'sReichskommissariat Ostland as the Province General of Latvia (Generalbezirk Lettland). Anyone who was disobedient to the German occupation regime or had co-operated with the Soviet regime was killed or sent to concentration camps.
Immediately after the installation of German authority (the beginning of July 1941), a process of eliminating theJewish andGypsy population began, with many killings taking place inRumbula. The killings were committed byEinsatzgruppe A, theWehrmacht, and Marines (inLiepāja), as well as by Latviancollaborators, including the 500–1,500 members of the infamousSonderkommando Arajs (orArajs Kommando), which alone killed around 26,000 Jews, and the 2,000 or more Latvian members of theSD.[8][9] By the end of 1941, almost the entire Jewish population had been exterminated. In addition, some 25,000 Jews were brought from Germany, Austria and the present-day Czech Republic, of whom around 20,000 were killed.
Latvia's population perished not only on the battlefield. During the years of Nazi occupation, special campaigns exterminated 18,000 Latvians, approximately 70,000 Jews and 2,000 Gypsies – in total about 90,000 people. The Latvians among these were mostly civilians whose political convictions were unacceptable to the German occupation force. Jewish and Gypsy civilians were eliminated as a result of Nazi Germany's racial policy. Persecutions were mostly carried out by special German units (Einsatzgruppe A,Sicherheitsdienst, or SD) and police units. The German occupation regime attempted to involve the local population in war crimes. Thus, Latvian self-defence units, security police units, and SD auxiliary units were created and included volunteers who carried out part of the terror campaign.
In 1943 and 1944,two divisions ofWaffen SS were formed from Latvian volunteers to fight against theRed Army.
A large number of Latvians resisted the German occupation.[citation needed] TheLatvian resistance movement was divided between the pro-independence units under theLatvian Central Council and theSoviet partisan units under theCentral Staff of the Partisan Movement in Moscow. Their Latvian commander wasArturs Sproģis.
The occupation of Lithuania by Nazi Germany refers to the period from the start of the German invasion of the Soviet Union to the end of theBattle of Memel (22 June 1941 – 28 January 1945). At first, the Germans were welcomed as "liberators" from the repressive Soviet regime.[citation needed] In the hope of re-establishing independence or at least gaining autonomy, Lithuanians organizedtheir Provisional Government.
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