Life in Nazi occupied countries
History 12
Ms Leslie
France
• Surrender terms states
France must pay for the
Nazi army in their
country
• Transportation becomes
disorganized
• Shortage of fuel
• Labour shortages
Lack of food
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Nazi army plundered to feed itself
Food rations for locals
Barter for food with cigarettes
Not so bad in rural areas
The Dictatorship
• Obligatory Work Force - Hundreds of Thousands
of French workers sent to Germany forcefully
• Curfew - could not go out an night with out
permission, had to shutter windows
• Education - Children indoctrinated with the new ideas
of the Vichy regime
• Jews - discriminated against
French Jews
• Vichy France complied with Nazi views on Jews and
eugenics
• Strip citizenship away from the Jews
• Require ‘pure’ French couples to obtain a license to
have babies
• July 1942 - French begin rounding up the Jewish
population, including Women and Children something the Gestapo did not ask for
• Vichy gov’t deports 76,000 Jews - only 2,500
survive
• It’s important to note the French exceeded
the expectations of Hitler when it came to
turning over their Jewish population
Occupied Norway
• Quisling, leader of the Norwegian Nazis
becomes leader
• Most fortified country during the war - 1 Nazi
for every 8 Norwegians.
• Food shortages - the people kept livestock in
their homes and grew veggies in city parks
Resistance
• Only 10% of the population supported the
Nazis
• Exiled gov’t in London made radio broadcasts
in Norwiegien
• Operation cold shoulder
• Eventually there was a 40,000 member
resistance army
Collaborators
• 15,000 Norwegians volunteered for the Nazi
army - 6,000 of which see action (total
population 3 million)
• Lebensborn - children fathered by Nazi
soldiers under the program. Are
discriminated against after the war
Occupied Holland
• Set up a German civilian government
• Policy of Gleichschaltung - enforced
conformity
• 1940 - all socialist activities outlawed
• 1941 - only political party allowed is the Nazis
• A huge shake up since most Dutch politics are
religious based
• Hitler saw the Dutch race as part of the Aryan
race.
• Wanted to make it part of the greater
Germanic empire
Dutch Jews
• Persecution started after occupation
• Feb 1941- Nazis start deportation - the Dutch
go on strike
• This action is completely unique in Nazi
occupied countries - but the Leaders are
executed
• Nazis set up the Jewish Counsil
• Dutch Roman Catholic Church Publicly
condemns the actions of the Nazis
• R-C Priests are sent to concentration camps
High Jewish death toll
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Of the 140,000 Dutch Jews only 30,000 Survive
The Dutch had good civil records
The people did not know about the extermination
There was a huge effort to hide the Jews - but 1/3 of
those who did, did not survive the war
Oppression of the Dutch
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Civilians forced in to labour
Men 18-45 to work in German Factories
Food taken out of Holland
Germans built a huge coastal defensive line (the
Atlantic Wall) this meant Houses are destroyed and
people displaced
• Civilians forced to do it - worked slowly and poorly
Winter of Hunger
1944-45
• Unusually cold winter = less food
• Forced to forage for 10s of kms looking for
sugar beets and tulip bulbs to eat
• Thousands died
• RAF eventually able to drop food
• Audrey Hepburn lived through it at had lifelong effects
Collaboration
• Some woman collaborated with the Germans
• Some Dutch captured hidden Jews for bounty
• After the war collaborators were treated
harshly
• Women were dragged on to the streets and
had their heads forcibly shaved
• They would also be covered in orange paint.