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Heu-Aktion
''Heuaktion'' (German: "hay harvest", or "hay operation") was a World War II Nazi German operation in which 40,000 to 50,000 Polish children aged 10 to 14 were kidnapped by German occupation forces and transported to Germany as slave labourers. "''Heuaktion''" was an acronym for "Homeless, parentless, unhoused 'heimatlos, elternlos, unterkunftslos'' – ''HEU'', "hay"Operation". On arrival in Germany, the children were turned over to Organisation Todt and to the Junkers aircraft works. The intention of the mass abductions was to pressure the adult populations of the occupied territories to register as workers in the Reich, and to weaken the “biological strength” of the areas which Germany had invaded.Lynn H. Nicholas, ''Cruel World: The Children of Europe in the Nazi Web'' p 351 Background Alfred Rosenberg, head of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories, originally feared that targeting children aged 10 to 14 would be seen as simple abduction, and prop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Forced Labour Under German Rule During World War II
The use of slave and forced labour in Nazi Germany (german: Zwangsarbeit) and throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II took place on an unprecedented scale. It was a vital part of the German economic exploitation of conquered territories. It also contributed to the mass extermination of populations in occupied Europe. The Germans abducted approximately 12 million people from almost twenty European countries; about two thirds came from Central Europe and Eastern Europe.Part1 an Part 2 . Many workers died as a result of their living conditionsextreme mi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kidnapping Of Children By Nazi Germany
During World War II, around 200,000 ethnic Polish children as well as an unspecified number of children of other ethnicities were abducted from their homes and forcibly transported to Nazi Germany for purposes of forced labour, medical experimentation, or Germanization. An aim of the project was to acquire and "Germanize" children with purportedly Aryan- Nordic traits, who were considered by Nazi officials to be descendants of German settlers who had emigrated to Poland. Those labelled "racially valuable" were forcibly Germanized in centres and then sent to German families and SS Home Schools. An association, "Stolen Children: Forgotten Victims" (''Geraubte Kinder – Vergessene Opfer e.V.''), is active in Germany, representing victims of German kidnapping. Background In a well-known speech to his military commanders at Obersalzberg on 22 August 1939, Adolf Hitler condoned the killing without pity or mercy of all men, women, and children of Polish race or language. On 7 Novembe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kinder Kz
''Kinder-KZ Litzmannstadt'' (german: Polen-Jugendverwahrlager der Sicherheitspolizei in Litzmannstadt, pl, Prewencyjny Obóz Policji Bezpieczeństwa dla Młodzieży Polskiej w Łodzi) was a Nazi German concentration camp for Polish Christian children in occupied Łodź during World War II, established in December 1942 adjacent to the '' Litzmannstadt Ghetto'' where Polish Jews were imprisoned before the Holocaust. History Separated from one another only by a high fence made of planks, the children's camp was located within the Ghetto section of the city bordering roughly today's streets of Bracka, Emilii Plater, Gornicza, and Zagajnikowa. The main gate of the camp was located on Przemyslowa Street (''Gewerbestrasse'').The camp for Polish children Przemystowa Street (Gew ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Forced Labour
Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, violence including death, or other forms of extreme hardship to either themselves or members of their families. Unfree labour includes all forms of slavery, penal labour and the corresponding institutions, such as debt slavery, serfdom, corvée and labour camps. Definition Many forms of unfree labour are also covered by the term forced labour, which is defined by the International Labour Organization (ILO) as all involuntary work or service exacted under the menace of a penalty. However, under the ILO Forced Labour Convention of 1930, the term forced or compulsory labour does not include: *"any work or service exacted in virtue of compulsory military service laws for work of a purely military character;" *"any work or service which forms part of the normal civic obligations of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Untermensch
''Untermensch'' (, ; plural: ''Untermenschen'') is a Nazi term for non- Aryan "inferior people" who were often referred to as "the masses from the East", that is Jews, Roma, and Slavs (mainly ethnic Poles, Serbs, and later also Russians). The term was also applied to mixed race and black people. Jewish, Polish and Romani people, along with the physically and mentally disabled, as well as homosexuals and political dissidents, and on rare instances, POWs from Western Allied armies, were to be exterminated in the Holocaust. According to the ''Generalplan Ost'', the Slavic population of East-Central Europe was to be reduced in part through mass murder in the Holocaust, with a majority expelled to Asia and used as slave labor in the Reich. These concepts were an important part of the Nazi racial policy. Etymology It is widely believed that the term "under man" was coined by the Nazis, but this belief is incorrect because the term "under man" was first used by the American au ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Germanisation
Germanisation, or Germanization, is the spread of the German language, German people, people and German culture, culture. It was a central idea of German conservative thought in the 19th and the 20th centuries, when conservatism and ethnic nationalism went hand in hand. In linguistics, Germanisation of non-German languages also occurs when they adopt many German words. Under the policies of states such as the State of the Teutonic Order, Teutonic Order, Federal State of Austria, Austria, the German Empire and Nazi Germany, non-Germans were often prohibited from using their native language, and had their traditions and culture suppressed in the goal of gradually eliminating foreign cultures, a form of ethnic cleansing. In addition, colonists and settlers were used to upset the population balance. During the Nazi Germany, Nazi era, Germanisation turned into a policy of genocide against some non-German ethnic groups. Forms Historically there are different forms and degrees of the ex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Generalplan Ost
The ''Generalplan Ost'' (; en, Master Plan for the East), abbreviated GPO, was the Nazi German government's plan for the genocide and ethnic cleansing on a vast scale, and colonization of Central and Eastern Europe by Germans. It was to be undertaken in territories occupied by Germany during World War II. The plan was attempted during the war, resulting indirectly and directly in the deaths of millions by shootings, starvation, disease, extermination through labor, and genocide. However, its full implementation was not considered practicable during major military operations, and never materialized due to Germany's defeat. The program operational guidelines were based on the policy of ''Lebensraum'' designed by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in fulfilment of the ''Drang nach Osten'' (drive to the East) ideology of German expansionism. As such, it was intended to be a part of the New Order in Europe. The plan was a work in progress. There are four known versions of it, develo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Genocide
Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Latin suffix ("act of killing").. In 1948, the United Nations Genocide Convention defined genocide as any of five "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group." These five acts were: killing members of the group, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group, preventing births, and forcibly transferring children out of the group. Victims are targeted because of their real or perceived membership of a group, not randomly. The Political Instability Task Force estimated that 43 genocides occurred between 1956 and 2016, resulting in about 50 million deaths. The UNHCR estimated that a further 50 million had been displac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nuremberg Trials
The Nuremberg trials were held by the Allies of World War II, Allies against representatives of the defeated Nazi Germany, for plotting and carrying out invasions of other countries, and other crimes, in World War II. Between 1939 and 1945, Nazi Germany invaded many countries across Europe, inflicting 27 million deaths in the Soviet Union alone. Proposals for how to punish the defeated Nazi leaders ranged from a show trial (the Soviet Union) to summary executions (the United Kingdom). In mid-1945, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States agreed to convene a joint tribunal in Nuremberg, with the Nuremberg Charter as its legal instrument. Between 20 November 1945 and 1 October 1946, the International Military Tribunal (IMT) tried 21 of the most important surviving leaders of Nazi Germany in the political, military, and economic spheres, as well as six German organizations. The purpose of the trial was not just to convict the defendants but also to as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christian Gerlach
Hans Christian Gerlach is professor of Modern History at the University of Bern. Gerlach is also Associate Editor of the ''Journal of Genocide Research'' and author of multiple books dealing with the Hunger Plan, the Holocaust, and genocide. Writings His books include ''Krieg, Ernährung, Volkermord: Forschungen zur Deutschen Vernichtungspolitik im Zweiten Weltkrieg'' (1998); ''Kalkulierte Morde: die Deutsche Wirtschafts- und Vernichtungspolitik in Weissrussland 1941 bis 1944'' (1999); ''Das letzte Kapitel'' (co-authored with and Götz Aly in 2002); and ''Sur la conférence de Wannsee'' (2002). Ideas Gerlach's article "Extremely Violent Societies: An Alternative to the Concept of Genocide" has been the subject of great debate among scholars of genocide and violence. In the article, Gerlach challenges the model utilized in trying to understand genocide. Gerlach has previously stirred intense debate among Holocaust historians with his thesis surrounding December 12, 1941, as the date ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henning Von Tresckow
Henning Hermann Karl Robert von Tresckow (; 10 January 1901 – 21 July 1944) was a German military officer with the rank of major general in the Nazi Germany, German Army who helped organize German resistance to Nazism, German resistance against Adolf Hitler. He attempted to assassinate Hitler on 13 March 1943 and drafted the Operation Valkyrie, Valkyrie plan for a coup against the German government. He was described by the Gestapo as the "prime mover" behind the 20 July plot, plot of 20 July 1944 to assassinate Hitler.Fest 1997, p. 236. He committed suicide at Królowy Most on the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front upon the plot's failure. Early life Tresckow was born in Magdeburg into a noble family from the Brandenburg region of Prussia with 300 years of military tradition that provided the Prussian Army with 21 generals.Balfour 1988, pg. 124. His father, Leopold Hans Heinrich Eugen Hermann von Tresckow, later a cavalry general, had been present at Kaiser Wilhelm I' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2nd Army (Wehrmacht)
The 2nd Army () was a field army of the German Army during World War II. History 1939 and 1940 The 2nd Army headquarters was briefly established in Berlin from Group Command 1 on 26 August 1939 and at the beginning of the Invasion of Poland it was renamed Army Group North on 2 September. The 2nd Army was reestablished on 20 October 1939, with ''Generaloberst'' Maximilian von Weichs in command, by renaming the 8th Army, which had been moved from Poland to the west. It was assigned to the reserve of the ''Oberkommando des Heeres'' (OKH). After the beginning of the Battle of France on 10 May, the army was assigned to Army Group A and marched through Luxembourg, Belgium, and northern France. From 31 May to 4 June it marched to the front north of the Somme, Aisne, and Oise and participated in the expansion of bridgeheads. When it entered battle on 9 June on the Aisne, the army included IX ( 295th and 294th Infantry Divisions), XXVI ( 34th and 45th Infantry Divisions), and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
