![Eastern Front 1943-08 to 1944-12](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/Eastern_Front_1943-08_to_1944-12.png)
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
,
Lithuania
Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...
was occupied by the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
(1940–1941),
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
(1941–1944), and the Soviet Union again in 1944.
Resistance during this period took many forms. Significant parts of the resistance were formed by Polish and Soviet forces, some of which fought with Lithuanian collaborators. This article presents a summary of the organizations, persons and actions involved. Lithuania was defacto independent from June 24, 1941 until June 30, 1941 when Nazi Germany took full control of the area.
First Soviet occupation
In 1940, President
Antanas Smetona
Antanas Smetona (; 10 August 1874 – 9 January 1944) was a Lithuanian intellectual and journalist and the first President of Lithuania from 1919 to 1920 and again from 1926 to 1940, before its occupation by the Soviet Union. He was one of the m ...
fled to Germany, not wanting his government to become a puppet of the Soviet occupation. Soviet attempts to capture him were unsuccessful, and he was able to settle in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
.
In 1940,
Jan Zwartendijk
Jan Zwartendijk (29 July 1896 – 14 September 1976) was a Dutch businessman and diplomat. As director of the Philips factories in Lithuania and part-time acting consul of the Dutch government-in-exile, he supervised the writing of 2,345 visas f ...
, the Dutch consul in Kaunas, and
Chiune Sugihara
was a Japanese diplomat who served as vice-consul for the Japanese Empire in Kaunas, Lithuania. During the Second World War, Sugihara helped thousands of Jews flee Europe by issuing transit visas to them so that they could travel through Japan ...
, the
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
ese consul in
Kaunas
Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Trakai ...
, and his wife Yukiko disobeyed orders and saved thousands of Jewish refugees from
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
by granting them visas.
In 1941, the
Lithuanian Activist Front
The Lithuanian Activist Front or LAF () was a short-lived, far-right underground resistance organization established in 1940 after Lithuania was incorporated by the Soviet Union. The goal of the organization was to liberate Lithuania and re-estab ...
( lt, Lietuvos Aktyvistų Frontas) formed an
underground government, and following the
June uprising, the
Provisional Government of Lithuania
The Provisional Government of Lithuania ( lt, Laikinoji Vyriausybė) was a temporary government aiming for independent Lithuania during the last days of the first Soviet occupation and the first months of German Nazi occupation in 1941.
It w ...
maintained sovereignty for a brief period.
Nazi German occupation
Soviet partisans
Soviet partisans were members of resistance movements that fought a guerrilla war against Axis forces during World War II in the Soviet Union, the previously Soviet-occupied territories of interwar Poland in 1941–45 and eastern Finland. The ...
began sabotage and guerrilla operations against German forces immediately after the
Nazi invasion of 1941. The activities of Soviet partisans in Lithuania were partly coordinated by the Command of the Lithuanian Partisan Movement headed by
Antanas Sniečkus
Antanas Sniečkus ( – 22 January 1974) was a Lithuanian communist politician who served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Lithuania from 15 August 1940 to 22 January 1974.
Biography
Sniečkus was born in 1903, in the village of ...
and partly by the Central Command of the Partisan Movement of the USSR.
In 1943, the Nazis attempted to raise a
Waffen-SS
The (, "Armed SS") was the combat branch of the Nazi Party's ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, volunteers and conscripts from both occup ...
division from the local population as they had in many other countries, but due to widespread coordination between resistance groups, the mobilization was boycotted. The
Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force The Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force or LTDF ( lt, Lietuvos vietinė rinktinė, LVR, german: Litauische Sonderverbände) was a short-lived, Lithuanian, volunteer armed force created and disbanded in 1944 during the German occupation of Lithuani ...
(''Lietuvos vietinė rinktinė'') was eventually formed in 1944 under Lithuanian command, but was liquidated by the Nazis only a few months later for refusing to subordinate to their command.
[Peterson, Roger D. ''Resistance and Rebellion: Lessons from Eastern Europe'']
p. 164
Cambridge University Press, 2001-05-07. [Lane, Thomas. ''Lithuania: Stepping Westward'']
p. 57
Routledge (UK), 2002-08-23. [Mackevičius, Mečislovas]
''Lituanus
''Lituanus'' is an English language quarterly journal dedicated to Lithuanian and Baltic languages, linguistics, political science, arts, history, literature, and related topics. It is published by the non-profit Lituanus Foundation, Inc., and ha ...
'', Vol. 32, No. 4, Winter 1986. Ed. Antanas Dundzila. ISSN 0024-5089
![01944](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/01944.04_%C5%BBo%C5%82nierze_3_Wile%C5%84skiej_Brygady_Armii_Krajowej_w_Turgielach.jpg)
There was no significant violent resistance directed against the Nazis. Some Lithuanians, encouraged by Germany's vague promises of
autonomy
In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy, from , ''autonomos'', from αὐτο- ''auto-'' "self" and νόμος ''nomos'', "law", hence when combined understood to mean "one who gives oneself one's ...
,
cooperated with the Nazis. Pre-war tensions over the
Vilnius Region
Vilnius Region is the territory in present-day Lithuania and Belarus that was originally inhabited by ethnic Baltic tribes and was a part of Lithuania proper, but came under East Slavic and Polish cultural influences over time.
The territory ...
resulted in a low-level
civil war
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
between Poles and Lithuanians.
Nazi-sponsored Lithuanian units, primarily the
Lithuanian Secret Police
The Lithuanian Security Police (LSP), also known as Saugumas ( lt, Saugumo policija), was a local police force that operated in German-occupied Lithuania from 1941 to 1944, in collaboration with the occupational authorities. Collaborating with th ...
,
were active in the region and assisted the Germans in repressing the Polish population. In the autumn of 1943, the
Home Army
The Home Army ( pl, Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK; ) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) esta ...
began retaliatory operations against the Lithuanian units and killed hundreds of mostly
Lithuanian Auxiliary policemen and other collaborators during the first half of 1944. The conflict culminated in the massacres of Polish and Lithuanian civilians in June 1944 in the
Glitiškės
Glitiškės ( pl, Glinciszki) is a village in Vilnius district
Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the muni ...
(Glinciszki) and
Dubingiai
Dubingiai ( pl, Dubinki) is a town in Molėtai district in Lithuania. It is situated near Lake Asveja, the longest lake in the country. The town has 208 inhabitants as of 2017.
History
The settlement was first mentioned in 1334, when Teutonic ...
(Dubinki) villages. ''See also
Polish-Lithuanian relations during World War II.''
Also in 1943, several underground political groups united under the
Supreme Committee for the Liberation of Lithuania The Supreme Committee for the Liberation of Lithuania or VLIK ( lt, Vyriausiasis Lietuvos išlaisvinimo komitetas) was an organization seeking independence of Lithuania. It was established on November 25, 1943, during the Nazi occupation. After Wor ...
(''Vyriausias Lietuvos išlaisvinimo komitetas'', or ''VLIK''). The committee issued a declaration of independence that went largely unnoticed. It became active mostly outside Lithuania among emigrants and deportees, and was able to establish contacts in
Western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
countries and get support for resistance operations inside Lithuania (see
Operation Jungle
Operation Jungle was a programme by the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) early in the Cold War from 1949 to 1955 for the clandestine insertion of intelligence and resistance agents into Poland and the Baltic states. The agents were most ...
). It would persist abroad for many years as one of the groups representing Lithuania in exile.
[Kaszeta, Daniel J]
Lithuanian Resistance to Foreign Occupation 1940-1952
''Lituanus
''Lituanus'' is an English language quarterly journal dedicated to Lithuanian and Baltic languages, linguistics, political science, arts, history, literature, and related topics. It is published by the non-profit Lituanus Foundation, Inc., and ha ...
'', Volume 34, No. 3, Fall 1988. Ed. Antanas Dundzila. ISSN 0024-5089
Lithuanian Freedom Army
The Lithuanian Liberation Army (sometimes also named as Lithuanian Freedom Army) ( lt, Lietuvos laisvės armija or LLA) was a Lithuanian underground organization established by Kazys Veverskis (codename Senis), a student at Vilnius University, on ...
during Nazi Germany's occupation opposed German policies, but did not begin armed resistance. The armed struggle began in mid-1944 when Red Army reached the Lithuanian borders after the Minsk Offensive. The LLA became the first wave of the Lithuanian partisans, armed anti-Soviet guerrilla fighters. It attempted to become the central command of the armed struggle. However, the organization headquarters was liquidated by the Soviet security forces (NKVD and KGB) by April 1946. Many Lithuanian Freedom Army fighters joined
Lithuanian partisans
The Lithuanian partisans () were partisans who waged a guerrilla warfare in Lithuania against the Soviet Union in 1944–1953. Similar anti-Soviet resistance groups, also known as Forest Brothers and cursed soldiers, fought against Soviet rule ...
.
Jewish partisans
Jewish partisans were fighters in irregular military groups participating in the Jewish resistance movement against Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II.
A number of Jewish partisan groups operated across Nazi-occupied Europ ...
also fought against the Nazi occupation. In September 1943, the
United Partisan Organization
The Fareynikte Partizaner Organizatsye ( yi, ; "United Partisan Organization"; referred to as FPO by its Yiddish initials) was a Jewish resistance organization based in the Vilna Ghetto that organized armed resistance against the Nazis during ...
, led by
Abba Kovner
Abba Kovner ( he, אבא קובנר; 14 March 1918 – 25 September 1987) was a Polish Israeli poet, writer and partisan leader. In the Vilna Ghetto, his manifesto was the first time that a target of the Holocaust identified the German plan to ...
, attempted to start an
uprising
Rebellion, uprising, or insurrection is a refusal of obedience or order. It refers to the open resistance against the orders of an established authority.
A rebellion originates from a sentiment of indignation and disapproval of a situation and ...
in the
Vilna Ghetto
The Vilna Ghetto was a World War II Jewish ghetto established and operated by Nazi Germany in the city of Vilnius in the modern country of Lithuania, at the time part of the Nazi-administered Reichskommissariat Ostland.
During the approximatel ...
, and later engaged in sabotage and guerrilla operations against the Nazi occupation.
In July 1944, as part of its
Operation Tempest
file:Akcja_burza_1944.png, 210px, right
Operation Tempest ( pl, akcja „Burza”, sometimes referred to in English as "Operation Storm") was a series of uprisings conducted during World War II against occupying German forces by the Polish Home ...
, the
Polish Home Army
The Home Army ( pl, Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK; ) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) esta ...
launched
Operation Ostra Brama
Operation Ostra Brama (lit. Operation Gate of Dawn, Sharp Gate) was an attempt by the Home Army, Polish Home Army to take over Vilnius ( pl, Wilno) from Nazi Germany's evacuating troops ahead of the approaching Soviet Vilnius Offensive. A part o ...
, an attempt to recapture that city. ''See also
Polish–Lithuanian relations during World War II''.
As of January 2008, 723
Lithuanians were recognized by
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
as
Righteous among the Nations
Righteous Among the Nations ( he, חֲסִידֵי אֻמּוֹת הָעוֹלָם, ; "righteous (plural) of the world's nations") is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to sav ...
for their efforts in saving Lithuania's
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
s from
the Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
.
The total number of people who helped the Jews may be much higher.
[Procuta, Genius]
How Many Rescuers of Jews Were There?
'' Tėviškės Žiburiai'', Missisauga, Ontario, Canada, 1999-03-16.
Second Soviet occupation
Lithuanian partisans
The Lithuanian partisans () were partisans who waged a guerrilla warfare in Lithuania against the Soviet Union in 1944–1953. Similar anti-Soviet resistance groups, also known as Forest Brothers and cursed soldiers, fought against Soviet rule ...
, known as the
Forest Brothers
The Guerrilla war in the Baltic states was an armed struggle which was waged by the Latvian, Lithuanian, and Estonian partisans, called the Forest Brothers (also: the "Brothers of the Wood" and the "Forest Friars"; et, metsavennad, lv, mež ...
, began
guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or Irregular military, irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, Raid (military), raids ...
against the Soviet forces as soon as the
front
Front may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''The Front'' (1943 film), a 1943 Soviet drama film
* ''The Front'', 1976 film
Music
* The Front (band), an American rock band signed to Columbia Records and active in the 1980s and e ...
passed over them in 1944, and continued an armed struggle until 1953. The core of this movement was made up of soldiers from the
Territorial Defense Force who had disbanded with their weapons and uniforms and members of the
Lithuanian Freedom Army
The Lithuanian Liberation Army (sometimes also named as Lithuanian Freedom Army) ( lt, Lietuvos laisvės armija or LLA) was a Lithuanian underground organization established by Kazys Veverskis (codename Senis), a student at Vilnius University, on ...
, established in 1941. The underground had extensive clandestine radio and press.
[Lane]
p. 58
/ref> Thousands of people engaged in active and passive resistance against the Soviet authorities. The various resistance organizations eventually united under the Movement of the Struggle for the Freedom of Lithuania
Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters or Movement for the Struggle for Lithuanian Freedom ( lt, Lietuvos laisvės kovos sąjūdis or LLKS) was a resistance organization of the Lithuanian partisans, waging a guerrilla war against the Soviet Union in ...
(''Lietuvos Laisvės Kovų Sąjūdis'', or ''LLKS''), issuing a declaration of independence
A declaration of independence or declaration of statehood or proclamation of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the ...
in 1949 that would ultimately be signed into law by the independent Republic of Lithuania
A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...
in 1999.[ Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania]
''Law on the February 16, 1949 Declaration by the Council of the Movement of the Struggle for Freedom of Lithuania''
Law No. VIII-1021, 1999-01-12, Vilnius.
The most famous of these partisans is probably Juozas Lukša
Juozas Lukša (10 August 1921 – 4 September 1951), also known among other pseudonyms as Daumantas and Skirmantas, was a leader of the anti-Soviet
Anti-Sovietism, anti-Soviet sentiment, called by Soviet authorities ''antisovetchina'' (russia ...
, author of several books during the resistance and the subject of a recent film.
While armed resistance ended in the 1950s, nonviolent resistance
Nonviolent resistance (NVR), or nonviolent action, sometimes called civil resistance, is the practice of achieving goals such as social change through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political noncooperation, satyagraha, cons ...
continued in various forms (e.g. through Lithuanians living abroad, the Catholic press, safeguarding local traditions and the Lithuanian language, the Sąjūdis
Sąjūdis (, "Movement"), initially known as the Reform Movement of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Persitvarkymo Sąjūdis), is the political organisation which led the struggle for Lithuanian independence in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It was es ...
movement, etc.), until 1991 when Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
recognized the independence declared by Lithuania on March 11, 1990.
Significance of February 16
February 16, the date that Lithuania first declared its independence in 1918, played an important symbolic role during this period. The call for volunteers for the Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force The Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force or LTDF ( lt, Lietuvos vietinė rinktinė, LVR, german: Litauische Sonderverbände) was a short-lived, Lithuanian, volunteer armed force created and disbanded in 1944 during the German occupation of Lithuani ...
, the VLIK declaration of independence, and the LLKS declaration of independence were all made on February 16. This day has become a national holiday in Lithuania.
See also
*Occupation of the Baltic states
The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were invaded and occupied in June 1940 by the Soviet Union, under the leadership of Stalin and auspices of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact that had been signed between Nazi Germany and the Soviet ...
*Guerrilla war in the Baltic states
The Guerrilla war in the Baltic states was an armed struggle which was waged by the Latvian, Lithuanian, and Estonian partisans, called the Forest Brothers (also: the "Brothers of the Wood" and the "Forest Friars"; et, metsavennad, lv, mež ...
*Occupation of Estonia by Nazi Germany
During World War II, in the course of Operation Barbarossa, Nazi Germany invaded Estonia in July–December 1941, and occupied the country until 1944. Estonia had gained independence in 1918 from the then warring German and Russian Empires. How ...
*Estonian anti-German resistance movement 1941–1944
The Estonian resistance movement (Estonian ''Eesti vastupanuliikumine'') was an underground movement to resist the occupation of Estonia by Nazi Germany, 1941–1944 during World War II. Due to the unusually benign measures implemented in Est ...
*Occupation of Latvia by Nazi Germany
The military occupation of Latvia by Nazi Germany was completed on July 10, 1941 by Germany's armed forces. Initially, the territory of Latvia was under the military administration of Army Group North, but on 25 July 1941, Latvia was in ...
*Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940
The Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940 refers to the military occupation of the Republic of Latvia by the Soviet Union under the provisions of the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany and its Secret Additional Protocol signed in A ...
*Latvian resistance movement
Latvian may refer to:
*Something of, from, or related to Latvia
**Latvians, a Baltic ethnic group, native to what is modern-day Latvia and the immediate geographical region
**Latvian language, also referred to as Lettish
**Latvian cuisine
**Latvi ...
*Occupation of Belarus by Nazi Germany
German invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941 led to the military occupation of Byelorussia until August 1944 with the Soviet Operation Bagration. The western parts of Byelorussia became part of the Reichskommissariat Ostland in 1941, and ...
*Belarusian resistance movement
Belarusian resistance movement are the resistance movements on the territory of contemporary Belarus. Wars in the area - Great Northern War and the War of the Polish Succession - damaged its economy further. In addition, Russian armies raided the P ...
*History of Poland (1939–1945)
The history of Poland from 1939 to 1945 encompasses primarily the period from the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union to the end of World War II. Following the German–Soviet non-aggression pact, Poland was invaded by Nazi ...
*Polish resistance movement in World War II
The Polish resistance movement in World War II (''Polski ruch oporu w czasie II wojny światowej''), with the Polish Home Army at its forefront, was the largest underground resistance movement in all of occupied Europe, covering both German a ...
*Collaboration during World War II
Wartime collaboration is cooperation with the enemy against one's country of citizenship in wartime, and in the words of historian Gerhard Hirschfeld, "is as old as war and the occupation of foreign territory".
The term ''collaborator'' dates to t ...
*Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact
, long_name = Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
, image = Bundesarchiv Bild 183-H27337, Moskau, Stalin und Ribbentrop im Kreml.jpg
, image_width = 200
, caption = Stalin and Ribbentrop shaking ...
References
Further reading
*Remeikis, Thomas
The Decision of the Lithuanian Government to Accept the Soviet Ultimatum of June 14, 1940
''Lituanus
''Lituanus'' is an English language quarterly journal dedicated to Lithuanian and Baltic languages, linguistics, political science, arts, history, literature, and related topics. It is published by the non-profit Lituanus Foundation, Inc., and ha ...
'', Vol. 21, No. 4, Winter 1975. ISSN 0024-5089
{{Authority control
Eastern European World War II resistance movements
Jewish Lithuanian history
Resistance in Lithuania
World War II resistance movements
Lithuanian Resistance in World War II