Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Foreword
- Introduction
- 1 Radicalizing Warfare: The German Command and the Failure of Operation Barbarossa
- 2 Urban Warfare Doctrine on the Eastern Front
- 3 The Wehrmacht in the War of Ideologies: The Army and Hitler's Criminal Orders on the Eastern Front
- 4 “The Purpose of the Russian Campaign Is the Decimation of the Slavic Population by Thirty Million”: The Radicalization of German Food Policy in Early 1941
- 5 The Radicalization of German Occupation Policies: The Wirtschaftsstab Ost and the 121st Infantry Division in Pavlovsk, 1941
- 6 The Exploitation of Foreign Territories and the Discussion of Ostland's Currency in 1941
- 7 Axis Collaboration, Operation Barbarossa, and the Holocaust in Ukraine
- 8 The Radicalization of Anti-Jewish Policies in Nazi-Occupied Belarus
- 9 The Minsk Experience: German Occupiers and Everyday Life in the Capital of Belarus
- 10 Extending the Genocidal Program: Did Otto Ohlendorf Initiate the Systematic Extermination of Soviet “Gypsies”?
- 11 The Development of German Policy in Occupied France, 1941, against the Backdrop of the War in the East
- Conclusion: Total War, Genocide, and Radicalization
- Appendix: Comparative Table of Ranks for 1941
- Selected Bibliography
- List of Contributors
- Index
11 - The Development of German Policy in Occupied France, 1941, against the Backdrop of the War in the East
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Foreword
- Introduction
- 1 Radicalizing Warfare: The German Command and the Failure of Operation Barbarossa
- 2 Urban Warfare Doctrine on the Eastern Front
- 3 The Wehrmacht in the War of Ideologies: The Army and Hitler's Criminal Orders on the Eastern Front
- 4 “The Purpose of the Russian Campaign Is the Decimation of the Slavic Population by Thirty Million”: The Radicalization of German Food Policy in Early 1941
- 5 The Radicalization of German Occupation Policies: The Wirtschaftsstab Ost and the 121st Infantry Division in Pavlovsk, 1941
- 6 The Exploitation of Foreign Territories and the Discussion of Ostland's Currency in 1941
- 7 Axis Collaboration, Operation Barbarossa, and the Holocaust in Ukraine
- 8 The Radicalization of Anti-Jewish Policies in Nazi-Occupied Belarus
- 9 The Minsk Experience: German Occupiers and Everyday Life in the Capital of Belarus
- 10 Extending the Genocidal Program: Did Otto Ohlendorf Initiate the Systematic Extermination of Soviet “Gypsies”?
- 11 The Development of German Policy in Occupied France, 1941, against the Backdrop of the War in the East
- Conclusion: Total War, Genocide, and Radicalization
- Appendix: Comparative Table of Ranks for 1941
- Selected Bibliography
- List of Contributors
- Index
Summary
As they planned to invade the Soviet Union, Nazi leaders developed new policies that required soldiers to pillage conquered territory and liquidate racial enemies. In contrast to the regulations that governed the 1940 invasion of Western Europe, directives issued before the invasion of the Soviet Union ordered German soldiers to disregard the Hague and Geneva conventions and injected an unprecedented level of violence into military occupation policy. Enduring Soviet resistance elicited further changes in German military policy in the latter half of 1941. The Armed Forces High Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, or OKW) and the Army High Command (Oberkommando des Heeres, or OKH) reduced the number of administrative and security personnel in Western Europe, sent all available reserves to the Eastern Front, and ordered the men in charge of all rear areas and occupied territories to suppress resistance activity with the troops who remained at their disposal. Obeying directives from Berlin as well as acting on their own initiative, field commanders employed exemplary violence against civilians, shot hostages in response to any act of resistance, and mounted a deadly campaign against alleged Jewish partisans. As the German offensive ground to a halt in December, Nazi leaders revamped German policy to offset manpower and material losses incurred during the course of Operation Barbarossa. Army quartermasters requisitioned additional supplies from conquered farms and factories while Fritz Sauckel, the plenipotentiary for labor deployment, began to collect millions of foreign workers for service in the German war economy.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Nazi Policy on the Eastern Front, 1941Total War, Genocide, and Radicalization, pp. 289 - 313Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2012