Who fought the Soviet Union in World War II? What is the West's guilt towards Russia (USSR)? Who fought with Hitler? What motivated them?

All of Europe fought against us

The very first strategic counter-offensive of Soviet troops in the Great Patriotic War revealed a very unpleasant circumstance for the USSR. Among the enemy troops captured near Moscow were many military units France, Poland, Holland, Finland, Austria, Norway and other countries. The output data of almost all major European companies was found on captured military equipment and shells. In general, as one could assume and as they thought in the Soviet Union, the European proletarians would never take up arms against the state of workers and peasants, that they would sabotage the production of weapons for Hitler.

But exactly the opposite happened. Our soldiers made a very characteristic discovery after the liberation of the Moscow region in the area of the historical Borodino Field - next to the French cemetery of 1812, they discovered fresh graves of Napoleon’s descendants. The Soviet 32nd Red Banner Rifle Division, Colonel V.I., fought here. Polosukhin, whose fighters could not even imagine that they were opposed "French allies".

A more or less complete picture of this battle was revealed only after the Victory. Chief of Staff of the German 4th Army G. Blumentritt published memoirs in which he wrote:

“The four battalions of French volunteers operating as part of the 4th Army turned out to be less resilient. At Borodin, Field Marshal von Kluge addressed them with a speech, recalling how, during the time of Napoleon, the French and Germans fought here side by side against a common enemy - Russia. The next day, the French boldly went into battle, but, unfortunately, they could not withstand either the powerful attack of the enemy or the severe frost and blizzard. They had never had to endure such trials before. The French legion was defeated, suffering heavy losses from enemy fire. A few days later he was taken to the rear and sent to the West..."

Hitler accepts the Wehrmacht parade, 1940 (megabook.ru)

So, Germans – 2 389 560, Hungarians – 513 767, Romanians – 187 370, Austrians – 156 682, Czechs And Slovaks – 69 977, Poles – 60 280, Italians – 48 957, French people – 23 136, Croats – 21 822, Moldovans – 14 129, Jews – 10 173, Dutch – 4 729, Finns – 2 377, Belgians – 2 010, Luxembourgers – 1652, Danes – 457, Spaniards – 452, gypsies – 383, Norse – 101, Swedes – 72.

And these are only those who survived and were captured. In reality, significantly more Europeans fought against us.

The ancient Roman senator Cato the Elder went down in history for always ending any of his public speeches on any topic with the words: "Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam", which literally means: “Otherwise, I believe that Carthage should be destroyed.” (Carthage is a city-state hostile to Rome.) I am not ready to completely become like Senator Cato, but I will use any occasion to once again mention: in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, the USSR, with its initial strength 190 million. man, did not fight with the 80 million Germans of that time. The Soviet Union practically fought from all over Europe, the number of which (with the exception of our allied England and partisan Serbia, which did not surrender to the Germans) was about 400 million. Human.

During the Great Patriotic War, 34,476.7 thousand people wore overcoats in the USSR, i.e. 17,8% population. And Germany mobilized as many as 21% from the population. It would seem that the Germans were more tense in their military efforts than the USSR. But women served in the Red Army in large numbers, both voluntarily and by conscription. There were a lot of purely female units and units (anti-aircraft, aviation, etc.). During a period of desperate situation, the State Defense Committee made a decision (remaining, however, on paper) to create women's rifle formations, in which only those loading heavy artillery guns would be men.

And among the Germans, even at the moment of their agony, women not only did not serve in the army, but there were very few of them in production. Why is that? Because in the USSR there was one man for every three women, and in Germany it was the other way around? No, that's not the point. In order to fight, you need not only soldiers, but also weapons and food. And their production also requires men, who cannot be replaced by women or teenagers. That's why the USSR was forced send women to the front instead of men.

The Germans did not have such a problem: all of Europe provided them with weapons and food. The French not only handed over all their tanks to the Germans, but also produced a huge amount of military equipment for them - from cars to optical rangefinders.

Czechs who have only one company "Skoda" produced more weapons than the entire pre-war Great Britain, built the entire fleet of German armored personnel carriers, a huge number of tanks, aircraft, small arms, artillery and ammunition.

The Poles built airplanes Polish Jews in Auschwitz they produced explosives, synthetic gasoline and rubber to kill Soviet citizens; the Swedes mined ore and supplied the Germans with components for military equipment (for example, bearings), the Norwegians supplied the Nazis with seafood, the Danes with oil... In short, all of Europe tried its best.

And she tried not only on the labor front. Only the elite troops of Nazi Germany - the SS troops - accepted into their ranks 400 thousand. “blond beasts” from other countries, but in total they joined Hitler’s army from all over Europe 1800 thousand. volunteers, forming 59 divisions, 23 brigades and several national regiments and legions.

The most elite of these divisions had not numbers, but proper names indicating national origin: “Valonia”, “Galicia”, “Bohemia and Moravia”, “Viking”, “Denemark”, “Gembez”, “Langemarck”, “Nordland” ", "Netherlands", "Charlemagne", etc.

Europeans served as volunteers not only in national, but also in German divisions. So, let's say, an elite German division "Greater Germany". It would seem that, at least because of the name, it should have been staffed only by Germans. However, the Frenchman who served in it Guy Sayer recalls that on the eve of the Battle of Kursk, there were 9 Germans in his infantry squad of 11 people, and besides him, a Czech also poorly understood the German language. And all this in addition to the official allies of Germany, whose armies burned and plundered the Soviet Union shoulder to shoulder - Italians, Romanian, Hungarians, Finns, Croats, Slovaks, besides Bulgarians, who at that time burned and plundered partisan Serbia. Even officially neutral Spaniards sent their “Blue Division” to Leningrad!

In order to evaluate the national composition of all the European bastards who, in the hope of easy prey, came to us to kill Soviet and Russian people, I will give a table of that part of the foreign volunteers who guessed in time to surrender to us:

Germans – 2 389 560, Hungarians – 513 767, Romanians – 187 370, Austrians – 156 682, Czechs And Slovaks – 69 977, Poles – 60 280, Italians – 48 957, French people – 23 136, Croats – 21 822, Moldovans – 14 129, Jews – 10 173, Dutch – 4 729, Finns – 2 377, Belgians – 2 010, Luxembourgers – 1652, Danes – 457, Spaniards – 452, gypsies – 383, Norse – 101, Swedes – 72.

This table, first published at the end of 1990, should be repeated for the following reasons. After the reign of “democracy” on the territory of the USSR, the table was continuously “improved” in terms of “enlarging the rows”. As a result, in “serious” books by “professional historians” on the topic of war, say, in the statistical collection “Russia and the USSR in the Wars of the 20th Century” or in the reference book “The World of Russian History”, the data in this table are distorted. Some nationalities have disappeared from it.

The Jews disappeared first, which, as you can see from the original table, served Hitler as many as the Finns and the Dutch combined. But I, for example, don’t see why we should throw out the Jewish verses from this Hitler song.

By the way, the Poles today are trying to push Jews away from the position of “the main sufferers of the Second World War,” and there are more of them on the lists of prisoners than there are officially and actually Italians who fought with us.

But the presented table does not reflect the true quantitative and national composition of prisoners. First of all, it does not represent our domestic scum at all, who, either due to acquired idiocy, or because of cowardice and cowardice, served the Germans - from Bandera to Vlasov.

By the way, they were punished offensively easily. It would be good if a Vlasovite fell prisoner into the hands of front-line soldiers. Then, more often than not, he got what he deserved. But the traitors contrived to surrender to the rear units, dressed in civilian clothes, pretended to be Germans when surrendering, etc. In this case, the Soviet court literally almost patted them on the head.

At one time, domestic anti-Soviet activists published collections of their memoirs abroad. One of them describes the judicial “sufferings” of a Vlasovite who defended Berlin: he changed clothes... to the Soviet soldiers who captured him... he introduced himself as a Frenchman and thus got to the military tribunal. And then to read his boasting is insulting: “They gave me five years in distant camps - and that was lucky. In a hurry - they considered them to be small workers and peasants. Soldiers captured with weapons and officers were given a ten.” While being escorted to the camp, he fled to the West.

Five years for killing Soviet people and treason! What kind of punishment is this?! Well, at least 20, so that widows and orphans’ mental wounds will heal and it won’t be so offensive to look at these vile hari...

For the same reason they are not included in the lists of prisoners of war Crimean Tatars, who stormed Sevastopol for Manstein, Kalmyks and so on.

Not listed Estonians, Latvians And Lithuanians, who had their own national divisions as part of Hitler’s troops, but were considered Soviet citizens and therefore served their meager sentences in Gulag camps, and not in GUPVI camps. (GULAG - the main directorate of camps - was responsible for keeping criminals, and GUPVI - the main directorate for prisoners of war and internees - prisoners.) Meanwhile, not all prisoners ended up in GUPVI, since this department counted only those who ended up in its rear camps from front-line transfer points.

Estonian legionnaires of the Wehrmacht fought against the USSR with particular fury (ookaboo.com)

But since 1943, national divisions of Poles, Czechs, and Romanians began to be formed in the USSR to fight the Germans. And the prisoners of these nationalities were not sent to the GUPVI, but immediately to the recruitment points of such formations - they fought together with the Germans, let them fight against them too! By the way, there were such 600 thousand. Even de Gaulle was sent to his army 1500 French.

Before the start of the war with the USSR Hitler appealed to Europeans to crusade against Bolshevism. Here's how they responded to it (data for June - October 1941, which does not take into account huge military contingents Italy, Hungary, Romania and other allies of Hitler). From Spanish volunteers ( 18000 people) the 250th Infantry Division was formed in the Wehrmacht. In July, the personnel took the oath to Hitler and left for the Soviet-German front. During September-October 1941, from French volunteers (approx. 3000 people) the 638th Infantry Regiment was formed. In October, the regiment was sent to Smolensk and then to Moscow. From Belgians in July 1941 the 373rd Valonian battalion was formed (approximately 850 people), transferred to the subordination of the 97th Infantry Division of the 17th Army of the Wehrmacht.

From Croatian Volunteers were formed by the 369th Wehrmacht Infantry Regiment and the Croatian Legion as part of the Italian troops. Approximately 2000 Swedes signed up to volunteer in Finland. Of these, approximately 850 people took part in the fighting near Hanko, as part of a Swedish volunteer battalion.

By the end of June 1941 294 Norwegians already served in the SS regiment "Nordland". After the start of the war with the USSR, the volunteer legion “Norway” was created in Norway ( 1200 Human). After taking the oath to Hitler, he was sent to Leningrad. By the end of June 1941, the SS Viking division had 216 Danes. After the start of the war with the USSR, the Danish Volunteer Corps began to form.

Ours stand apart in aiding fascism Polish comrades. Immediately after the end of the German-Polish war, the Polish nationalist Wladyslaw Gisbert-Studnicki came up with the idea of creating a Polish army fighting on the side of Germany. He developed a project for building a Polish 12-15 million pro-German state. Gisbert-Studnicki proposed a plan to send Polish troops to the eastern front. Later the idea of a Polish-German alliance and 35 thousand Polish army supported by the Sword and Plow organization, associated with the Home Army.

In the first months of the war against the USSR, Polish soldiers in the fascist army had the so-called status HiWi (volunteer helpers). Later, Hitler gave special permission for Poles to serve in the Wehrmacht. After this, it was categorically forbidden to use the name in relation to Poles HiWi, because the Nazis treated them as full-fledged soldiers. Every Pole between the ages of 16 and 50 could become a volunteer; they only had to undergo a preliminary medical examination.

Poles were called upon, along with other European nations, to stand “in defense of Western civilization from Soviet barbarism.” Here is a quote from a fascist leaflet in Polish: “The German armed forces are leading the decisive struggle to protect Europe from Bolshevism. Any honest helper in this fight will be greeted as an ally..."

The text of the oath of the Polish soldiers read: “I swear before God with this sacred oath that in the fight for the future of Europe in the ranks of the German Wehrmacht I will be absolutely obedient to the Supreme Commander Adolf Hitler, and as a brave soldier I am ready at any time to devote my strength to fulfill this oath...”

It is amazing that even the strictest guardian of the Aryan gene pool Himmler allowed to form units from Poles SS. The first sign was the Goral Legion of the Waffen-SS. The Gorals are an ethnic group within the Polish nation. In 1942, the Nazis convened the Goral Committee in Zakopane. Was appointed "Goralenführer" Vaclav Krzeptovsky.

He and his inner circle made a series of trips to cities and villages, urging them to fight the worst enemy of civilization - Judeo-Bolshevism. It was decided to create a Goral volunteer legion of the Waffen-SS, adapted for operations in mountainous terrain. Krzeptovsky managed to collect 410 Highlanders But after a medical examination in the SS organs there remained 300 Human.

Another Polish SS Legion was formed in mid-July 1944. They joined it 1500 volunteers of Polish nationality. In October the legion was based in Rzechow, in December near Tomaszow. In January 1945, the legion was divided into two groups (1st Lieutenant Machnik, 2nd Lieutenant Errling) and sent to participate in anti-partisan operations in the Tuchola forests. In February, both groups were destroyed by the Soviet army.

President of the Academy of Military Sciences, Army General Makhmut Gareev gave the following assessment of the participation of a number of European countries in the fight against fascism: During the war, all of Europe fought against us. Three hundred and fifty million people, regardless of whether they fought with weapons in their hands, or stood at the machine, producing weapons for the Wehrmacht, did one thing.

During World War II, 20 thousand members of the French Resistance died. And 200 thousand French fought against us. We also captured 60 thousand Poles. 2 million European volunteers fought for Hitler against the USSR.

In this regard, the invitation of military personnel from a number of countries looks at least strange NATO to take part in the parade on Red Square in honor of the 65th anniversary of the Great Victory, says Colonel Yuri Rubtsov, member of the International Association of Historians of the Second World War, professor at the Military Humanitarian Academy. – This insults the memory of our defenders of the Fatherland, who died at the hands of numerous "Hitler's European friends".

Useful conclusion

During the Second World War against the Soviet Union, which had an initial population of just over 190 million. people, a European coalition of more than 400 million. people, and when we were not Russians, but Soviet citizens, we defeated this coalition.

All of Europe fought against us A

More details and a variety of information about events taking place in Russia, Ukraine and other countries of our beautiful planet can be obtained at Internet Conferences, constantly held on the site"Keys of Knowledge". All Conferences are open and completely free. We invite everyone who wakes up and is interested...

Romania:
The Romanian 3rd Army (mountain and cavalry corps) and the 4th Army (3 infantry corps), with a total strength of about 220 thousand people, were intended for military operations against the USSR. The 3rd Army advanced in Ukraine, crossed the Dnieper in September and reached the coast of the Sea of Azov. From the end of October 1941, units of the Romanian 3rd Army participated in the capture of Crimea (together with the German 11th Army under the command of von Manstein). The Romanian 4th Army from the beginning of August 1941 led the operation to capture Odessa. By September 10, 12 Romanian divisions and 5 brigades were assembled to capture Odessa, with a total number of up to 200 thousand people (as well as German units - an infantry regiment, an assault battalion and 2 heavy artillery regiments). After heavy fighting, Odessa was captured by Romanian troops on October 16, 1941. The losses of the Romanian 4th Army in this operation amounted to 29 thousand dead and missing and 63 thousand wounded. In August 1942, the Romanian 3rd Army (3 cavalry and 1 mountain divisions) took part in the German offensive in the Caucasus. In August, Romanian cavalry divisions took Taman, Anapa, Novorossiysk (the latter together with German troops), the Romanian mountain division captured Nalchik in October 1942. On November 19, 1942, the troops of two Soviet fronts went on the offensive, and on November 23 they formed an encirclement ring around Stalingrad, which included the German 6th Army, part of the troops of the German 4th Army, and the Romanian 6 infantry and 1 cavalry divisions. By the end of January 1943, the Romanian 3rd and 4th armies were practically destroyed - their total losses amounted to almost 160 thousand dead, missing and wounded. In total, up to 200 thousand Romanians died in the war against the USSR

Italy:
The Italian Expeditionary Force for the war against the USSR was created on July 10, 1941, consisting of one cavalry and two infantry divisions, with corps artillery and two air groups (reconnaissance and fighter). In total, the corps had 62 thousand soldiers and officers. There were 220 guns, 60 machine-gun tankettes, aviation - 50 fighters and 20 reconnaissance aircraft. In September 1941, the Italian corps fought on the Dnieper, in a 100-kilometer area in the Dneprodzerzhinsk region.
In October-November 1941, the Italian corps participated in the German offensive to capture Donbass. In July 1942, Italian troops on the territory of the USSR were significantly strengthened. The 8th Italian Army was formed, consisting of 3 corps (10 divisions in total, the total number of the army reached 230 thousand people in September 1942, 940 guns, 31 light tanks (20 mm gun), 19 self-propelled guns (47 mm gun) , aviation - 41 fighters and 23 reconnaissance aircraft).
In December 1942 - January 1943, the Italians repelled the advance of Red Army units northwest of Stalingrad. As a result, the Italian army was virtually defeated - 21 thousand Italians died, 64 thousand were missing.

Italian losses in the USSR from August 1941 to February 1943 amounted to about 90 thousand dead and missing.

Finland:
On June 30, 1941, Finnish troops (11 infantry divisions and 4 brigades, totaling about 150 thousand people) went on the offensive in the direction of Vyborg and Petrozavodsk. By the end of August 1941, the Finns reached the approaches to Leningrad on the Karelian Isthmus, and by the beginning of October 1941 they occupied almost the entire territory of Karelia (except for the coast of the White Sea and Zaonezhye), after which they went over to the defense on the reached lines. On June 9, 1944, Soviet troops (total numbering up to 500 thousand people) went on the offensive against the Finns (16 infantry divisions, about 200 thousand people). During heavy fighting that lasted until August 1944, Soviet troops took Petrozavodsk, Vyborg and in one section reached the Soviet-Finnish border in March 1940. On August 29, 1944, Soviet troops went on the defensive. On September 1, 1944, Marshal Mannerheim proposed a truce and Finnish troops retreated to the March 1940 border. 54 thousand Finns died in the war against the USSR.

Hungary:
On July 1, 1941, Hungary sent the “Carpathian Group” (5 brigades with a total number of 40 thousand people) to the war against the USSR, which fought as part of the German 17th Army in Ukraine. In April 1942, the Hungarian 2nd was sent to the war against the USSR army (about 200 thousand people). In June 1942, it went on the offensive in the Voronezh direction, as part of the German offensive on the southern sector of the German-Soviet front. In the fall of 1944, all Hungarian armed forces (three armies) fought against the Red Army, already on the territory of Hungary. More than 200 thousand Hungarians died in the war against the USSR

Slovakia:
One division (consisting of 2 infantry regiments, an artillery regiment, a battalion of light tanks, numbering 8 thousand people) fought in Ukraine in 1941, in the Kuban in 1942, and performed security functions in the Crimea in 1943-1944. Another division (consisting of 2 infantry regiments and an artillery regiment, 8 thousand people) performed security functions in Ukraine in 1941-1942, and in Belarus in 1943-1944. About 3.5 thousand Slovaks died in the war against the USSR.

Croatia:
1 volunteer Croatian regiment (3 infantry battalions and 1 artillery battalion, with a total number of 3.9 thousand people) was sent to the war against the USSR. The regiment arrived at the front in October 1941. Fought in the Donbass, and in Stalingrad in 1942. By February 1943, the Croatian regiment was practically destroyed - about 700 Croats were taken prisoner by the Soviets. About 2 thousand Croats died in the war against the USSR.

Spain:
The Spanish division (18 thousand people) was sent to the northern section of the German-Soviet front. From October 1941 - she fought in the Volkhov region, from August 1942 - near Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). In October 1943, the division was returned to Spain, but about 2 thousand volunteers remained to fight in the Spanish Legion (three battalions). The legion was disbanded in March 1944, but about 300 Spaniards wished to fight further, and from them 2 companies of SS troops were formed, which fought against the Red Army until the end of the war. About 5 thousand Spaniards died in the war against the USSR

Belgium:
In 1941, two volunteer legions were formed in Belgium for the war against the USSR. They differed in ethnicity - Flemish and Walloon, both of battalion size. In the fall of 1941, they were sent to the German-Soviet front - the Walloon Legion to the southern sector (Rostov-on-Don, then Kuban), the Flemish Legion to the northern sector (Volkhov). In June 1943, both legions were reorganized into brigades of SS troops - a volunteer brigade SS troops "Langemarck" and the volunteer assault brigade of the SS troops "Wallonia". In October, the brigades were renamed into divisions (remaining the same composition - 2 infantry regiments each). At the end of the war, both the Flemings and Walloons fought against the Red Army in Pomerania. About 5 thousand Belgians died in the war against the USSR (2 thousand Belgians were taken prisoner by the Soviets).

Netherlands:
In January 1942, the Dutch Legion arrived on the northern section of the German-Soviet front, in the Volkhov area. Then the legion was transferred to Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). In May 1943, the Dutch legion was reorganized into the volunteer brigade of SS troops "Netherlands" (consisting of two motorized regiments and other units, with a total number of 9 thousand people). In 1944, one from the regiments of the Dutch brigade was practically destroyed in the battles near Narva. More than 8 thousand Dutch people died in the war against the USSR.

France:
In October 1941, a French legion of 2.5 thousand people was sent to the German-Soviet front, in the Moscow direction. The French suffered heavy losses there, and from the spring of 1942 to the summer of 1944, the legion was removed from the front and sent to fight against Soviet partisans in the rear. In September 1944, the French volunteer legion was disbanded, and a French brigade of SS troops was created in its place (numbering more than 7 thousand people).In February 1945, the French SS brigade was renamed the 33rd Grenadier Division of the SS troops "Charlemagne" ("Charlemagne") and sent to the front in Pomerania against Soviet troops. In March 1945, the French division was almost destroyed. The remnants of the French division (about 700 people) defended themselves in Berlin at the end of April 1945. About 8 thousand French died in the war against the USSR.

Denmark:
In May 1942, the Danish corps was sent to the front, to the Demyansk region. Since December 1942, the Danes fought in the Velikiye Luki region. At the beginning of June 1943, the Danish volunteer corps was disbanded, many of its members, as well as new volunteers, joined the Danemark regiment of the 11th SS Volunteer Division Nordland (Danish- Norwegian division). In January 1944, the division was sent to Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). Then she took part in the battle of Narva. In January 1945, the division fought against the Red Army in Pomerania, and in April 1945 - battles in Berlin. About 2 thousand Danes died in the war against the USSR.

Norway:
In February 1942, after training in Germany, the Norwegian Legion (1 battalion, numbering 1.2 thousand people) was sent to the German-Soviet front, near Leningrad. In May 1943, the Norwegian Legion was disbanded, most of its fighters joined the Norwegian Regiment 11 1st SS Volunteer Division Nordland (Danish-Norwegian division). In January 1944 the division was sent to Leningrad. Then she took part in the battle of Narva. In January 1945, the division fought against the Red Army in Pomerania, in April 1945 - battles in Berlin. About 1 thousand Norwegians died in the war against the USSR.

Now about neutral assistants.

Sweden:
During the Second World War, including - and this is especially important for us - from 1941 to 1945, Sweden, while formally remaining a neutral country, in fact actively helped Nazi Germany. Almost the entire Swedish heavy industry worked for these purposes. Even in 1944, up to 80% of Swedish exports were sent to Germany, the key items of which were steel and ball bearings. According to well-known statistics, up to a third of all German ammunition and weapons were made from Swedish raw materials. That is, in other words, for every third bullet, every third shell, every third bomb that claimed the lives of allies in the anti-Hitler coalition, we should be “grateful” to the Swedes.

Switzerland:
In accordance with the Hague Convention of 1907, Switzerland, as a neutral state, had the right to trade with belligerent countries. Among other goods, it exported weapons. Between 1939 and 1944, exports of goods to Germany significantly exceeded exports to allied countries - in particular to the United States. German and Italian military cargo was transported by Swiss railways. From 1939 to 1942, 45% of all exported goods were exported to Italy and Germany. The bulk of the supplies consisted of strategic raw materials, tools and instruments of production, technical equipment and chemical industry products, in a word, all those products that could partially be used for military purposes.

Let's continue

Germans - 2,389,560,
Hungarians - 513 767,
Romanians - 187,370,
Austrians - 156,682,
Czechs and Slovaks - 69,977,
Poles - 60 280,
Italians - 48,957,
French - 23,136,
Croats - 21,822,
Moldovans - 14,129,
Jews - 10,173,
Dutch - 4,729,
Finns - 2,377,
Belgians - 2,010,
Luxembourgers – 1652,
Danes – 457,
Spaniards – 452,
gypsies – 383,
Norwegians – 101,
Swedes - 72.

The President of the Academy of Military Sciences, Army General Makhmut Gareev gave the following assessment of the participation of a number of European countries in the fight against fascism: - During the war, all of Europe fought against us. Three hundred and fifty million people, regardless of whether they fought with weapons in their hands, or stood at the machine, producing weapons for the Wehrmacht, did one thing. Twenty thousand members of the French Resistance died during World War II. And two hundred thousand French fought against us. We also captured sixty thousand Poles. Two million European volunteers fought for Hitler against the USSR.

On the eve of Victory Day, we remember not only friends, but also enemies. The Red Army had to fight not only the German Wehrmacht, but also a whole horde of Hitler-allied armies and national units, representing at least half of Europe.
We will show only some of them.

Hitler's westernmost military ally was the formally neutral Francoist Spain, which sent the volunteer Blue Division to the Eastern Front:

The Hungarians also turned out to be quite a stubborn enemy for the Red Army, sending several divisions to the southern section of the Soviet-German front.

Hungarian soldiers, 1941:

Hungarian soldier in Budapest, 1939:

One of the most numerous armies that fought on Hitler's side was the Romanian one. The Romanians took part in the siege of Odessa and reached Stalingrad with the Germans, where they were entrusted with covering the flanks of Paulus’s army.
Romanian infantry circa 1943:

The largest of the satellite armies was the Italian one, but it was never distinguished by its combat effectiveness.
Already in July 1941, Mussolini agreed to send Italian troops to Russia, where they ingloriously ended their journey in the snow at Stalingrad. The surviving Italians were recalled home in April 1943.

Bulgaria also found itself in the enemy’s camp, but its army was not sent to fight in Russia. It was the only German ally that did not fight against the USSR, despite all Hitler’s entreaties.

Bulgarian soldiers, March 1941:

However, Bulgaria's participation in the occupation of Greece and Yugoslavia and military operations against Greek and Yugoslav partisans freed up German divisions to be sent to the Eastern Front. In addition, on December 6, 1941, Bulgarian patrol ships sank the Soviet submarine Shch-204 in the Varna area.

Bulgarian soldier, March 1941:

In addition to the regular armies of satellite countries, many national units from occupied states and territories fought on Hitler’s side, which would take a very long time to list.

Among the most well-known to us is the Latvian Waffen-SS Legion:

And here are soldiers from the Legion of French Volunteers in Smolensk, 1941:

It is known that they were even specially dragged to the Borodino field, in the area of which there were heavy battles in the fall of 1941.

In addition to national combat units, there were all kinds of police and collaborator units, some “self-defense units,” etc. formations that actively fought the partisans and helped the Germans terrorize the civilian population of the occupied territories.

This photo shows a policeman in Kyiv in the fall of 1941:

And this is a certain Albanian “volunteer” who served the Germans:

In total, these were millions of bayonets, who did not always fight worse than the Germans.

Before this, Soviet propaganda assured that European proletarians would never take up arms against the state of workers and peasants, that they would sabotage the production of weapons for Hitler. But exactly the opposite happened.

Our soldiers made a very characteristic discovery after the liberation of the Moscow region in the area of the historical Borodino Field - next to the French cemetery of 1812, they discovered fresh graves of Napoleon’s descendants. The Soviet 32nd Infantry Red Banner Division, Colonel V.I. Polosukhin, fought here, whose fighters could not even imagine that they were opposed by “French allies.”

A more or less complete picture of this battle was revealed only after the Victory. The chief of staff of the 4th German Army, G. Blumentritt, published memoirs in which he wrote: “The four battalions of French volunteers operating as part of the 4th Army turned out to be less resistant. At Borodin, Field Marshal von Kluge addressed them with a speech, recalling how, during the time of Napoleon, the French and Germans fought here side by side against a common enemy - Russia. The next day, the French boldly went into battle, but, unfortunately, they could not withstand either the powerful attack of the enemy or the severe frost and blizzard. They had never had to endure such trials before. The French legion was defeated, suffering heavy losses from enemy fire. A few days later he was withdrawn to the rear and sent to the West.”

Here is an interesting archival document - a list of prisoners of war who surrendered to Soviet troops during the war. Let us remember that a prisoner of war is someone who fights in uniform with a weapon in his hands. So, Germans - 2,389,560, Hungarians - 513,767, Romanians - 187,370, Austrians - 156,682, Czechs and Slovaks - 69,977, Poles - 60,280, Italians - 48,957, French - 23,136, Croats - 21,822, Moldovans - 14,129, Jews - 10,173, Dutch - 4,729, Finns - 2,377, Belgians - 2,010, Luxembourgers - 1,652, Danes - 457, Spaniards - 452, Gypsies - 383, Norwegians - 101, Swedes - 72.

And these are only those who survived and were captured. In reality, significantly more Europeans fought against us.

Before the start of the war with the USSR, Hitler addressed Europeans with a call for a crusade against Bolshevism. Here's how they responded to it (data for June - October 1941, which does not take into account the huge military contingents of Italy, Hungary, Romania and other allies of Hitler). The 250th Infantry Division was formed from Spanish volunteers (18,000 people) in the Wehrmacht. In July, the personnel took the oath to Hitler and left for the Soviet-German front. During September-October 1941, the 638th Infantry Regiment was formed from French volunteers (approximately 3,000 people). In October, the regiment was sent to Smolensk, and then to Moscow. From the Belgians in July 1941, the 373rd Valonian battalion (approximately 850 people) was formed, transferred to the subordination of the 97th Infantry Division of the 17th Army of the Wehrmacht. The 369th Wehrmacht Infantry Regiment and the Croatian Legion were formed from Croatian volunteers as part of Italian troops. Approximately 2,000 Swedes signed up to volunteer in Finland. Of these, approximately 850 people took part in the fighting near Hanko, as part of a Swedish volunteer battalion. By the end of June 1941, 294 Norwegians were already serving in the SS Nordland regiment. After the start of the war with the USSR, the volunteer legion “Norway” (1200 people) was created in Norway. After taking the oath to Hitler, he was sent to Leningrad. By the end of June 1941, there were 216 Danes in the SS Viking division. After the start of the war with the USSR, the Danish Volunteer Corps began to form.

Our Polish comrades stand apart in their complicity with fascism. Immediately after the end of the German-Polish war, the Polish nationalist Wladyslaw Gisbert-Studnicki came up with the idea of creating a Polish army fighting on the side of Germany. He developed a project for building a Polish 12-15 million pro-German state. Gisbert-Studnicki proposed a plan to send Polish troops to the eastern front. Later, the idea of a Polish-German alliance and a 35,000-strong Polish army was supported by the Sword and Plow organization, associated with the Home Army.

In the first months of the war against the USSR, Polish soldiers in the fascist army had the so-called HiWi status (voluntary assistants). Later, Hitler gave special permission for Poles to serve in the Wehrmacht. After this, it was categorically forbidden to use the name HiWi in relation to the Poles, since the Nazis treated them as full-fledged soldiers. Every Pole between the ages of 16 and 50 could become a volunteer; they only had to undergo a preliminary medical examination. Poles were called upon, along with other European nations, to stand “in defense of Western civilization from Soviet barbarism.” Here is a quote from a fascist leaflet in Polish: “The German armed forces are leading the decisive struggle to protect Europe from Bolshevism. Any honest helper in this fight will be greeted as an ally.” The text of the oath of the Polish soldiers read: “I swear before God this sacred oath that in the fight for the future of Europe in the ranks of the German Wehrmacht I will be absolutely obedient to the Supreme Commander Adolf Hitler, and as a brave soldier I am ready at any time to devote my strength to fulfill this oath.”

It is amazing that even the strictest guardian of the Aryan gene pool, Himmler, allowed the formation of SS units from the Poles. The first sign was the Goral Legion of the Waffen-SS. The Gorals are an ethnic group within the Polish nation. In 1942, the Nazis convened the Goral Committee in Zakopane. Vaclav Krzeptovsky was appointed "Goralenführer". He and his inner circle made a number of trips to cities and villages, urging them to fight the worst enemy of civilization - Judeo-Bolshevism. It was decided to create a Goral volunteer legion of the Waffen-SS, adapted for operations in mountainous terrain. Krzeptovsky managed to gather 410 highlanders. But after a medical examination, 300 people remained in the SS.

Another Polish SS Legion was formed in mid-July 1944. 1,500 volunteers of Polish nationality joined it. In October the legion was based in Rzechow, in December near Tomaszow. In January 1945, the legion was divided into two groups (1st Lieutenant Machnik, 2nd Lieutenant Errling) and sent to participate in anti-partisan operations in the Tuchola forests. In February, both groups were destroyed by the Soviet army.

The President of the Academy of Military Sciences, Army General Makhmut Gareev gave the following assessment of the participation of a number of European countries in the fight against fascism:

“During the war, all of Europe fought against us. Three hundred and fifty million people, regardless of whether they fought with weapons in their hands, or stood at the machine, producing weapons for the Wehrmacht, did one thing. Twenty thousand members of the French Resistance died during World War II. And two hundred thousand French fought against us. We also captured sixty thousand Poles. Two million European volunteers fought for Hitler against the USSR.

“In this regard, the invitation of military personnel from a number of NATO countries to take part in the parade on Red Square in honor of the 65th anniversary of the Great Victory looks strange, to say the least,” says Colonel Yuri Rubtsov, a member of the International Association of Historians of the Second World War, professor at the Military Humanitarian Academy. “This insults the memory of our defenders of the Fatherland, who died at the hands of numerous “European friends of Hitler.”

The Soviet soldier went to fight for his native land, and in the end cleared the whole world of fascists

The further this day goes, the larger the gaps in the memory of descendants become. The voices of madmen are heard louder and louder, trying to convince the whole world that the USSR’s contribution to the victory over fascism is minimal. Silent about the fact that almost all of Europe diligently contributed to the strengthening of Hitler’s army, and not to its defeat.

The countries occupied by Hitler always presented themselves as victims. Like, evil invaders came, what could we do against them? It was impossible to fight. They were forced to work on pain of death, starved and tortured. However, in reality it turns out that in the West under the Germans everything was not so bad. It was our troops, retreating, who blew up industrial enterprises so that they would not fall to the enemy. Partisans and residents of territories occupied by the Nazis carried out sabotage and sabotage. In most occupied European countries, workers worked diligently, receiving wages and drinking beer after work.

Everything for the front, everything for victory

In 1938, the balance of forces in the German and Czechoslovak armies was comparable. Moreover, technically the Czechs were well equipped: they provided 40 percent of world trade and military equipment, and their tanks were the best in Europe. And now this country surrenders to Hitler without a peep. In addition to trophies, Germany receives well-known factories at its disposal: Skoda, ChKD, Poldi, Zbroevka. And the flexible Czechs begin to work diligently for the Nazis. Small arms, armored vehicles, self-propelled guns, and Czech-made aircraft make up at least a quarter of the total weapons of the fascist army. Plus cars, ammunition and parts for V-2 missiles.

Life under occupation on the territory of the USSR... (photo privetsochi.ru)

Without the Czech military industry and Czech tanks, we would not have four tank divisions, which would make an attack on the Soviet Union impossible,” admitted Lieutenant Colonel of the Wehrmacht tank forces Helmut Ritgen.

The workshops of the arms factories stopped working only on May 5, 1945. And during the entire war, not a single attempt at sabotage or sabotage! On the contrary, designers are modernizing weapons and fighting with their Austrian colleagues for the right to develop and introduce an all-terrain vehicle tractor designed for impenetrable Russian forests and swamps. Why not try if the owner is happy, and those who work well are given food at higher standards.
“The Czechs put at our disposal all the necessary information about their tanks,” German engineer Lieutenant Colonel Iken recalled with gratitude. - Czech officers were confident that their vehicles fully met the needs of the Wehrmacht. And we never had to face acts of sabotage or any resistance.

...and in France it was strikingly different (in the photo there is a poster for the exhibition of photographs “Parisians in Occupation”)

In the German war, only guns were valuable

The fascist company, equipped with French flamethrower tanks, especially distinguished itself during the capture of Sevastopol. Armored vehicles, howitzers, mortars, anti-tank guns, and ammunition were regularly supplied to the Wehrmacht from factories in France. The largest howitzer was produced here: shells weighing 1,654 kg fired from it crushed the blocks of Leningrad. About 10,000 tanks, self-propelled guns and basic vehicles for their creation were supplied to Hitler by France and the Czech Republic. The allies of the Third Reich - Italy and Hungary - gave half as much.

Industry and the economy continued to work rhythmically, at Renault enterprises trucks for the Wehrmacht rolled off the assembly line uninterruptedly, reported Otto Reile, assistant to the head of German military intelligence. - The French, without any coercion, produced products for our military industry in large volumes and without complaints.

The “frames” assembled in the Czech Republic and France hovered over our positions, indicating to enemy artillerymen where it was best to aim. It was very difficult to shoot them down

French aircraft engines powered the German anti-tank attack aircraft Henschel 129 and the Messerschmitt 323 transport aircraft, which lifted seven times more cargo into the sky than any other, and even transported armored cars. 750 of 894 double-hulled artillery spotters "Focke-Wulf-189" - the famous "frames" that caused a lot of trouble for our troops - rolled off the assembly lines of factories in Bordeaux and Prague. The Peugeot and Citroen factories also worked for Hitler’s army: at that time the French auto industry was more powerful than the German one. Its products made up a fifth of the fleet of Hitler's army.

Yes, there was a Resistance movement in the country. However, the heroism of the underground is somewhat lost against the background of the scale with which France provided assistance to the occupiers. We have heard a lot about the 72 heroic pilots from the Normandy-Neman aviation regiment. And almost nothing about the 200,000 French volunteers who fought on Hitler's side.

Almost 20,000 volunteers from Spain, which was formally neutral, fought on HITLER's side. A medal was made especially for them, which the veterans continued to wear after the war.

Helped as much as we could

The Fuhrer received 10,000 armored vehicles, 9,000 aircraft, 17,000 aircraft engines, 12,000 artillery units, and 350,000 trucks from little Austria. Due to their industrial capacity, factories in Poland, Holland, Denmark, and Norway regularly supplied products.

Strategic raw materials, weapons, materials, equipment - united Europe provided the Nazis with everything they needed. Including human resources: about 2,000,000 people volunteered for Hitler’s army. Moreover, such warriors were often more cruel than the Germans.

“I remember several flights when they flew to the rear to bomb,” recalled Boris Rapoport, who was a navigator of the Po-2 night bomber during the war. - In the summer of 1944, militants of the Polish Home Army slaughtered our hospital in the city of Minsk-Mazowiecki, killing 200 wounded and all personnel. After the attack, the Poles took refuge in the forest. So we were brought in to bomb this ill-fated forest.

In total, according to experts, 350,000,000 people fought against the USSR. It doesn’t matter whether they fought with weapons in their hands or worked hard in mines and factories.

In 1945, hardly anyone would have dared to downplay the role of our army in the victory over Nazism

To whom is war, and to whom is mother dear?

Banks in neutral Switzerland held the finances of the Nazi government, as well as gold bullion - 75 percent of the captured gold. Including melted down teeth from concentration camp victims and jewelry taken from them. Swiss insurance companies also made a profit: until 1944, they issued 206,000 insurance policies in Germany. Business also did not lag behind: high-precision instruments, telephones, walkie-talkies, watches were supplied to the Nazis regularly. And the gas for use in concentration camps came from the laboratories of the chemical company Ciba (in 1996 it became part of the famous pharmaceutical giant Novartis). Those prisoners who did not end up in the gas chambers could end up in Swiss factories. One of the companies that used slave labor is Nestlé, which is now well known to us.

However, there were also noble people in Switzerland. For example, Red Cross doctors who voluntarily went to the battlefields. But they helped the wounded of one side - not ours. And although the country accepted 60,000 civilians who fled from Germany and Austria, 20,000 Jews were handed over to the Nazis and subsequently exterminated in concentration camps.

And the trial of underground fighters from Geneva who collaborated with members of the French Resistance looks absolutely stunning. They received a sentence, albeit a suspended one, for “violating neutrality”! However, there were no complaints against the neighbor of one of the heroes, who reported them to the Nazis.

Sweden, which also declared neutrality in World War II, supplied Germany with iron ore and steel: a third of German ammunition and weapons were made from Swedish raw materials. During the period 1941 - 1943. it provided its territory for the transit of Nazi troops, weapons and cargo. And the Swedish king Gustav V, in a personal letter, thanked Hitler in October 1941 for the defeat of Bolshevism.

Just a fact

* A third of Japanese schoolchildren believe that the Soviet Union dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

French Kiss

While Russian women plowed the land, harnessing instead of cattle, Parisians appeased the Nazis.

The occupation did not become a time of hardship and hardship for the residents of Paris. Judging by the photographs of those years, they felt quite comfortable. Social life in the capital of France continued to rage. Despite the Nazi flags hung on government buildings and the crowds of people forced to wear yellow stars on their clothes.

French researcher Patrick Boisseau in his book “1940 - 1945. Erotic Years” describes the “horizontal cooperation” of Parisian women with the Germans. Hitler's army, having occupied the city, requisitioned all the brothels for their own needs. But this is not surprising, but the fact that French women lined up to serve the invaders. In an effort to please clients, they learned German and dyed their hair black to create an exciting contrast with the blond Aryans. They created home comfort for military men cut off from their homes. In gratitude, the command allowed employees and visitors of the brothels not to observe the curfew.

With the arrival of the Germans, the number of brothel “employees” increased sixfold

The fee for visiting elite brothels, where, for example, Hermann Goering frequented, was comparable to the weekly salary of a high-ranking official. Somewhere there was besieged Leningrad, concentration camps with gas chambers, pain, hunger, death. And here, loving French women served the Nazi leadership champagne in antique glasses, the freshest cakes on silver trays, and delighted the ears with classical music. And with tears they saw off their clients to the Eastern Front.

“These were the best years of my life,” Madame Fabienne Jamet, manager of one of the elite brothels, recalled the times when half the world was drowning in blood. - I have never had such a fun and carefree time. The nights during the occupation were fantastic!