German occupation of Lithuania during World War II
The military occupation of Lithuania by Nazi Germany lasted from the German invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, to the end of the Battle of Memel on January 28, 1945.
In August 1939, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed the German–Soviet Nonaggression Pact and its Secret Additional Protocol, dividing Central and Eastern Europe into spheres of influence.
[1] To solidify its influence, Germany suggested a German–Lithuanian military alliance against Poland and promised to return the Vilnius Region, but Lithuania held to its policy of strict neutrality.
On July 1, all political, cultural, and religious organizations were closed,[11] with only the Communist Party of Lithuania and its youth branch allowed to exist.
Groups of men took control of strategic objects such as railroads, bridges, communication equipment and food warehouses, protecting them from potential scorched earth tactics.
The Battle of Raseiniai began June 23 as Soviets attempted to mount a counterattack, reinforced by tanks, but were overpowered by the 27th.
The Provisional Government in Kaunas attempted to establish the proclaimed independence of Lithuania and undo the damage of the one-year Soviet regime.
[citation needed] The Germans did not recognize the Lithuanian government, and at the end of July formed their own civil administration, part of the Reichskommissariat Ostland, which was divided into four Generalbezirke (General Districts).
The Provisional Government resigned on August 5; some of its ministers became General Advisers (Lithuanian: generalinis tarėjas) in charge of local self-government.
Overall, local self-government was quite developed in Lithuania and helped to sabotage or hinder several German initiatives, including raising a Waffen-SS unit or providing men for forced labor in Germany.
[citation needed] Before the Holocaust, Lithuania was home to about 210,000[24] or 250,000[25] Jews and was one of the greatest centers of Jewish theology, philosophy, and learning which preceded even the times of the Gaon of Vilna.
The Holocaust in Lithuania can be divided into three stages: mass executions (June–December 1941), ghetto period (1942 – March 1943), and final liquidation (April 1943 – July 1944).
"[27] The killings provided justification for rounding up Jews and putting them in ghettos to "protect them", where by December 1941 in Kaunas, 15,000 remained, 22,000 having been executed.
[26]: 110 The executions were carried out at three main groups: in Kaunas (Ninth Fort), in Vilnius (Ponary massacre), and in countryside (Rollkommando Hamann).
[26]: 148 The surviving 43,000 Jews were concentrated in the Vilnius, Kaunas, Šiauliai, and Švenčionys Ghettos and forced to work for the benefit of German military industry.
On June 21, 1943, Heinrich Himmler issued an order to liquidate all ghettos and transfer the remaining Jews to concentration camps.
[29] More survived by withdrawing into Russia's interior before the war broke out or by escaping the ghettos and joining the Jewish partisans.
[citation needed] Both began sabotage and guerrilla operations against German forces immediately after the Nazi invasion of 1941.
The most important Polish resistance organization in Lithuania was, as elsewhere in occupied Poland, the Home Army (Armia Krajowa).
In September 1943, the United Partisan Organization led by Abba Kovner, attempted to start an uprising in the Vilna Ghetto, and later engaged in sabotage and guerrilla operations against the Nazi occupation.
In 1943, several underground political groups united under the Supreme Committee for the Liberation of Lithuania (Vyriausias Lietuvos išlaisvinimo komitetas or VLIK).
[37][38] In 1943, the Nazis attempted to raise a Waffen-SS division from the local population as they had in other countries, but widespread coordination between resistance groups led to a boycot.
Historians attempted to quantify population losses and changes, but their task was complicated by the lack of precise and reliable data.
