Occupation of Lithuania by Nazi Germany

The occupation of Lithuania by Nazi Germany refers to the occupation

Military occupation

Military occupation occurs when the control and authority over a territory passes to a hostile army. The territory then becomes occupied territory.-Military occupation and the laws of war:...

of Lithuania

Lithuania

Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

by Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

from the start of the German invasion of Soviet Union

Operation Barbarossa

Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...

to the end of the Battle of Memel

Battle of Memel

The Battle of Memel or the Siege of Memel took place when the Soviets launched their Memel Offensive Operation in late 1944. The offensive led to a three-month siege against German forces in a small bridgehead in the town and its port....

(June 22, 1941 to January 28, 1945). At first the Germans were welcomed as "liberators" from the repressive Soviet regime which occupied Lithuania prior to the German arrival. In hopes of re-establishing independence or regaining some autonomy, Lithuanians organized their Provisional Government

Provisional Government of Lithuania

The Provisional Government of Lithuania was a temporary government aiming for independent Lithuania during the last days of the Soviet occupation and the first weeks of German Nazi occupation in 1941. It was secretly formed on 22 April, 1941, announced on 23 June, 1941, and dissolved on 5 August,...

. Soon the Lithuanian attitudes towards the Germans changed into passive resistance, as the Nazis considered Lithuanians one of the inferior races and exploited them for the military and economic benefit of the Third Reich.

Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact

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. Lithuania was initially assigned to the German sphere, likely due to its economic dependence on German trade. After the March 1939 ultimatum

1939 German ultimatum to Lithuania

1939 German ultimatum to Lithuania was an oral ultimatum presented to Juozas Urbšys, Foreign Minister of Lithuania, by Joachim von Ribbentrop, Foreign Minister of Nazi Germany, on March 20, 1939...

regarding the Klaipėda Region

Klaipėda Region

The Klaipėda Region or Memel Territory was defined by the Treaty of Versailles in 1920 when it was put under the administration of the Council of Ambassadors...

, Germany accounted for 75% of Lithuanian exports and 86% of its imports. To solidify its influence, Germany suggested a German–Lithuanian military alliance against Poland and promised to return the Vilnius Region

Vilnius region

Vilnius Region , refers to the territory in the present day Lithuania, 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,...

, but Lithuania held to its policy of strict neutrality. When Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, the Wehrmacht

Wehrmacht

The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...

took control of the Lublin Voivodeship

Lublin Voivodeship (1919-1939)

Lublin Voivodeship was a unit of administrative division of the Second Polish Republic, in the years 1919–1939. Its capital and biggest city was Lublin.-Location and area:...

and eastern Warsaw Voivodeship

Warsaw Voivodeship (1919-1939)

Warsaw Voivodeship was a voivodeship of Poland in the years 1919–1939. Its capital and biggest city was Warsaw.-Location and area:In the years 1919–1939, Warsaw Voivodeship covered north-central part of Poland, bordering East Prussia to the north, Pomorze Voivodeship and Łódź Voivodeship to the...

, which were in the Soviet sphere of influence. To compensate the Soviet Union for this loss, a secret codicil to the German–Soviet Boundary and Friendship Treaty transferred Lithuania to the Soviet sphere of influence, which would serve as the justification that enabled the Soviet Union to occupy Lithuania on June 15, 1940 and to establish the Lithuanian SSR

Lithuanian SSR

The Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Lithuanian SSR, was one of the republics that made up the former Soviet Union...

Soviet occupation

Almost immediately after the German–Soviet Boundary and Friendship Treaty, Soviets pressured Lithuanians into signing the Soviet–Lithuanian Mutual Assistance Treaty

Soviet–Lithuanian Mutual Assistance Treaty

The Soviet–Lithuanian Mutual Assistance Treaty was a bilateral treaty signed between the Soviet Union and Lithuania on October 10, 1939. According to provisions outlined in the treaty, Lithuania would acquire about one fifth of the Vilnius Region, including Lithuania's historical capital, Vilnius,...

. According to this treaty, Lithuania gained about 6880 square kilometres (2,656.4 sq mi) of territory in the Vilnius Region

Vilnius region

(including Vilnius

Vilnius

Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...

, Lithuania's historical capital) in return for five Soviet military bases in Lithuania (total 20,000 troops). The territories that Lithuania received from the Soviet Union were the former territories of the Second Polish Republic

Second Polish Republic

The Second Polish Republic, Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland refers to Poland between the two world wars; a period in Polish history in which Poland was restored as an independent state. Officially known as the Republic of Poland or the Commonwealth of Poland , the Polish state was...

, disputed between Poland and Lithuania since the times of the Polish-Lithuanian War

Polish-Lithuanian War

The Polish–Lithuanian War was an armed conflict between newly independent Lithuania and Poland in the aftermath of World War I. The conflict primarily concerned territorial control of the Vilnius Region, including Vilnius , and the Suwałki Region, including the towns of Suwałki, Augustów, and Sejny...

of 1920 and occupied by the Soviet Union following the Soviet invasion of Poland

Soviet invasion of Poland (1939)

The 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland was a Soviet military operation that started without a formal declaration of war on 17 September 1939, during the early stages of World War II. Sixteen days after Nazi Germany invaded Poland from the west, the Soviet Union did so from the east...

in September 1939. The Soviet–Lithuanian Treaty was described by The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

as "virtual sacrifice of independence." Similar pacts were proposed to Latvia, Estonia, and Finland. Finland was the only state to refuse such treaty and that sparked the Winter War

Winter War

The Winter War was a military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet offensive on 30 November 1939 – three months after the start of World War II and the Soviet invasion of Poland – and ended on 13 March 1940 with the Moscow Peace Treaty...

. This war delayed the occupation of Lithuania: the Soviets did not interfere with Lithuania's domestic affairs and Russian soldiers were well-behaved in their bases. As Winter War ended in March and Germany was making rapid advances in the Battle of France

Battle of France

In the Second World War, the Battle of France was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, beginning on 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations. In the first, Fall Gelb , German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut off and...

, the Soviets heightened anti-Lithuanian rhetoric and accused Lithuanians of kidnapping Soviet soldiers from their bases. Despite Lithuanian attempts to negotiate and resolve the issues, Soviet Union issued an ultimatum on June 14, 1940. Lithuanians accepted the ultimatum and Soviet military took control of major cities by June 15. The following day identical ultimatums were issued to Latvia and Estonia. To legitimize the occupation, the Soviets staged elections to the so-called People's Seimas, which then proclaimed establishment of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic. This allowed Soviet propaganda to claim that Lithuania voluntarily joined the Soviet Union.

Soviet persecution

Soon after the occupation started, Sovietization

Sovietization

Sovietization is term that may be used with two distinct meanings:*the adoption of a political system based on the model of soviets .*the adoption of a way of life and mentality modelled after the Soviet Union....

policies were implemented. On July 1, all political, cultural, and religious organizations were closed, with only the Communist Party of Lithuania

Communist Party of Lithuania

The Communist Party of Lithuania was a communist party in Lithuania, established in early October 1918. The party was banned in December 1926.-History:...

and its youth branch allowed to exist. All banks (including all accounts above 1,000 litas

Lithuanian litas

The Lithuanian litas is the currency of Lithuania. It is divided into 100 centų...

), real estate larger than 170 square metres (203.3 sq yd), private enterprises with more than 20 workers or more than 150,000 litas of gross receipts were nationalized

Nationalization

Nationalisation, also spelled nationalization, is the process of taking an industry or assets into government ownership by a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to private assets, but may also mean assets owned by lower levels of government, such as municipalities, being...

. This disruption in management and operations created a sharp drop in production. Russian soldiers and officials were eager to spend their appreciated rubles

Russian ruble

The ruble or rouble is the currency of the Russian Federation and the two partially recognized republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Formerly, the ruble was also the currency of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union prior to their breakups. Belarus and Transnistria also use currencies with...

and caused massive shortages of goods. To turn small peasants against large landowners, collectivization was not introduced in Lithuania. All land was nationalized, farms were reduced to 30 hectares (74.1 acre), and extra land (some 575000 hectares (5,750 km²)) was distributed to small farmers. In preparation for eventual collectivization, new taxes between 30% and 50% of farm production were enacted. The Lithuanian litas

Lithuanian litas

The Lithuanian litas is the currency of Lithuania. It is divided into 100 centų...

was artificially depreciated 3–4 times its actual value and withdrawn by March 1941. Before the elections to the People's Parliament, Soviets arrested some 2,000 of most prominent political activists. These arrests paralyzed any attempts to create anti-Soviet groups. An estimated 12,000 were imprisoned as "enemies of the people

Enemy of the people

The term enemy of the people is a fluid designation of political or class opponents of the group using the term. The term implies that the "enemies" in question are acting against society as a whole. It is similar to the notion of "enemy of the state". The term originated in Roman times as ,...

." When farmers were unable to meet exorbitant new taxes, some 1,100 of the larger farmers were put on trial. On June 14–18, 1941, less than a week before the Nazi invasion, some 17,000 Lithuanians were deported to Siberia

Siberia

Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...

, where many perished due to inhumane living conditions (see June deportation

June deportation

June deportation was the first in the series of mass Soviet deportations of tens of thousands of people from the Baltic states, Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova starting June 14, 1941 that followed the occupation and annexation of the Baltic states. The procedure for deporting the "anti-Soviet...

). Some of the many political prisoners were massacred by the retreating Red Army

Red Army

The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

. These persecutions were key in soliciting support for the Nazis.

Nazi invasion and Lithuanian revolt

On June 22, the territory of the Lithuanian SSR was invaded by two advancing German army groups: Army Group North

Army Group North

Army Group North was a German strategic echelon formation commanding a grouping of Field Armies subordinated to the OKH during World War II. The army group coordinated the operations of attached separate army corps, reserve formations, rear services and logistics.- Formation :The Army Group North...

, which took over western and northern Lithuania, and Army Group Centre

Army Group Centre

Army Group Centre was the name of two distinct German strategic army groups that fought on the Eastern Front in World War II. The first Army Group Centre was created on 22 June 1941, as one of three German Army formations assigned to the invasion of the Soviet Union...

, which took over most of the Vilnius Region

Vilnius region

. The first attacks were carried out by the Luftwaffe

Luftwaffe

Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....

against Lithuanian cities and claimed lives of some 4,000 civilians. Most Russian aircraft were destroyed on the ground. Germans rapidly advanced, encountering only sporadic resistance from the Soviets and assistance from the Lithuanians. In the Battle of Raseiniai

Battle of Raseiniai

The Battle of Raseiniai was a tank battle fought between the elements of the 4th Panzer Group commanded by Gen. Erich Hoepner and the 3rd Mechanized Corps commanded by Major General Kurkin & 12th Mechanised Corps commanded by Major General Shestapolov in Lithuania 75 km northwest of Kaunas...

,, Soviets attempted to mount a counterattack, reinforced by tanks, but were heavily defeated. The Lithuanians considered the Germans to be their liberators from the repressive Soviet rule and hoped that the Germans would re-establish their independence or at least autonomy. Within a week, the Germans sustained 3,362 losses, but controlled the entire country.

Lithuanians took up arms in an anti-Soviet and pro-Independence revolt. Groups of men organized spontaneously and took control of strategic objects (such as railroads, bridges, communication equipment, warehouses of food and equipment) protecting them from potential Soviet sabotage

Scorched earth

A scorched earth policy is a military strategy or operational method which involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from an area...

. On June 24, Germans entered two major cities – Kaunas

Kaunas

Kaunas is the second-largest city in Lithuania and has historically been a leading centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the biggest city and the center of a powiat in Trakai Voivodeship of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania since 1413. During Russian Empire occupation...

and Vilnius

Vilnius

– without a fight, as they were already controlled by the Lithuanians. Kaunas was taken by the rebels of the Lithuanian Activist Front

Lithuanian Activist Front

Lithuanian Activist Front or LAF was a short-lived resistance organization established in 1940 after Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union. The goal of the organization was to liberate Lithuania and re-establish its independence...

(LAF). Kazys Škirpa

Kazys Škirpa

Kazys Škirpa was a Lithuanian military officer and diplomat best known for his attempts to establish Lithuanian independence in 1941.- Army career:...

, leader of LAF, had been preparing for the uprising since at least March 1941. The activists proclaimed Lithuanian independence and established the Provisional Government of Lithuania

Provisional Government of Lithuania

on June 23. Vilnius was taken by soldiers of the 29th Lithuanian Territorial Corps, former soldiers of the independent Lithuanian Army, who deserted from the Red Army

Red Army

. Smaller, less organized groups emerged in other cities and the countryside. It is estimated that the uprising involved some 16,000–30,000 people and claimed lives of about 600 Lithuanians and 5,000 Soviet activists.

Administration

During the first days of war, German military administration, chiefly concerned with the region's security, tolerated Lithuanian attempts to establish their own administrative institutions and left a number of civilian issues to the Lithuanians. The Provisional Government in Kaunas attempted to establish the proclaimed independence of Lithuania and undo the damage of the one-year Soviet regime. During six weeks of its existence, the Government issued about 100 laws and decrees, but they were largely not enforced. Its policies can be described as both anti-Soviet

Anti-Sovietism

Anti-Sovietism and Anti-Soviet refer to persons and activities actually or allegedly aimed against the Soviet Union or government power within the Soviet Union.Three different flavors of the usage of the term may be distinguished....

and antisemitic. The Government organized volunteer forces, known as the Tautinio Darbo Apsaugos Batalionas

Tautinio Darbo Apsaugos Batalionas

Tautinio Darbo Apsaugos Batalionas was organized by the Provisional Government of Lithuania in 1941 as basis for future independent Lithuanian Army, but Nazi authorities soon reorganized the battalion into auxiliary police...

(TDA), to serve as basis for the re-established Lithuanian Army, though the battalion was soon employed by the Einsatzkommando 3 and Rollkommando Hamann

Rollkommando Hamann

Rollkommando Hamann was a small mobile unit that committed mass murders of Lithuanian Jews in the countryside in July–October 1941. The unit was also responsible for a large number of murders in Latvia from July through August, 1941...

for mass executions of the Lithuanian Jews

Lithuanian Jews

Lithuanian Jews or Litvaks are Jews with roots in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania:...

in the Ninth Fort

Ninth Fort

The Ninth Fort is a stronghold in the northern part of Šilainiai elderate, Kaunas, Lithuania. It is a part of the Kaunas Fortress, which was constructed in the late 19th century. During the occupation of Kaunas and the rest of Lithuania by the Soviet Union, the fort was used as a prison and...

. At the time rogue units led by the infamous Algirdas Klimaitis

Algirdas Klimaitis

Algirdas Jonas Klimaitis was a Lithuanian para-military commander.When the Nazi Germans entered Lithuania, in 1941, at the start of Operation Barbarossa, he formed a military unit of roughly 600 members, which was not subordinate to the Lithuanian Activist Front or the Provisional Government of...

rampaged the city and the outskirts.

The Germans did not recognize the Lithuanian government, and at the end of July formed their own civil administration – the Reichskommissariat Ostland

Reichskommissariat Ostland

Reichskommissariat Ostland, literally "Reich Commissariat Eastland", was the civilian occupation regime established by Nazi Germany in the Baltic states and much of Belarus during World War II. It was also known as Reichskommissariat Baltenland initially...

, which as divided into four Generalbezirk. Adrian von Renteln

Adrian von Renteln

Theodor Adrian von Renteln was an activist and politician in Nazi Germany...

became the commander of Generalbezirk Litauen and took over all government functions. The Provisional Government resigned on August 5; some of its ministers became General Advisers in charge of local self-government. The Germans did not have enough manpower to staff local administration; therefore, most local offices were headed by the Lithuanians. Policy decisions would be made by high-ranking Germans and actually implemented by low-ranking Lithuanians. The General Advisers were mostly a rubber stamp

Rubber stamp (politics)

A rubber stamp, as a political metaphor, refers to a person or institution with considerable de jure power but little de facto power; one that rarely disagrees with more powerful organs....

institution that the Germans used to blame for unpopular decisions. Three of the advisers resigned within months, other four were deported the Stutthof concentration camp

Stutthof concentration camp

Stutthof was the first Nazi concentration camp built outside of 1937 German borders.Completed on September 2, 1939, it was located in a secluded, wet, and wooded area west of the small town of Sztutowo . The town is located in the former territory of the Free City of Danzig, 34 km east of...

when they protested several German policies. Overall, local self-government was quite developed in Lithuania and helped to sabotage or hinder several German initiatives, including raising a Waffen-SS

Waffen-SS

The Waffen-SS was a multi-ethnic and multi-national military force of the Third Reich. It constituted the armed wing of the Schutzstaffel or SS, an organ of the Nazi Party. The Waffen-SS saw action throughout World War II and grew from three regiments to over 38 divisions, and served alongside...

unit or providing men for forced labor in Germany

Forced labor in Germany during World War II

The use of forced labour in Nazi Germany 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 German-occupied...

Persecutions

The Nazis prepared three versions of the Generalplan Ost

Generalplan Ost

Generalplan Ost was a secret Nazi German plan for the colonization of Eastern Europe. Implementing it would have necessitated genocide and ethnic cleansing to be undertaken in the Eastern European territories occupied by Germany during World War II...

as it pertained to Lithuania. According to the first version, the majority of the Lithuanian population would be deported to Siberia

Siberia

and the rest Germanized. The second plan envisioned 235,000 German colonists settling in the country over a period of 15 years. The third version judged Lithuanians to be a non-Aryan race

Aryan race

The Aryan race is a concept historically influential in Western culture in the period of the late 19th century and early 20th century. It derives from the idea that the original speakers of the Indo-European languages and their descendants up to the present day constitute a distinctive race or...

; therefore, 85% of the population was to be deported or exterminated and the remaining few Germanized. In either case, Lithuania was to become a German-populated area

Lebensraum

was one of the major political ideas of Adolf Hitler, and an important component of Nazi ideology. It served as the motivation for the expansionist policies of Nazi Germany, aiming to provide extra space for the growth of the German population, for a Greater Germany...

within 20 years after the war.

The Holocaust

Before the Holocaust

The Holocaust

The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...

, Lithuania was home to about 210,000 or 250,000 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).

Unlike in other Nazi-occupied countries where the Holocaust was introduced gradually (first limiting Jewish civil rights, then concentrating Jews in ghettos, and only then executing them in death camps), executions in Lithuania started on the first days of war. According to German documents, on June 25–26, 1941, "about 1,500 Jews were eliminated by Lithuanian partisans

Lithuanian partisans (1941)

Lithuanian partisans is a generic term used during World War II by Nazi officials and quoted in books by modern historians to describe Lithuanian collaborators with the Nazis during the first months of the occupation of Lithuania by Nazi Germany...

. Many Jewish synagogues were set on fire; on the following nights another 2,300 were killed." The executions were carried out by three main groups: in Kaunas (Ninth Fort

Ninth Fort

), in Vilnius (Ponary massacre

Ponary massacre

The Ponary massacre was the mass-murder of 100,000 people, mostly Polish Jews, by German SD and SS and Lithuanian Nazi collaborators Sonderkommando collaborators...

), and in countryside (Rollkommando Hamann

Rollkommando Hamann

). It is estimated that 80% of the Lithuanian Jews

Lithuanian Jews

Lithuanian Jews or Litvaks are Jews with roots in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania:...

were killed before 1942.

The surviving 43,000 Jews were concentrated in the Vilnius

Vilna Ghetto

The Vilna Ghetto or Vilnius Ghetto was a Jewish ghetto established by Nazi Germany in the city of Vilnius in the occupied Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic , during the Holocaust in World War II...

, Kaunas

Kaunas Ghetto

The Kovno ghetto was a ghetto established by Nazi Germany to hold the Lithuanian Jews of Kaunas during the Holocaust. At its peak, the Ghetto held 40,000 people, most of whom were later sent to concentration and extermination camps, or were shot at the Ninth Fort...

, Šiauliai, and Švenčionys Ghettos and forced to work

Forced labor in Germany during World War II

for the benefit of German military industry. On June 21, 1943, Heinrich Himmler

Heinrich Himmler

Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...

issued order to liquidate all ghettos and transfer remaining Jews to concentration camps. Vilnius Ghetto was liquidated, while Kaunas and Šiauliai were turned into concentration camps and survived until July 1944. Remaining Jews were sent to camps in Stutthof

Stutthof concentration camp

, Dachau, Auschwitz

Auschwitz concentration camp

Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...

. Only about 2,000–3,000 of Lithuanian Jews were liberated from these camps. More survived by withdrawing into interior of Russia before the war broke out or by escaping the ghettos and joining the Jewish partisans

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....

.

The genocide rate of Jews in Lithuania, up to 95–97%, was one of the highest in Europe. This was primarily due, with few notable exceptions, to widespread Lithuanian cooperation with the German authorities. Jews were widely considered to be responsible for the previous Soviet regime (see Jewish Bolshevism

Jewish Bolshevism

Jewish Bolshevism, Judeo-Bolshevism, and known as Żydokomuna in Poland, is an antisemitic stereotype based on the claim that Jews have been the driving force behind or are disproportionately involved in the modern Communist movement, or sometimes more specifically Russian Bolshevism.The expression...

) and were resented for welcoming Soviet troops. Targeted Nazi propaganda

Nazi propaganda

Propaganda, the coordinated attempt to influence public opinion through the use of media, was skillfully used by the NSDAP in the years leading up to and during Adolf Hitler's leadership of Germany...

exploited the anti-Soviet sentiment and increased already existing, traditional antisemitism.

Resistance

Majority of anti-Nazi resistance in Lithuania came from the Polish partisans and the Soviet partisans

Soviet partisans

The Soviet partisans were members of a resistance movement which fought a guerrilla war against the Axis occupation of the Soviet Union during World War II....

. Both began sabotage and guerrilla operations against German forces immediately after the Nazi invasion of 1941

Operation Barbarossa

. The most important Polish resistance organization in Lithuania was, as elsewhere in occupied Poland, the Home Army (Armia Krajowa

Armia Krajowa

The Armia Krajowa , or Home Army, was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej . Over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces...

). Polish commander of the Wilno (Vilnius

Vilnius

) region was Aleksander Krzyżanowski

Aleksander Krzyzanowski

Aleksander "Wilk" Krzyżanowski was a Polish officer, major, member of the Polish resistance movement in World War II and Commandant of the Armia Krajowa in the Vilnius Region.- Biography :...

.

The activities of Soviet partisans in Lithuania were partly coordinated by the Command of the Lithuanian Partisan Movement headed by Antanas Sniečkus

Antanas Snieckus

Antanas Sniečkus was First Secretary of the Lithuanian Communist Party from August 1940 to January 22, 1974.- Biography :Antanas Sniečkus was born in 1903, in the village of Būbleliai, near Šakiai. During the First World War, his family fled to Russia where he observed the Russian revolution of 1917...

and partly by the Central Command of the Partisan Movement of the USSR.

Jewish partisans

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....

in Lithuania also fought against the Nazi occupation. In September 1943, the United Partisan Organization

Fareinigte Partizaner Organizacje

The Fareynikte Partizaner Organizatsye was a Jewish resistance organization based in the Vilna Ghetto that organized armed resistance against the Nazis during World War II...

, led by Abba Kovner

Abba Kovner

Abba Kovner was a Lithuanian Jewish Hebrew poet, writer, and partisan leader. He became one of the great poets of modern Israel. He was a cousin of the Israeli Communist Party leader Meir Vilner.-Biography:...

, attempted to start an uprising

Ghetto uprising

Ghetto uprisings were armed revolts by Jews and other groups incarcerated in ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europes during World War II against the plans to deport the inhabitants to concentration and extermination camps....

in the Vilna Ghetto

Vilna Ghetto

, and later engaged in sabotage and guerrilla operations against the Nazi occupation. In July 1944, as part of its Operation Tempest

Operation Tempest

Operation Tempest was a series of uprisings conducted during World War II by the Polish Home Army , the dominant force in the Polish resistance....

, the Polish Home Army

Armia Krajowa

launched the Operation Ostra Brama in an attempt to recapture that city. See also Polish–Lithuanian relations during World War II
Polish–Lithuanian relations during World War II
The issue of Polish and Lithuanian relations during the World War II is a controversial one, and some modern Lithuanian and Polish historians still differ in their interpretations of the related events, many of which are related to the Lithuanian collaboration with Nazi Germany and the operations...

. Lithuania continued in exile, based on the embassies in U.S. and UK.

There was no significant violent resistance directed against the Nazis originating from the Lithuanian society. In 1943, several underground political groups united under the Supreme Committee for the Liberation of Lithuania

Supreme Committee for the Liberation of Lithuania

The Supreme Committee for the Liberation of Lithuania or VLIK was an organization seeking independence of Lithuania. It was established on October 25, 1943 during the Nazi occupation. After World War II it moved abroad and continued its operations in Germany and the United States...

(Vyriausias Lietuvos išlaisvinimo komitetas, or VLIK). The committee issued a declaration of independence that went largely unnoticed. It became mostly active outside of Lithuania among emigrants and deportees, and was able to establish contacts in Western

Western world

The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...

countries and get support for resistance operations inside Lithuania (see Operation Jungle

Operation Jungle

Operation Jungle was a program by the British Secret Intelligence Service early in the Cold War for the clandestine insertion of intelligence and resistance agents into the Baltic states...

). It would persist abroad for many years as one of the groups representing Lithuania in exile.

In 1943, the Nazis attempted to raise a Waffen-SS

Waffen-SS

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 (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. In particular, the relations between Lithuanians and the Poles were poor. Pre-war tensions over the Vilnius Region

Vilnius region

resulted in a low-level civil war

Civil war

A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....

between Poles and Lithuanians. Nazi-sponsored Lithuanian units, primarily the Lithuanian Secret Police, were active in the region and assisted the Germans in repressing Polish population. In autumn 1943, Armia Krajowa started retaliation operations against the Lithuanian units and killed hundreds of mostly Lithuanian 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

Glinciszki massacre

Glinciszki massacre refers to a mass murder that occurred on 20 June 1944 in the village of Glitiškės . In the massacre, thirty-seven mostly Polish villagers were killed by Nazi subordinated Lithuanian policemen retaliating for the death of four policemen that occurred during a fight with element...

(Glinciszki) and Dubingiai

Dubingiai massacre

The Dubingiai massacre was the mass murder of between 20 and 27 Lithuanian civilians in the town of Dubingiai on 23 June 1944, by a unit of the Armia Krajowa, a Polish resistance group, in a reprisal action for the Glinciszki massacre of 20 June.-Background:Polish-Lithuanian relations during the...

(Dubinki) villages.

Soviet re-occupation, 1944

The Soviet Union reoccupied Lithuania as part of the Baltic Offensive in 1944, a twofold military-political operation to rout German forces and the "liberation of the Soviet Baltic peoples" beginning in summer-autumn 1944.

World War II losses in Lithuania were among the highest in Europe. Estimates of population loss stand at 25% for Estonia, 30% for Latvia, and 15% for Lithuania. War and occupation deaths have been estimated at 81,000 in Estonia, 180,000 in Latvia, and 250,000 in Lithuania. These include the Soviet deportations in 1941, the German deportations, and Holocaust victims.

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