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A Ballerina Who Stabbed an SS Guard With a Stiletto and Other Historic Rebels

Khalid Elhassan August 10, 2020 34 min

2. The Degree of German Brutality in Different Parts of Europe Impacted the Intensity of the Resistance

german rule in occupied europe — Nazi Germans ruled with extreme brutality in eastern Europe. Holocaust Encyclopedia

The disparity between the resistance movements in Eastern Europe and the Balkans versus those of Western Europe is due to the manner in which the German occupiers treated their conquered subjects in different parts of Europe. Jews excepted, German occupation of Western Europe, while severe, never approached the levels of psychotic cruelty and mindless brutality meted out to the conquered in Eastern Europe and the Balkans.

German Einsatzgruppen carrying out a mass execution of Soviet civilians in 1941. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

With the exception of communists – who made a drastic turn from acquiescence to German occupation during the period of Soviet-German friendship to fierce resistance after Hitler attacked the USSR – Western European civilian populations generally did not exhibit a willingness to risk the horrific reprisals and atrocities the Germans were prepared to inflict upon troublesome subjects. It was not due to lack of courage, but lack of incentive.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.