Peculiarities of Collaboration in Ukraine and West Europe during World War Two: Comparative Analysis of English and German Historiography
Abstract
The problem of collaboration in Nazi-occupied Ukraine and Western Europe by Germany and its allies is discusses in this article. It is emphasized that almost 75 years after the end of World War II, discussions on this issue have not stopped yet, which intensified after Western historians proved the futility of the efforts of a number of politicians to present a number of nations as exclusively victims of the invaders. Some examples of such attempts made by Charles de Gaulle in France are cited in the article. Analysis of English- and German-language historiographical sources of the late XX – early XXI centuries testifies that the authors deviate from the «black and white» opposition of the «collaboration-resistance» ligament and prove that there were a lot of «gray zones» in it. We are also talking about those varieties of the occupation regime that inevitably predetermined the scale and forms of collaboration and its impact on the society.
The history of the appearance of the interpretation of the «collaboration» concept starting with the XIX century and its political and emotional interpretation during World War II is considered. It is proved that in almost all European countries including Ukraine the number of active collaborators that is individuals who collaborated with the occupiers on an ideological basis remained small. The vast majority of citizens adapted to the situation choosing the model of behavior that corresponded to their moral and ethical qualities. Considerable attention is paid to the analysis of the motives of collaboration, the spectrum of which was very diverse. In addition it is very difficult to establish the true reasons for cooperation with the occupiers because the collaborators understood well the attitude towards them in the society and therefore disguised themselves. The conclusion of the authors of monographs and articles is unequivocal: the occupation regime in Ukraine and in the countries of Western Europe differed significantly in character especially in terms of cruelty and cynicism. It has been established that helpfulness or passive helpfulness was characteristic for most Western Europeans. Neither resistance nor active cooperation with the occupiers was equally undesirable for them. It is noted that the attempts to selectively read the past still do not stop which is unacceptable from the point of view of the true memory of World War II. The conclusion that the collaboration is more beneficial for the occupiers cannot be an excuse for hiding the facts of cooperation with the occupiers of the local population.
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Collaboration in Europe, 1939-1945. URL: https://ehne.fr./en/article/wars-boration-europe-1939-1945.
Connelly J. Why the Poles Collaborated so little – And Why That is No Reason for National Nibris. Slavic review (Cambridge). 2005. Vol. 64. № 4. P. 771-781.
Davies P. Dangerous Liaisons: Collaboration and World War Two. Harlov etc.: Pearson Education, 2004. 218 p.
Deak I., Naimark N.M. Europe on Trial: The Story of Collaboration, Resistance, and Retribution during World War II. Routledge, 2018. XXIII, 257 p.
Dean M. The German Gendarmerie, the Ukrainian Schutzmannschaft and the «Second Wave» of Jews Killing in Occupied Ukraine: German Policing at the Local Level in the Zhitomir Region 1941-1944. German History (Cambridge). 1996. Vol. 14. № 2. P. 168-192.
Dean M. Soviet Ethnic German and the Holocaust in Reich Commissariat Ukraine. The Shoah in Ukraine: History, Testimony, Memorialisation (eds. R. Brandon, W. Lower). Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2010. P. 248-271.
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Exeler Fr. Determining Guilt in the Post-World War II Soviet Union. URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/1810/266991/ambivalent-state-determining-guilt-in-the-Post-World-War-II-Soviet-Union.pdf?sequence=1.
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Lower W. Local Participation in the Crimes of the Holocaust in Ukraine: Forms and Consequences. URL: i shront.chtyvo.org.ua/Lower-Wendy/Local-Participation-in-the-Crimes-of-the-Holocaust-in-Ukraine-Forms-and-Consequences-anhl.pdf.
Markova I. Militärschaft in Osteuropa im Zweiten Weltkrieg und im Holocaust. URL:///www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=41eo7.
Mast A. Moral and historical Reckonings with the Vichy Regime in Post-War France. URL: https://medium.com/interments-the-rivesaltes-camp-and-the-twentieth’/moral-and-historical-reckonings-with-the-Vichy-regime-in-Post-War-France-81f24b38579.
Mitchell A. Nazi Paris: The history of an Occupation. 1940-1944. New York; Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2010. 230 p.
Mlakar B. Ideological Basis of Collaboration in Europe during World War II and a short Comparison with Slovenia. URL: i www. sistory. si/cdn/publikacije/36001-37000/36292/cho8.html.
Morgan Ph. Hitber’s Collaborators: Choosing between bad and worse in Nazi-occupied Western Europe. Oxford University Press, 2018. 400 p.
Neumaier C. The Escalation of German Reprisal Policy in Occupied France, 1941-1942. Journal of Contemporary History (London). 2006. № 41. № 1. p. 113-131.
Nikolko V. Collective Trauma Memories, and Victimization Narratives in modern Strategies of Ethnic Consolidation: The Crimean Tatar Case. Crisis and Change in Post-Cold War Global Politics: Ukraine in a Comparative, Perspective (eds. E. Resende, D. Budryte, D. Buhari). London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018. P. 69-96.
Narvselius E., Grinchenko G. Introduction: Formulas of Betrayal-Traitors, Collaborators and Deserters in Contemporary European Politics of Memory. Traitors, Collaborators and Deserters in Contemporary European Politics of Memory: Formulas of Betrayal (eds. G. Grinchenko, E. Narvselius). London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. P. 1-21.
Oliver J. A Survey of so-called «History Laws» in Ukraine and Poland. What are they, and What do they do? URL: i euromaidanpress.com/2018/03/22/a-survey-og-so-called-history-laws-in-Ukraine-and-Poland-what-are-they-and-what-do-they-do/
Penter T. Collaboration on Trial: New Source Material on Soviet Postwar Trials against Collaborators. URL: https:// pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ d613/ 9708563534492b0344a20c/ collaboration-on-trial-new-source-material-on-soviet-postwar-trials-against-collaborators.
Röhr W. System oder organisiertes Chaos? Fragen einer Typologie der deutschen Okkupationsregime im Zweite Weltkrieg. Die deutsche Herrschaft in den «germanischen» Ländern 1940-45. (Hrsg. von. R. Bohn). Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1997. S. 11-49.
Röhr W. Kollaboration: Sachverhalt und Begriff Methodische Überlegungen auf der Grundlage Vergleichender Forschung zur Okkupationspolitik der Achsenmächte im Zweiten Weltkrieg. «Kollaboration» in Nordosteuropa. Erscheinungsformen und Deutungen im 20. Jahrhundert (Hrsg. von. J. Tauber). Wiesbaden: Otto Harassowitz Verlag, 2006. S. 21-39.
Semelin J. The Survival of the Jews in France, 1940-44. Oxford University Press, 2018. 356 p.
Shore M. Conversing with Ghosts Jedwabne, Zydokomune, and Totalitarianism. The Holocaust in the East: Local Perpetrators and Soviet Responses. Pittsburg: University of Pittsburg Press, 2014. P. 5-28.
Tauber J. «Kollaboration» in Nordosteuropa. Erscheinungsformen und Deutungen im 20. Jahrhundert. «Kollaboration» in Nordosteuropa. Erscheinungsformen und Deutungen im 20. Jahrhundert. (Hrsg. von. J. Tauber). Wiesbaden: Otto Harassowitz Verlag, 2006. S. 11-20.
Torrie J.S. German Soldiers and the Occupation of France 1940-1944. Cambridge University Press, 2018. 290 p.
Vorwort. Die deutsche Herrschaft in den «germanischen» Ländern 1940-45. (Hrsg. von. R. Bohn). Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1997. S. 7-10.
Weber E. France’s Downfall. The most Comprehensive account of the most sorbid period in French History. URL: https://www.theatlantic.com/ magazine/archive/2001/10/frances-downfale/302317.
Zägel J., Steinweg R. Vergangenheitsdiskurse in der Ostseeregion: Auseinandersetzung in den nordischen Staaten über Krieg, Diktatur, Besatzung und Vertreibung. Münster: LIT Verlag, 2007. 212 S.
