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Hiwi (volunteer)
Hiwi (), the German abbreviation of the word ''Hilfswilliger'' or, in English, auxiliary volunteer, designated, during World War II, a member of different kinds of voluntary auxiliary forces made up of recruits indigenous to the territories of Eastern Europe occupied by Nazi Germany. Adolf Hitler reluctantly agreed to allow recruitment of Soviet citizens in the Rear Areas during Operation Barbarossa. In a short period of time, many of them were moved to combat units. Overview Hiwis comprised 50% of the 2nd Panzer Army's 134th Infantry Division in late 1942, while the 6th Army at the Battle of Stalingrad was composed of 25% Hiwis. By 1944, their numbers had grown to 600,000. Both men and women were recruited. Veteran Hiwis were practically indistinguishable from regular German troops, and often served in entire company strengths. Between September 1941 and July 1944 the '' SS'' employed thousands of collaborationist auxiliary police recruited as Hiwis directly from the Soviet ...
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Wehrmacht
The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previously used term (''Reich Defence'') and was the manifestation of the Nazi regime's efforts to German rearmament, rearm Germany to a greater extent than the Treaty of Versailles permitted. After the Adolf Hitler's rise to power, Nazi rise to power in 1933, one of Adolf Hitler's most overt and bellicose moves was to establish the ''Wehrmacht'', a modern offensively-capable armed force, fulfilling the Nazi regime's long-term goals of regaining lost territory as well as gaining new territory and dominating its neighbours. This required the reinstatement of conscription and massive investment and Military budget, defence spending on the arms industry. The ''Wehrmacht'' formed the heart of Germany's politico-military po ...
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2nd Panzer Army
The 2nd Panzer Army () was a German armoured formation during World War II, formed from the 2nd Panzer Group on October 5, 1941. Organisation Panzer Group Guderian () was formed on 5 June 1940 and named after its commander, general Heinz Guderian. In early June 1940, after reaching the English Channel following the breakthrough in the Ardennes, the ''Panzergruppe Guderian'' was formed from the XIX Army Corps, and thrust deep into France, cutting off the Maginot Line. In November 1940, it was upgraded into ''Panzergruppe 2''. The 2nd Panzer Group () was formed in November 1940 from Panzer Group Guderian. In October 1941 it was renamed the 2nd Panzer Army. Panzer Group 2 played a significant role in the early stages of the German invasion of the Soviet Union during Operation Barbarossa in 1941 when it was a constituent part of Army Group Centre. Operational history 2nd Panzer Group was part of the Army Group Centre during Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Unio ...
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Final Solution
The Final Solution or the Final Solution to the Jewish Question was a plan orchestrated by Nazi Germany during World War II for the genocide of individuals they defined as Jews. The "Final Solution to the Jewish question" was the official code name for the murder of all Jews within reach, which was not restricted to the European continent. This policy of deliberate and systematic genocide starting across German-occupied Europe was formulated in procedural and geopolitical terms by Nazi leadership in January 1942 at the Wannsee Conference held near Berlin, and culminated in the Holocaust, which saw the murder of 90% of Polish Jews, and two-thirds of the Jewish population of Europe. The nature and timing of the decisions that led to the Final Solution is an intensely researched and debated aspect of the Holocaust. The program evolved during the first 25 months of war leading to the attempt at "murdering every last Jew in the German grasp". Christopher Browning, a histori ...
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Trawnikis
During World War II, Trawniki men (; ) were Eastern European Nazi collaborators, consisting of either volunteers or recruits from prisoner-of-war camps set up by Nazi Germany for Soviet Red Army soldiers captured in the border regions during Operation Barbarossa launched in June 1941. Thousands of these volunteers served in the General Government territory of German-occupied Poland until the end of World War II. Trawnikis belonged to a category of '' Hiwis'' (German abbreviation for ''Hilfswilliger'', literally " those willing to help"), Nazi auxiliary forces recruited from native subjects serving in various jobs such as concentration camp guards. Between September 1941 and September 1942, the German '' SS'' and police trained 2,500 Trawniki men known as ''Hiwi Wachmänner'' (guards) at the special training camp at Trawniki outside of Lublin; by the end of 1944, 5,082 men were on active duty. ''Trawnikimänner'' were organized by Streibel into two ''SS Sonderdienst'' bat ...
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Ukrainians
Ukrainians (, ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. Their native tongue is Ukrainian language, Ukrainian, and the majority adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, forming the List of contemporary ethnic groups, second largest ethno-linguistic community. At around 46 million worldwide, Ukrainians are the second largest Slavs, Slavic ethnic group after Russians. Ukrainians have been Endonym and exonym, given various names by foreign rulers, which have included Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Habsburg monarchy, the Austrian Empire, and then Austria-Hungary. The East Slavic population inhabiting the territories of modern-day Ukraine were known as Ruthenians, referring to the territory of Ruthenia; the Ukrainians living under the Russian Empire were known as Little Russians, named after the territory of Little Russia. The ethnonym Ukrainian, which was associated with the Cossack Hetmanate, was adopted following the Ukrainian natio ...
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Trawniki Men
During World War II, Trawniki men (; ) were Eastern European Nazi collaborators, consisting of either volunteers or recruits from Prisoner of war, prisoner-of-war camps set up by Nazi Germany for Red Army, Soviet Red Army soldiers captured in the border regions during Operation Barbarossa launched in June 1941. Thousands of these volunteers served in the General Government territory of Occupation of Poland (1939–1945), German-occupied Poland until the end of World War II. Trawnikis belonged to a category of ''Hiwi (volunteer), Hiwis'' (German abbreviation for ''Hilfswilliger'', literally "European non-Germans in the German armed forces during World War II, those willing to help"), Nazi auxiliary forces recruited from native subjects serving in various jobs such as concentration camp guards. Between September 1941 and September 1942, the German ''SS'' and police trained 2,500 Trawniki men known as ''Hiwi Wachmänner'' (guards) at the special Trawniki concentration camp, train ...
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Lublin
Lublin is List of cities and towns in Poland, the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the centre of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of the Vistula River, located southeast of Warsaw. One of the events that greatly contributed to the city's development was the Union of Krewo, Polish–Lithuanian Union of Krewo in 1385. Lublin thrived as a centre of trade and commerce due to its strategic location on the route between Vilnius and Kraków; the inhabitants had the privilege of free trade in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The Lublin Sejm, Parliament session of 1569 led to the creation of a Union of Lublin, real union between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, thus creating the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Lublin witnessed the early stages of the Reformation in the 16th century. A Calvinist congregation wa ...
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Trawniki
Trawniki is a village in Świdnik County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Trawniki. It lies approximately south-east of Świdnik and south-east of the regional capital Lublin, and the river Wieprz flows by it. History The village was mentioned as ''Trawnik'' in a chronicle by Jan Długosz. It was administratively located in the Lublin Voivodeship (1474–1795), Lublin Voivodeship in the Lesser Poland Province, Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Lesser Poland Province of the Kingdom of Poland. During the Third Partition of Poland in 1795, Trawniki was annexed by Habsburg monarchy, Austria. After the Polish victory in the Austro-Polish War of 1809 it was regained by Poles and included within the short-lived Polish Duchy of Warsaw. Following the duchy's dissolution in 1815, it was part of the Russian Partition, Russian-controlled Congress Poland, since 1837 administratively located in the Lublin Governorate. In ...
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Trawniki Concentration Camp
The Trawniki was a Nazi concentration camps, concentration camp set up by Nazi Germany in the village of Trawniki about southeast of Lublin during the occupation of Poland in World War II. Throughout its existence the camp served a dual function. It was organized on the grounds of the former Polish sugar refinery of the Central Industrial Region (Poland), Central Industrial Region, and subdivided into at least three distinct zones. The Trawniki camp first opened after the Operation Barbarossa, outbreak of war with the Soviet Union, intended to hold Soviet POWs, with rail lines in all major directions in the General Government territory. Between 1941 and 1944, the camp expanded into an Schutzstaffel, SS training camp for collaborationist Schutzmannschaft, auxiliary police, mainly Ukrainian. In 1942, it became the Forced labour under German rule during World War II, forced-labor camp for thousands of Jews within the Majdanek concentration camp, Majdanek concentration camp system as ...
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General Government
The General Government (, ; ; ), formally the General Governorate for the Occupied Polish Region (), was a German zone of occupation established after the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, Slovak Republic (1939–1945), Slovakia and the Soviet Union in 1939 at the onset of World War II. The newly occupied Second Polish Republic was split into three zones: the General Government in its centre, Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany in the west, and territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union, Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union in the east. The territory was expanded substantially in 1941, after the German Operation Barbarossa, Invasion of the Soviet Union, to include the new District of Galicia. The area of the ''Generalgouvernement'' roughly corresponded with the Austrian part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth after the Third Partition of Poland in 1795. The basis for the formation of the General Government was the "Annexation Decree on the Administration o ...
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Prisoner Of War
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a range of legitimate and illegitimate reasons. These may include isolating them from enemy combatants still in the field (releasing and Repatriation, repatriating them in an orderly manner after hostilities), demonstrating military victory, punishment, prosecution of war crimes, labour exploitation, recruiting or even conscripting them as combatants, extracting collecting military and political intelligence, and political or religious indoctrination. Ancient times For much of history, prisoners of war would often be slaughtered or enslaved. Early Roman gladiators could be prisoners of war, categorised according to their ethnic roots as Samnites, Thracians, and Gauls (''Galli''). Homer's ''Iliad'' describes Trojan and Greek soldiers offeri ...
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Auxiliary Police
Auxiliary police, also called volunteer police, reserve police, assistant police, civil guards, or special police, are usually the part-time reserves of a regular police force. They may be unpaid volunteers or paid members of the police service with which they are affiliated; There is no consistent international definition. Auxiliary police are primarily tasked with supporting and augmenting the police, but this may also extend to established emergency services such as the fire department (and in the case of fire police), emergency medical services, border guard, and coast guard. Duties commonly assigned to auxiliaries include community policing, neighborhood watch, traffic policing, civil defense, and riot control. The police powers auxiliaries may exercise vary from agency to agency; some have no or limited authority, while others may be accorded full police powers. They may be armed or unarmed. Australia The Australian Federal Police can appoint special members who do ...
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