project QUESTION #1

In what way were Slovenia and the Netherlands involved in World War 2?

SLOVENIA

Slovenia before the World War 2 belonged to Yugoslavia which was separated on 6 different republics under the Yugoslavian leadership. Yugoslavia had outer politically and economically connected with Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. Germany promoted that kind of connections because it was beneficial to her army. Yugoslavia was a country of 6 nations and that was leading her to unsolved national issues. Beside national issues, people in Yugoslavia were suffering from bad social conditions. That is why signature of triple pact was not a surprise, it was signed on 25th March 1941 in Vienna. But that caused big demonstrations all over the Yugoslavia especially in Beograd. Army overthrow the government and the king Peter II. was declared.

German army ended the uncertainty in country with an air raid bombarding Beograd on 6th April 1941. While Germans bombarded Beograd other armies broke into Yugoslavia from Austria, Italy, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. Because of the uneducated and not well equipped Yugoslavian army they were not match for invaders. Yugoslavia declared on 17thh April 1941 an absolute capitulation. Then Hitler divided Slovenian territory in three parts. Ljubljanska pokrajina belonged to Italy, Gorenjska and Spodnja Štajerska was occupied by Germany and Hungary occupied Prekmurje.

After deviding Slovenian territory under 3 different occupiers, Slovenian people wanted to resist. On April 26th 1941 the OF (Osvobodilna fronta) was established and its mission was to defeat or deport occupying armies. The OF consisted of the parties that wanted to resist the occupation.  People from different associations joined the OF. The resistance movement was called Partisans. They used guerrilla way of fighting and their most important achievement was to destroy railway connections between German Reich and Italy. In year 1945 Slovenia was finally liberated and the German army was defeated.[1]

THE NETHERLANDS

The war started in Europe on 1 September 1939. The Netherlands wanted to maintain neutral in world war two just like they did in the First World War. The prime minister of the Netherlands, Pieter Cort van der Linden, wanted to stay an independent country. The Germans made a promise not to attack and maintain a friendship between Germany and the Netherlands. Even though Germany promised not to attack, the Netherlands kept mobilizing its army.[2] Germany invaded the Netherlands on 10 May 1940, without a war declaration.[3] When the Germans invaded Holland there were about 8,700,000 people in the country. The invasion of the Netherlands was part of a bigger plan called Fall Gelb (operation yellow). Fall Gelb was a plan to invade Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and a part of France (everything above the Somme).[4] The Germans were using the Blitzkrieg (lightning war) method, which they invented. The idea was based on many small, fast units, light tanks and airplanes. It was focused on speed and surprising the enemy. After that five days of intense fighting followed. Rotterdam was bombed on the fifth day and after that the Dutch surrendered.[5] The Netherlands suffered greatly during the war. The Germans took all our supplies, like food and resources, even our bicycles. When people needed things they had to smuggle them from Belgium. There was a shortage of everything, but what had the greatest effect on the people of the Netherlands was the lack of food. This got at its worst during the hunger winter of 1945 Even if you had money you could be hungry, because there was nothing in the stores. People had to go to a soup kitchen and pay with vouchers. They stood in line for hours and often the soup kitchen was out of food before they had their turn.[6] The Netherlands were liberated on September 1944 by allies, the North was liberated half a year later.

[1] - Naše stoletje: Ana Nuša Kern, Dušan Nećak, Božo Repe (založba Modrijan)

[2]- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands_in_World_War_II#Neutrality\ (27.9.2013)

[3]- http://www.tweedewereldoorlog.nl (27.9.2013)

[4]- http://www.zuidfront-holland1940.nl/index.php?page=het-aanvalsplan-fall-gelb-voor-nederland (28.9.2013)

[5]- http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/blitzkrieg.htm (28.9.2013)

[6]- http://www.eenvandaag.nl/binnenland/32553/70_000_meer_nederlandse_doden_in_tweede_wereldoorlog (25.3.2014)
[7]-http://vergezichtengeschiedenis.blogspot.com/2012/05/nederlandse-slachtoffers-in-de-tweede.html (27.3.2014)