Figure 1.-- We do not know what is going on here. There is some writing on the back with the location. It reads: Near Pecinci, a farmer's boy. Pecinci is in Serbia (Yuguslavia at that time). The German officer here with the pistol is patting a peasant boy on the forehead, He has a World War I EK2 ribbin and a spange. The Germans invaded Yugoslavia during Aril 1941. The officer doe not look menancing nor the boy scared, but the boy does not seem to be as amused as the German soldier. Unsaid here is the degree to which this boy's future would have been determined by his ethnicity had the NAZIs pervailed.

We do not know what is going on here. There is some writing on the back with the location. It reads: Near Pecinci, a farmer's boy. Pecinci is in Serbia (Yuguslavia at that time). The German officer here with the pistol is patting a peasant boy on the forehead, He has a World War I EK2 ribbon and a spange. The Germans invaded Yugoslavia during Aril 1941. The officer doe not look menancing nor the boy scared, but the boy does not seem to be as amused as the German soldier. Unsaid here is the degree to which this boy's future would have been determined by his ethnicity had the NAZIs pervailed.

Location

There is some writing on the back with the location. It reads: Near Pecinci, a farmer's boy. Pecinci is in Serbia (Yuguslavia at that time).

Chronology

The Germans invaded Yugoslavia during April 1941 and within a few days the country was in their hands. There was no effective resistance by the Yugoslav Army. In fact many Croats saw the Germans as liberators. . The weatgher here looks warm, but the way tghe boy is dressed suggests that it not hot. Thus we would guess that the photograph was taken in the late Spring or early Summer. There is no indication of the year, but we think 1941 is the most likely, partly because the two looked unaccustomed to each other.

German Officer

The soldier in the foreground is an officer in the Wehrmacht (German Army). I am not sure of his rank. He has a World War I EK2 ribbon and a spange.

Scene

We do not know what is going on here. The German officer here with the pistol is patting a peasant boy on the forehead. The officer doe not look menancing nor the boy scared, but the boy does not seem to be as amused as the German soldier.

The Serbs

Unsaid here is the degree to which this boy's future would have been determined by his ethnicity had the NAZIs pervailed. The Serbs were ethnically Slavs. The Slavs were targetted as a peole for wholesale elimination. NAZI plans had they won the War were to kill huge numbers of Slaves outright. Here we know from the Holocaust that they had developed techniques for killing on massive scale. Other Slaves were to be deported to their death beyond the Urals and the remaining population were to be turned into uneducated slave labor. The Ukraine and other areas of the Soviet Union and Poland once the Slavs had been removed would be open to German colonization. The NAZIs had already begun the colonization process in Poland. The NAZIs did not proceed with this process in Yugoslavia, although areas of Slovenia were annexed to the Reich. The Croatians who became German allies did begin this process with widespread attacks on non Cfoatian minorities. The NAZIs made the Croatians honorary Aryans. The Croatian Ustachi conducted horrendous actins against Jews and Muslims. The largest number of people they killed were the Serbs. The killing was so vicious that even the Germans were apauled. Bosnia with a mixed population was the most dreadful killing field.

Reader Comment

A Dutch reader writes, "I am truly amazed and impressed by the research you do, writing all those articles. I admire your objectivity. It is not easy to state all the facts, the way things happened in history, without succumbing to personal bias. You looked at this picture very carefully. You are right that the German officer does not appear menacing to the boy. On the contrary, he gives him a fatherly pat at the head. An indication that nothing bad happened is the message on the back of the photo. The man perhaps had sent this picture home and simply mentioned that they (the soldiers) met a peasant boy in the fields. The boy is in rags as you can see and he might have gotten even a piece of bread, who knows. From personal experience during the German occupation in the Netherlands when I was a boy I can say that I never saw German soldiers threatening Dutch children (or women for that matter). We did see them every day on the street, but usually we ignored them, and from their part it was the same. Only in the beginning of the invasion in 1940 we paid attention to the soldiers, who we thought were not as bad as expected. One could see also Dutch civilians talking with them, even arguing about what happened. I remember some neighbors telling them that the country had been betrayed by the Dutch NAZIs. A few years later the mood had changed after the Germans had established a totalitarian regime with special security and SS-forces. But on the whole the regular Wehrmacht soldiers somehow were not looked upon with the same hatred as the SD and SS." [Stueck]

HBC

We appreciate the reader's comments. Of course every one has their on prejudices, no matter how liberal-minded they may be. Actually HBC has been a learning experience as so many European readers have added their insights to HBC's rather American outlook. We try to deal with this by incouring readers to add their insights to the issues covered. We would be very interested, for example, in any reader insights concerning this image.

Ethnicity and Occupation

Our Dutch reader repeats reports we have received from other HBC readers. German occupation regimes in the West were in large measure correct. The exception was of course the Jews, but toward most people the Germans behaved correctly, especially the Wehrmact. This was especually the case of country's like Denmark and the Netherlands to which the Germans felt ethnic/racial afinity. The NAZIs if Germany had prevailed in the War probably would have annexed the Netherlands into the Reich. This generally correct behavior was not repeated in the East where regular Wehrmact units were implicated in horendous attrocities along with the SD and SS. It should also be noted that popular attitudes toward the Germans in the Netherlands shifted when the Germans began conscripting Dutch workers for war work in the Reich. Also the overall occupation involved the looting of the economies of the occupied countries. Large quantities of both agricultural and manufactured goods were shipped to the Reich. This meant malnutrition and even starvation for the people affected. When the Allies finall crossed the Rhine (March 1945), the Duch were near starvation. The near starvation of the Dutch can not be blamed on the SS and SD as many Wehrmact units manned check points that prevented food from being shipped from rural areas into the cities. The occupation regimes in the East among largely Slavic populations was even worse.

The Occupied East

The NAZI program for Lebensraum in the east was not just to acquire territory. The plans for that territory was monsterous beyond belief. he plan was to evacate Poles an Russians from these territories. Some would remain to serve as slave laborers. Millions would be expelled or "evacuatd" with the understanding that large numbers would die in the process. The goal was to make the east German. Here Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler had the responsibility for persuing this effort. He appears to have assigned his deputy Reinhard Heydrich appears to have coordinated this effort and essentially he SS's entire eastern operations. Heydrich ordered the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) (SS Security Service) in 1941 to begin the necessary planning. The Reichs-Sicherheitsdienst (RSHA) (Reich Decurity Head Office). There were differences of opinion within the SS and between the SS and Alfred Rosenberg's Ostministerium (Ministry for the Occupied East) over how to claim the East. There was agreemnt that large numers of Slavs had to be removed to Siberia. There were differences as to the extent to which forcible evictions should take place.

The Wehrmacht

Our Dutch reader raises some interesting questions about the Wehrmacht. He is certainly correct that German soldiers were not all or even mostly war criminals. The Wehrmact was a conscript army. And with any conscript army had the same level and range of behavior as the population in general. That said, many of the conscript soldiers had been members of the Hitler Youth and NAZI educatin system which prepared the ground work for jusifying horendous acts against whole classes of people, Our attitude toward the Wehrmact leadership is quite different. The Wehrmact made a pact with adolf Hitler (1934). Hitler agreed to eliminate the SA as a threat to the Wehrmact and ordered the execultion of Roehm and other close associates. The Wehrmact swore a loyalty oath to Hitler--mot to the German nation but to Hitler. In return for their loyalyty they were the bebeficiaries of a hige reaemament ptogram in contravention of the Versailles Treaty. The dimensions of the rearmament progrram far outweiged any level of armament needed for defense. It was patently clear to the Wehrmact general staff that Hitler mean to wage aggressive war. This essentially made the Wehrmacht a criminal enterprise committed to waging aggressive war. In addition, there is a tendency in Germany today to draw a destinct line between the Wehrmacht and the SD SS wjhich carried out the most horrendous attricities. In the field, especially in the East, this line was much less well defined. Wehrmact units were involved in major attrocities and carried out orders from the high command concerning the execution of Jews and Communist Party members. The Wehrmact was also involved in many reprisal actions against civilians.

Sources

Stueck, Rudi. E-mail message, March 20, 2005.

Created: 12:35 AM 10/7/2004
Last updated: 12:35 AM 10/7/2004