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GERMANY AND EASTERN EUROPE
As the Western Front became bogged down in trench warfare in late 1914, the Germans decided to launch their major offensive of 1915 against Russian forces stationed in Galicia, a region of central Europe extending from the northern slopes of the Carpathian mountains to the present-day Romanian border.
Eight German divisions were moved from the west to take part in an attack that was coordinated with Austria-Hungary. The offensive began on 2 May 1915 and focused on the town of Gorlitse.
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| Map depicting location of Gorlitse |
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| German Jewish soldiers celebrate Hanukkah in 1916 (US Holocaust Memorial Museum) |
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Taken by surprise and bereft of ordnance, the Russians were forced to retreat. By the end of the summer, Germany controlled the present-day territories of Poland, Lithuania, and parts of Belarus and the Ukraine.
Many Jews cooperated with the Germans as they marched into eastern Europe, for imperial Germany was regarded as a beacon of liberalism and tolerance compared with tsarist Russia. German Jews found that they could advance in the army without undue fear of discrimination. As a result, many served the Fatherland with great distinction during the war.
However, as Germany gained ever-increasing amounts of territory, it began to introduce policies that, on the surface at least, can be regarded as forerunners of the Nazi era. Whole areas of Poland were stripped of resources useful to the German war effort, and Polish men were conscripted for forced labour. Laura Turczinowicz describes the looting that occurred in her home town of Suwalki, near the border with Lithuania:
'Furniture was carted daily to East Prussia, the woods were cut down, every agricultural implement taken!... Every woman outraged... All Poland was to be emptied and carted away, beaten into the bargain, and made to pay such terrible contributions.'
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| Laura de Gozdawa Turczinowicz, resident of Suwalki during the German occupation |
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As the war continued, security and categorisation became increasing concerns for the German authorities. All Poles over the age of 10 were to be documented, and two million photo-passes were issued. In this process of classification, the Jews stood out as a distinctive minority.
In October 1915, Germany's field medical commander decreed that all persons entering Germany from the east via rail should be deloused to preserve the 'purity' of the Reich. The east was increasingly seen as a place of filth, disease and squalor.
Finally, Russian POWs captured by the Germans were routinely maltreated. Laura Turczinowicz observed some as they were marched through Suwalki:
The street was full of them, thousands, driven along like dogs, taunted, beaten. If they fell down, [they were] kicked until they either got up or lay still - for ever.
In September 1914, the Kaiser even suggested placing 90,000 Russian POWs on a Baltic peninsula and leaving them to starve. Pity and compassion would not be features of the Teuton- Slav conflict.
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