Germanoccupied

Germanoccupied refers to territories controlled by Nazi Germany during World War II, from the invasion of Poland in 1939 to the German surrender in 1945. The scale of occupation varied: some regions were annexed directly to the Reich, others administered as occupied or client territories, and still others were governed through puppet or collaborating regimes. The occupation reshaped political borders, economies, and daily life across large parts of Europe and the Soviet Union.

Administrative arrangements differed by region. In Poland, the Germans established the General Government to administer central and southern areas, while western and northern Polish lands were annexed to the Reich as Reichsgauen. In Western and Northern Europe, occupation often involved direct military rule or civil administrations aligned with German interests; the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Denmark, and France experienced different forms of occupation and collaborationist governance. In the Baltic states and much of the Soviet Union, Germany established Reichskommissariate such as Ostland and Ukraine to oversee administration and exploitation.

Policies under occupation aimed at extraction of resources, coercive labor, and suppression of dissent. The regime pursued genocidal policies, most notably the Holocaust, which involved mass killings, deportations to extermination and concentration camps, and the displacement of civilian populations. Resistance movements emerged across occupied territories, ranging from partisan warfare to underground networks.

Liberation began in 1944–1945 as Allied forces advanced and Soviet operations pushed westward. Postwar agreements redrew borders and led to trials for war crimes. The legacy of German occupation left deep political, demographic, and cultural scars throughout affected regions.