World War 2
Nazi Occupation
Conquest brings its own problems, among them maintaining order in conquered territories, replacing governments and reviving and exploiting economies for the conquerors profit. The 'New Orders' established in Asia by the Japanese and in Europe by the Germans reflected these concerns.
Japanese rule in its 'Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere' was harsh and often arbitrary but it was overshadowed by the cruelty of Germany's policy towards its conquered territories, driven as it was by Nazi racial policy. Their victims are not only the Jewish population or the millions of Russians forcibly transported to the Reich as slave labour. In Poland the German aim was not mearly to dominate but also to destroy the Polish identity. The entire population were to become German slaves, forming a huge pool of cheap labour. In Greece, thousends of people starved to death, when the Germans commanded the food stocks.
In December 1941 Hitler issued his 'Night and Fog' scheme, whereby inhabitants of occupied Europe who were deemed to 'endanger German security' were to disappear in limbo. No news of their fate was to be released to their families. No one knows how many people were the victims of this order.