Denmark was smaller than Germany, and taking her out helped secure the northern land border. [12] Of the prisoners released in 1945, one quarter were suffering from debilitating diseases, particularly tuberculosis. The region was conceded to Germany by the Czech government in an attempt to avoid war after the Germans made demands for it to be handed over. [8] From the start of the invasion, German soldiers had orders to segregate Flemish soldiers from their Walloon counterparts. Two days later, the B… Germany Invades Belgium: The German invasion plan for France called for an attack through Belgium, instead of through the heavily defended Franco-German border. Norway was an important territory for the Nazis to occupy, strategically rather than ideologically. The policy had a racial foundation, since Nazi ideology argued that the Flemish were Germanic and therefore racially superior to the Walloons. For the Germans, the Belgian prisoners represented a source of cheap labor which could be used in agriculture and factories after the conscription of most German workers. [4] Escaped prisoners who returned home were rarely arrested by the Germans, and there was no systematic attempt to recapture former Belgian soldiers who had left German captivity in 1940.[5]. Northern Jutland in Denmark would provide a good base for launching that attack. 225,000 men, approximately 30 percent of the strength of the Belgian army in 1940, were deported to prisoner of war camps in Germany. He believed it was necessary for his plans, that the Soviets should be defeated, however, hard that would be. The German occupation of Belgium (French: Occupation allemande, Dutch: Duitse bezetting) during World War II began on 28 May 1940, when the Belgian army surrendered to German forces, and lasted until Belgium's liberation by the Western Allies between September 1944 and February 1945. During the fighting, between 600,000[1] and 650,000[2] Belgian men (nearly 20% of the country's male population at the time)[2] had served in the military. [7] By February 1941, 105,833 Flemish soldiers had been repatriated.[7]. Germany occupies Western Europe. Advertisement . By 1943, losses on every front made Italians unhappy about the war. [14], From the start of the detentions, the Nazi Party and Adolf Hitler were directly concerned in policy relating to the Belgian prisoners of war. It also hoped to encourage Flemish people to view Germany more favourably, paving the way for an intended annexation of the Greater Netherlands into the Greater Germanic Reich (Großgermanisches Reich). Though mainland Britain stood free of invasion, the Channel Islands, being closer to France than England, were occupied by the Nazis. Despite being neutral at the start of World War II, Belgium and its colonial possessions found themselves at war after the country was invaded by German forces on 10 May 1940. Belgian involvement in World War II began when German forces invaded Belgium, which had been following a policy of neutrality, on 10 May 1940. At the start of the war, Italy was Germany’s strongest ally. Attacking these head on would have cost Hitler dearly and slowed down the fast-moving blitzkrieg attacks that were Germany’s specialty. [8] The release of all Flemish soldiers already in captivity was ordered on 6 June 1940, but only had a limited real effect. German Paratroopers in Belgium in 1940 And so, for convenience rather than any other purpose, Germany invaded. One was to unite the German speaking people of this region with Germany, supporting his goal of a larger, united German nation. Nevertheless, as many as 70,000 remained prisoners remained in captivity until 1945, and around 1,800 died in German camps during the course of the war. The reasons for these invasions varied from country to country, as shown by these examples. During World War II, Germany invaded Poland, Denmark, Norway, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Greece and Yugoslavia. [6] According to estimates compiled for the Nuremberg Trials, 53,000 were still incarcerated in 1945 at the end of the war,[11] but there could have been as many as 70,000 according to some estimates. For Hitler, this fulfilled two aims. After the Netherlands had been conquered, Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of France soon fell into German hands. Two Invasions of Belgium By Germany in Two World Wars: 1914 and 1940. The first country in Europe to be officially invaded by … [13], Initially, the German Military Administration in Belgium viewed the continued detention of all Belgian prisoners as temporary and undesirable. Herman Göring, the head of the Luftwaffe, feared that the Dutch might respond by allowing the British to use their air bases to launch attacks against the Germans. The other was that it let him test how far he could … [12], Charity collections in honor of the prisoners were common in occupied Belgium. A total of 6,770 attempted escapes from camps in Germany are known. Earlier, on 24 July, the Belgian government had announced that if war came it would uphold its historic neutrality. Belgium was neutral and its neutrality was protected by treaty with Great Britain. The postal service in occupied Belgium issued sets of semi-postal stamps from 1942 "for the benefit of the prisoners of war" and their families.