Description
As powerful as they were, the Nazis could not possibly govern all of the occupied territories on their own. Local collaborators—some more eager than others—were necessary both to quash resistance movements and to implement the ”Final Solution.“ Some of the worst atrocities of the Holocaust were committed by Nazi collaborators.-The Czech lands became the Protectorate of Bohemia & Moravia. Emil Hácha, a former judge and the president, ultimately decided to collaborate with Hitler rather than let the Nazis invade, destroy, and kill his people. German overlords made life miserable anyway, and Hácha was beaten to death in 1945.-In Slovakia, Josef Tizo, a Catholic priest who became president, zealously accepted his role as Nazi collaborator. He oversaw the deportation of tens of thousands of Slovak Jews and political dissidents. He was tried for treason after the war and put to death in 1947.-The French puppet government at Vichy was headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain, a hero of the First World War, who after the armistice of 1940 oversaw an authoritarian regime in France. After the war, he was found guilty of treason and sentenced to life imprisonment. -But no European leader is a more infamous collaborator than Norway’s Vidkun Quisling. His very name is a synonym for traitor. He was an ardent fascist happy to seize power and collaborate with his idol, Hitler. He was executed by firing squad in 1945.–This collection coins two coins and two stamps from four collaborator regimes:-Protectorate of Bohemia & Moravia, postage stamp with man on horseback, 1943.-Slovak Republic, 5 korun, 1939.-Vichy France, franc, aluminum, with ”travail, famille, patrie“ slogan, 1943.-Norway, postage stamp, portrait of King Haakon VII, who went into exile rather than collaborate with Hitler, 1945
