Between 1939 and 1945 nearly all countries in Europe suffered a military occupation. These were mainly but not solely under the forces of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Stalinist Soviet Union. These occupations, often extremely brutal because motivated by ideology, presented the subject peoples with the dilemma of whether to try to accommodate or to oppose the occupation forces. For the politically committed among the Europeans the dilemma went beyond accommodation and opposition; theirs was to decide between active collaboration and active, often armed resistance. True, these choices were not open to all Europeans: for the Poles under German rule, the only choice was between armed resistance and slavery; for the Jews, all of whom had been sentenced to death by National Socialist Germany, choices mostly did not exist. But aside from these two main groups, and a few smaller ones such as the Gypsies, the other Europeans were generally in a position to decide between opposition and accommodation, between resistance and collaboration. The path they took would determine the rate of survival and the amount of destruction in the country.

During the course of events most nations were split, pitching collaborationists against resisters in a civil war. These internal conflicts profoundly affected postwar history and, in many places, still influence politics and are the subject of bitter debate. In former Yugoslavia, for instance, the recent struggles would have been inconceivable without the memory of the civil war that divided the country during World War II.

The question of how to behave toward an occupation force, or toward one's own regime when experienced as tyrannical, is again very acute. Now that great international wars no longer seem to take place, the many armed conflicts plaguing our world almost all have the character of civil wars, often fought in the presence of foreign occupation forces. More often than not, today's warrior is a guerrilla fighter. Suspecting an armed enemy in every civilian, both rival domestic forces and the occupation army characteristically resort to extreme brutality for self-protection.

In the course of the semester, we'll examine the origins of guerrilla warfare, the pre-World War II attempts of the international community to regulate and humanize the conditions of military occupation, collaboration, and resistance; the war itself and the nature of, especially, the German occupation; the political and intellectual atmosphere in Europe that encouraged both fanatical collaboration and determined resistance; the many forms that these activities took; the repressive measures adopted by the occupation forces and, finally, the wartime and postwar retribution meted out for collaboration and war crimes by lynch justice, the Allied tribunals, and the national courts. The emphasis will be on German occupation as well as on collaboration with and resistance to the Nazis, including the inner German resistance. This is in part because World War II German history is so well documented, and in part because German occupation was all-encompassing. We will not completely neglect, however, the areas occupied by fascist Italy and by some of Nazi Germany's minor allies, nor countries occupied by the Soviet Union, both when it was still an ally of Nazi Germany and when it formed a part of the great anti-Nazi coalition. We'll also cast a brief look at areas occupied by the Western Allies at the end of the war, mainly to ask ourselves why that occupation met with such eager collaboration and virtually no resistance.

All this is a tall order, especially because as far as I know, no such course is offered anywhere. There is also the problem of the scarcity of good readings. As you will note from a separate general list of sources, there exist many books in English on particular topics, but there is really no comprehensive book on the subject. The list of required readings reflects my concern for availability, price, and diversity. I'll also hand out a number of short articles and documents. All in all, I am counting on your very active "collaboration" as, for instance, in improving the list of sources.

You are expected to do the readings, to participate in the discussions, to write a brief analysis of a document, to prepare a substantial oral report, which will take the form of debating your subject with an adversary holding the opposite view and, finally, to write a research paper of approximately 20 pages, which may or may not be the outcome of your oral report. We shall discuss all research projects in detail during the semester. Please note that familiarity with other languages is useful but not necessary. There are good English-language sources on a significant number of exciting research topics.

All the books listed below are paperbacks and in print; they should be available at the Columbia University Bookstore; they are also on reserve in the Columbia College Reading Room in Butler Library. Articles and book chapters marked with an asterisk are on reserve in the Russian and East European Reading Room on the 12th floor of International Affairs Bulding and in the History Student Reading Room on the 4th floor of Fayerweather Hall. Finally, I plan to show one or two films.