Bukovina in World War II – (1)

Part 1: The Beginning of the Second World War

Willi Kosiul
Translation by Google, Needs Editing

From the Website of Willi Kosiul
Posted with permission of the author’s son, February 21, 2021


On August 23, 1939, an official non-aggression pact was concluded between the German Reich and the Soviet Union – in Moscow – the so-called “Hitler-Stalin Pact”. This contract was negotiated between the two foreign ministers commissioned for this purpose, the German foreign minister Ribbentrop and the Soviet foreign minister Molotov, and was also concluded personally in Moscow. Both Foreign Ministers had the instruction and full authority to personally sign this treaty from their superiors. Hitler was not personally in Moscow for these negotiations and Stalin was not in Berlin either.

In addition to this non-aggression pact, a secret additional protocol was also concluded between the German Reich and the Soviet Union, in which the spheres of interest between these two great powers in Eastern and Southeastern Europe were divided and determined. In this secret additional protocol, western and central Poland from the Baltic Sea and East Prussia, with Lithuania, to the Beskids and Romania were declared as German areas of interest. Eastern Poland, the two Baltic states (Latvia and Estonia, except Lithuania) as well as the Romanian Bessarabia were declared a Soviet area of ​​interest. Thereafter, the Romanian Bessarabia was a Soviet area of ​​interest and Romania with the entire Bukovina a German area of ​​interest. In this established Soviet area of ​​interest, northern Bukovina played no role at all and no such additional statement was made about it. Here, however, it was determined that Romania was a German area of ​​interest and since the entire Bukovina was still part of Romania at that time, the northern part of Bukowina was also included in this German area of ​​interest. The Soviet occupation of the Romanian northern Bukovina was only determined retrospectively – in early 1940 – and also arbitrarily by the Soviet Union and Berlin was only informed about it later. Since Berlin did not raise an official objection to this, Moscow regarded this as German approval. According to that, both great powers acted at that time, like Berlin as well as Moscow.

This secret additional protocol gave the German Reich, through the Soviet Union, a clear path to invade Poland on September 1st, 1939 and also to protect its interests in Romania. This secret additional protocol also gave the Soviet Union, through the German Reich, a clear path for the occupation of Eastern Poland – from East Prussia to Galicia and the Beskids, then for the occupation of the independent, independent and sovereign two Baltic states and also the occupation of the northeastern part of Romania = the landscape of Bessarabia. At that time, Berlin and Moscow had occupied their agreed areas of interest by June 1940 and then also dominated them and thus successfully implemented the essential content of their secret additional protocol. This “Hitler-Stalin Pact”, concluded on August 23, 1939, and the secret additional protocol concluded for it enabled the German Reich and the Soviet Union to successfully occupy these territories that were then divided among them. The western allies of Poland and also the old friends of Romania, such as France and Great Britain, were probably upset about this, but watched the war in Poland in 1939 and the occupation of the Baltic states and the Romanian northeastern regions in 1940 without doing anything. This enabled these two major European powers – the German Reich and the Soviet Union – to carry out their military actions and occupations successfully in a targeted and undisturbed manner. On September 1, 1939, German troops from the west and north as well as from the south crossed the German-Polish border and occupied almost all of Poland beyond Warsaw, as far as the Bug River and in the southern section of the front, Volhynia and Galicia as far as the San River. On September 17, 1939, Soviet troops also crossed the Soviet-Polish border from the east and occupied the eastern part of Poland as far as the Bug and San rivers. The German troops had advanced too quickly and too far to the east in their southern section of the front and had met with the Red Army in the Lemberg area. Then the Germans – as agreed in the secret protocol of August 23, 1939 on the spheres of interest – had to retreat to the San River and leave this area east of the San River to the Soviet Union. to the river Bug and in the southern section of the front, Volhynia and Galicia to the river San. On September 17, 1939, the Soviet troops, coming from the east, crossed the Soviet-Polish border and occupied the eastern part of Poland as far as the rivers Bug and the San The German troops had advanced too quickly and too far to the east in their southern section of the front and had met with the Red Army in the Lemberg area. Then the Germans – as agreed in the secret protocol of August 23, 1939 on the spheres of interest – had to retreat to the San River and leave this area east of the San River to the Soviet Union. to the river Bug and in the southern section of the front, Volhynia and Galicia to the river San. On September 17, 1939, the Soviet troops, coming from the east, crossed the Soviet-Polish border and occupied the eastern part of Poland as far as the rivers Bug and the San The German troops had advanced too quickly and too far to the east in their southern section of the front and had met with the Red Army in the Lemberg area. Then the Germans – as agreed in the secret protocol of August 23, 1939 on the spheres of interest – had to retreat to the San River and leave this area east of the San River to the Soviet Union. In September 1939, Soviet troops coming from the east crossed the Soviet-Polish border and occupied the eastern part of Poland as far as the Bug and San rivers. The German troops had advanced too fast and too far to the east in their southern section of the front and had made their way forward met with the Red Army in the Lviv area. Then the Germans – as agreed in the secret protocol of August 23, 1939 on the spheres of interest – had to retreat to the San River and leave this area east of the San River to the Soviet Union. In September 1939, Soviet troops coming from the east crossed the Soviet-Polish border and occupied the eastern part of Poland as far as the Bug and San rivers. The German troops had advanced too fast and too far to the east in their southern section of the front and had made their way forward met with the Red Army in the Lviv area. Then the Germans – as agreed in the secret protocol of August 23, 1939 on the spheres of interest – had to retreat to the San River and leave this area east of the San River to the Soviet Union. The German troops had advanced too quickly and too far to the east in their southern section of the front and had met with the Red Army in the Lemberg area. Then the Germans – as agreed in the secret protocol of August 23, 1939 on the spheres of interest – had to retreat to the San River and leave this area east of the San River to the Soviet Union. The German troops had advanced too quickly and too far to the east in their southern section of the front and had met with the Red Army in the Lemberg area. Then the Germans – as agreed in the secret protocol of August 23, 1939 on the spheres of interest – had to retreat to the San River and leave this area east of the San River to the Soviet Union.

This ended the fourth division of Poland – now by the German Empire and the Soviet Union -, Poland was torn into two parts and the Polish state dissolved. The Polish state, which had only existed since 1918, ceased to exist after 21 years in 1939. The dream of the then Polish Minister of War, from the summer of 1939, in a case of war between Poland and the German Reich, to march into Berlin with his confident Polish troops and celebrate his victory over the German Reich there, had thus already burst in September 1939 . A dreamed Polish invasion of Berlin turned into a hasty escape by the Polish government and the Polish army command through the only possible escape lock for the Poles at the time, through the Bukovina to Romania and then over the Black Sea to France and England. As a result of this German-Soviet partition of Poland at the end of September 1939, Eastern Galicia became Soviet territory up to the River San and the Soviet Army then stood on the northern border of the Romanian Bukovina. This fact worried the Buchenland Germans back then and also brought the Romanian kingdom into distress. The question arose as to whether the Soviet Army would remain there or one day penetrate further south into Romania. This fact worried the Buchenland Germans back then and also brought the Romanian kingdom into distress. The question arose as to whether the Soviet Army would remain there or one day penetrate further south into Romania. This fact worried the Buchenland Germans back then and also brought the Romanian kingdom into distress. The question arose as to whether the Soviet Army would remain there or one day penetrate further south into Romania.

After the Soviet Union occupied eastern Poland and now all three Baltic states in September 1939 – in agreement with the German Reich – and then invaded Finland on November 30, 1939, the Romanian government in Bucharest became seriously concerned. At that time Bucharest already trusted the Soviet Union to invade Romanian Bessarabia. Therefore, at the end of 1939, the Romanian government ordered the mobilization of some of their reservists’ age groups, who were then called up to their units. Capable reservists were selected and assigned to shortened officers ‘schools or to non-commissioned officers’ courses in order to train and secure the offspring for the lower – middle – and also higher ranks. After that, numerous units from the Romanian garrisons were relocated to the north-eastern border of Romania – as well as to Bessarabia and Bukovina – in order to protect this border with the Soviet Union as a precaution, demonstratively and better. These Romanian units brought up there were not only on standby in the villages of Bessarabia, but also carried out active combat and firing exercises there in order to defend their fatherland in Bessarabia in the event of a Soviet attack on Romania and to stop the invading Soviet army and to return them push.

In January 1940, the representatives of the Buchenland Germans and the Bessarabian Germans were invited to a meeting at the “Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle” in the Reich. Behrends informed that there was no cause for alarm among the ethnic Germans there. The German Reich Government would have taken and agreed all the necessary security measures for this in secret negotiations with the Soviet Government. In such cases, the Germans there would be under the protection of the German Reich in all matters.

On March 29, 1940, the Soviet government informed the government of the German Reich through diplomatic channels that, according to the secret additional protocol, it intended to take possession of its other spheres of interest in the near future. For the first time, the Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov raised the Soviet claim to the territory of northern Bukovina and also to Lithuania. Since Berlin took note of this new Soviet claim to northern Bukovina and Lithuania and did not object to it, Moscow regarded Berlin’s attitude as approval and then acted freely in accordance with its own new ideas. When the German Reich occupied Denmark and Norway on April 9, 1940.

In mid-June 1940 the Soviet Union occupied the two Baltic states – Latvia – as well as Estonia – according to the definition of their spheres of interest. But the German Reich accepted this arbitrariness of Stalin without protesting against it. Then, according to the additional protocol concluded between Moscow and Berlin, it was also Bessarabia. But the Romanian government had no knowledge of this. After that, the Romanian government’s distrust of the Soviet Union grew more and more and Bucharest feared such a Soviet attack on Romania. With the activities of the Romanian Army on the Romanian northeast border with the Soviet Union, In Bessarabia as well as in Bukovina – among the Romanian officers as well as the higher officials – various secret rumors were circulating, which created a certain latent uncertainty among them there. After just two weeks – on June 28, 1940 – with the invasion of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina by the Soviet Army, these secret rumors had come true, but the Romanian mobilization of their reservists and the reinforcement of their army in Bessarabia had been of no use and was worthless. Because these Romanian units did not fight against the invading Red Army, but withdrew – under orders – without a fight to Romania. which there created a certain latent uncertainty among them. After just two weeks – on June 28, 1940 – with the invasion of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina by the Soviet Army, these secret rumors had come true, but the Romanian mobilization of their reservists and the reinforcement of their army in Bessarabia had been of no use and was worthless. Because these Romanian units did not fight against the invading Red Army, but withdrew – under orders – without a fight to Romania. which there created a certain latent uncertainty among them. After just two weeks – on June 28, 1940 – with the invasion of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina by the Soviet Army, these secret rumors had come true, but the Romanian mobilization of their reservists and the reinforcement of their army in Bessarabia had been of no use and was worthless. Because these Romanian units did not fight against the invading Red Army, but withdrew – under orders – without a fight to Romania.


Part 2: The Occupation of the Northern Part of Bukovina by the Soviet Army