In the history of the Holocaust, the term collaboration refers to acts of cooperation with the Nazis, which helped them to carry out their racist policies – including the mass extermination of Jews and other victims. Without the help and support of collaborators, the Nazis would not have been able to murder as many Jews as quickly as they did.
People, groups, and countries collaborated with the Nazis for various reasons, including antisemitism , nationalism , anti-communism , personal gain, political gain and fear.
Collaboration took many different forms. Some types of collaboration were less extreme such as informing on neighbours to the Gestapo, or continuing to work in the Civil Service implementing Nazi policy. More extreme forms of collaboration included working as a death camp guard, or the actions of collaborationist governments, such as the Ustaša regime in Croatia.
This section will first look at different types of German collaboration, and will then discuss collaboration outside of Germany, exploring Lithuania and Croatia as case studies.
