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107-503: The Vilna Ghetto was a World War II Jewish ghetto established and operated by Nazi Germany in the city of Vilnius in the modern country of Lithuania , at the time part of the Nazi-administered Reichskommissariat Ostland . During the approximately two years of its existence starvation , disease , street executions, maltreatment, and deportations to concentration and extermination camps reduced

214-652: A colonial militia but the idea was rejected. Governor Ralph Darling felt a mounted police force was more efficient than a militia. A military volunteer movement attracted wide interest during the Crimean War . Following Federation, the various military reserve forces of the Commonwealth of Australia became the Citizen Military Force (CMF). A citizens' militia modeled on the British Home Guard called

321-415: A body of (armed) defenders which would be volgus militum . The term is used by several countries with the meaning of "defense activity" indicating it is taken directly from Latin. Militias have been used throughout the history of Afghanistan. Afghan Militias and irregular forces have contributed significantly to the military history of the country and affected the process of state formation. Andorra has

428-468: A commander with the rank of major. It was the responsibility of the six corporals, each in his own parish, to be able to raise a fighting force from among the able-bodied men of the parish. Today a small, twelve-man ceremonial unit remains the only permanent section of the Sometent, but all able-bodied men remain technically available for military service , with a requirement for each family to have access to

535-567: A component of the Primary Reserve that provides a military presence in areas where it would not be economically or practically viable to have conventional Army units – most notably northern Canada . The Canadian Army Reserve continued to use the term militia in reference to itself until the unification of the Canadian Armed Forces in 1968. Since unification, no Canadian military force has formally used militia in its name. However,

642-716: A covert warning; some workers escaped, others hid in hiding places they had prepared with Plagge's knowledge, from which they subsequently escaped. Two-hundred and fifty Jews at HKP 562 survived the war. They represent the single largest group of Jewish survivors of the Holocaust in Vilnius. Among all the European Jewish communities during WWII, the Lithuanian one was the most affected by the Holocaust. Rising to 265,000 individuals in June 1941, it

749-399: A firearm. An area weapon such as a Shotgun per household is unregulated, however ranged weapons such as Pistols and Rifles require a license. The army has not fought for more than 700 years, and its main responsibility is to present the flag of Andorra at official ceremonial functions. According to Marc Forné Molné , Andorra's military budget is strictly from voluntary donations, and

856-689: A ghetto inmate who later died after being deported to Estonia, penned the words for what became the famous Partisan Hymn, Zog nit keyn mol . In early 1943, the Germans caught a member of the Communist underground, who, under torture, revealed some contacts; the Judenrat , in response to German threats, tried to turn Wittenberg, head of the FPO, over to the Gestapo . The Fareynikte Partizaner Organizatsye organized an uprising and

963-639: A massive programme of uprooting Polish Jews from their homes and businesses through forcible expulsions . Entire Jewish communities were deported into these closed off zones by train from their places of origin systematically, using Order Police battalions , first in the Reichsgaue , and then throughout the Generalgouvernement territory. The Nazis had a special hatred of Polish and other eastern Jews. Nazi ideology depicted Jews, Slavs and Roma as inferior race Untermenschen ("subhumans") who threatened

1070-518: A pitiful food ration. When the Germans came to liquidate the ghetto in September 1943, members of the FPO went on alert. Gens took control of the liquidation in order to keep the Nazi forces out of the ghetto and away from a partisan ambush, but helped fill the quota of Jews with those who could fight but were not necessarily part of the resistance. The FPO fled to the forest and fought with the partisans. From

1177-458: A policy of sending young people out to the forest to join other Jewish partisans . This was controversial as well because the Germans applied a policy of 'collective responsibility' under which all family members of anyone who had joined the partisans were executed. In the Vilna Ghetto, a 'family' often included a non-relation who registered as a member of the family in order to receive housing and

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1284-436: A small army, which has historically been raised or reconstituted at various dates, but has never in modern times amounted to a standing army. The basic principle of Andorran defence is that all able-bodied men are available to fight if called upon by the sounding of the Sometent. Being a landlocked country , Andorra has no navy. Before World War I, Andorra maintained an armed militia force of about 600 part-time militiamen under

1391-637: A type of special forces ) are assigned to local troops. In history, before Finland became independent, two types of local militias existed: the White Guards and Red Guards, which were non-socialists and socialists, respectively. In the Finnish Civil War (1918) the White Guards founded the White Army, which was victorious over the Red Guards. White Guards continued their existence as a volunteer militia until

1498-722: A well respected university . Wilno was a predominantly Polish and Jewish city since the Polish-Lithuanian borders were delineated in 1922 by the League of Nations in the aftermath of Żeligowski's Mutiny . After the Soviet invasion of Poland in September 1939, Joseph Stalin transferred Wilno to Lithuania in October, according to the Soviet–Lithuanian Mutual Assistance Treaty . Some two years later, on 26 June 1941,

1605-604: Is an ethno-nationalist Amhara militia and former protest movement that emerged during the premiership of Abiy Ahmed . Fano intervened armed conflicts in the post-2018 regime , including Benishangul-Gumuz 's Metekel conflict, Tigray War and recently War in Amhara . They have been accused of ethnic massacres against other ethnic groups, such as the Qemant and other minorities. While Finland employs conscription , they do not have separate militia units: all units are organized by and under

1712-476: Is heavily associated with paramilitary and drug-related criminal groups. In Canada the title "Militia" historically referred to the land component of the armed forces, both regular (full-time) and reserve. The earliest Canadian militias date from the beginning of the French colonial period . In New France , King Louis XIV created a compulsory militia of settlers in every parish that supported French authorities in

1819-440: The 40th Regiment of Foot , and the 100th (Prince of Wales's Royal Canadian) Regiment of Foot ) and Fencibles regiments. These regiments were raised through ordinary modes of recruiting, as opposed to being raised by ballot like the militia. Most militia units were only activated in time of war, but remained inactive in between. The battle honours awarded to these colonial militia regiments are perpetuated by modern regiments within

1926-622: The Al Juffair region. Katibat al Haydariyah is its own distinct organization that decries the Bahraini government, but Canada and the United Kingdom listed it as an alias for the larger Al-Ashtar Brigades (or the Saraya al Ashtar). After four years, the militia group reemerged on social media in October 2019, to threaten new attacks on the island. It stated that they “will not retreat from our goals of

2033-642: The Australian Military Forces (AMF). The government supported the organization and equipped them with anti-aircraft artillery ; however, they were disbanded by the end of World War II due to the fact that there was no longer a significant threat to national security. During the Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire , a National Guard was established in Vienna. A separate but related Academic Legion

2140-581: The Austrian Armed Forces (Bundesheer) were reestablished as a conscript military force. A basic part of it is the militia, which is a regular reservists force of the Bundesheer, comparable to the national guard units of the United States. The conscript soldiers of the militia have to store their military equipment at home, to be mobilized quite fast within a few days in case of emergency. The system

2247-882: The Canadian Army . Defence of the Canadas long relied on a contingent of British soldiers , as well as support from the Royal Navy . However, the Crimean War saw the diversion of a significant number of British soldiers from British North America . Fearing possible incursions from the United States, the Parliament of the Province of Canada passed the Militia Act of 1855 , creating the Active Militia. The Active Militia, later splitting into

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2354-837: The Christian Social Party and the Republikanischer Schutzbund (German: Republican Defense League ) became affiliated with the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria . Violence increasingly escalated, breaking out during the July Revolt of 1927 and finally the Austrian Civil War , when the Schutzbund was defeated by the Heimwehr, police , Gendarmerie and Austrian Armed Forces . After World War II

2461-673: The Einwohnerwehr . Many of its members went on to join the Nazi Party . In 1921 the Nazi Party created the Sturmabteilung (SA; Storm Detachment; Brownshirts), which was the first paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party and served as a Nazi militia whose initial assignment was to protect Nazi leaders at rallies and assemblies. The SA also took part in street battles against the forces of rival political parties and violent actions against Jews. From

2568-672: The Gauls to invasion by the Romans until they were defeated by Julius Caesar. Centuries later, Joan of Arc organized and led a militia until her capture and execution in 1431. This settled the succession to the French crown and laid the basis for the formation of the modern nation of France. During the French Revolution the National Guard was a political home defense militia. The levée en masse

2675-568: The Judenrat . The objective was to clear an area for the establishment of a ghetto to imprison all the Jews of Vilnius and its suburbs. The area designated for the ghetto was the old Jewish quarter in the center of the city. While Vilna never had a ghetto per se except for some very limited restrictions on the movement and settlement of Jews during the Middle Ages, the area chosen by the Nazis for their ghetto

2782-748: The Kailis and HKP 562 forced labour camps. Inmates of HKP 562 repaired automobiles for the German Army ; the camp was commanded by the Wehrmacht Major Karl Plagge who, with the cooperation of his officers and men, was able to shield the Jewish auto-workers from much of the abuse slave laborers were ordinarily subjected to. When the Red Army approached Vilna and the SS came to take over the camp, Plagge gave his workers

2889-610: The Permanent Active Militia (PAM), a full-time professional army component (although it continued to use the label militia), and Non-Permanent Active Militia (NPAM), a military reserve force for the Canadian militia. Following 1855, the traditional sedentary militia was reorganized into the Reserve Militia, with its last enrolment taking place in 1873, and was formally abolished in 1950. Prior to Canadian Confederation ,

2996-524: The Second Polish Republic . The predominant languages of the city were Polish and to a lesser extent, Yiddish . The Lithuanian-speaking population at the time was a small minority , at about 6% of the city's population according to contemporary Lithuanian sources. By 1931, the city had 195,000 inhabitants, making it the fifth largest city in Poland with varied industries and new factories, as well as

3103-594: The Volunteer Defence Corps (VDC) was founded by the Returned and Services League of Australia (RSL) in 1940 in response to the possibility of a Japanese invasion of Australia. In the beginning, members didn't have uniforms and often paraded in business attire. They were given instruction on guerrilla warfare , and later the private organization was taken over by the Australian Government and became part of

3210-553: The Warsaw Ghetto alone to Treblinka over the course of 52 days. In some ghettos, local resistance organizations staged ghetto uprisings . None were successful, and the Jewish populations of the ghettos were almost entirely killed. On June 21, 1943, Heinrich Himmler issued an order to liquidate all ghettos and transfer remaining Jewish inhabitants to concentration camps . A few ghettos were re-designated as concentration camps and existed until 1944. Militia Beginning in

3317-493: The Warsaw Ghetto in October. Most Jewish ghettos were established in 1940 and 1941. Subsequently, many ghettos were sealed from the outside, walled off with brickwork, or enclosed with barbed wire. In the case of sealed ghettos, any Jew caught leaving could be shot. The Warsaw Ghetto, located in the heart of the city, was the largest ghetto in Nazi occupied Europe, with over 400,000 Jews crammed into an area of 3.4 square kilometres ( 1 + 3 ⁄ 8 square miles). The Łódź Ghetto

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3424-457: The ghetto uprisings . The first anti-Jewish measures were enacted in Germany with the onset of Nazism ; these measures did not include ghettoizing German Jews: such plans were rejected in the post- Kristallnacht period. However, soon after the 1939 German invasion of Poland , the Nazis began to designate areas of larger Polish cities and towns as exclusively Jewish, and within weeks, embarked on

3531-724: The British armies were twice defeated. The militias became a strong factor in the politics of the city afterwards, as a springboard from which the criollos could manifest their political ambitions. They were a key element in the success of the May Revolution , which deposed the Spanish viceroy and began the Argentine War of Independence . A decree by Mariano Moreno derogated the system of promotions involving criollos , allowing instead their promotion on military merit. The Argentine Civil War

3638-469: The British attempted to take control of the New Territories in 1898, they were resisted by the local militias which had been formed for mutual defence against pirate raids. Although ultimately defeated, the militias' dogged resistance convinced the British to make concessions to the indigenous inhabitants allowing them to preserve inheritance, property and marriage rights and customs throughout most of

3745-687: The Canadian Army Reserve is still colloquially referred to as the militia . Members of the Canadian Army Reserve troops typically train one night a week and every other weekend of the month, except in the summer. Summertime training may consist of courses, individual call-outs, or concentrations (unit and formation training of one to two weeks' duration). Most Canadian cities and counties have one or more militia units. Primary Reserve members may volunteer for overseas service, to augment their regular force counterparts—usually during NATO or United Nations missions. China's current militia falls under

3852-410: The FPO give Wittenberg up. Ultimately, Wittenberg himself made the decision to submit to Nazi demands. He was taken to Gestapo headquarters in Vilnius and was reportedly found dead in his cell the next morning. Most people believed he had committed suicide. The rumour was that Gens had slipped him a cyanide pill in their final meeting. The FPO was demoralized by this chain of events and began to pursue

3959-603: The German Army entered Vilna, followed by the Einsatzkommando death squad Einsatzgruppe B . Local Lithuanian leaders advocated ethnic cleansing of Jews and Poles. Throughout the summer, German troops and their Lithuanian collaborators killed more than 21,000 Jews living in Vilnius, in a mass extermination program. The Jewish population of Vilnius on the eve of the Holocaust was at least 60,000, some estimates say 80,000, including refugees from German-occupied Poland to

4066-659: The German Defence Minister who used them to crush the Spartakist League with enormous violence, including the murders of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg on January   15, 1919. Militia were also used to put down the Bavarian Soviet Republic in 1919. They were officially "disbanded" in 1920, resulting in the ill-fated Kapp Putsch in March 1920. The Einwohnerwehr , active in Germany from 1919 to 1921

4173-453: The German high command deployed increasing numbers of Volkssturm units to combat duties. These regiments were composed of men, women and children too old, young or otherwise unfit for service in the Wehrmacht (German Regular Army). Their primary role was assisting the army with fortification duties and digging anti-tank ditches. As the shortage of manpower became severe, they were used as front line infantry, most often in urban settings. Due to

4280-663: The German soldiers, beat them and then shot them on the spot. Stiklių and Mėsinių (Jatkowa) streets were ransacked by the local militia , and Jews were beaten up. At night, in "retaliation", all Jews were driven out of the neighborhood the Nazis had selected as the future ghetto territory, street by street, and the next day the women and children on remaining streets were seized while the men were at work. Men at workplaces were also seized. Jews were taken to Lukiškės Prison , then to Paneriai , also known as Ponary (or Ponar), where they were murdered between 1 September and 3 September. 5,000 to 10,000 people were murdered, including ten members of

4387-400: The Germans to be giving any help to a Jew was subject to the death penalty. In 1942, the Nazis began Operation Reinhard , the systematic deportation of Jews to extermination camps . Nazi authorities throughout Europe deported Jews to ghettos in Eastern Europe or most often directly to extermination camps built by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland . Almost 300,000 people were deported from

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4494-404: The Large Ghetto. The period between January 1942 and March 1943 was known as the time of ghetto "stabilization"; the Aktionen ceased and some semblance of normal life resumed. The quiet period continued until 6 August, when the Germans commenced the deportation of 7,130 Jews to Estonia on the order of Heinrich Himmler ; this was finished on 5 September. Following an order of Rudolf Neugebauer ,

4601-455: The Literary and Artistic Union and the Brit Ivrit Union, organized events commemorating Yiddish and Hebrew authors and put on plays in these languages. The popular Yiddish magazine Folksgezunt was continued in the ghetto and its essays were presented in public lectures. Yitskhok Rudashevski (1927–1943), a young teen who wrote a diary of his life in the ghetto during 1941 to 1943, mentions a number of these events and his participation in them. He

4708-464: The Napoleonic occupation, organizations such as the Lutzow Free Corps fought against the occupiers and later joined the allied forces as regular soldiers. However, after 1918, the term was used for nationalist paramilitary organizations that sprang up around Germany as soldiers returned in defeat from World War I . They were one of the many Weimar paramilitary groups active during that time. They received considerable support from Gustav Noske ,

4815-492: The Nazis to control what the victims knew of their fate beforehand, facilitating the Nazis' goal of total extermination. A two-ghetto model was also used in Warsaw . Like the other Jewish ghettos Nazi Germany set up during World War II, the Vilnius Ghetto was created both to dehumanise the people and to exploit its inmates as slave labor . Conditions were intended to be extremely poor and crowded, subjecting inhabitants to unsanitary conditions, disease and daily death. Jewish Vilna

4922-430: The Nazis usually referred to them as Jüdischer Wohnbezirk or Wohngebiet der Juden , both of which translate as the Jewish Quarter . There were several distinct types including open ghettos , closed ghettos , work , transit , and destruction ghettos , as defined by the Holocaust historians. In a number of cases, they were the place of Jewish underground resistance against the German occupation, known collectively as

5029-418: The Pacific Coast Militia Rangers. Intended to function similarly to the United Kingdom 's Home Guard , the Rangers were a secondary defence force, defending the coast of British Columbia and Yukon from potential Japanese attack. The Rangers were disbanded in September 1945, shortly after the conclusion of World War II. The legacy of the Pacific Coast Militia Rangers is perpetuated by the Canadian Rangers ,

5136-415: The Roman historian Tacitus as the centeni. They were similar in nature to the Anglo-Saxon fyrd . Freikorps ( German for "Free Corps") was originally applied to voluntary armies. The first Freikorps were recruited by Frederick II of Prussia during the Seven Years' War . These troops were regarded as unreliable by regular armies, so they were mainly used as sentries and for minor duties. During

5243-406: The Río de la Plata , was attacked during the British invasions of the Río de la Plata . As regular military forces were insufficient to counter the British attackers, Santiago de Liniers drafted all males in the city capable of bearing arms into the military. These recruits included the criollo peoples , who ranked low down in the social hierarchy, as well as some slaves. With these reinforcements,

5350-417: The SA sprung the Schutzstaffel (SS; Protective Squadron) which grew to become one of the largest and most powerful groups in Nazi Germany , which Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler (the leader of the SS from 1929) envisioned as an elite group of guards. The Waffen-SS , the military branch of the SS, became a de facto fourth branch of the Wehrmacht . In 1944–1945, as World War II came to a close in Europe,

5457-404: The Second World War. In some cases their activity found overt political expression as in the Mäntsälä rebellion . However, in 1934 separate wartime White Guard units were dissolved and in the Second World War they served at the front, dispersed in regular units. They were dissolved as a condition of peace after the Continuation War. The first notable militia in French history was the resistance of

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5564-598: The Vilna Ghetto theatre company. In 2021 a virtual 360-degree tour about the former Vilnius Ghetto was created to present arts, education and creative endeavours within the ghetto in horrifying circumstances. Ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe Beginning with the invasion of Poland during World War II , the Nazi regime set up ghettos across German-occupied Eastern Europe in order to segregate and confine Jews , and sometimes Romani people , into small sections of towns and cities furthering their exploitation. In German documents, and signage at ghetto entrances,

5671-411: The availability of full-time volunteers. In more recent times there has only been a general emergency call to the popular army of Sometent during the floods of 1982 in the Catalan Pyrenees, where 12 citizens perished in Andorra, to help the population and establish a public order along with the Local Police units. In the early 1800s Buenos Aires , which was by then the capital of the Viceroyalty of

5778-422: The bacteria that causes epidemic typhus, were publicized, and the respected status of German doctors helped spread the belief that the Jews were responsible for spreading typhus. The German public health officials in occupied Poland were concerned only with the health of German personnel, so they repeatedly urged occupation authorities to isolate Jews further from the rest of the population. German forces regarded

5885-529: The city overall population, were forced to live in 2.4% of the city's area, a density of 7.2 people per room. In the ghetto of Odrzywół , 700 people lived in an area previously occupied by five families, between 12 and 30 to each room. The Jews were not allowed out of the ghetto, so they had to rely on smuggling and the starvation rations supplied by the Nazis: in Warsaw this was 1,060 kJ (253 kcal) per Jew, compared to 2,800 kJ (669 kcal) per Pole and 10,930 kJ (2,613 kcal) per German. With

5992-440: The colonies that made up the Maritimes , and Newfoundland maintained their own militias independent of the Canadian Militia. Bermuda , part of British North America and militarily subordinate to the Commander-in-Chief of the Maritimes, allowed its militia to lapse following the American War of 1812 . United States Independence, however, elevated Bermuda to the status of an Imperial fortress and it would be strongly defended by

6099-430: The command of the Finnish Defence Forces . All men belong to the reserve until age 50 or 60 depending on rank, and may be called up in case of mobilization. Each reservist is assigned a position in a unit to be activated. However, since 2004, the FDF does have territorial forces , organized along the lines of regular infantry formations, which are composed of volunteers. Furthermore, long-range patrol units ( sissi troops ,

6206-404: The country. The legislation establishes " a system of firearms training, the purpose of which is to improve the knowledge, abilities and skills of persons authorised to handle firearms for the purpose of ensuring internal order or the security of the Czech Republic ". Gun owners can join government endorsed advanced shooting training courses with their privately owned firearms and become members of

6313-446: The crowded living conditions, starvation diets, and insufficient sanitation (coupled with lack of medical supplies), epidemics of infectious disease became a major feature of ghetto life. In the Łódź Ghetto some 43,800 people died of 'natural' causes, and 76,000 in the Warsaw Ghetto before July 1942. To prevent unauthorised contact between the Jewish and non-Jewish populations, German Order Police battalions were assigned to patrol

6420-426: The death of 1,983 people; residents found by the Jewish police lacking work permits were arrested and transferred to German custody. The same month the Germans liquidated the small ghetto, where they had relocated 'unproductive' individuals (i.e., who were old, ill, or otherwise considered unfit for labour); most of the prisoners were taken to Ponary and shot. About 20,000 Jews, including 8,000 without papers, remained in

6527-420: The defence and expansion of the colony. Following the British conquest of New France in 1760, local militia units supported British Army regiments stationed in British America , and, after the secession of thirteen continental colonies in the American War of Independence , British North America . In addition to the Canadian militia, British regiments were also supported by locally raised regulars (including

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6634-405: The downfall of the Al Khalifa entity,” and that “soon, guns will open their mouths and they will hear the whiz of bullets”. The Garde Civique or Burgerwacht (French and Dutch; "Civic Guard") was a Belgian paramilitary militia which existed between 1830 and 1920. Created in October 1830 shortly after the Belgian Revolution, the Guard amalgamated the various militia groups which had been created by

6741-416: The efforts of the ghetto's Health Department, the Vilna Ghetto had no major epidemics despite malnourishment, cold, and overcrowding. According to Dr. Lazar Epstein, head of Sanitary-Epidemiological Section of the ghetto's Health Department, the inmates of the ghetto, left to their own devices, could have lived a very long time, certainly to the end of the war, despite the numerous privations. The Vilna Ghetto

6848-437: The establishment of ghettos as temporary measures, in order to allow higher level Nazis in Berlin to decide how to execute their goal of eradicating Jews from Europe. Nazi officials had an Endziel , an unarticulated final goal that would take time to reach, and also an Endlösung , a "final solution" which was a euphemism for the murder of Jews. Toward the Endziel and Endloesung there were intermediate goals to be carried out in

6955-399: The establishment of the ghetto until January 1942, task groups of German and Lithuanian Einsatzgruppen regularly carried out the surprise operations called Aktionen , often on Jewish holidays. The ghetto residents were rounded up and deported, usually for subsequent executions. In the Aktion on Yom Kippur of 1 October 1941, the Germans ordered the Judenrat to lead the arrests leading to

7062-478: The formation of Jewish ghettos caused hunger and poverty, crowding and unsanitary conditions, which in turn actually created typhus epidemics in occupied Poland. German physicians and public health officials in the Nazi regime did not acknowledge this; instead, German medical professionals published essays blaming Jewish people's supposed "low cultural level" and "uncleanliness" for the typhoid epidemics. Posters depicting Jews as lice, which transmit from person to person

7169-403: The full spectrum of political persuasions and parties in Jewish life. It was led by Yitzhak Wittenberg , Josef Glazman , and Kovner. The purposes of the FPO were to establish a means for the self-defence of the ghetto population, to sabotage German industrial and military activities, and to support the broader struggle of partisans and Red Army operatives against German forces. Poet Hirsh Glick ,

7276-438: The ghetto had to have identification papers proving they were not Jewish (none of their grandparents was a member of the Jewish community), such as a baptism certificate. Such documents were sometimes called "Christian" or "Aryan papers". Poland's Catholic clergy massively forged baptism certificates, which were given to Jews by the dominant Polish resistance movement, the Home Army ( Armia Krajowa , or AK). Any Pole found by

7383-410: The ghetto's population from an estimated 40,000 to zero. Only several hundred of the city's pre-war Jewish population managed to survive the war, mostly by hiding in the forests surrounding the city, joining Soviet partisans , or sheltering with sympathetic locals . Before the German-Soviet invasion of Poland in September 1939, Wilno (Vilna in Yiddish) was the capital of the Wilno Voivodship in

7490-508: The ghetto. The move to the ghetto was extremely hurried and difficult, and Jews were not allowed to use transportation, being able to take only what they were physically able to carry. The first Aktion was called the Gelb Schein (yellow pass) Aktion as the Germans delivered 3,000 passes to workers and their families and let 12,000 people on the ghetto. Between 25 and 27 October 1941, 3,781 people who did not have this pass were killed in Ponary . The two-ghetto arrangement made it easier for

7597-417: The head of the Vilnius Gestapo, the ghetto was liquidated on 23–24 September 1943 under the command of Oberscharführer Bruno Kittel . The majority of the remaining residents were sent to the Vaivara concentration camp in Estonia, killed in the forest of Paneriai, or sent to the death camps in German-occupied Poland. A small group of Jews remained in Vilna after the liquidation of the ghetto, primarily at

7704-558: The instance. Some of the contexts in which the term "militia" can apply include: Militia derives from Latin roots: The word militia dates back to ancient Rome, and more recently to at least 1590 when it was recorded in a book by Sir John Smythe, Certain Discourses Military with the meanings: a military force; a body of soldiers and military affairs; a body of military discipline The word Militia comes from ancient Latin, in which it meant defense service, as distinguished from

7811-475: The late 20th century, some militias (in particular officially recognized and sanctioned militias of a government) act as professional forces, while still being "part-time" or "on-call" organizations. For instance, the members of United States National Guard units are considered professional soldiers, as they are trained to the same standards that their "full-time" (active duty) counterparts are. Militias thus can be either military or paramilitary , depending on

7918-676: The leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and forms part of the Chinese armed forces. Under the command of the military organs, it undertakes such jobs as war preparation services, security and defense operational tasks and assistance in maintaining social order and public security. Historically, militias of varying levels of ability have existed in China, organized on a village and clan level, especially during periods of instability and in areas subject to pirate and bandit attack. When

8025-512: The majority of British forces in Canada made the Canadian militia the only major land forces available in Canada. In 1940, both components of the militia, PAM and NPAM were reorganized, the former into Canadian Army (Active) , the latter into the Canadian Army (Reserve) In addition to the various colonial militia units, and the regiments of the Canadian militia, in 1942, the Army's Pacific Command created

8132-549: The middle classes to protect property during the political uncertainty. Its role was as a quasi-military "gendarmerie", with the primary role of maintaining social order within Belgium. Increasingly anachronistic, it was demobilised in 1914 and officially disbanded in 1920, following a disappointing performance during the German invasion of Belgium in World War I. In Brazil, the word milícia

8239-591: The militia-style Designated Reserves. The Danish Home Guard ( Danish : Hjemmeværnet ) (HJV) is the fourth service of the Danish military . It was formerly concerned only with the defence of Danish territory but, since 2008, it has also supported Danish international military efforts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Kosovo. There are five branches: Army Home Guard, Naval Home Guard, Air Force Home Guard, Police Home Guard, and Infrastructure Home Guard. The Omakaitse (Home Guard)

8346-662: The new army throughout the presidential terms of Mitre, Sarmiento , Avellaneda and Roca . Armenian militia, or fedayi played a major role in the independence of various Armenian states, including Western Armenia , the First Republic of Armenia , and the Republic of Artsakh . Armenian militia also played a role in the Georgia-Abkhazia War of 1992–1993. In the Colony of New South Wales , Governor Lachlan Macquarie proposed

8453-512: The perimeter. Within each ghetto, a Jewish Ghetto Police force was created to ensure that no prisoners tried to escape. In general terms, there were three types of ghettos maintained by the Nazi administration. The parts of a city outside the walls of the Jewish Quarter were called "Aryan". For example, in Warsaw , the city was divided into Jewish, Polish, and German Quarters. Those living outside

8560-540: The period of the British rule. Cuba has three militia organizations: The Territorial Troops Militia ( Milicias de Tropas Territoriales ) of about one million people (half women), the Youth Labor Army ( Ejército Juvenil del Trabajo ) devoted to agricultural production, and a naval militia. Formerly, there existed the National Revolutionary Militias ( Milicias Nacionales Revolucionarias ), which

8667-712: The predominantly poorer Jewish quarter in the Vilnius Old Town and force the rest of the more affluent Jewish residents into the new German-envisioned ghetto, the Nazis staged – as a pretext – the Great Provocation incident on 31 August 1941, led by SS Einsatzkommando 9 Oberscharführer Horst Schweinberger under orders from Gebietskommissar of the Vilnius municipality Hans Christian Hingst and Franz Murer , Hingst's deputy for Jewish affairs under "provisional directives" of Reichskommissar Hinrich Lohse . Murer, Hingst, and Vilnius mayor Karolis Dabulevičius selected

8774-464: The purity of Germany's Aryan Herrenrasse ("master race"), and viewed these people and also political opponents of the Nazi party as parasitic vermin or diseases that endangered the overall health of the Volksgemeinschaft , the German racial community. German doctors and public health officials helped advance these racist fearmongering ideas. The German invasion of Poland (Sept. 1, 1939) and

8881-662: The regular army, and left out of the confederation of Canada. From 1853 to 1871, the Colony of Vancouver Island (and the succeeding Colony of British Columbia ) periodically raised and disbanded militia units. These units were raised for specific purposes, or in response to a specific threat, real or perceived. After the Treaty of Washington was signed between the Americans and British, nearly all remaining British soldiers were withdrawn from Canada in November 1871. The departure of

8988-607: The short term, and one of these was to concentrate Jews from the countryside into larger cities, thus making certain areas Judenrein ("clean of Jews"). The first ghetto of World War II was established on 8 October 1939 at Piotrków Trybunalski (38 days after the invasion), with the Tuliszków ghetto established in December 1939. The first large metropolitan ghetto known as the Łódź Ghetto ( Litzmannstadt ) followed them in April 1940, and

9095-575: The site for the future ghetto and staged a distant sniping at German soldiers in front of a cinema, from a window on the corner of Stiklių (Glezer, meaning Szklana in Polish) and Didžioji (Wielka, Great Street in Polish, hence the name for the event) streets, by two Lithuanians in civilian clothes who had broken into an apartment belonging to Jews. The Lithuanians fled the apartment, then returned with awaiting German soldiers, captured two Jews, accused them of firing on

9202-506: The songs that was sung was called "Endurance". The last theatrical production, Der Mabl ( The Flood ), was produced by the Swedish dramatist Henning Berger and opened in the summer of 1943, in the last week of the ghetto's existence. The play, set in an American saloon during a flood, featured a group of people who banded together during a time of danger and need. The Fareynikte Partizaner Organizatsye (FPO), or United Partisan Organization,

9309-575: The supervision of a Captain (Capità or Cap de Sometent) and a Lieutenant (Desener or Lloctinent del Capità). This body was not liable for service outside the principality and was commanded by two officials (veguers) appointed by France and the Bishop of Urgell. In the modern era, the army has consisted of a very small body of volunteers willing to undertake ceremonial duties . Uniforms and weaponry were handed down from generation to generation within families and communities. The army's role in internal security

9416-639: The way for the D-Day Allied Invasion of France. The Resistance militia were opposed by the collaborationist French Militia —the paramilitary police force of the German puppet state of Vichy . Although defunct from 1871 until 2016, the French National Guard has now been reestablished for homeland security purposes. The earliest reports of Germanic militias was the system of hundreds described in AD 98 by

9523-505: The west, minus a small number who managed to flee onward to the Soviet Union. The kidnapping and mass murder of Jews in the city commenced before the ghetto was set up by the advancing German forces, resulting in an execution of approximately 21,000 victims prior to 6 September 1941. The Lithuanian kidnappers were known in Yiddish as hapunes, meaning grabbers or snatchers. In order to pacify

9630-426: The young people of the ghetto. The Ghetto Theatre was a great source of revenue and had a calming effect on the public. A total of 111 performances had been given by January 10, 1943, with a total of 34,804 tickets sold. The theatre was renovated to accommodate a larger audience and be better-looking to public eye. The theatre permitted the inhabitants to display their power through plays and songs; for instance, one of

9737-778: Was a conscription army used during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars . At the time of the Franco-Prussian War , the Parisian National Guard engaged the Prussian Army and later rebelled against the Versailles Army under Marshal McMahon. Under German occupation during World War II, a militia usually called the French Resistance emerged to conduct a guerrilla war of attrition against German forces and prepare

9844-569: Was a paramilitary citizens' militia consisting of hundreds of thousands of mostly former servicemen. Formed by the Prussian Ministry of the Interior on April   15, 1919, to allow citizens to protect themselves from looters, armed gangs, and revolutionaries, the Einwohnerwehr was under the command of the local Reichswehr regiments, which supplied its guns. In 1921, the Berlin government dissolved

9951-437: Was able to rescue him after he was seized in the apartment of Jacob Gens in a fight with Jewish ghetto police. Gens brought in heavies, the leaders of the work brigades, and effectively turned the majority of the population against the resistance members, claiming they were provoking the Germans and asking rhetorically whether it was worth sacrificing tens of thousands for the sake of one man. Ghetto prisoners assembled and demanded

10058-597: Was an organisation formed by the local population of Estonia on the basis of the Estonian Defence League and the forest brothers resistance movement active on the Eastern Front between 3   July 1941 and 17   September 1944. This arrangement was unique in the context of the war as in Latvia , which otherwise shared a common fate with Estonia, there was no organisation of this kind. The People's Militia

10165-633: Was called "Yerushalayim of the Ghettos" because it was known for its intellectual and cultural spirit. Before the war, Vilnius had been known as "Yerushalayim d'Lita" (Yiddish: Jerusalem of Lithuania) for the same reason. The center of cultural life in the ghetto was the Mefitze Haskole Library, which was called the "House of Culture". It contained a library of 45,000 volumes, reading hall, archive, statistical bureau, room for scientific work, museum, book kiosk, post office, and sports ground. Groups, such as

10272-712: Was composed mainly of students in the capital city. After World War I , multiple militias formed as soldiers returned home to their villages , only to find many of them occupied by Slovene and Yugoslav forces. Especially in the southern province of Carinthia the Volkswehr (Peoples Defense Force) was formed, to fight the occupant forces. During the First Republic , similar to the development in Germany , increasing radicalization of politics led to certain paramilitary militias associating with certain political parties . The Heimwehr (German: Home Defense ) became affiliated with

10379-531: Was decimated and lost 254,000, or 95%, of its members during the Nazi occupation of Lithuania. The Green House Museum, a branch of the Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum , reminds visitors of massive collaboration, presenting documents and testimonials. Rachel Kostanian was awarded the Order of Merits from Germany for this achievement in 2021. Joshua Sobol 's 1984 play Ghetto recounts the last days of

10486-561: Was established during the Cold War and still exists, but the members of the militia now are volunteers only. In Bahrain , emergence of a small militia group Katibat al Haydariyah was first seen in 2015. During the year, total four attacks were claimed by the group, including on August 22 and 24, 2015, in Muharraq , on September 10, 2015, in Al Khamis , and on October 9, 2015, on Bahraini forces in

10593-612: Was established in 1975 under the Derg regime's Proclamation No 71, used to assist police forces and protect farms and property. The militia did operations in Eritrea during the Ogaden War , while Mengistu Haile Mariam reconstituted as the "Red Army". The Derg government conscripted about 30,000 to 40,000 civilians into the militia from Shewa , Wollo , and Gojam provinces in May 1976. The Fano militia

10700-614: Was formed after the Cuban Revolution and initially consisted of 200,000 men who helped the 25,000 strong standing army defeat counter-revolutionary guerillas. In 2021, the Czech Parliament passed an Act No. 14/2021 Coll., on the handling of weapons in certain cases affecting the internal order or security of the Czech Republic. The Act's number 14/21 symbolically refers to the 600th anniversary of civilian firearms possession in

10807-506: Was formed on 21 January 1942 in the ghetto. It took for its motto "We will not go like sheep to the slaughter ," proposed by Abba Kovner . This was one of the first resistance organizations established in a Nazi ghetto. Unlike in other ghettos, the resistance movement in the Vilna Ghetto was not run by ghetto officials. Jacob Gens , appointed head of the ghetto by the Nazis but originally chief of police, ostensibly cooperated with German officials in stopping armed struggle. The FPO represented

10914-407: Was known for its distinguished medical tradition, which inmates of the ghetto managed to maintain to some degree during the Holocaust. As with most ghettos established by the Germans, a sign was put right outside in front stating: "Achtung! Seuchengefahr" ("Attention! Danger of Infection"). Mortality rates did, indeed, increase in the Vilna Ghetto as compared with before the war. However, due largely to

11021-790: Was largely taken over by the formation of the Police Corps of Andorra in 1931. Brief civil disorder associated with the elections of 1933 led to assistance being sought from the French National Gendarmerie , with a detachment resident in Andorra for two months under the command of René-Jules Baulard. The Andorran Police was reformed in the following year, with eleven soldiers appointed to supervisory roles. The force consisted of six Corporals , one for each parish (although there are currently seven parishes, there were only six until 1978), plus four junior staff officers to co-ordinate action, and

11128-444: Was murdered in the liquidation of 1943, probably at Paneriai . His diary was discovered in 1944 by his cousin. The Vilna Ghetto was well known for its theatrical productions during World War II. Jacob Gens , the head of Jewish police and the ruler of the Vilna Ghetto, was given the responsibility for the starting of this theatre. Performances included poetry readings by Jewish authors, dramatizations of short stories, and new work by

11235-446: Was predominantly and historically inhabited by Jews. The Nazis split the area into two Jewish quarters (Large Ghetto and Small Ghetto), with a non-ghetto corridor running down Deutschegasse (Niemiecka or Vokiečių) Street. On 6–7 September 1941, the Nazis herded the remaining 20,000 Jews into the two ghettos by evicting them from their homes, during which 3,700 were killed. Converts , " half-Jews " and spouses of Jews were also forced into

11342-604: Was the second largest, holding about 160,000 people. According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum archives, there were at least 1,000 such ghettos in German-occupied and annexed Poland and the Soviet Union alone. Ghettos across Eastern Europe varied in their size, scope and living conditions. The conditions in the ghettos were generally brutal. In Warsaw , the Jews, comprising 30% of

11449-525: Was waged by militias again, as both federalists and unitarians drafted common people into their ranks as part of ongoing conflicts. These irregular armies were organized at a provincial level, and assembled as leagues depending on political pacts. This system had declined by the 1870s, mainly due to the establishment of the modern Argentine Army , drafted for the Paraguayan War by President Bartolomé Mitre . Provincial militias were outlawed and decimated by

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