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The German Occupation Medals were a series of awards, also known as the "Flower War medals", created to commemorate the successive annexations by Nazi Germany of neighbouring countries and regions with large ethnic German populations. These comprised Austria (March 1938), the Sudetenland (October 1938) and Memel (March 1939).
On 23 March the occupation of the city and district was carried out by German Army troops. This area of East Prussia, with 160,000 inhabitants, had been turned over to Lithuania in the aftermath of World War I. [1] To commemorate the occupation, the "Memel Medal" was authorized on 1 May 1939. It was awarded until 31 December 1940.
In a similar manner, the 1939 German ultimatum to Lithuania, leading to the annexation of Memel from the Republic, was glorified as Hitler's "latest stage in the progress of history". [ 7 ] Part of a series on
Adolf Hitler greeted by cheering crowds in Vienna, following the annexation of Austria into the III Reich, 15 March 1938 Execution of local Polish people in the town of Kórnik, after the German invasion of Poland, 20 October 1939 Clockwise from the north: Memel, Danzig, Polish territories, General Government, Sudetenland, Bohemia-Moravia, Ostmark (), Northern Slovenia, Adriatic littoral ...
German warships in the port of Klaipėda the day after the ultimatum was accepted. Before the treaty was signed, German soldiers had already entered the port of Klaipėda. Adolf Hitler, arriving on board the cruiser Deutschland, personally toured the city and gave a short speech.
Refugees moving westwards in 1945. During the later stages of World War II and the post-war period, Germans and Volksdeutsche fled and were expelled from various Eastern and Central European countries, including Czechoslovakia, and from the former German provinces of Lower and Upper Silesia, East Prussia, and the eastern parts of Brandenburg and Pomerania (Hinterpommern), which were annexed by ...
The West German government authorized its release in 1986, and a summary of the findings was published in 1987 by the German scholar de:Gert von Pistohlkors. [54] According to the West German search service, the civilian population of East Prussia (including Memel) before the flight and expulsions was 2,328,947. [9]
After Nazi Germany took over the area in 1939, many Lithuanians and their organizations began leaving Memel and the surrounding area. Memel was quickly turned into a fortified naval base by the Germans. After the failure of the German invasion of the USSR the fate of East Prussia and Memel was sealed. By October 1944, the inhabitants of the ...