Many countries established governments in exile during World War II. The Second World War caused many governments to lose sovereignty as their territories came under occupation by enemy powers. Governments in exile sympathetic to the Allied or Axis powers were established away from the fighting.
Allied-aligned wartime governments
Many European governments relocated to London during the period of Axis occupation, while other organizations were established in Australia and the United States to oppose occupation by Japan. The following list includes exiled colonial governments alongside those of sovereign nations, as well as resistance groups organized abroad that did not claim the full sovereignty of a government in exile.
There was never an Austrian government-in-exile after the Anschluss, but London was the home of a 30,000-strong exile community.[1] The Austrian Society, or "Austrian Office", was home to both the monarchist Austrian League and liberal Austrian Democratic Union.[2] Though not officially recognised by the Allies, they were given support, especially the monarchists, by the British government.
Belgium's King Leopold III surrendered alongside his army – contrary to the advice of his government – and remained a prisoner for the rest of the war.[3] The government in exile, without the king, continued to administer the Belgian Congo and coordinate the Free Belgian Forces and Belgian Resistance.
Dorman-Smith was appointed as the 2nd Governor of Burma from 6 May 1941, so was in office when the Japanese conquered most of the colony. Between May 1942 and Oct 1945 he was in exile at Simla, India.
A few months after the breakup of Czechoslovakia, former President Beneš organized a committee in exile and sought diplomatic recognition as the legitimate government of the First Czechoslovak Republic, absorbing the remaining Czechoslovak embassies. The government's success in obtaining intelligence and coordinating actions by the Czechoslovak resistance led first Britain and then the other Allies to recognize it in 1941.
During the Occupation of Denmark the country did not establish a government in exile.[4]King Christian and his government remained in Denmark and operated with relative independence until August 1943 when it was dissolved. The Freedom Council was an unrecognized group that coordinated the Danish resistance movement. In addition, from 1941 Ambassador Henrik Kauffmann engaged in diplomacy with the Allies on Denmark's behalf without regard for the occupation government in Copenhagen.
In 1944, the government in exile and the Allied high command organized the Netherlands Indies Civil Administration, tasked with restoring Dutch rule in the islands.
The exiled royal government was recognized internationally and by the Greek Resistance early in the war. It heavily depended on Britain. In 1944, leftist resistance groups set up Free Greece as a rival government. These governments agreed to merge at the Lebanon Conference.
Grand Duchess Charlotte and the grand ducal family moved to Montreal. The government in London directed its diplomatic efforts toward assuring the country's survival and recognition as a full member of the Allies, despite its weak military capability.[3]
Moving from Melbourne to Washington in 1944, the Quezon government participated in the Pacific War Council alongside other Allied powers. The Philippine Commonwealth Army re-took the islands alongside American forces.
Seni Pramoj, the Thai ambassador to the US, refused to deliver his country's declaration of war in January 1942. He organized the Free Thai Movement with American assistance, recruiting Thai students in the United States for underground resistance activities.
The royalist government supported the Chetniks in their resistance to Axis occupation, but the anti-royalist Communist-led Yugoslav Partisans gained strength over the course of the war. In the Tito–Šubašić Agreements of June 1944, the Partisans and the government in exile agreed to merge their governments. Tito was victorious after the end of the occupation, and the monarchy was not restored.
The Axis powers hosted governments-in-exile in their territory. Most belonged to Axis-sponsored puppet regimes whose territory came under Allied occupation late in the war. The purpose of many of these organizations was to recruit and organize military units composed of their nationals in the host country.
Members of the collaborationist French cabinet at Vichy were relocated by the Germans to the Sigmaringen enclave in Germany, where they became a government-in-exile until April 1945. They were given formal governmental power over the city of Sigmaringen, and the three Axis governments – Germany, Italy and Japan – established there what were officially their Embassies to France. Pétain having refused to take part in this, it was headed by de Brinon.[6]
Azad Hind was established as a provisional government of India that would fight for independence from the British Raj. The government was given control of Japanese-occupied territory in far eastern India and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It issued currency notes and established bilateral relationships with anti-British countries. Its military was Azad Hind Fauj, or the Indian National Army.
After the Germans withdrew from Montenegro, the fascist leader Sekula Drljević created a government-in-exile in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH). He set up the Montenegrin National Army together with the Croatian fascist leader Ante Pavelić. However, his government was dissolved after the fall of the NDH.
Germany had imprisoned Horia Sima and other members of the Iron Guard following the Legionnaires' rebellion of 1941. In 1944, King Michael's Coup brought a pro-Allied government to power in Romania. In response Germany released Sima to establish a pro-Axis government in exile.[13]
With the onset of the Belgrade Offensive by the Red Army and the Partisans, the collaborationist government was evacuated from Serbia to Kitzbühel, Austria in October 1944.[14] There, the Nedić administration continued to hold sessions and tried to raise a new army to fight Tito's partisans, though the plan failed due to the Germans wanting the troops to fight on other, more important fronts, which Nedić refused. After that the Germans dismissed him.[15]
The government of the Slovak Republic went into exile on 4 April 1945 when the Red Army captured Bratislava. The exiled government capitulated to the American General Walton Walker on 8 May 1945; they were handed over to Czechoslovak authorities.
Governments of the Baltic States
In the aftermath of the occupation of the Baltic states by the Soviet Union, all three republics established some form of government in exile. These organizations persisted after the war as the territories were annexed to the USSR. They played a role in maintaining the State continuity of the Baltic states during the period of Soviet control.
Most Estonian diplomats refused to return home after the Soviet takeover. They remained in their posts in countries that recognized the republic's independence. The Estonian Diplomatic Service and the Estonian government-in-exile never officially recognized each other, though some officials served in both. The consulate-general in New York City remained active until 1991, since which time it has represented the independent Republic of Estonia.
Prime Minister in duties of the President: Jüri Uluots (1944–1945) August Rei (1945–1963)
In September 1944, between the German retreat and Soviet advance, acting President Uluots appointed Tief as Prime Minister and asked him to form a government. On 22 September the government fled. When Uluots died, August Rei became the Prime Minister in the duties of the President. Rei was supported by the surviving members of the Tief government in Sweden. He declared an official government in exile in 1953 in Oslo which continued to operate until 8 October 1992.
One month before the Soviet occupation, Latvia's Cabinet of Ministers gave Zariņš, Ambassador to the United Kingdom, the power to supervise Latvia's foreign representations. This created a basis for a diplomatic service in the absence of an independent government in Latvia.[16] The exiled diplomatic service continued after Latvia was annexed.
VLIK was established to be an underground government during the German occupation of Lithuania. In 1944, when the Soviets advanced during the Baltic Offensive, most VLIK members fled to Germany. The committee tried to position itself as a Lithuanian government in exile, but it was never recognized by any foreign country.[17] In 1955, it moved to New York City.
Governments already in exile at the start of the war
These exiled regimes were operating at the start of World War II and involved themselves in the conflict to varying degrees.
King Zog fled the Italian invasion of Albania. The Albanian parliament voted to unite the country with Italy, giving the crown to Victor Emmanuel III. The Allies saw Zog as corrupt and unreliable and refused him recognition or cooperation.[3] Zog's hopes of returning were dashed when the Albanian Partisans set up a communist government. He abdicated in 1946.[18]
The Emperor went into exile on 2 May 1936 during the Italian invasion of Ethiopia and soon settled in England. He coordinated with the Allies and joined the East African Campaign. In 1941, he returned to Ethiopia alongside British forces.
Formed after the Soviet invasion of Georgia of 1921, the government had lost diplomatic recognition by France and the League of Nations in 1933. Zhordania remained the acknowledged leader of the Georgian émigrés community in France and continued to act in this role under Nazi occupation.[21]
Created after Francisco Franco's coup d'état, the exiled government was first based in Paris but moved to Mexico City after the fall of France. The Allies largely ignored it to avoid provoking Franco into joining the Axis.[3] After the war, the government returned to Paris and operated until Franco's death and the Spanish transition to democracy.
^Marietta Bearman. Out of Austria: The Austrian Centre in London in World War II. London: Tauris Academic Studies, 2008. ISBN9781441600073. "The Austrian Centre was established in London in 1939 by Austrians seeking refuge from Nazi Germany, of whom 30,000 had reached Britain by the outbreak of World War II. It soon developed into a comprehensive social, cultural and political organisation with a theatre and a weekly newspaper of its ".
^Marietta Bearman. Out of Austria: The Austrian Centre in London in World War II. London: Tauris Academic Studies, 2008. ISBN9781441600073. "143 Seven Sisters Road, notably, was the address of the Austrian Centre's Finsbury Park branch. This ties in neatly with a minute in a Home Office file from early 1947, referring to British security reports on the ..."
^Lockwood, R. (1975). Black Armada and the Struggle for Indonesian Independence, 1942–49. Australasian Book Society Ltd., Sydney, Australia. ISBN9 09916 68 3
^Jose, Ricardo. "Governments in Exile"(PDF). University of the Philippines. Archived from the original(PDF) on 10 October 2014. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
^"Horia Sima Vol. 1_0062"(PDF). Central Intelligence Agency. 19 July 1945. Archived from the original(PDF) on 23 January 2017. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
^Kroener, Bernard R.; Müller, Rolf-Dieter; Umbreit, Hans, eds. (2000). Germany and the Second World War, Volume 5: Organization and Mobilization of the German Sphere of Power. Part I. Wartime Administration, Economy, and Manpower Resources 1939-1941. Vol. 5. New York, New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 40–41. ISBN978-0-19-822887-5.
^[1], Filip Rudic, Balkan Transitional Justice, March 25, 2018