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.
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.
| Name | Location | Date of establishment in exile | Date of dissolution or return | State controlling its claimed territory | Notes | Leaders | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 1941 | May 1945 | 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 Office) was home to both the monarchist Austrian League and liberal Austrian Democratic Union.[2] Though not officially recognised by the Allies, the British Government gave its support. | Austrian Democratic Union and Austrian League | ||||
| October 1940 | September 1944 | 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. The government in exile, without the king, continued to administer the Belgian Congo and coordinate the Free Belgian Forces and Belgian Resistance. | Prime Minister Hubert Pierlot | ||||
| May 1942 | October 1945 | 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. | Governor Reginald Dorman-Smith | ||||
| October 1939 | April 1945 | , , | A few months after the breakup of Czechoslovakia, former President Beneš organized a committee in exile and sought recognition as the government of the Czechoslovak Republic, absorbing its remaining embassies. Its success in obtaining intelligence and coordinating actions by the Resistance led Britain and the other Allies to recognize it in 1941. |
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| September 1943 | May 1945 |  Occupation government of Denmark (1940–43)(1943–45) | During the Occupation of Denmark the country did not establish a government in exile.[3] King Christian and his government remained in Denmark and operated with relative independence until August 1943. The Freedom Council was an unrecognized group that coordinated the Danish resistance movement. From 1941, Ambassador Henrik Kauffmann engaged in diplomacy with the Allies on Denmark's behalf without regard for the occupation government in Copenhagen. | ||||
| 1 October 1945 | 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. | Acting Governor-General Hubertus van Mook[4] | ||||
| 18 June 1940 | 25 August 1944 | , , | De Gaulle called for resistance in France and its colonies in the Appeal of 18 June. The government organized the French Resistance, gathered military forces, and gradually took control of French colonies around the world. In 1944, it became the Provisional Government of the French Republic. | Charles de Gaulle, Henri Giraud, French Committee of National Liberation (from 1943) | |||
| 24 May 1941 | 17 October 1944 | , , | 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. |
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| 1940 | 1944 | 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. |
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| 10 May 1940 | 5 May 1945 | Besides supporting the Dutch resistance, the government attempted to maintain Allied control of the Netherlands' colonies. It agreed to place the Dutch Caribbean and Guiana under UK and US protection, but lost the East Indies to Japanese occupation. | |||||
| 7 June 1940 | 31 May 1945 | Governed the Free Norwegian forces throughout the war. |
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| January 1942 | October 1944 | , | 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. | President:
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| 17/30 September 1939 | 22 December 1990 | , | The Polish Government never formally surrendered to the Nazis or USSR. It organized the Polish Armed Forces in the West and coordinated the Polish Underground State and Home Army. It remained active in exile during the war as well after the Polish People's Republic took power. It lost the recognition of the major Allied powers in July 1945 and its last international recognition in 1972 but continued until the Fall of Communism in Poland in 1989–90. |
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| 1942 | 1945 |  Phibun-era Thailand, | 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. | Seni Pramoj | |||
| 21 June 1941 | March 1945 | , , , , | 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.
| Name | Location | Date of establishment in exile | Date of dissolution or return | State/entity claiming the controlled territory | Leaders | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1944 | April 1995 | Soviet Union (Byelorussian SSR) | Members of the puppet administration were evacuated with the retreating Germans, where they resumed the work as a "government in exile". | ||||
| 16 September 1944 | 10 May 1945 | Kingdom of Bulgaria (Fatherland Front) | Formed after the 1944 Bulgarian coup d'état brought socialists to power in Bulgaria, the government raised the 1st Bulgarian Regiment of the SS. | ||||
| Sigmaringen Governmental Commission (Vichy France) | 7 September 1944 | 23 April 1945 | 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.[5] | ||||
| September 1944 | April 1945 | After the liberation of Greece, a new collaborationist government was established in Vienna from former collaborationist ministers, headed by the former minister Ektor Tsironikos. They were captured during the Vienna offensive.[6] [7] [8] | |||||
| Government of National Unity (Hungary) | 28/29 March 1945 | 7 May 1945 | The Szálasi government fled in the face of the Soviet advance through Hungary. Most of its leaders were arrested in the following months. | ||||
| 21 October 1943 | 18 August 1945 | 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. | |||||
| Summer of 1944 | 8 May 1945 | 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. | |||||
| 11 June 1945 | 17 August 1945 | After the Allies liberated the archipelago and reestablished the Commonwealth of the Philippines, the Second Philippine Republic went into exile in Japan.[9] [10] [11] | |||||
| August 1944 | 8 May 1945 | 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.[12] | |||||
| Government of National Salvation (Serbia) | 4 October 1944 | 1945 | 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.[13] 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.[14] | ||||
| Kremsmünster, Austria | 4 April 1945 | 8 May 1945 | 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. |
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.
| Name | Location | Date of establishment in exile | Date of dissolution or return | State controlling its claimed territory | Leaders | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1940 | 1991 |
| Johannes Kaiv (1940–1965) | 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. | |||
| 1944 (unofficial), 1953 (official) | 1992 | 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. | ||||
| 1940 | 1991 |
| 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.[15] The exiled diplomatic service continued after Latvia was annexed. | ||||
 Supreme Committee for the Liberation of Lithuania (VLIK) | 1944 | 1992 |
| 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.[16] In 1955, it moved to New York City. |
These exiled regimes were operating at the start of World War II and involved themselves in the conflict to varying degrees.
| Name | Location | Date of establishment in exile | Date of dissolution or return | State controlling its claimed territory | Leaders | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 1939 | 2 January 1946 | , | 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.[17] Zog's hopes of returning were dashed when the Albanian Partisans set up a communist government. He abdicated in 1946.[18] | ||||
| 1919 | Extant today |
| President:
| The Belarusian People's Republic was formed in 1918 and its Rada went into exile in 1919 during the Polish–Soviet War. The Rada opposed the Belarusian Central Council, which collaborated with the German occupation. It left Prague when Soviet forces approached the city. The Rada is based in Toronto, the oldest current government in exile.[19] [20] | |||
| 2 May 1936 | 18 January 1941 |
| 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. | ||||
| 18 March 1921 | 5 June 1954 | 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 community in France and continued to act in this role under Nazi occupation.[21] | |||||
| 13 April 1919 | 15 August 1948 | President:
| The KPG formed the Korean Liberation Army in 1940, which fought in the Asia-Pacific Theatre.[22] After a period of American occupation, the KPG's first President (in 1919–23) Syngman Rhee became the president of the First Republic of South Korea. | ||||
| 1923 | Extant today | The Qajar dynasty went into exile in 1923. They continue to claim the Iranian throne. During the war, Fereydoun Qajar's cousin and heir Hamid Mirza served in the British Royal Navy aboard HMS Duke of York and HMS Wild Goose. | |||||
| 4 April 1939 | 1 July 1977 | President:
| 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. After the war, the government returned to Paris and operated until Franco's death and the Spanish transition to democracy. | ||||
| 12 November 1920 | 22 August 1992 |
| The government was organized after the Soviet occupation of Ukraine during the Russian Civil War. During the German occupation of Poland, the government was for the most part inactive. Livytski was interned by Germany but later was involved in Pavlo Shandruk's formation of the Ukrainian National Army, which fought under Nazi Germany.[23] |
United States
