When the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, they were greeted as liberators in the Baltics and the Ukraine. Huge swaths of the population were willing to work with them, but the Germans never took advantage of this. In fact, they alienated the locals with their austerity policys, repression of nationalist groups, and vicious anti-partisan sweeps. The Nazis should have made a greater effort to set up puppet governments in the East that would generate popular support and help them in their war effort.