Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia as occupied by Germany during the Second World War
56°N
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The
Reichskommissariat Ostland
(
RKO
;
lit.
'
Reich Commissariat
of Eastland
'
)
[b]
was established by
Nazi Germany
in 1941 during
World War II
. It became the
civilian occupation regime
in
Lithuania
,
Latvia
,
Estonia
, and the western part of
Byelorussian SSR
. German planning documents initially referred to an equivalent
Reichskommissariat Baltenland
.
[1]
The political organization for this territory ? after an initial period of
military administration
before its establishment ? involved a German civilian administration, nominally under the authority of the
Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories
led by Nazi ideologist
Alfred Rosenberg
, but actually controlled by the Nazi official
Hinrich Lohse
, its appointed
Reichskommissar
.
Germany's main political objectives for the
Reichskommissariat
, as laid out by the Ministry within the framework of
Nazism
's policies for the east established by
Adolf Hitler
, included the
genocide of the Jewish population
, as well as the
Lebensraum
settlement of
ethnic Germans
along with the expulsion of some of the native population and the
Germanization
of the rest of the populace. These policies applied not only to the
Reichskommissariat Ostland
but also to other German-occupied Soviet territories. Through the use of the
Order Police battalions
and
Einsatzgruppen
A and B, with active participation of local auxiliary forces, over a million Jews were killed in the
Reichskommissariat Ostland
.
[2]
The Germanization policies, built on the foundations of the
Generalplan Ost
, would later be carried through by a series of special edicts and guiding principles for the general settlement plans for Ostland.
[3]
In the course of 1943 and 1944, the
Soviet Red Army
gradually recaptured most of the Ostland territory in their advance westwards, but
Wehrmacht
forces held out in the
Courland Pocket
until May 1945. With the
end of World War II in Europe
and the defeat of Germany in 1945, the
Reichskommissariat
ceased to exist.
History
[
edit
]
Planning before the attack on the Soviet Union
[
edit
]
Originally the
Reichsminister
for the Occupied Eastern Territories (
German
:
Reichsminister fur die besetzten Ostgebiete
),
Alfred Rosenberg
envisioned usage of the term
Baltenland
("Baltic Land") before the summer of 1941 for the area that would eventually be known as
Ostland
.
[4]
Otto Brautigam
, a major colleague of Rosenberg at the time, opposed this idea. In a later declaration he alleged that Rosenberg (himself a
Baltic German
), was influenced by his "Baltic friends" in forwarding this initiative, in which a "Baltic
Reichskommissariat
" with the addition of Belarus would be formed, "and with this the White Ruthenians would also be regarded as Balts". A more important additional colleague of Rosenberg,
Georg Leibbrandt
, spoke out against this. He argued that the sympathy of the
Baltic peoples
, who would naturally want the use of their own terminology, could be lost entirely. They would therefore not be won over either as supporters of the German war effort, nor as racially valuable settlers for the region.
After Operation Barbarossa
[
edit
]
After the
German invasion of the Soviet Union
, vast areas were conquered to Germany's east. At first these areas would remain under military occupation by
Wehrmacht
authorities (
Army Group Rear Areas
), but as soon as the military situation allowed it, a more permanent form of administration under German rule for these territories would be instituted.
[5]
Fuhrer
Decree of 17 July 1941 provided for this move. It established "Reichskommissariats" in the east, as administrative units of the
Greater German Reich
. The structure of each
Reichskommissariat
was defined by the same decree. Each of these territories would be led by a German civil governor known as a
Reichskommissar
appointed by Hitler and answerable only to him.
[6]
The official appointed for Ostland was
Hinrich Lohse
, the
Oberprasident
and
Gauleiter
of
Schleswig-Holstein
. Local government in the
Reichskommissariat
was to be organized under a "National Director" (
Reichskomissar
) in Estonia, a "General Director" in Latvia, and a "General Adviser" in Lithuania.
Rosenberg's ministerial authority was, in practice, severely limited. The first reason was that many of the practicalities were determined elsewhere: the
Wehrmacht
and the
SS
managed the military and security aspects,
Fritz Sauckel
as Reich Director of Labour had control over manpower and working areas,
Hermann Goring
and
Albert Speer
had total management of economic aspects in the territories and the
Reich Postal Service
administered the Eastern territories' postal services. These German central government interventions in the affairs of Ostland overriding the appropriate ministries were known as "special administrations" (
Sonderverwaltungen
). Later, from September 1941, the civil administration that had been decreed in the previous July was actually set up. Lohse and
Erich Koch
objected to these breaches of their supposed responsibilities, seeking to administer their territories with the independence and authority of
Gauleiters
. On 1 April 1942, an
arbeitsbereich
(lit. "working sphere", a name for the party cadre organisation outside the Reich proper) was established in the civilian-administered parts of the occupied Soviet territories, whereupon Koch and Lohse gradually ceased communication with Rosenberg, preferring to deal directly with
Adolf Hitler
through
Martin Bormann
and the
Party Chancellery
. In the process they also displaced all other actors including notably the SS, except in Central Belarus where
HSSPF
Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski
had a special command encompassing both military and civil administration territories and engaged in
Nazi security warfare
.
In July 1941, the civil administration was declared in much of the occupied Soviet territories before one had materialised in the field. A power vacuum emerged which the SS filled with its
SS and Police Leadership Structure
, exercising unlimited power over security and policing which it gave up only grudgingly in the autumn when civil administration came into being; indeed
Heinrich Himmler
would use various tactics until as late as 1943 in unsuccessful efforts to regain this power. This partly explains the strained relations between the SS and the civil administration. In Ostland, matters were further complicated by the personality of the local superior SS officer
Friedrich Jeckeln
, attacked by the SS's opponents for his alleged corruption, brutality and mindless foolhardiness.
German plans
[
edit
]
The short-term political objectives for Ostland differed from those for the
Ukraine
, the
Caucasus
or the
Moscow
regions. The
Baltic lands
, which were to be joined together with
Belarus
(to serve as a spacious
hinterland
of the coastal areas), would be organised as one
Germanized
protectorate
prior to union with Germany itself in the near future. Rosenberg said that these lands had a fundamentally "European" character, resulting from 700 years of history under
Swedish
,
Danish
, and
German
rule, and should therefore provide Germany with "
Lebensraum
", an opinion shared by Hitler and other leading Nazis. The Belarusians, however, were considered by the scholars of the
Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories
as "little and weak peasant people" dwelling in "folkish indifference", but also "the most harmless and because of this the least dangerous for us of all the peoples in the Eastern Space" and an ideal object of exploitation.
[7]
Rosenberg suggested that Belarus would be in the future an appropriate reception area of various undesirable population elements from the Baltic part of Ostland and
German-occupied Poland
.
[8]
He also toyed with the idea of turning the country into a huge
nature reserve
.
[8]
The regime planned to encourage the post-war settlement of
Germans
to the region, seeing it as a region traditionally inhabited by Germans (see the
Teutonic Order
and the
Northern Crusades
) that had been overrun by
Slavs
. A similar tactic was used in
Pskov
province during
World War II
, when ethnic Germans and Dutch were resettled from
Romania
. This settlement of Dutch settlers was encouraged by the
Nederlandsche Oost-Compagnie
, a Dutch-German organisation.
[9]
Historical
German
and Germanic-sounding placenames were also retained (or introduced) for many Baltic cities, such as
Reval
(
Tallinn
),
Kauen
(
Kaunas
), and
Dunaburg
(
Daugavpils
), among many others. To underscore the region's planned incorporation into Germany some Nazi ideologists further suggested the future use of the names
Peipusland
for
Estonia
and
Dunaland
for
Latvia
once they had become part of Germany.
[10]
The ancient Russian city of
Novgorod
, the easternmost
foreign trading post
of the
Hanseatic League
, was to be renamed
Holmgard
.
[11]
During the occupation, the Germans also published a "local" German-language newspaper, the
Deutsche Zeitung im Ostland
.
Administrative and territorial organization
[
edit
]
The Reichskommissariat Ostland was sub-divided into four "General Regions" (
Generalbezirke
), namely Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and White Ruthenia (
Belarus
), headed by a
Generalkommissar
. The regions were further divided into "Districts" (
Kreisgebiete
). In the three
Baltic states
their previous counties (Es:
Maakonad
, Lv:
Aprinka
, Lt:
Apskritys
) were also retained as a further sub-division (
Kreise
). The conquered territories further to the east were under
military control
for the entirety of the war. The intention was to include these territories in the anticipated future extension of Ostland. This would have incorporated Ingria (
Ingermannland
), as well as the Smolensk, Pskov, and Novgorod areas into the Reichskommissariat. Estonia's new eastern border was planned to be extent to the Leningrad-Novgorod line, with
Lake Ilmen
and
Volkhov River
forming the new eastern border of the Baltic country, while Latvia was to reach the
Velikiye Luki
region.
[11]
[12]
Belarus was to extend east to include the
Smolensk
region.
[13]
The local administration of the Reichskommissariat Ostland was headed by
Reichskommissar
Hinrich Lohse
. Below him there was an administrative hierarchy: a
Generalkomissar
led each
Generalbezirk
, while
Gebietskommissars
administered
Kreisgebieten
, respectively. The German administrative center for the entire region, as well as the seat of the
Reichskommissar
, was in
Riga
, Latvia.
District seat:
Reval
(Tallinn)
Generalkommissar:
Karl-Siegmund Litzmann
SS and Police Leader
:
Hinrich Moller
(1941?1944);
Walther Schroder
(1944)
Subdivided into seven
Kreisgebiete
:
District seat:
Riga
Generalkommissar
:
Otto-Heinrich Drechsler
SS and Police Leader
:
Walther Schroder
Subdivided into six
Kreisgebiete
:
District seat:
Kauen
(Kaunas).
Generalkommissar
:
Theodor Adrian von Renteln
SS and Police Leader
:
Lucian Wysocki
(1941?1943);
Hermann Harm
(1943?1944);
Kurt Hintze
(1944)
Subdivided into six
Kreisgebiete
:
Set up across the territory of the
Byelorussian SSR
(including
West Belarus
, previously
Wilno
and
Nowogrodek regions
of the
eastern territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union
). On 1 April 1944,
Generalbezirk Weissruthenien
was detached from Reichskommissariat Ostland and was placed directly under the
Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories
.
[14]
[15]
District seat:
Minsk
.
Generalkommissar
:
Wilhelm Kube
(1941?1943);
Curt von Gottberg
(1943?1944)
SS and Police Leader
:
Jakob Sporrenberg
(1941);
Carl Zenner
(1941?1942);
Karl Schafer
(1942);
Curt von Gottberg
(1942?1943);
Erich Ehrlinger
(1943?1944)
Subdivided into eleven Kreisgebiete:
Other authorities
[
edit
]
In March 1943,
Wilhelm Kube
succeeded in installing the
Belarusian Central Council
(a collaborationist puppet regime), which existed concurrently with the German civil administration.
[14]
The military command was controlled by the
Wehrmachtbefehlshaber
Ostland
("Military Commander Ostland"). He was responsible for security within the occupied territories, to protect traffic connections and to record the harvest. These commanders were :
Policies
[
edit
]
Upon taking control,
Hinrich Lohse
proclaimed the official decree ("Verkundungsblatt fur das Ostland") on November 15, 1941, whereby all Soviet state and party properties in the
Baltic
area and
Belarus
were confiscated and transferred to the German administration.
In Ostland, the administration returned lands
nationalised
by the Soviets to the former peasant owners. In towns and cities, small workshops, industries and businesses were returned to their former owners, subject to promises to pay taxes and quotas to the authorities. Jewish properties were confiscated. In Belarus, a state enterprise was established to manage all former Soviet government properties. One of the German administrators was General commissar
Wilhelm Kube
.
Ostgesellschaften
(state monopolies) and so-called
Patenfirmen
, private industrial companies linked to the German government, were quickly appointed to manage confiscated enterprises. The Hermann Goring Workshops,
Mannesmann
,
IG Farben
and
Siemens
assumed control of all former Soviet state enterprises in Ostland and
Ukraine
. An example of this was the takeover, by
Daimler-Benz
and Vomag, of heavy repair workshops, in
Riga
and
Kiev
, for the maintenance of all captured
Russian
T-34
and
KV-1
tanks, linked with their repair workshops in Germany.
In Belarus, the German authorities lamented the "
Jewish-Bolshevik
" policies that had allegedly denied the people knowledge of the basic concepts of private property, ownership, or personal initiative. Unlike the Baltic area, where the authorities saw that "during the war and the occupation's first stages, the population gave examples of sincere collaboration, a way for possibly giving some liberty to autonomous administration".
Economic exploitation
[
edit
]
The Germans viewed the
Slavs
as a pool of slave work labor for use by the German Reich; if necessary they could be worked to death.
Extermination of the Jews in Ostland
[
edit
]
Original map from
Franz Walter Stahlecker
's Report, summarizing murders committed by
Einsatzgruppen
in
Reichskommissariat Ostland
until January 1942.
[16]
The line of text reads: "Estimated number of Jews still on hand is 128,000". Estonia is marked
Judenfrei
.
At the time of the German invasion in June 1941 there were significant Jewish minorities in Ostland — nearly 480,000 people. To these were added deportees from Austria, Germany, and elsewhere.
Jews were confined to
Nazi ghettos
in
Riga
and
Kauen
, which rapidly became overcrowded and squalid. From these they were taken to execution sites.
The Soviet
Red Army
reported the discovery of Vilna and Kauen extermination centres as apparently part of the Nazi "
Final Solution
". The extermination of the resident Jews began almost immediately after the invasion and was later extended to the deportees.
In autumn 1943, the ghettos were "liquidated", and the remaining occupants were moved to camps at
Kaiserwald
and
Stutthof
near
Danzig
or, if not capable of work, killed.
Government figures
[
edit
]
Aside from the German political leaders mentioned above, including Reich Minister
Alfred Rosenberg
, General Commissar
Karl-Siegmund Litzmann
and General Commissar
Wilhelm Kube
, the regional collaborationist structures across
Reichskommissariat Ostland
included Estonian political leaders such as
Hjalmar Mae
,
Oskar Angelus
, Alfred Wendt (or Vendt), Otto Leesment, Hans Saar, Oskar Opik, Arnold Radik,
Johannes Soodla
; Latvian political leaders with
Oskars Dankers
, and
R?dolfs Bangerskis
; Lithuanian political leaders:
Juozas Ambrazevi?ius
, and
Petras Kubili?nas
; as well as the Belarusian nationalist leaders from the
Belarusian Central Council
.
Partisan movement
[
edit
]
German and local security authorities were kept busy by
Soviet partisan
activities in Belarus. They noted that "infected zones" of partisan action included an area of 500 or 600 km
2
, around
Minsk
,
Pinsk
,
Gomel
,
Briansk
,
Smolensk
and
Vitebsk
, including the principal roads and railways in these areas.
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
On 12 July 1933,
Reichsinnenminister
Wilhelm Frick
, the Interior Minister, ordered that the
Horst-Wessel-Lied
be played right after the standing national anthem
Das Lied der Deutschen
, better known as
Deutschland Uber Alles
.
Tummler 2010
, p. 63.
- ^
"Ostland" may be translated less literally as Eastern Country or Eastern Territory, though Ostland has no real equivalence in the English language.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Alex J. Kay (2006).
Guidelines for Special Fields (13 March 1941)
. Berghahn Books. p. 129.
ISBN
1845451864
. Retrieved
2013-06-25
.
In the week following [...] 2 May [1941], Alfred Rosenberg produced three papers relating to his preparations for the future administration in the occupied East. The first, dated 7 May, was entitled 'Instruction for a Reich Commissar in the Ukraine'. [...] The second, produced a day later, was its equivalent for the area of 'Baltenland', as the Baltic States and Belarus were at this stage being collectively referred to. In his drafting of the paper, Rosenberg crossed through 'Balten' and replaced it with 'Ost'. [...] The designation 'Ostland' would stick.
- ^
Pohl, Reinhard (November 1998).
"Reichskommissariat Ostland: Schleswig-Holsteins Kolonie"
[Reichskommissariat Ostland: Schleswig-Holstein's Colony]
(PDF)
.
Gegenwind
. Gegenwind-Sonderheft: Schleswig-Holstein und die Verbrechen der Wehrmacht (in German). Gegenwind, Enough is Enough, and anderes lernen/Heinrich-Boll-Stiftung Schleswig-Holstein. pp. 10?12
. Retrieved
2014-03-27
.
Vom Einmarsch im Juni 1941 bis Ende Januar 1942, der Niederlage vor Moskau, toteten die deutschen Truppen im 'Ostland' etwa 330.000 Juden, 8359 "Kommunisten", 1044 "Partisanen" und 1644 "Geisteskranke". [...] Die erste Totungswelle hatten ungefahr 670.000 Juden uberlebt, dazu kamen im Winter 1941/42 noch 50.000 deportierte Juden aus dem Reichsgebiet, die in die Ghettos von Minsk und Riga kamen. [...] Anfang 1943 begann die zweite große Totungswelle, der mindestens 570.000 Judinnen und Juden zum Opfer fielen. [...] Die letzten 100.000 Juden kamen in Konzentrationslager in Kauen, Riga-Kaiserwald, Klooga und Vaivara, sie wurden 1944 beim Heranrucken der Roten Armee liquidiert. [Translation: From the invasion in June 1941 until the end of January 1942 (the defeat at Moscow) German troops in 'Ostland' killed approximately 330,000 Jews, 8359 'Communists', 1044 'partisans' and 1644 'mentally ill' people. [...] About 670,000 Jews survived the first wave of killings, in the winter of 1941/1942 another 50,000 Jews deported from the Reich area joined these and ended up in the ghettos of Minsk and Riga. [...] At the beginning of 1943 the second great wave of killings began, in which at least 570,000 female and male Jews became victims. [...] The final 100,000 Jews entered the concentration camps in Kauen, Riga-Kaiserwald, Klooga and Vaivara; they were liquidated in 1944 with the advance of the Red Army.]
- ^
Czesław Madajczyk
(Hrsg.):
Vom Generalplan Ost zum Generalsiedlungsplan.
Saur, Munchen 1994, S. XI.
- ^
Alex J. Kay (2006).
Guidelines for Special Fields (13 March 1941)
. Berghahn Books. pp. 70?71.
ISBN
1845451864
. Retrieved
2013-06-25
.
- ^
Rich, Norman. (1973).
Hitler's War Aims: the Nazi State and the Course of Expansion
, page 217. W. W. Norton & Company Inc., New York.
- ^
Nazi Conspriracy and Aggression Volume 4.
The Avalon Project.
Decree of 17 July 1941.
- ^
Rein, L. (2010),
The Kings and the Pawns: Collaboration in Byelorussia During World War II
, p. 89,
ISBN
1-84545-776-5
- ^
a
b
Rein 2010, p. 90-91
- ^
(Dutch) Werkman, Evert; De Keizer, Madelon; Van Setten, Gert Jan (1980).
Dat kan ons niet gebeuren...: het dagelijkse leven in de Tweede Wereldoorlog
, p. 146. De Bezige Bij.
- ^
Lumans, Valdus O. (2006).
Latvia in World War II
,
p. 149
.
Fordham University Press
.
- ^
a
b
Dallin, Alexander (1981).
German rule in Russia, 1941-1945: a study of occupation policies
. Westview. p. 185.
- ^
Raun, Toivo U. (2001).
Estonia and the Estonians
.
Hoover Press
. p.
161
.
ISBN
978-0-8179-2852-0
.
- ^
(German) Dallin, Alexander (1958).
Deutsche Herrschaft in Russland, 1941-1945: Eine Studie uber Besatzungspolitik
, p. 67. Droste Verlag GmbH, Dusseldorf.
- ^
a
b
Dallin (1958), pp. 234-236.
- ^
Jehke, Rolf.
Territoriale Veranderungen in Deutschland und deutsch verwalteten Gebieten 1874 ? 1945: Generalbezirk Weißruthenien
. Herdecke. Last changed on 15 February 2010. Retrieved 13 June 2011.
- ^
Hilberg, Raul
(2003).
The Destruction of the European Jews
. Yale University Press. pp. 1313?1316.
ISBN
0300095929
.
Sources
[
edit
]
- Arnold Toynbee, Veronica Toynbee, et al.,
Hitler's Europe
(Spanish:
La Europa de Hitler
, Ed Vergara, Barcelona, 1958), Section VI: "Occupied lands and Satellite Countries in East Europe", Chapter II: "Ostland", p. 253-259 and footnotes.
- Ostland - Verwaltungskarte
. Herg. vom Reichskommissar f. d. Ostland, Abt. II Raum. Stand der Grenzen vom 1. Nov. 1942 (map, in German)
- Tummler, Holger (2010).
Hitlers Deutschland: Die Machtigen des Dritten Reiches
(in German). Wolfenbuttel: Melchior Verlag.
ISBN
978-3-941555-88-4
.
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[
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]
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