Reichskommissariat Ostland

Coordinates: 56°N 26°E / 56°N 26°E / 56; 26
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Reichskommissariat Ostland
1941–1945
Flag of Reichskommissariat Ostland
Flag
Emblem of Reichskommissariat Ostland
Emblem
Anthems: 
Das Lied der Deutschen
("The Song of the Germans")
Horst-Wessel-Lied [a]
("The Horst Wessel Song")
Reichskommissariat Ostland in 1942
Reichskommissariat Ostland in 1942
StatusReichskommissariat of Germany
CapitalRiga
Common languagesGerman (official)
Religion
GovernmentColony of Nazi Germany
Reichskommissar 
• 1941–1944
Hinrich Lohse
• 1944–1945
Erich Koch
Historical era
Baltic Operation
22 June 1941
• Established
17 July 1941
• Implement civil administration
25 July 1941 at 12:00
5 December 1941
1 April 1944
• Soviet reoccupied Riga
13 October 1944
• Formally dissolved
21 January 1945
• Surrender of Courland Pocket
10 May 1945
Currency Reichskreditkassenscheine
(de facto)
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Byelorussian SSR
Lithuanian SSR
Latvian SSR
Estonian SSR
Byelorussian SSR
Lithuanian SSR
Latvian SSR
Estonian SSR
Today part ofBelarus
Lithuania
Latvia
Estonia

56°N 26°E / 56°N 26°E / 56; 26

The Reichskommissariat Ostland (RKO, "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

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

Planning before the attack on the Soviet Union

Soviet operations, 19 August to 31 December 1944

Originally the Reichsminister for the Occupied Eastern Territories (

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

After the

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]

The German Reich (red), its occupied territories (brown), and its allies (green and brown) in 1942, with Reichskommissariats (brown)

Führer 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 Oberpräsident 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

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

Main articles: Generalplan Ost, Lebensraum, and Wehrbauer

The short-term political objectives for Ostland differed from those for the

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

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 Dünaburg (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 Dünaland 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

Administrative divisions of Reichskommissariat Ostland

The Reichskommissariat Ostland was sub-divided into four "General Regions" (Generalbezirke), namely Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and White Ruthenia (

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.

Generalbezirk Estland (Estonia)

District seat: Reval (Tallinn)

Generalkommissar: Karl-Siegmund Litzmann

SS and Police Leader: Hinrich Möller (1941–1944); Walther Schröder
(1944)

Subdivided into seven Kreisgebiete:

Generalbezirk Lettland (Latvia)

District seat: Riga

Generalkommissar: Otto-Heinrich Drechsler

SS and Police Leader: Walther Schröder

Subdivided into six Kreisgebiete:

Generalbezirk Litauen (Lithuania)

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:

Generalbezirk Weißruthenien (White Ruthenia or Belarus)

Set up across the territory of the

Nowogródek 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 Schäfer (1942); Curt von Gottberg (1942–1943); Erich Ehrlinger
(1943–1944)

Subdivided into eleven Kreisgebiete:

Other authorities

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

Upon taking control, Hinrich Lohse proclaimed the official decree ("Verkündungsblatt für 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 Göring Workshops,

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

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

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.
Main articles:
Holocaust in Russia

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

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

Danzig
or, if not capable of work, killed.

Government figures

See also: Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy

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 Mäe, Oskar Angelus, Alfred Wendt (or Vendt), Otto Leesment, Hans Saar, Oskar Öpik, Arnold Radik, Johannes Soodla; Latvian political leaders with Oskars Dankers, and Rūdolfs Bangerskis; Lithuanian political leaders: Juozas Ambrazevičius, and Petras Kubiliūnas; as well as the Belarusian nationalist leaders from the Belarusian Central Council.

Partisan movement

See also:
Latvian anti-Nazi resistance movement 1941–45, Polish resistance movement in World War II, Resistance in Lithuania during World War II, Jewish partisans, and Operation Ostra Brama

German and local security authorities were kept busy by

Briansk, Smolensk and Vitebsk
, including the principal roads and railways in these areas.

See also

Notes

  1. Das Lied der Deutschen, better known as Deutschland Über Alles.Tümmler 2010
    , p. 63.
  2. ^ "Ostland" may be translated less literally as Eastern Country or Eastern Territory, though Ostland has no real equivalence in the English language.

References

  1. ^ 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. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help
    )
  2. ^ 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-Böll-Stiftung Schleswig-Holstein. pp. 10–12. Retrieved 2014-03-27. Vom Einmarsch im Juni 1941 bis Ende Januar 1942, der Niederlage vor Moskau, töteten die deutschen Truppen im 'Ostland' etwa 330.000 Juden, 8359 "Kommunisten", 1044 "Partisanen" und 1644 "Geisteskranke". [...] Die erste Tötungswelle hatten ungefähr 670.000 Juden überlebt, 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 Tötungswelle, der mindestens 570.000 Jüdinnen und Juden zum Opfer fielen. [...] Die letzten 100.000 Juden kamen in Konzentrationslager in Kauen, Riga-Kaiserwald, Klooga und Vaivara, sie wurden 1944 beim Heranrücken 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.]
  3. ^ Czesław Madajczyk (Hrsg.): Vom Generalplan Ost zum Generalsiedlungsplan. Saur, München 1994, S. XI.
  4. ISBN 1845451864. Retrieved 2013-06-25. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help
    )
  5. ^ Rich, Norman. (1973). Hitler's War Aims: the Nazi State and the Course of Expansion, page 217. W. W. Norton & Company Inc., New York.
  6. ^ Nazi Conspriracy and Aggression Volume 4. The Avalon Project. Decree of 17 July 1941.
  7. ISBN 1-84545-776-5
  8. ^ a b Rein 2010, p. 90-91
  9. ^ (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.
  10. ^ Lumans, Valdus O. (2006). Latvia in World War II, p. 149. Fordham University Press.
  11. ^ a b Dallin, Alexander (1981). German rule in Russia, 1941-1945: a study of occupation policies. Westview. p. 185.
  12. ISBN 978-0-8179-2852-0
    .
  13. ^ (German) Dallin, Alexander (1958). Deutsche Herrschaft in Russland, 1941-1945: Eine Studie über Besatzungspolitik, p. 67. Droste Verlag GmbH, Düsseldorf.
  14. ^ a b Dallin (1958), pp. 234-236.
  15. ^ Jehke, Rolf. Territoriale Veränderungen in Deutschland und deutsch verwalteten Gebieten 1874 – 1945: Generalbezirk Weißruthenien. Herdecke. Last changed on 15 February 2010. Retrieved 13 June 2011.
  16. ISBN 0300095929
    .

Sources

External links
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