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Reichskommissariat Ostland was the German name for the Nazi civil administration of part of the so-called "occupied Eastern territories" of the Third Reich, occupied during World War II. Ostland was the name given to the German occupied territories of the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), Belarus and eastern Poland.

Civil organisation

Ostland was one of the Reichskommissariats established, by a Decree of the Fuhrer dated 17 July 1941, as administrative units of the "Großdeutsches Reich" (Greater Germany). They were subject to Reichsleiter Alfred Rosenberg, Minister für die besetzten Ostgebiete (Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories). The structure of the Reichskommissariats was defined by the same decree.

An instruction for the administrators (the Allgemeine Instruktion für alle Reichskommissar in der besetzten Ostgebieten) of the territories was prepared by Reichsleiter Alfred Rosenberg.

Structure

The Eastern Territories were divided into Reichskommissariats. The local administrator was Der Reichskommissar für das Ostland Hinrich Lohse, Oberpräsident and Gauleiter of Schleswig-Holstein.

Reichskommissariat Ostland was sub-divided into four "General Regions" (Generalbezirk). Estland, Lettland and Litauen were divided into Districts (Kreisgebiete) which were grouped into Main Districts (Hauptgebiete) with local administration based in Riga".

Generalbezirk Estland (Estonia)
Capital Reval (Tallinn), Gebietskommissariate in Arensburg (Kuressaare), Dorpat (Tartu), Pernau (Pärnu), Petschur (Pechory), and Wesenberg (Rakvere).

Generalbezirk Lettland (Latvia)
Capital Riga, Gebietskommissariate in Dünaburg (Daugavpils), Libau (Liepāja), Mitau (Jelgava), Riga and Wolmar (Valmiera).

Generalbezirk Litauen (Lithuania)
Capital Kauen (Kaunas), Gebietskommissariate in Kauen (Kaunas), Ponewesch (Panevėžys), Schaulen (Šiauliai) and Wilna (Vilnius).

Generalbezirk Weißruthenien (Belarus)
Capital Minsk, subdivided into Hauptgebieten:
  • Hauptgebiete der Minsk (Minsk)
  • Hauptgebiete der Mogilew (Mogilev)
  • Hauptgebiete der Witebsk (Vitebsk)
  • Hauptgebiete der Smolensk (Smolensk

Gebietskommissariate in Baranowitsche (Baranavičy), Ganzewitchi (Hancavičy), Lida, Ludokoje, Minsk, Nowogródek (Navahradak), Slonim, Sluzk (Słucak) and Wilejka (Vileyka).

At first, Generalbezirk Weißruthenien included Nowogródek and Polesia (in northern Ukraine) and Smolensk (in Russia), as well as all Belarus. In 1942, German civil authority was extended to Minsk, Sluzk and Borisov, leaving the rest of Belarus under military control.

Administration

Reichskommissariat Ostland local administration was overseen by Reichskomissar Hinrich Lohse. A Generalkomissar led each Generalbezirke, a Gebietskomissar managed the administration in Kreigsbiete and a Hauptkommissar in Hauptgenbiete.

Local administration was organized as: "National Director" in Estonia, "General Director" in Latvia and "General Adviser" in Lithuania.

Rosenberg's ministerial authority was severely diminished because the Wehrmacht and Gestapo managed the military and security aspects, Saukel had control over manpower and working areas, Hermann Göring and Albert Speer had total management of economic aspects in the territories, and Reich postal service administered the East territories' postal services. These German central government interventions in the affairs of Ostland, over-riding the appropriate ministries was known as "Sonderverwaltungen" (special administration).

The local police forces in Estonia and Latvia were controlled by the Gestapo, under the authority of Heinrich Himmler.

During the occupation, the Germans published a "local" German language newspaper, the "Deutsche Zeitung im Ostland".

State property

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 confiscated 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 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, Mannesmann, IG Farben and Siemens assumed control of all former Soviet state enterprises in Ostland and the Ukraine. An example of this was the takeover, by Daimler-Benz and Wumag, 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" extremist policies that had denied the people knowledge of the basic concepts of private property, ownership, or personal initiative. Unlike the Baltic area, 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".

Exploitation

According to Schwerin von Krosigk, the Reich Minister of Finances, until February 1944, Reich Government receiving in concept of occupation costs and taxes (in million of RM) 753,6 RM. The German Ministry of East Affairs required Lohse and the Reichskommissar in the Ukraine to deliver immediately slave labour from the occupied territories to Germany: 380,000 farm workers and 247,000 industrial workers.

The Germans viewed Slavs as a pool of slave work labour for use by the German Reich; if necessary they could be worked to death.

German settlement

The political objectives, as defined by Alfred Rosenberg, were the removal of the Großrussische (Great Russian) threat to the Reich for the next centuries. The long-term plans for Ostland differed from those for Ukraine, Caucasus or Moskau (Moscow) region. The Baltic lands were to be organised as one "Germanised" Protectorate, prior to union with Germany. Rosenberg said that these lands had a "European" character, resulting from 700 years of history and should provide "Lebensraum". There was also a need to establish a buffer against Bolshevik ideology. This could be achieved by the racial assimilation of the Baltic population and "White Russia" (Belarus) into a unified population.

The regime planned to encourage post-war settlement of Germans to the region, seeing it as a region traditionally inhabited by Germans (see the Teutonic Order) that had been overrun. In Pskov province ethnic Germans were resettled from Romania with some Dutch. The settlement of Dutch settlers was encouraged by the "Nederlandsche Oost-Compagnie" a Dutch-German organisation.

Conquered territories further to the east were under military control for the entirety of the war.

Jews

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 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, at Vilna and Kauen, of extermination centres, 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. Fort IX at Kaunas (Kovno or Kauen) in Lithuania was a particularly notorious place of execution, where Lithuanian volunteers performed the killings under the control of Einsatzkommando 3.

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.

Partisans

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 km², around Minsk, Pinsk, Gomel, Briansk, Smolensk and Vitebsk, including the principal roads and railways in these areas.

German political leaders related with Baltic cause

Baltic nationalist and political leaders

Estonian political leaders

Latvian political leaders

Lithuanian political leaders

Belarusian nationalist and political leaders

See also

Sources

  • Arnold Toynbee, Veronica Toynbee, et. al.,"Hitler's Europe" (spanish tr."La Europa de Hitler", Ed Vergara, Barcelona, Esp, 1958), Section VI "Occupied lands and Satellite Countries in East Europe", Chapter II:Ostland, P.253-259.
  • Ostland Footnotes: P.253-259.

See also

External links

Military history of Germany during World War II | Military history of the Soviet Union during World War II | World War II national military histories | World War II occupied territories | World War II politics

Reichskommissariat Ostland | Ostland | Ostlandas | Ostland | Остланд (рейхскомиссариат)

 

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