Nazi Ukraine

The ''Reichskommissariat Ukraine'' (RKU; ) was an administrative entity of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories of Nazi Germany from 1941 to 1944. It served as the German civilian occupation regime in the Ukrainian SSR, and parts of the Byelorussian SSR, Russian SFSR, and eastern Poland during the Eastern Front of World War II.

''Ukraine'' was established after the early success of the ''Wehrmacht''s Operation Barbarossa from territory under the military administration of Army Group South Rear Area. The German civil administration was based in Rovno (Rivne) with Erich Koch serving as the only ''Reichskommissar'' during its existence. ''Ukraine'' was part of the Generalplan Ost which included the genocide of the Jewish population, the expulsion and murder of some of the native non-Jewish population, the settlement of Germanic peoples, and the Germanization of the rest. The SS and their ''Einsatzgruppen'', with active participation of the Order Police battalions and Ukrainian collaborators. Slavica Publishers. It is estimated 900,000 to 1.6 million Jews and 3 to 4 million non-Jewish Ukrainians were killed during the occupation; other sources estimate that 5.2 million Ukrainian civilians (of all ethnic groups) perished due to crimes against humanity, war-related disease, and famine amounting to more than 12% of Ukraine's population at the time.

In the course of 1943 and 1944, the Red Army recaptured most of ''Ukraine'' in their advance westwards. Koch was appointed ''Reichskommissar'' of ''Reichskommissariat Ostland'' in August 1944 and it was formally dissolved on 10 November 1944.

History

On 22 June 1941, Nazi Germany launched Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union in breach of the mutual Treaty of Non-Aggression. In anticipation of the invasion, Adolf Hitler had tasked Alfred Rosenburg with preparing the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories (''Ostministerium'') to oversee administration of the Soviet territories conquered by the ''Wehrmacht''.

On 17 July 1941, Hitler issued a Führer decree defining the administration of the newly-occupied Eastern territories.

On 20 August, Hitler established the ''Reichskommissariat Ukraine'' and appointed Erich Koch, the ''Gauleiter'' of East Prussia, as its ''Reichskommissar''. On the same day, Hitler announced that the region would be under civil administration from noon on 1 September and delineated the boundaries of the region.Berkhoff, p. 36.

In the mind of Hitler and other German expansionists, the destruction of the Soviet Union, dubbed a "Judeo-Bolshevist" state, would remove a threat from Germany's eastern borders and allow for the colonization of the vast territories of Eastern Europe under the banner of ''Lebensraum'' for the fulfilment of the material needs of the Germanic people. Ideological declarations about the German ''Herrenvolk'' (master race) having a right to expand their territory especially in the East were widely spread among the German public and Nazi officials of various ranks. Later on, in 1943, Koch said about his mission: "We are a master race, which must remember that the lowliest German worker is racially and biologically a thousand times more valuable than the population here."

On 14 December 1941, Rosenberg discussed with Hitler various administrative issues regarding the ''Reichskommissariat Ukraine''.

On 28 July 1944, the Red Army occupied the last part of the ''Reichskommissariat Ukraine'' in Brest, though it continued to exist as a legal entity. In August 1944, Koch was transferred to ''Reichskommissariat Ostland'' when its ''Reichskommissar'' Hinrich Lohse fled the territory without permission due to the Red Army advance. ''Reichskommissariat Ukraine'' was officially dissolved on 10 November 1944.

Geography

The ''Reichskommissariat Ukraine'' excluded several parts of present-day Ukraine, and included some territories outside of its modern borders. It extended in the west from the Volhynia region around Lutsk, to a line from Vinnytsia to Mykolaiv along the Southern Bug river in the south, to the areas surrounding Kiev, Poltava and Zaporozhye in the east. Conquered territories further to the east, including the rest of Ukraine (Crimea, Chernigov, Kharkov, and the Donets Basin), were under military governance until the German withdrawal 1943–44.Berkhoff, pp. 299ff.

Eastern Galicia was transferred to the control of the General Government following a Hitler decree, becoming its fifth district, (District of Galicia).

It also encompassed several southern parts of today's Belarus, including Polesia, a large area to the north of the Pripyat River with forests and marshes, as well as the city of Brest-Litovsk, and the towns of Pinsk and Mozyr.Berkhoff, Karel C. (2004). ''Harvest of despair: life and death in Ukraine under Nazi rule'', p. 37. President and Fellows of Harvard College. This was done by the Germans in order to secure a steady wood supply and efficient railroad and water transportation.

Administration

Political figures related to the German administration of Ukraine

* Alfred Rosenberg, Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories
** Georg Leibbrandt, Eastern Ministry
** Otto Bräutigam, Eastern Ministry
* ''Reichskommissar'' of Ukraine, Erich Koch
** Alfred Eduard Frauenfeld, Generalkommissar for Generalbezirk Krim-Taurien
** Kurt Klemm, Generalkommissar for Generalbezirk Shitomir (October 1941 – October 1942)
** Ernst Ludwig Leyser, Generalkommissar for Generalbezirk Shitomir (October 1942 – October 1943)
** Helmut Quitzrau, Generalkommissar for Generalbezirk Kiev (September 1941 – February 1942)
** Waldemar Magunia, Generalkommissar for Generalbezirk Kiev (February 1942 – 1944)
** Ewald Oppermann, Generalkommissar for Generalbezirk Nikolajev
** Heinrich Schoene, Generalkommissar for Generalbezirk Wolhynien-Podolien (September 1941 – February 1944)
** Claus Selzner, Generalkommissar for Generalbezirk Dnepropetrowsk (September 1941 – June 1944)
* Karl Stumpp, ethnographer and leader of the ''SS Sonderkommando Dr Karl Stumpp''

Military commanders linked with the German administration of Ukraine

* Wehrmachtsbefehlshaber Ukraine (WBU)
** Generalleutnant d.R. Waldemar Henrici (until October 1942)
** General der Flieger Karl Kitzinger (from October 1942)
* Höherer SS- und Polizeiführer Southern Russia ( HSSPF Russland-Süd)
** SS-Obergruppenführer Friedrich Jeckeln (June–October 1941)
** SS-Obergruppenführer Hans-Adolf Prützmann (October 1941 – 1944; from October 1943 also Höchster SS- und Polizeiführer (HöSSPF) Ukraine)
* Höherer SS- und Polizeiführer Black Sea ( HSSPF Schwarzes Meer)
** SS-Gruppenführer Ludolf-Hermann von Alvensleben (October–December 1943)
** SS-Obergruppenführer Richard Hildebrandt (December 1943 – August 1944)
* SS-Gruppenführer Adolf von Bomhard, head of police
* SS-Gruppenführer Walter Schimana, commander of the SS Division Galicia
* SS-Brigadeführer Fritz Freitag, commander of the SS Division Galicia

Administrative divisions

The administrative capital of the ''Reichskommissariat'' was Rovno, and it was divided into six ''Generalbezirke'' (general districts), called ''Generalkommissariate'' (general commissariats) in the pre-Barbarossa planning. This administrative structure was in turn subdivided into 114 ''Kreisgebiete'', and further into 443 ''Parteien''.

Each ''Generalbezirk'' was administered by a ''Generalkommissar''; each ''Kreisgebiete'' "circular .e., districtarea" was led by a ''Gebietskommissar'' and each ''Partei'' "party" was governed by a Ukrainian or German "Parteien Chef" ( Party Chief). At the level below were German or Ukrainian ''Akademiker'' ("Academics" – i.e., District Chiefs) (similar to Polish " Wojts" in the General Government). At the same time at a smaller scale, the local Municipalities were administered by native "Bailiffs" and "Mayors", accompanied by respective German political advisers if needed. In the most important areas, or where a German Army detachment remained, the local administration was always led by a German; in less significant areas local personnel was in charge.

The six general districts were (English names and administrative centres in parentheses):
* Shitomir (Zhytomyr) – headed by Regierungpräsident Kurt Klemm, then by SS-Brigadeführer Ernst Ludwig Leyser (from 1942)
* Kiew (Kiev) – headed by SA-Brigadeführer Helmut Quitzrau (till February 14, 1942), then SA-Oberführer Waldemar Magunia (from February 14, 1942)
* Nikolajew ( Nikolayev) – headed by NSFK-Obergruppenführer Ewald Oppermann
* Wolhynien und Podolien (Volhynia and Podolia; Luzk) – headed by SA Obergruppenführer Heinrich Schoene
* Dnjepropetrowsk (Dnepropetrovsk) – headed by '' Oberbefehlshaber der NSDAP'' ('party commander in chief') Claus Selzner
* Krym-Taurien (Crimea-Taurida; Melitopol) – headed by Gauleiter Alfred Frauenfeld

Scheduled for incorporation into the ''Reichskommissariat Ukraine'' but never transferred to civil administration were the ''Generalkommissariate Tschernigow'' (Chernigov), ''Charkow'' (Kharkov), ''Stalino'' (Donetsk), ''Woronezh'' (Voronezh), ''Rostow'' (Rostov-on-Don), Stalingrad, and ''Saratow'' (Saratov), which would have brought the boundary of the province to the western border of Kazakhstan. In addition, ''Reichskommissar'' Koch had wishes of further extending his ''Reichskommissariat'' to Ciscaucasia.

Krym-Taurien

The administrative position of the Krim ''Generalbezirk'' remained ambiguous. According to the original German plan it was to correspond approximately to the old Taurida Governorate (therefore including also mainland portions of Ukraine), and was to consist of two ''Teilbezirke'' (sub-districts):
* Taurien (the mainland sections, including parts of the Nikolayev and Zaporozhye provinces.)
* Krym (the Crimean peninsula)

Only the first of these saw transfer to civil administration in September 1942, with the peninsula remaining under military control for the duration of the war. Its administrator, Frauenfeld, played off the military and civil authorities against each other and gained the freedom to run the territory as he saw fit. He thereby enjoyed complete autonomy, verging on independence, from Koch's authority. Frauenfeld's administration was much more moderate than Koch's and consequentially more economically successful. Koch was greatly angered by Fraunfeld's insubordination (a comparable situation also existed in the administrative relationship between the Estonian general commissariat and ''Reichskommissariat Ostland'').

The district's title was a misnomer, it only included the area north of the Crimean peninsula up to the Dnieper river.Berkhoff, p. 39.

Demographics

The official German press, in 1941, reported the Ukrainian urban and rural populations as 19 million each. During the commissariat's existence the Germans only undertook one official census, for January 1, 1943, documenting a population of 16,910,008 people. The 1926 Soviet official census recorded the urban population as 5,373,553 and the rural population as 23,669,381 – a total of 29,042,934, however the borders of the administrative region of the Soviet Ukrainian SSR were noticeably different from those of the ''Reichskommissariat''. In 1939, a new census reported the Ukrainian urban population as 11,195,620 and rural population as 19,764,601 – a total of 30,960,221. The Ukrainian Soviets counted 17% of total Soviet population, and a significant portion was also separately occupied by Romania.

Security

The Wehrmacht came under pressure for political reasons to gradually restore private property in zones under military control and to accept local volunteer recruits into their units and into the Waffen-SS, as promoted by local Ukrainian nationalist organizations, the OUN-B and the OUN-M, whilst receiving political support from the Wehrmacht.

The German ''Reichsführer-SS'' and chief of German Police, Heinrich Himmler, initially had direct authority over any SS formations in Ukraine to order "Security Operations", but soon lost it – especially after the summer of 1942 when he tried to regain control over policing in Ukraine by gaining authority for the collection of the harvest, and failed miserably, in large part because Koch withheld cooperation. In Ukraine, Himmler soon became the voice of relative moderation, hoping that an improvement in the Ukrainians' living conditions would encourage greater numbers of them to join the Waffen-SS's foreign divisions. Koch, appropriately nicknamed the "hangman of Ukraine", was contemptuous of Himmler's efforts. In this matter Koch had the support of Hitler, who remained skeptical when not hostile to the idea of recruiting Slavs in general and Soviet nationals in particular into the Wehrmacht.

Economic exploitation

In the civil administration of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories numerous technical staff worked under Georg Leibbrandt, former chief of the east section of the foreign political office in the Nazi Party, now chief of the political section in the Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories. Leibbrandt's deputy, Otto Bräutigam, had previously worked as a consul with experience in the Soviet Union. Economic affairs remained under the direct management of Hermann Göring (the Plenipotentiary of Germany's Four Year Plan). From 21 March 1942 Fritz Sauckel had the role of "General Plenipotentiary for Labour Deployment" (Generalbevollmächtigter für den Arbeitseinsatz), charged with recruiting manpower for Germany throughout Europe, though in Ukraine Koch insisted that Sauckel confine himself to setting requirements, leaving the actual "recruitment" of ''Ost-Arbeiter'' to Koch and his brutes. The Todt Organization Ost Branch operated from Kiev. Other members of the German administration in Ukraine included Generalkommissar Leyser and Gebietkommissar Steudel.

The Ministry of Transport had direct control of " Ostbahns" and "Generalverkehrsdirektion Osten" (the railway administration in the eastern territories). These German central government interventions in the affairs of the East Affairs by ministries were known as ''Sonderverwaltungen'' (special administrations).

The position of the Eastern Affairs Ministry was weak because its department chiefs: (Economy, Work, Foods & Crops and Forest & Woods) held similar posts in other government departments (The Four-Year Plan, Eastern Economic Office, Foods and Farming Ministry, etc.) with other supplementary junior staff. Thus the East Ministry was managed by personal criteria and particular interests over official orders. Additionally, they failed to maintain the "Political Section" at an equal level with more specialized departments (Economy, Works, Farms, etc.) because political considerations clashed with exploitation plans in the territory.

The ''Reichskommissariat Ukraine'' paid occupation taxes and funds to the German Reich until February 1944 in the amount of (equivalent to € billion ) and 107.9 million  Rbls, in accord with information composed by Lutz von Krosigk, the Reich Minister of Finances.

The Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories ordered Koch and Hinrich Lohse (the ''Reichskommissar'' of Ostland) in March 1942 to supply 380,000 farm workers and 247,000 industrial workers for German work needs. Later Koch was mentioned during the new year message of 1943, how he "recruited" 710,000 workers in Ukraine. This and subsequent "worker registration" drives in Ukraine would eventually backfire after the Battle of Kursk (July–August 1943) when the Germans would attempt to build a defensive line along the Dnieper only to discover that the necessary manpower had been either recruited to forced labour in Germany or had gone underground to forestall such "recruitment".

Alfred Rosenberg implemented an " Agrarian New Order" in Ukraine, ordering the confiscation of Soviet state properties to establish German state properties. Additionally the replacement of Russian Kolkhozes and Sovkhozes, by their own "Gemeindwirtschaften" (German Communal Farms), the installation of state enterprise "Landbewirstschaftungsgessellschaft Ukraine M.b.H." for managing the new German state farms and cooperatives, and the foundation of numerous "Kombines" (Great German exploitation Monopolies) with government or private capital in the territory, to exploit the resources and Donbas area.

German intentions

According to the Nazis, both Jewish and Slavic Ukrainians were untermensch and therefore only fit for enslavement or extermination. Erich Koch, who was chosen by Adolf Hitler to rule Ukraine, made the point about the inferiority of Ukrainians with a certain simplicity: "Even if I find a Ukrainian who is worthy of sitting at my table, I must have him shot" and "remember that the lowliest German worker is racially and biologically a thousand times more valuable than the population here, which is more distinct from Aryan genealogy than Leningrad."

The regime was planning to encourage the settlement of German and other " Germanic" farmers in the region after the war, along with the empowerment of some ethnic Germans in the territory. Ukraine was the furthest eastern settlement of the migrating ancient Goths between the 2nd and 4th centuries and subsequently, according to Hitler, "Only German should be spoken here".

In Ukraine, the Germans published a local journal in the German language, the ''Deutsche Ukrainezeitung''.

During the occupation a very small number of cities and their accompanying districts maintained German names. These cities were designated as urban strongholds for Volksdeutsche natives.Lower, p. 267. '' Hegewald'' (Himmler's field headquarters and the location of a small, experimental German colony), '' Försterstadt'' (also a Volksdeutsche colony), '' Halbstadt'' (a Low German Mennonite settlement), ''Alexanderstadt'', ''Kronau'' and '' Friesendorf'' were some of these.

On 12 August 1941, Hitler ordered the complete destruction of the Ukrainian capital of Kiev by the use of incendiary bombs and gunfire.Berkhoff, pp. 164–165. Because the German military lacked sufficient material for this operation it wasn't carried out, after which the Nazi planners instead decided to starve the city's inhabitants. Heinrich Himmler on the other hand considered Kiev to be "an ancient German city" because of the Magdeburg city rights that it had acquired centuries prior.

See also

* Babi Yar
* The Death Match
* Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia
* ''Ostarbeiter''
* '' Word of the Righteous''

References

Further reading

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External links

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Map of Occupied Europe

{{Authority control

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German occupation of Poland during World War II
Byelorussia in World War II
Military history of Germany during World War II
Military history of the Soviet Union during World War II
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1941 establishments in Ukraine
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States and territories established in 1941
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