During World War II, the
Crimean Peninsula
Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrai ...
was subject to military administration by
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
following the success of the
Crimean campaign
The Crimean campaign was conducted by the Axis powers, Axis as part of Operation Barbarossa during World War II. The invading force was led by Nazi Germany, Germany with support from Kingdom of Romania, Romania and Fascist Italy, Italy, wh ...
. Officially part of ''Generalbezirk Krym-Taurien'', an administrative division of ''
Reichskommissariat 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 ...
'', Crimea proper never actually became part of the Generalbezirk, and was instead subordinate to a military administration. This administration was first headed by
Erich von Manstein
Fritz Erich Georg Eduard von Manstein (born Fritz Erich Georg Eduard von Lewinski; 24 November 1887 – 9 June 1973) was a Germans, German Officer (armed forces), military officer of Poles (people), Polish descent who served as a ''Generalfeld ...
in his capacity as commander of the
11th Army and then by
Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist
Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist (8 August 1881 – 13 November 1954) was a German Generalfeldmarschall (Field Marshal) of the ''Wehrmacht'' during World War II. Born into the Prussian noble family von Kleist, Kleist entered the Prussian Army in 19 ...
as commander of
Army Group A
Army Group A () was the name of three distinct army groups of the ''German Army (1935–1945), Heer'', the ground forces of the ''Wehrmacht'', during World War II.
The first Army Group A, previously known as "Army Group South", was active from Oct ...
.
German interests in Crimea were multifaceted and a matter of great sensitivity due to
German–Turkish relations, with Turkey serving as the primary champion of the rights of
Crimean Tatars
Crimean Tatars (), or simply Crimeans (), are an Eastern European Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group and nation indigenous to Crimea. Their ethnogenesis lasted thousands of years in Crimea and the northern regions along the coast of the Blac ...
. Basing their interests in Crimea off of the historical existence of the
Crimean Goths
The Crimean Goths were either a Greuthungi- Gothic tribe or a Western Germanic tribe that bore the name '' Gothi'', a title applied to various Germanic tribes that remained in the lands around the Black Sea, especially in Crimea. They were the ...
(the last surviving Gothic peoples), German authorities sought to transform Crimea into a tourist destination, including the deportation and genocide of Crimea's non-German inhabitants. Plagued by
Soviet resistance from the outset of occupation, they failed to establish order to any extent that allowed for colonisation to take place, and lost further support due to the slow pace of land reform programmes and a lack of response to Crimean Tatar nationalist sentiment.
A matter of significant strategic and ideological importance, Germany's occupation of Crimea remained a matter of hot debate between the Wehrmacht,
NSDAP Office of Foreign Affairs
The NSDAP Office of Foreign Affairs (, ''A.P.A.'' or ''APA'') was a Nazi Party organization. It was set up in April 1933 in the Hotel Adlon in Berlin immediately after the Nazi '' Machtergreifung'' ("Seizure of power"). It was led by Alfred R ...
, and
Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories
The Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories (RMfdbO; ), commonly known as the ''Ostministerium'', (; "Eastern Ministry") was a ministry of Nazi Germany responsible for occupied territories in the Baltic states and Soviet Union fro ...
. It was variously proposed to be annexed into ''Reichskommissariat Ukraine'', made part of Germany proper, or transformed into an independent state under German suzerainty. Collaboration by some Crimean Tatars during the German occupation served as the basis for the
deportation of the Crimean Tatars
The deportation of the Crimean Tatars (, Cyrillic: Къырымтатар халкъынынъ сюргюнлиги) or the ('exile') was the ethnic cleansing and the cultural genocide of at least 191,044 Crimean Tatars that was carried out ...
in 1944, despite active Crimean Tatar participation in the war effort and the desire by certain sectors of the German government to deport Tatars themselves.
Background
Crimean Tatars against the Soviet government
Prior to
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and several of its European Axis allies starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during World War II. More than 3.8 million Axis troops invaded the western Soviet Union along ...
, Crimea operated as an
Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
An Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR, ) was a type of administrative unit in the Soviet Union (USSR), created for certain ethnic groups to be the titular nations of. The ASSRs had a status lower than the constituent union republics of t ...
of the Soviet Union. Though
Crimean Tatars
Crimean Tatars (), or simply Crimeans (), are an Eastern European Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group and nation indigenous to Crimea. Their ethnogenesis lasted thousands of years in Crimea and the northern regions along the coast of the Blac ...
, a Turkic and religiously-Muslim ethnic group, were the eponymous people and a significant portion of the population, tensions existed between them and ethnic Slavs (primarily Russians). These tensions were compounded by Soviet government opposition to expressions of Crimean Tatar national desires, such as a government-backed proposal for
Jewish autonomy in Crimea
Jewish autonomy in Crimea was a project in the Soviet Union to create an autonomous region for Jews in the Crimean peninsula carried out during the 1920s and 1930s. Following WWII and the creation of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast in the Far Ea ...
in the early 1920s, the arrest and execution of
national communist
National communism is a term describing various forms in which Marxism–Leninism and socialism has been adopted and/or implemented by leaders in different countries using aspects of nationalism or national identity to form a policy independent ...
leader
Veli İbraimov
Veli İbraimov (; 1888 – 9 May 1928), also written as Veli Ibrahimov (), was a Crimean Tatars, Crimean Tatar revolutionary and Soviet politician who served as the second Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the Crimea in the Soviet ...
in 1928, and the mass killings of Crimean Tatar leaders during the
Great Purge
The Great Purge, or the Great Terror (), also known as the Year of '37 () and the Yezhovshchina ( , ), was a political purge in the Soviet Union that took place from 1936 to 1938. After the Assassination of Sergei Kirov, assassination of ...
in the late 1930s. These tensions were used by German occupational forces as a method of driving a wedge between Crimean Tatars and other ethnic groups, including Jews.
Crimea's Germanic peoples
In addition to local conflicts which preceded Germany's occupation of Crimea in 1941, the region had historically been home to a significant Germanic population. The
Crimean Goths
The Crimean Goths were either a Greuthungi- Gothic tribe or a Western Germanic tribe that bore the name '' Gothi'', a title applied to various Germanic tribes that remained in the lands around the Black Sea, especially in Crimea. They were the ...
, the final surviving
Gothic group, survived in Crimea from the 3rd century CE until at least and possibly still existed by the time of World War II, though they intermingled with Crimean Tatars much like other ethnic groups. According to the Nazis, these Goths had existed long enough to intermingle with the later
Crimea Germans
The Crimea Germans (, , ) were ethnic German settlers who were invited by Russia to colonize the Crimea as part of the ''Ostsiedlung'' ("East Settlement").
History
From 1783 onwards, there was a systematic settlement of Russians, Ukrainians, and ...
, settlers who began arriving as part of the
migrations of the late-18th century with the support of the German-born Russian Empress
Catherine the Great
Catherine II. (born Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst; 2 May 172917 November 1796), most commonly known as Catherine the Great, was the reigning empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. She came to power after overthrowing her husband, Peter I ...
. Later,
Mennonites
Mennonites are a group of Anabaptism, Anabaptist Christianity, Christian communities tracing their roots to the epoch of the Radical Reformation. The name ''Mennonites'' is derived from the cleric Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland, part of ...
began arriving from Russia and Ukraine proper.
By the time of the
Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...
of 1917, Crimean Germans made up the local élite, comprising 20% of the
Simferopol
Simferopol ( ), also known as Aqmescit, is the second-largest city on the Crimea, Crimean Peninsula. The city, along with the rest of Crimea, is internationally recognised as part of Ukraine, but controlled by Russia. It is considered the cap ...
city council. German had the right to organise local self-government in their settlements, and were free from paying taxes.
German had been one of the official languages of the
Crimean Regional Government
The Crimean Regional Government ( ') refers to two successive short-lived regimes in the Crimean Peninsula during 1918 and 1919.
History
Following Russia's 1917 October Revolution, an ethnic Tatar government proclaimed the Crimean People's Rep ...
of 1918-1919, which was established with the support of German forces during World War I. Following the 1920 takeover of Crimea by the
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...
, the Soviets established two German raions within the
Crimean ASSR
Several different governments controlled the Crimean Peninsula during the period of the Soviet Union, from the 1920s to 1991. The government of Crimea from 1921 to 1936 was the Crimean Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic, which was an Autonomo ...
; (in 1930) and
Telman Raion. Despite this, however, after the
Axis Powers
The Axis powers, originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis and also Rome–Berlin–Tokyo Axis, was the military coalition which initiated World War II and fought against the Allies of World War II, Allies. Its principal members were Nazi Ge ...
launched Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, Soviet authorities from August 1941 deported over 60,000 ethnic Germans from Crimea; "evacuating" them eventually to
Siberia
Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...
or to
Central Asia.
German–Turkish relations
Matters involving Crimea were a focal point of
German–Turkish relations during World War II. Turkish interests in Crimea, stretching back to the early days of the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
, primarily involved the protection of the Crimean Tatars. Following the dissolution of the
Crimean People's Republic
The Crimean People's Republic ( Crimean Tatar: ; ; ) or Crimean Democratic Republic was a self-declared state that existed from December 1917 to January 1918 in the Crimean Peninsula. The Republic was one of many short-lived states that declare ...
at the hands of the Red Army, Turkey had become a base for many Crimean Tatar nationalists, among them
Cafer Seydamet Qırımer
Cafer Seydamet (1 September 1889 – 3 April 1960), also known by his adopted surname Qırımer, or Kırımer was a Crimean Tatar politician and writer who was one of the founders and leaders of Milliy Firqa and Crimean People's Republic. H ...
, the Crimean People's Republic's Prime Minister. Though Turkish interests also concerned themselves with additional areas of the Soviet Union inhabited by Turkic peoples, Crimea held the most Turkish public and governmental interest of all regions.
Timeline
1941

Operation Barbarossa began on 22 June 1941, thus drawing the Soviet Union into World War II. By 26 September 1941, German forces, supported by the
Kingdom of Romania
The Kingdom of Romania () was a constitutional monarchy that existed from with the crowning of prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen as King of Romania, King Carol I of Romania, Carol I (thus beginning the Romanian royal family), until 1947 wit ...
, had started fighting for Crimea, beginning the
Crimean campaign
The Crimean campaign was conducted by the Axis powers, Axis as part of Operation Barbarossa during World War II. The invading force was led by Nazi Germany, Germany with support from Kingdom of Romania, Romania and Fascist Italy, Italy, wh ...
. Consecutively with the entrance of German troops, structures by Soviet forces for the development of a partisan movement were established in the city of
Kerch
Kerch, also known as Keriç or Kerich, is a city of regional significance on the Kerch Peninsula in the east of Crimea. It has a population of
Founded 2,600 years ago as the Colonies in antiquity#Greek colonies, ancient Greek colony Pantik ...
, in the eastern
Kerch Peninsula
The Kerch Peninsula is a major and prominent geographic peninsula located at the eastern end of the Crimean Peninsula.
This peninsula stretches eastward toward the Taman Peninsula between the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. Most of the peninsula i ...
. In the winter of 1941, Soviet forces landed in the Kerch Peninsula over the
Kerch Strait
The Kerch Strait is a strait in Eastern Europe. It connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, separating the Kerch Peninsula of Crimea in the west from the Taman Peninsula of Russia's Krasnodar Krai in the east. The strait is to wide and up ...
, in what became known as the
Battle of the Kerch Peninsula
The Battle of the Kerch Peninsula, which commenced with the Soviet Kerch-Feodosia Landing Operation () and ended with the German Operation Bustard Hunt (), was a World War II battle between Erich von Manstein's Nazi Germany, German and Kingdom o ...
.
Even prior to the beginning of Germany's occupation of Crimea, German leadership had already begun planning for the colonisation of the peninsula. In a directive dating to early July 1941, Hitler called for the immediate expulsion of all Russians from the peninsula, with Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars only to be removed in case of absolute necessity. This measure, explicitly outlining the protection of Crimean Tatars from deportation, demonstrated to the Turkish government Germany's willingness to protect their interests.
Turkey, not pleased with the level of autonomy granted, made continuous demands (both subtle and overt) through
Franz von Papen
Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen, (; 29 October 18792 May 1969) was a German politician, diplomat, Prussian nobleman and army officer. A national conservative, he served as Chancellor of Germany in 1932, and then as Vice-Chancell ...
, Germany's ambassador to Turkey. After much lobbying and the intervention of Turkish general
Hüseyin Hüsnü Emir Erkilet
Hüseyin Hüsnü Emir Erkilet (12 March 1883 – 2 April 1958) was an officer of the Ottoman Army and a general of the Turkish Army.
In the fall 1941 he, along with General Ali Fuad Erden, visited the occupied territories in Ukraine (includi ...
, two followers of Seydamet Qırımer were granted visas to enter Turkey. The process of granting visas, done during a period when Germans intended to ethnically cleanse Crimean Tatars in the near future, was deliberate, and the Crimean Tatars were not granted requests to inspect Crimean prisoner of war camps. Nonetheless, following the visit, Rosenberg noted that it would be necessary to ensure Crimean Tatar prisoners of war be treated humanely out of respect for Turkey.
The first commander of German occupational forces in Crimea was
Erich von Manstein
Fritz Erich Georg Eduard von Manstein (born Fritz Erich Georg Eduard von Lewinski; 24 November 1887 – 9 June 1973) was a Germans, German Officer (armed forces), military officer of Poles (people), Polish descent who served as a ''Generalfeld ...
. Manstein declared upon taking command that, "The Jewish-Bolshevik system must be wiped out once and for all." With this began the recruitment of Crimean Tatars to serve as anti-partisan volunteer detachments under the aegis of the ''
Sicherheitsdienst
' (, "Security Service"), full title ' ("Security Service of the ''Reichsführer-SS''"), or SD, was the intelligence agency of the Schutzstaffel, SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. Established in 1931, the SD was the first Nazi intelligence ...
''. Another element of collaboration was local-level "Muslim Committees", established as a compromise between pro-Turkic voices and the Wehrmacht, which viewed Crimean Tatars as insignificant in comparison to Crimea's Slavic majority.
1942
The end of the Crimean campaign brought little stability to Germany's occupational regime, with the partisan movement only continuing its activities. The groundwork of Crimea's colonisation by German settlers began being laid in early 1942, though it remains unknown exactly when. The same year, preparations also began in earnest for the genocide of Crimea's peoples. On 6 July 1942, in spite of previous protests against the liquidation of Crimea's Russian population (for economic reasons), officials the Wehrmacht participated in a conference with Schutzstaffel members on resettlement camps, the genocide of "
''untermenschen''", and the establishment of transport facilities for deported peoples.
Despite the support of the
Oberkommando der Wehrmacht
The (; abbreviated OKW ː kaːˈve
The colon alphabetic letter is used in a number of languages and phonetic transcription systems, for vowel length in Americanist Phonetic Notation, for the vowels and in a number of languages of Papua New Guinea, and for grammatical tone in s ...
Armed Forces High Command) was the Command (military formation), supreme military command and control Staff (military), staff of Nazi Germany during World War II, that was directly subordinated to Adolf ...
for these plans, individual officers still disputed them, along with resettlement plans, as unhelpful to the war effort. General
Georg Thomas
Georg Thomas (20 February 1890 – 29 December 1946) was a German general who served during World War II.Mitcham and Mueller, ''Hitler's Commanders'', pgs. 17-20. He was a leading participant in planning and carrying out economic exploitation of ...
protested to Hermann Göring and field marshal
Wilhelm Keitel
Wilhelm Bodewin Johann Gustav Keitel (; 22 September 188216 October 1946) was a German field marshal who held office as chief of the (OKW), the high command of Nazi Germany's armed forces, during World War II. He signed a number of criminal ...
, noting that Alfred Frauenfeld, Crimea's General Commissioner, was also opposed to deportation during the war. Three weeks later, he was told that the plans for colonisation and deportation had been halted until the war's end.
In late 1942, Manstein was replaced by
Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist
Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist (8 August 1881 – 13 November 1954) was a German Generalfeldmarschall (Field Marshal) of the ''Wehrmacht'' during World War II. Born into the Prussian noble family von Kleist, Kleist entered the Prussian Army in 19 ...
as commander of German forces in Crimea. Alongside his position as commander of forces in Crimea, Kleist was involved in the
Battle of the Caucasus
The Battle of the Caucasus was a series of Axis and Soviet operations in the Caucasus as part of the Eastern Front of World War II. On 25 July 1942, German troops captured Rostov-on-Don, opening the Caucasus region of the southern Soviet ...
, and his attitudes towards the North Caucasian peoples served as a basis for later activity he conducted in regards to the Crimean Tatars.
Another noteworthy development in 1942 was the establishment of the , which served as a central organisational authority for Crimea's Muslim Committees.
These committees in late 1942 established a plenum with the intention of representing all Crimean Tatars. They elected
Amet Özenbaşlı
Amet Seid Abdulla oğlu Özenbaşlı (10 February 1893 – 4 December 1958) was a Crimean Tatars, Crimean Tatar politician and writer. A leading member of the Crimean Tatar nationalist movement and a minister in the Crimean People's Republic, he ...
as their leader, and granted him broad permission to negotiate with the Germans on behalf of the Crimean Tatar people. However, the election of Özenbaşlı as the Muslim Committees' representative was followed only by further hesitation on the part of German authorities when dealing with the Crimean Tatars, leading Özenbaşlı to remark in 1943, "We have found ourselves between Scylla and Charybdis." Such sentiment was widespread among nationalist circles, as Germany's unclear attitude and gains by the Red Army led to increased feelings of consternation. Also negatively affecting the German-Tatar relationship was anti-partisan reprisals against Crimean Tatar villages. Özenbaşlı made an unsuccessful effort to effectively rebuild
Milliy Firqa
Milliy Firqa (, ملی فرقا - ''National Party'', Cyrillic: ''Милли фирка'') was a Muslim political group in Crimea, which transferred en masse to the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War. Noman Çelebicihan, Asan Sabri Ayvazo ...
, the leading party of the Crimean Tatars during the Russian Revolution.
Taurida

On 1 September 1942, the Wehrmacht released the five districts of ''Generalbezirk Krym-Taurien'' north of the
Isthmus of Perekop
The Isthmus of Perekop, literally Isthmus of the Trench (; transliteration: ''Perekops'kyi pereshyiok''; ; transliteration: ''Perekopskiy peresheek,'' , ; ; transliteration: ''Taphros''), is the narrow, wide strip of land that connects the C ...
to a civilian government which acted as part of ''Reichskommissariat Ukraine''. This administration, based in
Melitopol
Melitopol is a city and municipality in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, southeastern Ukraine. It is situated on the Molochna River, which flows through the eastern edge of the city into the Molochnyi Lyman estuary. Melitopol is the second-largest city ...
and headed by the ''Generalbezirk''
's ''de jure'' General Commissioner
Alfred Frauenfeld
Alfred Eduard Frauenfeld (18 May 1898 – 10 May 1977) was an Austrian Nazi leader. An engineer by occupation, he was associated with the pro-German wing of Austrian Nazism.
Early life
Frauenfeld was born in Vienna, the son of a privy councill ...
, was simply referred to as "Taurida" (). Frauenfeld soon found himself embroiled in conflict with the ''Reichskommissar'' of Ukraine,
Erich Koch
Erich Koch (; 19 June 1896 – 12 November 1986) was a ''Gauleiter'' of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in East Prussia from 1 October 1928 until 1945. Between 1941 and 1945 he was Chief of Civil Administration (''Chef der Zivilverwaltung'') of Bezi ...
, who instituted an economic blockade of with the support of Hitler and Himmler with the intention of starving out the Crimean Tatar population. After the intervention of the Wehrmacht on Frauenfeld's behalf, the blockade was resolved, but tensions between Taurida and the ''Reichskommissariat'' as a whole remained, with Koch calling for Taurida's autonomous status to be abolished and Frauenfeld making negative remarks about Koch's performance in correspondence with Rosenberg. Frauenfeld and Koch remained enemies until the war's end, with Frauenfeld continuing to promote himself as a better leader even after Crimea and Taurida were retaken by Red Army forces.
Frauenfeld's regime has been described as having "limited sympathy" towards the Crimean Tatars by American historian
Alexander Dallin
Alexander Davidovich Dallin (21 May 1924 – 22 July 2000) was an American historian, political scientist, and international relations scholar at Columbia University, where he was the Adlai Stevenson Professor of International Relations and the d ...
, and was relatively liberal in regards to its treatment of the indigenous population compared to Koch's brutal "sledge-hammer" policy in regards to non-Germans. During his leadership, Frauenfeld, who held little to no control over Crimea proper, devoted himself to the study of Crimean Goths, creating a photo album and writing a book on Crimea's history. Under Frauenfeld's proposals, Crimea was to become a tourist hotspot for all of post-war Europe, and a new capital was to be built in the
Crimean Mountains.
1943 and 1944
Following a retreat from the Caucasus, Kleist took a more active role in governing Crimea. In February 1943, he issued a series of 14 points, including the following:
This newfound interest in Crimea was met with strong resistance from the SS, which regarded Kleist's involvement in civilian affairs as unwelcome. In spite of this resistance, however, Kleist refused to change his position, comparing
Hans-Joachim Riecke, one of his strongest detractors, to Koch.
Four months later, Rosenberg toured Crimea, speaking to soldiers. Both Kleist and Rosenberg regarded the tour as a failure, but for opposing reasons: Kleist because of what he regarded as overly-negative rhetoric and Rosenberg because he perceived the Wehrmacht as having a decidedly more Russophilic approach towards indigenous affairs than himself.
Throughout 1943, the remaining pretences of maintaining control over Crimea were dropped as Red Army forces closed in on the area; General
Ernst August Köstring was placed in charge of inspecting Germany's Turkic military forces, shifting concerns from occupation to maintenance of order. Frauenfeld evacuated Taurida, leaving the area once again under military control.
Georg Leibbrandt
Georg Leibbrandt (6 September 1899 – 16 June 1982) was a German Nazi Party official and civil servant. He occupied leading foreign policy positions in the Nazi Party Foreign Policy Office (APA) and the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern T ...
, in charge of Germany's "nationality policy", was replaced with
Gerhard von Mende, who also shifted the focus away from Germany's occupations.
By November 1943, Soviet troops returned to the Kerch Strait. They quickly advanced through the Crimean peninsula, and by May 1944, all of Crimea up to the Isthmus of Perekop had been recaptured.
Economics
Land reform
With Germany's capture of Crimea, Crimea's peasants anticipated decollectivisation and the return of land, much like in other areas of the Soviet Union under German control. However, the government pursued land reform at a relatively slow pace, a matter which anguished peasants. In accordance with an effort by the
NSDAP Office of Foreign Affairs
The NSDAP Office of Foreign Affairs (, ''A.P.A.'' or ''APA'') was a Nazi Party organization. It was set up in April 1933 in the Hotel Adlon in Berlin immediately after the Nazi '' Machtergreifung'' ("Seizure of power"). It was led by Alfred R ...
to appear gracious to Turkey, Hans-Joachim Riecke (Nazi chief of agriculture in Eastern Europe) hastened the pace of decollectivisation, declaring that 40% of Crimean Tatar land would be returned in the first year of land reform. This was significant compared to 10-12% of land in Ukraine, which was to be decollectivised. However, the measure lacked teeth, as land reform efforts did not follow the standards set by the German government. Nonetheless, the land reform was used by Frauenfeld as evidence of greater management in Crimea and Taurida than in Ukraine proper, with particular notice being given to the fact that Crimea had greater production per acre than Ukraine.
Infrastructure
With Germany's intention to establish Crimea as a leading tourist destination in post-war Europe, numerous infrastructure plans were created in order to make transport to and from Crimea easier. Particularly noted in recent years was a proposal by Hitler to create a bridge across the Kerch Strait. The proposal, which never reached far beyond the planning stages due to Soviet advances, was allocated insufficient resources for its completion, but served as the base for the
Kerch railway bridge
The Kerch railway bridge (), also called the Kerch Bridge (), was a short-lived Soviet Union, Soviet Russian SFSR, Russian railway bridge across the Kerch Strait, which connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Azov. Constructed in 1944–1945 and ...
, a post-war construction which existed for less than a year before collapsing in February 1945. The
Crimean Bridge
The Crimean Bridge (, ; ), also called Kerch Strait Bridge or Kerch Bridge, is a pair of parallel bridges, one for a four-lane road and one for a double-track railway, spanning the Kerch Strait between the Taman Peninsula of Krasnodar Krai in ...
, constructed following the
annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation
In February and March 2014, Russia invaded the Crimea, Crimean Peninsula, part of Ukraine, and then annexed it. This took place in the relative power vacuum immediately following the Revolution of Dignity. It marked the beginning of the Russ ...
, has been noted by some publications, such as ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...
'', for having a similar purpose to Hitler's proposed bridge.
Another project intended to improve Crimea's connections to the rest of Germany's empire was an expansion of the ''
Reichsautobahn
The system was the beginning of the German autobahns under Nazi Germany. There had been previous plans for controlled-access highway
A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traf ...
'' to Crimea. The proposal, which never left the drawing board, would have, in Hitler's words, made it so that one could, "do the whole distance easily in two days."
Religion

Islam was regarded by German authorities as a method for effective control of the Crimean Tatar population, as well as other Muslim peoples throughout the Soviet Union. This became particularly noteworthy from October 1943, after Soviet authorities established the
(SADUM). As an attempt to counteract the establishment of SADUM, German officials organised a congress of Muslims from Crimea,
Tatarstan
Tatarstan, officially the Republic of Tatarstan, sometimes also called Tataria, is a Republics of Russia, republic of Russia located in Eastern Europe. It is a part of the Volga Federal District; and its capital city, capital and largest city i ...
, Central Asia, and the Caucasus, to be overseen by
Amin al-Husseini
Mohammed Amin al-Husseini (; 4 July 1974) was a Palestinian Arab nationalist and Muslim leader in Mandatory Palestine. was the scion of the family of Jerusalemite Arab nobles, who trace their origins to the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
Hussein ...
, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. With the support of
Gottlob Berger
Gottlob Christian Berger (16 July 1896 – 5 January 1975) was a German senior Nazi official who held the rank of '' SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS'' (lieutenant general) and was the chief of the SS Main Office responsibl ...
from the SS, Özenbaşlı was to be declared as Crimea's mufti. The Wehrmacht was immediately suspicious of Özenbaşlı, regarding the title as a means for him to assert further control over Crimea, and protested. Rosenberg, unable to fight the protestations by the Wehrmacht, gave up on the project.
Following Crimea's recapture by Soviet forces, the German government again sought to give Özenbaşlı the title of mufti, and requested that he travel to Berlin to be officially appointed. Instead, however, Özenbaşlı fled to Romania in expectation that British troops would take control of the country. However, he was instead captured by Soviet troops and repatriated to the Soviet Union, where he died in 1958.
Future plans
Plans for Crimea's post-war future remained a topic of debate in the halls of German power until it was ultimately recaptured by Soviet forces. Seven different plans were made by leading Nazi theorist
Alfred Rosenberg
Alfred Ernst Rosenberg ( – 16 October 1946) was a Baltic German Nazi theorist and ideologue. Rosenberg was first introduced to Adolf Hitler by Dietrich Eckart and he held several important posts in the Nazi government. He was the head o ...
, none of which were actually adopted due to the failure of German forces to subdue partisan forces or maintain military control of Crimea. Additionally complicating matters was the matter of German–Turkish relations and Turkish concerns for ethnic Crimean Tatars, which interfered with Germany's intentions for the total colonisation of Crimea.
Inclusion into ''Reichskommissariat Ukraine''
Rosenberg's first plan, simply titled 'Ukraine with the Crimea', called for Crimea to be included into ''
Reichskommissariat 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 ...
''. Containing numerous contradictions and undergoing several revisions, it nonetheless became the prevailing plan, and Crimea was ''de jure'' included into the ''Reichskommissariat''. At the same time, however, it was to be directly subjugated to German control. The most significant issue of this plan, noted by Rosenberg himself, was the lack of ethnic Ukrainians in Russian-dominated Crimea.
German colonisation
The
Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories
The Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories (RMfdbO; ), commonly known as the ''Ostministerium'', (; "Eastern Ministry") was a ministry of Nazi Germany responsible for occupied territories in the Baltic states and Soviet Union fro ...
(''Ostministerium''), headed by Rosenberg, took an aggressive position in regards to Crimea's post-war fate.
According to the ''Ostministerium'', Crimea was to fall directly under the control of Nazi Germany, rather than being administered through a ''Reichskommissariat''. A consistent part of the German message was that Crimea was to be completely cleansed of non-Germans, only occasionally sparing Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians. In their place were to be German settlers, for whom Crimea was to become a "spa".
Exactly where the colonists were to come from remained debated. Originally was Romania's
Transnistria Governorate
The Transnistria Governorate () was a Romanian-administered territory between the Dniester and Southern Bug, conquered by the Axis Powers from the Soviet Union during Operation Barbarossa. A Romanian civilian administration governed the territo ...
, comprising formerly-Soviet lands which included 140,000 Germans. After the end of the Crimean campaign, however, another plan developed, intending to settle the peninsula with Germans from the Italian region
South Tyrol
South Tyrol ( , ; ; ), officially the Autonomous Province of Bolzano – South Tyrol, is an autonomous administrative division, autonomous provinces of Italy, province in northern Italy. Together with Trentino, South Tyrol forms the autonomo ...
, in order to resolve Italo-German tensions. This plan, proposed by Frauenfeld, found support with Hitler, who said of the plan, "I think the idea is an excellent one... I think, too, that the Crimea will be both climatically and geographically ideal for the South Tyrolese, and in comparison with their present settlement it will be a real land of milk and honey. Their transfer to the Crimea presents neither physical nor psychological difficulty. All they have to do is to sail down just one German waterway, the Danube, and there they are." However, with partisan activity and the ongoing war impeding the development of a stable, civilian government, this idea, too, never became reality. The third and final proposal, pushed by Frauenfeld and
Ulrich Greifelt, called for the 2,000 Germans in
Mandatory Palestine
Mandatory Palestine was a British Empire, British geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the Palestine (region), region of Palestine, and after 1922, under the terms of the League of Nations's Mandate for Palestine.
After ...
to be resettled in Crimea. This idea was rejected by Himmler, who argued for it to be pursued in the spring of 1943 or during "another favourable moment."
Potential independence
Counter to the ''Ostministerium'', the NSDAP Office of Foreign Affairs advocated for a relatively moderate position in regards to Crimea, as part of its generally pro-Turkic position in a bid to attract support from Turkey.
Werner Otto von Hentig
Werner Otto von Hentig (22 May 1886, Berlin, Germany – 8 August 1984, Lindesnes, Norway) was a German Army Officer, adventurer and diplomat from Berlin. When still only a 25 year old lieutenant he was commissioned by the Kaiser to lead an ex ...
, the leading voice of the Foreign Office on Islamic affairs alongside his assistant
Alimcan Idris, served as the representative of the Foreign Office in Crimea from autumn 1941 to summer 1942. During this time, he formulated a plan to bring Muslims to rise up against Soviet rule through an extensive propaganda campaign involving radio broadcasts, pamphlets, and the usage of spokespeople. Hentig believed that the campaign would foment solidarity with Germany's war against the Soviet Union in the Islamic world. Another faction in the Foreign Office was headed by
Friedrich-Werner Graf von der Schulenburg
Friedrich-Werner Erdmann Matthias Johann Bernhard Erich Graf von der Schulenburg (20 November 1875 – 10 November 1944) was a German diplomat who served as the last German ambassador to the Soviet Union before Operation Barbarossa, the German a ...
, who advocated for Crimean independence, as well as independence for Turkic peoples in the Caucasus. The ''Ostministerium'', staunchly opposed to these plans, successfully sought the removal of the Foreign Office from affairs in Eastern Europe.
As the tide of the war turned, the ''Ostministerium'' came to support Crimean independence itself, as part of a larger Georgian-led bloc against the Soviet Union.
This proposed Georgian bloc was opposed by Hitler, who stated:
Resistance
Before Crimea even came under occupation by German forces, efforts were made to establish a partisan network in the peninsula. Beginning in Kerch in early October, partisan forces existed in all of Crimea by 23 October 1941. In spite of organisational issues, the Crimean resistance managed to pose a significant threat to German activities in Crimea, and was praised by Soviet generals
Aleksandr Vasilevsky
Aleksandr Mikhaylovich Vasilevsky ( 1895 – 5 December 1977) was a Soviet general who served as a top commander during World War II and achieved the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union. During World War II, he served as the Chief of the General ...
and
Panteleimon Ponomarenko
Panteleimon Kondratyevich Ponomarenko (, ; ; 18 January 1984) was a Soviet Union, Soviet statesman and politician and one of the leaders of Belarusian resistance during World War II, Soviet partisan resistance in Belarus. He served as an administ ...
as being a vital part of the war effort.
Aftermath
The German occupation of Crimea had an immediate impact on Crimea following its recapture by Soviet forces. As part of a general process of ethnically cleansing ethnicities Stalin regarded as unreliable, all Crimean Tatars were
deported
Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people by a state from its Sovereignty, sovereign territory. The actual definition changes depending on the place and context, and it also changes over time. A person who has been deported or ...
from the Crimean peninsula to Central Asia and Siberia (primarily Uzbekistan) from 18 to 20 May 1944. The actual reasons for the deportation remain debated, with some arguing that it was to keep minorities out of the Soviet Union's border regions and others stating that it was done as a way of securing access to the
Dardanelles
The Dardanelles ( ; ; ), also known as the Strait of Gallipoli (after the Gallipoli peninsula) and in classical antiquity as the Hellespont ( ; ), is a narrow, natural strait and internationally significant waterway in northwestern Turkey th ...
strait in Turkey, across the Black Sea from Crimea, as a prelude to the
Turkish straits crisis
The Turkish Straits crisis was a Cold War-era territorial conflict between the Soviet Union and Turkey. Turkey had remained officially Neutral powers during World War II, neutral throughout most of the Second World War. After the war ended, Turk ...
of 1946–1953. Others, still, cast the deportation as an act of Russian nationalism dating back to long before the establishment of the Soviet Union.
Following the war, Crimea was economically and agriculturally devastated as a result of fierce fighting. It was impacted by the
Soviet famine of 1946–1947
The Soviet famine of 1946–1947 was a major famine in the Soviet Union. It was also the last famine in Soviet history.
The estimates of victim numbers vary, ranging from several hundred thousand to 2 million. Recent estimates from historian Cor ...
, along with Moldova, the
Central Black Earth Region
The Central Black Earth Region or the Central-Chernozem Region; is a segment of the Eurasian Black Earth belt that lies within Central Russia and comprises Voronezh Oblast, Lipetsk Oblast, Belgorod Oblast, Tambov Oblast, Oryol Oblast and K ...
, and parts of Ukraine.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:German occupation of Crimea during World War II
1941 establishments in Russia
1941 establishments in Ukraine
1944 disestablishments in the Soviet Union
1944 disestablishments in Ukraine
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German military occupations
Military history of Germany during World War II
Nazi colonies in Eastern Europe
Soviet Union in World War II
States and territories established in 1941
States and territories disestablished in 1944
Ukraine in World War II