In consequence of the rapid advance of the German troops, they already occupied the entire Baltic, Belarus and Ukraine in the summer of 1941. These areas were declared “pacified” and taken out of the control of the Wehrmacht.
A German civil administration largely modelled on that in the Reich was set up. Among other things, offices of the general civil service, the security police and the order police were instituted.
Already on 16 July 1941 Hitler gave a fundamental lecture on the future occupation policies, among other things, the creation of a civil administration in the occupied Eastern territories and the appointment of Rosenberg as its chief.
The fundamental Fuehrer order on the administration of the newly occupied Eastern territories went out on 17 July 1941. The Fuehrer’s order on the securing of the newly occupied Eastern territories, dealing with the responsibilities of the police and the SS in the occupied Eastern territories, was issued the same day. Doc vol V (Brown folder) p 357, doc vol VIII p 632, doc vol V p 359
The following offices and posts were created, in top-down hierarchical
order: doc vol VII p 633
The Reichsministerium for the occupied Eastern territories
Under Reichsminister Alfred Rosenberg with headquarters in BerlinThe Reichs Commissariat East
Under Reichscommissar Heinrich Lohse with headquarters in Riga
And
V. The Reichs Commissariat Ukraine
Under Reichscommissar Erich Koch with headquarters in Kiev.
The RC East consisted of the General Commissariats (General Districts)
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Belarus (225,000 sq. km., 9.85 milllion inhabitants)
The General Commissariats represented the middle levels of German civil administration. They were comparable to Prussian provinces, but were considerably larger in area and had many more inhabitants.
The commissariat of sole interest here, Belarus, under General Commissar
Gauleiter Kuben (assassinated 22 September 1943) with headquarters in Minsk
consisted of 5 Hauptkommissariaten [Main Commissariats] (Hauptbezirken)
Minsk
VI. Baranovichi
Vitebsk, Smolensk, and Mogilev
In fact, civil administrations were set up only in the HCs Minsk
and Baranovichi, while the remaining 3 HCs were always rearguard military
districts.
The HC in Baranovichi was SA-Gruppenfuehrer Fenz (killed in action 17 February 1943). His adjutant and orderly was, from October 1941 to end of January 1943, the witness Baron von Stackelberg. Vol 11 p 1488, vol 19 p 2634
The HC Baranovichi (41,000 sq, km) consisted of the Gebietskommissariate
(Kreisegebieten) [= Regional Commissariats, RC]
Baranovichi, Slonim, Novogrodek, Hansewicze, and Lida.
The above mentioned HCs were a true intermediate layer between the
General Commissariat and the RC. They were merely responsible for
“the equal application of administration in the regions assigned them”
, had a general right to all data, and in emergencies could overrule the
RC. The correspondence between the General Commissariat and the RC,
and vice versa, transpired directly, HCs were only informed of important
matters.
At the peak of the RC stood as bearer of the majesty of the Reich, the Regional Commissar [RC, too; usually obvious from context if it’s the office or the person], whose position corresponded roughly to that of Prussian Landrat.
However, the RCs were generally larger in area as well as in population than the Prussian Regierungsbezirke [the area governed by a Landrat]. The RC was assisted by the Staff Chief [Stablseiter] who was simultaneously Chief of the Division of Politics and Nationality [Volkstum].
The Staff Leaders were fundamentally “Ordensjunker” [a term identifying graduates of special Nazi schools] who had a special political education and had, among other things, to make sure that the interests of the party were properly served.
The RC formed the lowest level of German bureaucracy. Larger cities were under City Commissars. The RC had under him the local mayors of the cities belonging to the district (Kreis or Rayon), and the local administrators (Ortsschulzen = mayor of very small village or hamlet ). Each RC had various divisions and offices, among them politics, economics, etc.
The RC was the “Director of the Police Units” (Polizeigebietsfuehrer, generally a Bez. Ltn., later Obltn or Hauptmann of the Gendarmerie), and was also in charge of the Gendarmie posts and substations all over the region. With this, the entire police was under the immediate command of the RC, as “bearer of the majesty of the Reich”. Vol 5 p 867, vol 14 p 2007 (Heuster) vol 16 p 2237 (Riedel) doc vol III p 183, 226 ff, doc vol VII p 645, 651
In the frame of civil administration, German penal courts and Germany attorneys were also introduced, which were responsible for the crimes of Reichs Germans and those of German descent, as well as of the local population. Alongside, there was in every General District a Special Court. Doc vol V p 333, 334
On the basis of the Fuehrer’s edict of 17 July 1941 on the administration of the newly occupied Eastern territories, there followed numerous orders as well as guidelines for the civil administration.
Next, the VO [Verordnung, or decree. Differs from a law in that the executive states it & it goes into effect. No legislature is involved] of the Reichsminister for the occupied Eastern territories of 16 August 1941 required all Jews from the end of the14th year to the end of the 60th year to be forced laborers. To this end, the Jews were collected into forced labor brigades. Doc vol V p 364
On the basis of a VO of 6 October 1941 on the police penal powers of
the RC in connection to the execution regulations of 7 February 1942, the
RC had the power to hand down prison sentences of up to 2 years and assess
monetary fines of up to 5,000 RM. Such sentences levied against Jews
could not be appealed. Vol 20 p 2707 (Gutachten Inst f. Zeitgeschichte)
doc vol V p 368
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