Army Group North Rear Area
Rückwärtiges Heeresgebiet Nord
Active	1941-44
Country	Nazi Germany
Branch	Army (Wehrmacht)
Part of	Army Group North andArmy High Command
Engagements	World War II
Commanders
Notable commanders	Franz von Roques Kuno-Hans von Both

Army Group North Rear Area (Rückwärtiges Heeresgebiet Nord) was one of the threeArmy Group Rear Area Commands, established during the 1941 Germaninvasion of the Soviet Union. Initially commanded by GeneralFranz von Roques, it was an area of military jurisdiction behindWehrmacht'sArmy Group North.

The Group North Rear Area's outward function was to provide security behind the fighting troops. It was also a site of mass murder duringThe Holocaust and othercrimes against humanity targeting the civilian population. In the words of historian Michael Parrish, the army commander "presided over an empire of terror and brutality".^[1]

The commander of the Army Group North Rear Area, GeneralFranz von Roques, was responsible for the rear area security. Its headquarters was subordinated toArmy Group North, while also reporting to the Wehrmacht's Quartermaster GeneralEduard Wagner, who had the overall responsibility for rear area security.^[2] The tasks also included transfer of prisoners of war to the rear.^[3]

Roques controlled threeSecurity Divisions (207th,281st, and285th) and oversaw the units ofSecret Field Police of the Wehrmacht. He operated in parallel, and in cooperation, withHans-Adolf Prützmann and, since November 1941, withFriedrich Jeckeln, theHigher SS and Police Leaders appointed by the head of theSS,Heinrich Himmler.^[2]

The area commanders' duties included security of communications and supply lines, economic exploitation and combatting guerillas (partisans) in Wehrmacht's rear areas, which were the primary tasks of the security divisions.^[4] In addition, security and police formations of the SS and theSD (SS Security Service) operated in the areas, being subordinated to the respective Higher SS and Police Leaders. These units included multipleEinsatzgruppendeath squad detachments,Police Regiment North and additionalOrder Police battalions. These units perpetrated mass murder duringThe Holocaust and othercrimes against humanity. While under military jurisdiction, the area was the site of theKaunas pogrom, instigated by theSD. During the same period, mass murder of POWs, Jews and other civilians took place at the9th Fort.^[5]

The security formations, often in coordination with or under the leadership of the Wehrmacht, conducted security warfare targeting civilian population. The so-called anti-partisan operations in "bandit-infested" areas amounted to destruction of villages, seizure of livestock, deporting of able-bodied population for slave labour to Germany and murder of those of non-working age.^[6]

• Hill, Alexander (2005).The War Behind The Eastern Front: The Soviet Partisan Movement In North-West Russia 1941–1944. London & New York, NY:Frank Cass.ISBN 978-0-7146-5711-0.
• Megargee, Geoffrey P. (2007).War of Annihilation: Combat and Genocide on the Eastern Front, 1941. Rowman & Littlefield.ISBN 978-0-7425-4482-6.
• Parrish, Michael (1996).The Lesser Terror: Soviet State Security, 1939–1953. Praeger Press.ISBN 978-0-275-95113-9.
• Shepherd, Ben H. (2003). "The Continuum of Brutality: Wehrmacht Security Divisions in Central Russia, 1942".German History.21 (1):49–81.doi:10.1191/0266355403gh274oa.
• Shepherd, Ben H. (2004).War in the Wild East the German Army and Soviet Partisans. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.ISBN 0674043553.

• Blood, Phillip W. (2006).Hitler's Bandit Hunters: The SS and the Nazi Occupation of Europe. Potomac Books.ISBN 978-1-59797-021-1. Archived fromthe original on 2015-12-24.
• Wette, Wolfram (2007).The Wehrmacht: History, Myth, Reality. Harvard University Press.ISBN 978-0674025776.

• Military units and formations established in 1941
• Military units and formations disestablished in 1944
• Army groups of the German Army in World War II
• War crimes of the Wehrmacht

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata