Reichskommissariat Ukraine | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1941–1944 | |||||||||||
| Anthem: Horst-Wessel-Lied ("The Horst Wessel Song") | |||||||||||
.svg) Reichskommissariat Ukraine in 1942 | |||||||||||
| Status | Reichskommissariat ofNazi Germany | ||||||||||
| Capital | Kiev (de jure) Rovno (de facto) | ||||||||||
| Common languages | |||||||||||
| Demonyms | Crimean Tatars Ukrainians | ||||||||||
| Government | Reichskommissariat ofNazi Germany[1] | ||||||||||
| Reichskommissar | |||||||||||
• 1941–1944 | Erich Koch | ||||||||||
| Historical era | World War II | ||||||||||
| 22 June 1941 | |||||||||||
• Established | 20 August 1941 | ||||||||||
• Implement civil administration | 1 September 1941 | ||||||||||
• Remainder part ofGeneralbezirk Weißruthenien | 25 February 1944 | ||||||||||
• Formal disestablishment | 10 November 1944 | ||||||||||
| Area | |||||||||||
• Total | 340,000 km2 (130,000 sq mi) | ||||||||||
| Population | |||||||||||
• 1941 | 37,000,000 | ||||||||||
| Currency | Karbovanets | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
| Today part of | |||||||||||
TheReichskommissariat Ukraine (RKU;lit. 'ReichCommissariat of Ukraine') was anadministrative entity of theReich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories ofNazi Germany from 1941 to 1944. It served as the Germancivilian occupation regime in theUkrainian SSR and parts of theByelorussian SSR,Russian SFSR, and easternPoland during theEastern Front ofWorld War II.
Reichskommissariat Ukraine was established after the early success of theWehrmacht'sOperation Barbarossa for territory under themilitary administration ofArmy Group South Rear Area. The German civil administration was based inRovno (Rivne) withErich Koch serving as the onlyReichskommissar during its existence.
Reichskommissariat Ukraine was part of theGeneralplan Ost which included the expulsion, enslavement, and genocide of the native Ukrainian population, thegenocide of the land’s Jewish population, the settlement ofGermanic peoples, and theGermanization of the rest. TheSS and theirEinsatzgruppen, with active participation of theOrder Police battalions andUkrainian collaborators.[2]
It is estimated that900,000 to 1.6 million Jews and 3[3] to 4[4] million non-JewishUkrainians were killed during the occupation; other sources estimate that 5.2 million Ukrainian civilians (of all ethnic groups) perished due tocrimes against humanity, war-relateddisease, andfamine, amounting to more than 12% of Ukraine's population at the time.[5]
In the course of 1943 and 1944, theRed Army recaptured most ofUkraine in their advance westwards. Koch was appointedReichskommissar ofReichskommissariat Ostland in August 1944, and it was formally dissolved on 10 November 1944.
On 22 June 1941,Nazi Germany launchedOperation Barbarossa against theSoviet Union in breach of the mutualTreaty of Non-Aggression. In anticipation of the invasion,Adolf Hitler had taskedAlfred Rosenberg with preparing theReich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories (Ostministerium) to oversee administration of the Soviet territories conquered by theWehrmacht.
On 17 July 1941, Hitler issued aFührer decree defining the administration of the newly-occupied Eastern territories.[6]
On 20 August, Hitler established theReichskommissariat Ukraine and appointedErich Koch, theGauleiter ofEast Prussia, as itsReichskommissar. On the same day, Hitler announced that the region would be undercivil administration from noon on 1 September and delineated the boundaries of the region.[7][8]
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 ofEastern Europe under the banner ofLebensraum for the fulfilment of the material needs of theGermanic people. Ideological declarations about the GermanHerrenvolk (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."[9]
On 14 December 1941, Rosenberg discussed with Hitler various administrative issues regarding theReichskommissariat Ukraine.[10]
On 28 July 1944, theRed Army occupied the last part of theReichskommissariat Ukraine inBrest, though it continued to exist as a legal entity. In August 1944, Koch was transferred toReichskommissariat Ostland when itsReichskommissarHinrich Lohse fled the territory without permission due to the Red Army advance.Reichskommissariat Ukraine was officially dissolved on 10 November 1944.[1]
TheReichskommissariat Ukraine excluded several parts of present-dayUkraine, and included some territories outside of its modern borders. It extended in the west from theVolhynia region aroundLutsk, to a line fromVinnytsia to Mykolaiv along theSouthern Bug river in the south, to the areas surroundingKiev,Poltava andZaporozhye in the east. Conquered territories further to the east, including the rest of Ukraine (Crimea,Chernigov,Kharkov, and theDonets Basin), were under military governance until the German withdrawal 1943–44.[11]
Eastern Galicia was transferred to the control of theGeneral Government following a Hitler decree, becoming its fifth district (District of Galicia).[citation needed]
It also encompassed several southern parts of today'sBelarus, includingPolesia, a large area to the north of thePripyat River with forests and marshes, as well as the city ofBrest-Litovsk, and the towns ofPinsk andMozyr.[12] This was done by the Germans in order to secure a steadywood supply and efficient railroad and water transportation.[12]
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The administrative capital of theReichskommissariat wasRovno, and it was divided into sixGeneralbezirke (general districts), calledGeneralkommissariate (general commissariats) in the pre-Barbarossa planning. This administrative structure was in turn subdivided into 114Kreisgebiete, and further into 443Parteien.[citation needed]
EachGeneralbezirk was administered by aGeneralkommissar; eachKreisgebiete "circular [i.e., district] area" was led by aGebietskommissar and eachPartei "party" was governed by a Ukrainian or German "Parteien Chef" (Party Chief). At the level below were German or UkrainianAkademiker ("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.[citation needed]
The six general districts were (English names and administrative centres in parentheses):
Scheduled for incorporation into theReichskommissariat Ukraine but never transferred to civil administration were theGeneralkommissariate Tschernigow (Chernigov),Charkow (Kharkov),Stalino (Donetsk),Woronezh (Voronezh),Rostow (Rostov-on-Don),Stalingrad, andSaratow (Saratov), which would have brought the boundary of the province to the western border ofKazakhstan.[13] In addition,Reichskommissar Koch had wishes of further extending hisReichskommissariat toCiscaucasia.[14]
The administrative position of the KrimGeneralbezirk remained ambiguous.[citation needed] According to the original German plan it was to correspond approximately to the oldTaurida Governorate (therefore including also mainland portions of Ukraine), and was to consist of twoTeilbezirke (sub-districts):[citation needed]
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.[15] 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 andReichskommissariat Ostland).[citation needed]
The district's title was a misnomer, it only included the area north of theCrimean peninsula up to theDnieper river.[15]
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.[16] 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 theReichskommissariat. 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 separatelyoccupied by Romania.[citation needed]
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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 theWaffen-SS, as promoted by local Ukrainian nationalist organizations, theOUN-B and theOUN-M, whilst receiving political support from the Wehrmacht.[citation needed]
The GermanReichsführer-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 theWaffen-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 recruitingSlavs in general and Soviet nationals in particular into theWehrmacht.[citation needed]
| Sleeve badges of battalions of the so-called «Ukrainian Hilfspolizei» in the German Ordnungspolizei of the Reichskommissariat Ukraine[17] | |||||||
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| 106th | 114th | 115th and 118th | Officers' badge | ||||
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In the civil administration of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories numerous technical staff worked underGeorg Leibbrandt, former chief of the east section of theforeign 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 ofHermann Göring (thePlenipotentiary of Germany'sFour Year Plan). From 21 March 1942Fritz 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 thatSauckel confine himself to setting requirements, leaving the actual "recruitment" ofOst-Arbeiter to Koch and his brutes. TheTodt 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 asSonderverwaltungen (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.
TheReichskommissariat Ukraine paid occupation taxes and funds to theGerman Reich until February 1944 in the amount of 1.246 billion ℛ︁ℳ︁ (equivalent to €5 billion 2021) and 107.9 million Rbls, in accord with information composed byLutz von Krosigk, the Reich Minister of Finances.
The Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories ordered Koch andHinrich Lohse (theReichskommissar 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 theBattle 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 Germanstate properties. Additionally the replacement of Russian[clarification needed]Kolkhozes andSovkhozes, 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 andDonbas area.
According to the Nazis, both Jewish and Slavic Ukrainians wereUntermenschen 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"[18] and "remember that the lowliest German worker is racially and biologically a thousand times more valuable than the population here, which is more distinct fromAryan genealogy than Leningrad."[19]
The regime was planning to encourage the settlement ofGerman 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".[20] The sending ofDutch settlers was charged to theDutch East Company (Nederlandsche Oost-Compagnie), a Dutch National Socialist organization aimed to establish Dutch colonies in the territories conquered by the Nazis.[21][22]
In Ukraine, the Germans published a local journal in the German language, theDeutsche Ukrainezeitung.[citation needed]
During the occupation a very small number of cities and their accompanying districts maintainedGerman names. These cities were designated as urban strongholds for Volksdeutsche natives.[23]Hegewald (Himmler's field headquarters and the location of a small, experimental German colony),[24]Försterstadt (also a Volksdeutsche colony),[25]Halbstadt (a Low GermanMennonite settlement),[23]Alexanderstadt,[26]Kronau[23] andFriesendorf[27] were some of these.
On 12 August 1941, Hitler ordered the complete destruction of the Ukrainian capital of Kiev by the use ofincendiary bombs and gunfire.[28] Because the German military lacked sufficient material for this operation it wasn't carried out, after which the Nazi planners insteaddecided to starve the city's inhabitants. Heinrich Himmler on the other hand considered Kiev to be "an ancient German city" because of theMagdeburg city rights that it had acquired centuries prior.[28]
A German colony, the RKU constituted an important part of Adolf Hitler's Lebensraum and was completely deprived of autonomy or international status. Nazi plans called for the postwar unification of the RKU with the territory of the German Reich; most Ukrainians (considered unfit for Germanization) were to be resettled beyond the Urals to make room for German colonists. In fact Hitler was unable to inspire many Germans to colonize Ukraine. Despite ambitious plans only a few villages were cleared of their Ukrainian inhabitants and populated with Germans (both groups were resettled under duress). Those experiments were profoundly resented by the local population, which saw them as portents of German postwar intentions. Resettlement was also prevented by the German retreat and then by the formal liquidation of the RKU on 10 November 1944.
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