203rd Security Division
203. Sicherungs-Division
Active	1941–1944
Country	Nazi Germany
Branch	Army (Wehrmacht)
Type	Security division
Size	Division
Engagements	World War II

The203rd Security Division, was arear-security division in theWehrmacht ofNazi Germany. The unit was deployed in German-occupied areas of theSoviet Union, in theArmy Group Centre Rear Area and was responsible for large-scale war crimes and atrocities.

The division was formed in June 1942 on the basis of the 203rd Security Brigade that was itself formed in December 1941.^{[1][page needed]} It operated in theArmy Group Centre Rear Area, of the occupied regions of theSoviet Union behindArmy Group Centre's front lines. Its duties included security ofcommunications andsupply lines, economic exploitation and combatting irregular fighters (partisans) in Wehrmacht's rear areas.^[2]

The so-called anti-partisan operations in "bandit-infested" areas amounted to destruction of villages, plunder and enslavement of civilian population. In July 1942, the division took part in '"Operation Peter". The unit received specific instructions regarding the villages deemed "bandit-friendly" (those failing to meet agricultural quotas). The division was to appropriate livestock, deport the population for slave labour to Germany and burn the villages down.^[3]

The unit suffered heavy losses during the SovietRed Army summer offensiveOperation Bagration in 1944. In October 1944 it was designated the 203rd Infantry Division, and continued to fight on the Eastern Front until Germany's surrender.^{[1][page needed]}

• GeneralleutnantRudolf Pilz (January 1943 – 19 August 1944)
• GeneralleutnantMax Horn (19 August 1944 – 18 November 1944)
• GeneralleutnantWilhelm Thomas (18 November 1944 – 26 December 1944)
• GeneralmajorFritz Gädicke (26 December 1944 – April 1945)

• War crimes of the Wehrmacht

• Mitcham, Samuel W. (2007).German Order of Battle: 1st-290th Infantry Divisions in World War II. Mechanicsburg: Stackpole Books.ISBN 978-0-8117-3416-5.
• 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.

• Beorn, Waitman Wade (2014).Marching into Darkness: The Wehrmacht and the Holocaust in Belarus. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.ISBN 978-0674725508.
• Marston, Daniel; Malkasian, Carter, eds. (2011).Counterinsurgency in Modern Warfare. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.ISBN 978-1849086431.
• Rutherford, Jeff (2014).Combat and Genocide on the Eastern Front. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN 978-1107055711.
• Shepherd, Ben H. (2004).War in the Wild East the German Army and Soviet Partisans. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.ISBN 0674043553.
• Shepherd, Ben H. (2016).Hitler's Soldiers: The German Army in the Third Reich. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press.ISBN 978-0300179033.

• Military units and formations established in 1941
• Security units of Nazi Germany established in 1941
• 1942 establishments in Germany
• Military units and formations disestablished in 1945
• Security divisions of Germany during World War II
• War crimes of the Wehrmacht

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from April 2017