| District of Galicia Distrikt Galizien | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| District of General Governorate | |||||||||||||
| 1941–1944 | |||||||||||||
 The District of Galicia (green), from 1941–1944 | |||||||||||||
| Capital | Lemberg | ||||||||||||
| Area | |||||||||||||
• | 51,200 km2 (19,800 sq mi) | ||||||||||||
| Population | |||||||||||||
• | 4,400,000 | ||||||||||||
| Historical era | World War II | ||||||||||||
• Established | 1941 | ||||||||||||
• Disestablished | 1944 | ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| Today part of | Ukraine | ||||||||||||
TheDistrict of Galicia (German:Distrikt Galizien,Polish:Dystrykt Galicja,Ukrainian:Дистрикт Галичина) was a World War II administrative unit of theGeneral Government created by Nazi Germany on 1 August 1941 after the start ofOperation Barbarossa, based loosely within the borders of the ancient Principality of Galicia and the more recentKingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. Initially, during theinvasion of Poland by Germany and the Soviet Union, the territory temporarily fell under Soviet occupation in 1939 as part ofSoviet Ukraine.
Adolf Hitler formed a capital in Lemberg (Lviv) (Document No. 1997-PS of 17 July 1941), and the district existed from 1941 until 1944. It ceased to exist after the Soviet counter-offensive.[1][2]
The District of Galicia comprised mainly the pre-warLwów,Tarnopol, andStanisławówvoivodeships of theSecond Polish Republic, which are today part ofwestern Ukraine. The territory was taken over byNazi Germany in 1941 afterthe attack on the USSR and incorporated into theGeneral Government, which had been governed byGauleiterHans Frank since the 1939invasion of Poland. The region was retaken by theSoviet Union in 1944.
The district area was managed by Frank'sbrother-in-law Karl Lasch (de,pl) from 1 August 1941 to 6 January 1942, and bySSBrigadeführer Dr.Otto Wächter from 6 January 1942 to September 1943. Wächter utilised the district capitalLemberg (pl: Lwów, ukr: Lviv) as a recruitment base for the14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Galicia (1st Ukrainian). In the course ofthe Holocaust in occupied Poland starting from the year of the invasion, the largestJewishextermination ghettos werecreated in Lwów (Lemberg) andin Stanisławów (Stanislau).[3]
On the territory of Galicia during the German occupation of 1941–1944, publications on labour in Germany were published. German propaganda policy of the time encouraged Galician workers to work in Germany and the way the policy was changed over the time.[4]
| No. | Portrait | Governor | Took office | Left office | Time in office |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ![Karl Lasch [de]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aKarl_Lasch.jpg) | Lasch, KarlKarl Lasch [de] (1904–1942) | 1 August 1941 | 6 January 1942 | 5 months |
| 2 |  | Wächter, OttoOtto Wächter (1901–1949) | 22 January 1942 | August 1944 | 2 years, 6 months |
It is impossible to determine whatKrueger's exact responsibility was in connection with "Bloody Sunday" [massacre of 12 October 1941 in Stanisławów]. It is clear that a massacre of such proportions under German civil administration was virtually unprecedented.
