| Generalbezirk Weißruthenien Belarusian:Генеральная акруга Беларусь | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Generalbezirk ofReichskommissariat Ostland | |||||||||
| 1941–1944 | |||||||||
 Map ofGeneralbezirk Weißruthenien (in shades of brown) within theReichskommissariat Ostland | |||||||||
| Capital | Minsk | ||||||||
| Government | Civil administration | ||||||||
| Generalkommissar | |||||||||
• 1941-1943 | Wilhelm Kube | ||||||||
• 1943-1944 | Curt von Gottberg | ||||||||
| SS and Police Leader | |||||||||
• 1941 | Jakob Sporrenberg | ||||||||
• 1941-1942 | Carl Zenner | ||||||||
• 1942 | Karl Schäfer | ||||||||
• 1942-1943 | Curt von Gottberg | ||||||||
• 1942-1943 | Erich Ehrlinger | ||||||||
| Historical era | World War II | ||||||||
• Established | 1 September 1941 | ||||||||
• Dissolved | 1 August 1944 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of |  Belarus | ||||||||
Generalbezirk Weißruthenien (Belarusian:Генеральная акруга Беларусь;lit. 'General DistrictWhite Ruthenia') was anadministrative subdivision of theReichskommissariat Ostland ofNazi Germany that covered westernBelarus from 1941 to 1944. It served as the Nazicivilian administration for theGerman occupation of Belarus duringWorld War II, and supervised the collaborationistBelarusian Central Council ofRadasłaŭ Astroŭski.
Wilhelm Kube was theGeneralkommissar of Generalbezirk Weißruthenien until his death in 1943. Kube was succeeded bySS and Police LeaderCurt von Gottberg who served asGeneralkommissar for the remainder of its existence.
Generalbezirk Weißruthenien was established in theByelorussian SSR (Belarus) on 1 September 1941, the third of the fouradministrative districts ofReichskommissariat Ostland. It was organized on the territory ofGerman-occupied Byelorussia, primarily theWest Belarus region (including theWilno andNowogródek regions of theeastern territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union) which had until then been under the military administration of theWehrmacht'sArmy Group Centre.
Minsk was the capital ofGeneralbezirk Weißruthenien and theBelarusian Central Council, apuppet government led byRadasłaŭ Astroŭski set up by the Germans with Belarusiancollaborators to administer the territory. The Belarusian Central Council had a limited role in governing and mostly served as a facade for the German administration.
On 1 April 1944,Generalbezirk Weißruthenien was detached fromReichskommissariat Ostland and was subordinated directly to theReich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories.[1]
Generalbezirk Weißruthenien was subdivided intoGebiete (areas). According to different sources, it had from as few as 9[2] to as many as 39[3] such subdivisions, some of them planned but never transitioned from military to civilian administration. These were to be subordinated to four or fiveHauptgebiete (main areas) headquartered inBaranowitschi,Minsk,Mogilew,Witebsk, and possiblySmolensk.
Civil administration was led by aGeneralkommissar (General Commissioner) directly appointed byAdolf Hitler, and who reported to OstlandReichskommissarHinrich Lohse, headquartered inRiga.[4] In addition, police and security matters were overseen by anSS and Police Leader (SSPF) directly appointed byReichsführer-SSHeinrich Himmler, and who reported to the Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF)Ostland und Russland-Nord in Riga, SS-GruppenführerHans-Adolf Prützmann until 1 November 1941, and SS-ObergruppenführerFriedrich Jeckeln until 1 April 1943. At that point, jurisdiction was transferred to the HSSPF "Russland Mitte" (Central Russia) headed by SS-ObergruppenführerErich von dem Bach-Zelewski until 21 June 1944, and SS-GruppenführerCurt von Gottberg from that date forward.[5]
Precise demographic data on theJewish population ofGeneralbezirk Weißruthenien in August 1941 is not available, but it is likely there were over 300,000 Jews. The area was in the heart of thePale of Settlement, and ten of thousands of Jewish refugees had arrived from central and western Poland in the fall of 1939, but many of them were deported to the Soviet interior before June 1941. A further unknown figure is the number of Jews who were evacuated or fled in time or were recruited into theRed Army. As an example, of the 70,998 Jews registered in Minsk in 1939, it is estimated that about 55,000 remained when the Germans invaded on 28 June 1941.[8] By 1944, it is estimated that roughly 800,000Byelorussian Jews, or about 90% of the Jewish population of Byelorussia, were murdered.
Following the German invasion, the Nazi death squads ofEinsatzgruppe B immediately began the systematic murder of Jews. Following a massive wave of killings between mid-May and the end of July 1942, Kube reported that in the 10 weeks, 55,000 Jews had been liquidated. Only in the districts of Baranowitsche and Hansewitschi were such large operations still to be conducted, especially in Baranowitsche, where about 10,000 Jews remained. The escape of up to 20,000 Jews from theJewish ghettos to theSoviet partisans forced the Germans to accelerate the liquidations of ghettos. By the spring of 1943, ghettos remained only in a few locations, including Minsk,Lida,Nowogródek, and Głębokie. In October 1943, theMinsk ghetto, the largest ghetto in the Nazi-occupied Soviet Union, was the last inGeneralbezirk Weißruthenien to be liquidated, and nearly all of its nearly 100,000 detainees perished.[8][9]
On 22 June 1944, the Red Army launchedOperation Bagration into Byelorussia which rapidlyencircled and defeated most German forces in the region. On 29 June 1944, the Red Army launched theMinsk offensive and, on 3 July, the city fell. On 1 August, administration of those parts of Byelorussia still under German occupation reverted to military administration of Army Group Centre under the command ofWalter Model, andGeneralbezirk Weißruthenien effectively ceased to exist. Gottberg was transferred to theWaffen-SS to become commander ofXII SS Corps on theWestern Front.[10]
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