The District of Galicia (german: Distrikt Galizien, pl, Dystrykt Galicja, ua, Дистрикт Галичина) was a World War II administrative unit of the

General Government The General Government (german: Generalgouvernement, pl, Generalne Gubernatorstwo, uk, Генеральна губернія), also referred to as the General Governorate for the Occupied Polish Region (german: Generalgouvernement für die be ...

created by Nazi Germany on 1 August 1941 after the start of

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named afte ...

, based loosely within the borders of the ancient Principality of Galicia. Initially, during the invasion of Poland by Germany and the Soviet Union, the territory temporarily fell under the Soviet occupation in 1939 as part of

Soviet Ukraine The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ( uk, Украї́нська Радя́нська Соціалісти́чна Респу́бліка, ; russian: Украи́нская Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респ ...

. Adolf Hitler formed a capital in Lemberg (

Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in Western Ukraine, western Ukraine, and the List of cities in Ukraine, seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is o ...

) (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.

History

The District of Galicia comprised mainly the pre-war

Lwów Voivodeship Lwów Voivodeship ( pl, Województwo lwowskie) was an administrative unit of interwar Poland (1918–1939). Because of the Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland in accordance with the secret Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, it became occupied by both the Weh ...

of the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of the First World ...

(today part of

western Ukraine Western Ukraine or West Ukraine ( uk, Західна Україна, Zakhidna Ukraina or , ) is the territory of Ukraine linked to the former Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, which was part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Austr ...

). The territory was taken over by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

in 1941 after the attack on the USSR and incorporated into the

, governed by ''Gauleiter''

Hans Frank Hans Michael Frank (23 May 1900 – 16 October 1946) was a German politician and lawyer who served as head of the General Government in Nazi-occupied Poland during the Second World War. Frank was an early member of the German Workers' Par ...

since the invasion of 1939. The region was taken over again by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

in 1944. The district area was managed by Frank's

brother-in-law A sibling-in-law is the spouse of one's sibling, or the sibling of one's spouse, or the person who is married to the sibling of one's spouse.Cambridge Dictionaries Online.Family: non-blood relations. More commonly, a sibling-in-law is referre ...

Karl Lasch ( de, pl) from 1 August 1941 to 6 January 1942, and by SS

Brigadeführer ''Brigadeführer'' (, ) was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) that was used between the years of 1932 to 1945. It was mainly known for its use as an SS rank. As an SA rank, it was used after briefly being known as ''Untergruppenf ...

Dr.

Otto Wächter Baron Otto Gustav von Wächter (8 July 1901 – 14 July 1949) was an Austrian lawyer, Nazi politician and a high-ranking member of the SS, a paramilitary organisation of the Nazi Party. During the occupation of Poland in World War II, he was t ...

from 6 January 1942 to September 1943. Wächter utilised the district capital

Lemberg Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukrain ...

(pl: Lwów, ukr: Lviv) as a recruitment base for the

14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Galicia (1st Ukrainian) The 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Galician) (german: 14. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS alizische Nr. 1}; uk, 14а Гренадерська Дивізія СС (1а галицька)), known as the 14th SS-Volunteer Division ...

. In the course of the Holocaust in occupied Poland starting from the year of the invasion, the largest

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

extermination ghettos were created in Lwów (Lemberg) and in Stanisławów (Stanislau).

Governors

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Galicia History of Eastern Galicia General Government World War II occupied territories Invasion of Poland 1941 establishments in Europe 1944 disestablishments in Europe History of Lviv Oblast History of Ternopil Oblast History of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast

History

Governors

See also

References