German Occupation Of Byelorussia During World War II
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German invasion of the Soviet Union 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 after ...
on 22 June 1941 led to the
military occupation Military occupation, also known as belligerent occupation or simply occupation, is the effective military control by a ruling power over a territory that is outside of that power's sovereign territory.Eyāl Benveniśtî. The international law ...
of Byelorussia until August 1944 with the Soviet
Operation Bagration Operation Bagration (; russian: Операция Багратио́н, Operatsiya Bagration) was the codename for the 1944 Soviet Byelorussian strategic offensive operation (russian: Белорусская наступательная оп ...
. The western parts of Byelorussia became part of the
Reichskommissariat Ostland The Reichskommissariat Ostland (RKO) was established by Nazi Germany in 1941 during World War II. It became the civilian occupation regime in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and the western part of Byelorussian SSR. German planning documents initia ...
in 1941, and in 1943 the German authorities allowed local collaborators to set up a regional government, the
Belarusian Central Rada The Belarusian Central Council ( be, Беларуская цэнтральная рада, in lacinka: Biełaruskaja centralnaja rada; german: Weißruthenischer Zentralrat) was a puppet administrative body in German-occupied Belarus during Worl ...
, that lasted until the
Soviets Soviet people ( rus, сове́тский наро́д, r=sovyétsky naród), or citizens of the USSR ( rus, гра́ждане СССР, grázhdanye SSSR), was an umbrella demonym for the population of the Soviet Union. Nationality policy in th ...
reestablished control over the region. During the occupation, German actions led to about 1.6 million civilian deaths including 500,000 to 550,000 Jews in the Holocaust in Belarus.


Background

The Soviet and Belarusian historiographies study the subject of German occupation in the context of contemporary Belarus, regarded as the
Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR, or Byelorussian SSR; be, Беларуская Савецкая Сацыялістычная Рэспубліка, Bielaruskaja Savieckaja Sacyjalistyčnaja Respublika; russian: Белор ...
(BSSR), a constituent republic of 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 national ...
in the 1941 borders as a whole. Polish historiography insists on special, even separate treatment for the East Lands of the Poland in the 1921 borders (alias "''Kresy Wschodnie''" alias
West Belarus Western Belorussia or Western Belarus ( be, Заходняя Беларусь, translit=Zachodniaja Bielaruś; pl, Zachodnia Białoruś; russian: Западная Белоруссия, translit=Zapadnaya Belorussiya) is a historical region of mod ...
), which were incorporated into the BSSR after the Soviet invaded Poland on 17 September 1939. More than 100,000 people of different ethnic backgrounds, mostly Poles and Jews in West Belarus, were imprisoned, executed or transported to the eastern USSR by Soviet authorities before the German invasion. The
NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...
(Soviet secret police) killed more than 1,000 prisoners in June and July 1941, for example, in
Chervyen Červień or Chervyen ( be, Чэрвень, ; Ігумен – ''Ihumen'' till 1923; russian: Червень ''Cherven''; pl, Czerwień; yi, Humen/Igumen, lt, Červenė), also spelled Cherven, is a Belarusian town in Minsk Region. It is the adm ...
.


Invasion

After twenty months of Soviet rule in Western Belarus and Western Ukraine,
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 ...
and its
Axis An axis (plural ''axes'') is an imaginary line around which an object rotates or is symmetrical. Axis may also refer to: Mathematics * Axis of rotation: see rotation around a fixed axis * Axis (mathematics), a designator for a Cartesian-coordinat ...
allies invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941. Eastern Belarus suffered particularly heavily during the fighting and German
occupation Occupation commonly refers to: *Occupation (human activity), or job, one's role in society, often a regular activity performed for payment *Occupation (protest), political demonstration by holding public or symbolic spaces *Military occupation, th ...
. Following bloody encirclement battles, all of the present-day
Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...
territory was occupied by the Germans by the end of August 1941. With Poland regarding the Soviet annexation as illegal, the majority of Polish citizens did not ask for Soviet citizenship from 1939 to 1941, and as a result were Polish citizens under Soviet and later German occupation.


Occupation

In the early days of the occupation, a powerful and increasingly well-coordinated
Soviet partisan Soviet partisans were members of resistance movements that fought a guerrilla war against Axis forces during World War II in the Soviet Union, the previously Soviet-occupied territories of interwar Poland in 1941–45 and eastern Finland. The ...
movement emerged. Hiding in the woods and swamps, the partisans inflicted heavy damage to German supply lines and communications, disrupting railway tracks, bridges, telegraph wires, attacking supply depots, fuel dumps and transports, and ambushing Axis soldiers. In one of the most successful partisan sabotage actions of the entire Second World War, the so-called
Asipovichy Asipovichy ( be, Асiповiчы; Łacinka: Asipovičy, pl, Osipowicze) or Osipovichi (russian: Осипо́вичи) is a town in Mahilyow Oblast, Belarus, located 136 km southwest of Mahilyow, 3 km south of the Minsk-Homyel expresswa ...
diversion of 30 July 1943, four German trains with supplies and Tiger tanks were destroyed. To fight partisan activity, the Germans had to withdraw considerable forces behind their front line. On 22 June 1944, the huge Soviet Strategic Offensive
Operation Bagration Operation Bagration (; russian: Операция Багратио́н, Operatsiya Bagration) was the codename for the 1944 Soviet Byelorussian strategic offensive operation (russian: Белорусская наступательная оп ...
was launched, finally regaining all of Belarus by the end of August.


War crimes

The German invasion and occupation resulted in heavy human casualties, with some 380,000 people deported for slave labour, and the mass murder of hundreds of thousands of more civilians. The ethnically Slavic Byelorussian population was intended to be exterminated, expelled, or enslaved as part of the German ethnic cleansing operation named
Generalplan Ost The ''Generalplan Ost'' (; en, Master Plan for the East), abbreviated GPO, was the Nazi German government's plan for the genocide and ethnic cleansing on a vast scale, and colonization of Central and Eastern Europe by Germans. It was to be un ...
. At least 5,295 Byelorussian settlements were destroyed by the Nazis and some or all their inhabitants killed (out of 9,200 settlements that were burned or otherwise destroyed in Belarus during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
), and more than 600 villages like
Khatyn Khatyn ( be, Хаты́нь, Chatyń, ; russian: Хаты́нь, ) was a village of 26 houses and 157 inhabitants in Belarus, in Lahoysk Raion, Minsk Region, 50 km away from Minsk. On 22 March 1943, almost the entire population of the vil ...
had their entire population annihilated. Altogether, over 1 million were killed in Belarus during the three years of German occupation. A 2017 study found "that Soviet partisan attacks against German personnel provoked reprisals against civilians but that attacks against railroads had the opposite effect. Where partisans focused on disrupting German supply lines rather than killing Germans, occupying forces conducted fewer reprisals, burned fewer houses, and killed fewer people."


Nazi units

* 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Galicia (1st Ukrainian) * 29th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS RONA (1st Russian) * 30th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Belarussian) * 30th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (2nd Russian) * 36th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS *
Einsatzgruppen (, ; also ' task forces') were (SS) paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass murder, primarily by shooting, during World War II (1939–1945) in German-occupied Europe. The had an integral role in the im ...
*
Ukrainian Auxiliary Police The ''Ukrainische Hilfspolizei'' or the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police ( ua, Українська допоміжна поліція, Ukrains'ka dopomizhna politsiia) was the official title of the local police formation (a type of hilfspolizei) set up b ...
*
Byelorussian Auxiliary Police The Belarusian Auxiliary Police ( be, Беларуская дапаможная паліцыя, Biełaruskaja dapamožnaja palicyja; german: Weißruthenische Schutzmannschaften, or Hilfspolizei) was a collaborationist paramilitary force establis ...


Notable Nazi personnel

*
Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski Erich Julius Eberhard von dem Bach-Zelewski (born Erich Julius Eberhard von Zelewski; 1 March 1899 – 8 March 1972) was a high-ranking SS commander of Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State" ...
*
Gustavs Celmiņš Gustavs Celmiņš (April 1, 1899 – April 10, 1968) was a Latvian based politician, who was the founder of the Pērkonkrusts (Latvian pronunciation: , "Thunder Cross"). Biography He was educated at the commerce school of the Riga Stock Ex ...
*
Oskar Dirlewanger Oskar Paul Dirlewanger (26 September 1895 – ) was a German military officer ('' SS-Oberführer'') who served as the founder and commander of the Nazi SS penal unit "Dirlewanger" during World War II. Serving in Poland and in Belarus, his nam ...
*
Curt von Gottberg Curt Gustav Friedrich Walther von Gottberg (11 February 1896 – 31 May 1945) was a high-ranking SS ''Obergruppenführer'' who served as Higher SS and Police Leader for central Russia and, from September 1943, as the ''Generalkommissar'' (Comm ...
*
Konrāds Kalējs Konrāds Kalējs (26 June 1913 – 8 November 2001) was a Latvian soldier who was a Nazi collaborator and an alleged war criminal during World War II. He gained notoriety for evading calls for his prosecution across four countries, more than o ...
*
Bronislav Kaminski Bronislav Vladislavovich Stroganof Kaminski (russian: Бронисла́в Владисла́вович Ками́нский, 16 June 1899 – 28 August 1944) was a Russian Nazi collaborator and the commander of the Kaminski Brigade, an anti-par ...
*
Wilhelm Kube Wilhelm Kube (13 November 1887 – 22 September 1943) was a Nazi official and German politician. He was an important figure in the German Christian movement during the early years of Nazi rule. During the war he became a senior official in the o ...
* Anthony Sawoniuk * Karl Schäfer *
Jakob Sporrenberg Jakob Sporrenberg (16 September 1902 – 6 December 1952) was an SS-'' Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Polizei'' in Minsk, Belarus and Lublin, Poland. After the war, Sporrenberg stood trial in Poland and was convicted in 1950 of war crimes ...


Other units and participants

*
Army Group Centre Army Group Centre (german: Heeresgruppe Mitte) was the name of two distinct strategic German Army Groups that fought on the Eastern Front in World War II. The first Army Group Centre was created on 22 June 1941, as one of three German Army fo ...


Holocaust

The largest Jewish ghetto in
Soviet Belarus The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR, or Byelorussian SSR; be, Беларуская Савецкая Сацыялістычная Рэспубліка, Bielaruskaja Savieckaja Sacyjalistyčnaja Respublika; russian: Белор ...
before the conclusion of World War II was the
Minsk Ghetto The Minsk Ghetto was created soon after the German invasion of the Soviet Union. It was one of the largest in Belorussian SSR, and the largest in the German-occupied territory of the Soviet Union.Donald L. Niewyk, Francis R. Nicosia, ''The Co ...
, created by the Germans shortly after the invasion began. Almost the whole, previously numerous Jewish population of Belarus which did not evacuate east ahead of the German advance was killed during the Holocaust by bullet. The list of eradicated Jewish ghettos in Nazi-Soviet
occupied Poland ' (Norwegian: ') is a Norwegian political thriller TV series that premiered on TV2 on 5 October 2015. Based on an original idea by Jo Nesbø, the series is co-created with Karianne Lund and Erik Skjoldbjærg. Season 2 premiered on 10 October 2 ...
extending eastward toward the border with the Soviet Belarus can be found at the
Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland Ghettos were established by Nazi Germany in hundreds of locations across occupied Poland after the German invasion of Poland.Yitzhak Arad, ''Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka.'' Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis, 1987.''Biuletyn G ...
article.


Post-occupation

Later in 1944, 30 German-trained Belarusians were airdropped behind the Soviet front line to spark disarray. These were known as " Čorny Kot" ("Black Cat") led by
Michał Vituška Michal Apanasavič Vituška ( be, Міхал Апанасавіч Вітушка; russian: Михаи́л Афана́сьевич Виту́шко, ''Mikhail Afanasyevich Vitushko''; pl, Michał Wituszka; 5 November 1907 – 7 January 1945) was ...
. They had some initial success due to disorganization in the rear guard of
Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...
. Other Belarusian units slipped through
Białowieża Forest Białowieża Forest; lt, Baltvyžių giria; pl, Puszcza Białowieska  ; russian: Беловежская пуща, Belovezhskaya Pushcha is a forest on the border between Belarus and Poland. It is one of the last and largest remaining pa ...
and full scale guerilla war erupted in 1945. But the
NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...
infiltrated these units and neutralized them in 1957. In total, Belarus lost a quarter of its pre-war population in the Second World War, including practically all its intellectual elite. About 9,200 villages and 1,200,000 houses were destroyed. The major towns of
Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the admi ...
and
Vitebsk Vitebsk or Viciebsk (russian: Витебск, ; be, Ві́цебск, ; , ''Vitebsk'', lt, Vitebskas, pl, Witebsk), is a city in Belarus. The capital of the Vitebsk Region, it has 366,299 inhabitants, making it the country's fourth-largest ci ...
lost over 80% of their buildings and city infrastructure. For the defense against the Germans, and the tenacity during the German occupation, the capital Minsk was awarded the title '' Hero City'' after the war. The fortress of
Brest Brest may refer to: Places *Brest, Belarus **Brest Region **Brest Airport **Brest Fortress * Brest, Kyustendil Province, Bulgaria * Břest, Czech Republic *Brest, France ** Arrondissement of Brest **Brest Bretagne Airport ** Château de Brest *Br ...
was awarded the title ''
Hero-Fortress Hero Fortress ( Russian: крепость-герой, ''krepost'-geroy'') is the honorary title awarded in 1965 to the Soviet Brest Fortress in Brest, Belarus, (previously part of the Byelorussian SSR) for the defence of the frontier stronghold du ...
''.


See also

*
Eastern Front (World War II) The Eastern Front of World War II was a Theater (warfare), theatre of conflict between the European Axis powers against the Soviet Union (USSR), Polish Armed Forces in the East, Poland and other Allies of World War II, Allies, which encom ...
*
Katyn massacre The Katyn massacre, "Katyń crime"; russian: link=yes, Катынская резня ''Katynskaya reznya'', "Katyn massacre", or russian: link=no, Катынский расстрел, ''Katynsky rasstrel'', "Katyn execution" was a series of m ...
: slaughter of Polish officers *
Khatyn massacre Khatyn ( be, Хаты́нь, Chatyń, ; russian: Хаты́нь, ) was a village of 26 houses and 157 inhabitants in Belarus, in Lahoysk Raion, Minsk Region, 50 km away from Minsk. On 22 March 1943, almost the entire population of the vil ...
: slaughter of Belarus civilians *
Maly Trostenets extermination camp Maly Trostenets (Maly Trascianiec, , "Little Trostenets") is a village near Minsk in Belarus, formerly the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. During Nazi Germany's occupation of the area during World War II (when the Germans referred to it as ...
* Military history of Belarus during World War II *
Operation Tempest file:Akcja_burza_1944.png, 210px, right Operation Tempest ( pl, akcja „Burza”, sometimes referred to in English as "Operation Storm") was a series of uprisings conducted during World War II against occupying German forces by the Polish Home ...
*
Narodowe Siły Zbrojne National Armed Forces (NSZ; '' Polish:'' Narodowe Siły Zbrojne) was a Polish right-wing underground military organization of the National Democracy operating from 1942. During World War II, NSZ troops fought against Nazi Germany and communist p ...
*
Slutsk Affair The Slutsk affair refers to the massacre of thousands of Jews and others that occurred in Slutsk, Byelorussia in the Soviet Union, in October 1941, near the city of Minsk while under German occupation during World War II. The perpetrators we ...
*
Soviet partisan Soviet partisans were members of resistance movements that fought a guerrilla war against Axis forces during World War II in the Soviet Union, the previously Soviet-occupied territories of interwar Poland in 1941–45 and eastern Finland. The ...
*
Territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union Seventeen days after the Nazi Germany, German invasion of Poland in 1939, which marked the beginning of the Second World War, the Soviet invasion of Poland, Soviet Union entered the eastern regions of Second Polish Republic, Poland (known as the ...
*''
Come and See ''Come and See'' (russian: Иди и смотри, ''Idi i smotri''; be, Ідзі і глядзі, ''Idzi i hliadzi'') is a 1985 Soviet anti-war film directed by Elem Klimov and starring Aleksei Kravchenko and Olga Mironova. Its screenplay, wr ...
''


People

* Radasłaŭ Astroŭski *
Pyotr Masherov Pyotr Mironovich Masherov, ''Piotr Mironavič Mašeraŭ''russian: Пётр Миронович Машеров (né Mashero; – 4 October 1980) was a Soviet partisan, statesman, and one of the leaders of the Belarusian resistance during Wo ...
*
Michał Vituška Michal Apanasavič Vituška ( be, Міхал Апанасавіч Вітушка; russian: Михаи́л Афана́сьевич Виту́шко, ''Mikhail Afanasyevich Vitushko''; pl, Michał Wituszka; 5 November 1907 – 7 January 1945) was ...


Notes


Further reading

* * Exeler, Franziska. "What Did You Do during the War?" ''Kritika: Explorations in Russian & Eurasian History'' (Fall 2016) 17#4 pp 805–835; examines popular behaviour in Byelorussia under the Germans, using oral history, letters of complaint, memoirs and secret police and party reports. * * * * * * *


External links


Belarus
at
European Holocaust Research Infrastructure The European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI) is an international digital infrastructure and community. It is a joint undertaking of Holocaust historians, archivists, and specialists in digital humanities. Through the development of heritag ...
(EHRI) {{Authority control 1941 establishments in Belarus 1944 disestablishments in Belarus Belarus in World War II
Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...
Military history of Belarus during World War II
Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...
Jewish Belarusian history Belarus–Germany relations it:Resistenza bielorussa