{"id":153778,"date":"2010-06-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-06-30T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/?page_id=153778"},"modified":"2010-06-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-06-30T00:00:00","slug":"the-occupation-authorities-in-belarus","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/welcome-to-the-archives-of-belarus-website\/subject-guides-to-archival-records\/historical-events\/archival-documents-and-materials-3\/the-history-of-the-war-a-survey-of-events\/the-occupation-authorities-in-belarus","title":{"rendered":"The Occupation authorities in Belarus"},"content":{"rendered":"

By September 1941, Belarus (the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic,\r\nBSSR) was occupied by the "Center" Army Group of the German Wehrmacht. The\r\ninvaders divided Belarus’s territory as follows (the territorial-administrative division\r\nof Belarus is given as at 21.06.1941):
\r\n– Rear Section of the "Center" Army Group.<\/b> Included the Vitebsk and\r\nMogilev regions, the major part of the Gomel Region, the eastern districts of the Minsk\r\nRegion and some districts of the Polesie Region;
\r\n– General Okrug "Belarus". <\/b>Consisted of 68 out of 192 rural districts and\r\n9 urban districts of pre-war Belarus with a population of 3.1 million people, and it was\r\ndivided into 10 Okrugs<\/em> (germ. Gebiet) \u2013 the Baranovichi, Borisov, Vileika,\r\nGantsevichi, Glubokoe, Lida, Minsk, Novogrudok, Slonim & Slutsk okrugs and the city of\r\nMinsk having the same status as Okrug.
\r\n– Okrug "Bialystok"<\/b> (Province of "East Prussia"). Included the\r\nBialystok Region and the northern part of the Brest Region;
\r\n– Reichs Commissariat "Ukraine". <\/b>Comprised the southern districts of\r\nBrest, Gomel, Pinsk and Polesie regions, which were united into 4 Okrugs – Vasilevichi,\r\nElsk, Mozyr and Pinsk;
\r\n– General Okrug "Lithuania".<\/b> Comprised the North-Western districts of the\r\nVileika Region and some part of the Baranovichi Region (now Voronovo District).
\r\nThe general Okrugs "Belarus", "Lithuania", "Latvia" and\r\n"Estonia" formed the Reichs Commissariat "Ostland"<\/b>. The\r\nadministrative center was in Riga.
\r\n
\r\nThe Occupation power in Belarus was exercised by the military and civilian authorities\r\nwith the support of the military and police troops, and was organised in the following\r\nway:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n

The senior government bodies in the occupied territories<\/b><\/p>\r\n\r\n

The senior military authority in the rear section of the Wehrmacht Army\r\nGroup Center, which operated in the central zone of the Soviet-German front, was the Army\r\nGroup Center Headquarters.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

The civilian administrative authorities:
\r\n– Imperial Ministry of the Occupied Eastern Territories<\/strong> (germ.\r\nReichsministerium) \u2013 the highest civilian administrative authority in the occupied\r\nterritories of the USSR. It was formed in Berlin on July 17, 1941, and was headed by\r\nReichsminister A. Rosenberg;
\r\n– Reichs Commissariat "Ostland"<\/strong> \u2013 the highest civilian\r\nadministrative authority in the territory of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and some parts of\r\nBelarus;
\r\n– General Commissariat of Belarus<\/strong> <\/b>\u2013 the highest authority of the\r\nGerman civilian administration in the General Okrug "Belarus". By Hitler’s order\r\ndated July 17, 1941, Gauleiter W. Kubbe was appointed as General Commissar of Belarus\r\nGeneral Okrug. He arrived in Minsk on Sept. 1, 1941. From September 1943 after Kubbe’s\r\ndeath, the duties of General Commissar were fulfilled by police general-lieutenant,\r\nGruppenfuhrer SS K. von Gottberg (from June 1944 \u2013 Obergruppenfuhrer SS).
\r\n
\r\nThe auxiliary advisory bodies under the General Commissar of Belarus:
\r\n– Nebenbureau, which in fact fulfilled the functions of Minsk Okrug Council duplicating to\r\na great extent the activities of municipal and district institutions. Later, when\r\nspecialised organisations and departments were formed and became active, Nebenbureau\r\nreverted to being a nominal authority, with only limited power.
\r\n– Belarusian Trust Rada, Belarusian Central Rada \u2013 central institutions of the\r\nBelarusian collaboration acting under the direction of the German occupation authorities.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n

Local authorities of the Occupation administration and institutions of\r\nself-government<\/b><\/p>\r\n\r\n

The military administration and military inspection bodies in the occupied\r\nterritory were commandant’s offices<\/strong>. In the Army’s Rear Section, the\r\npower was held by the army unit headquarters, and the local and field commandant’s\r\noffices. In Belarus General Okrug, the Wehrmacht Commander was in charge of the chief\r\nfield commandant’s offices in Minsk and Baranovichi & the local commandant’s offices\r\nin Baranovichi, Gantsevichi, Glubokoe, Lida, Minsk, Molodechno and Slutsk, which\r\nsupervised the territory of all okrugs. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

The civilian administrative bodies in the occupied territories were commissariats<\/strong>\r\n(divided into chief commissariats <\/b>in Minsk and Baranovichi (until March 1943),\r\nokrug, district, town and amtscommissariats) and district chiefs<\/b> (the Occupation\r\nadministration officials who supervised the institutions of local government). The Okrug\r\nCommissar (germ. Gebietskommissar) was directly subordinate to the General Commissar; Town\r\nCommissar (germ. Stadtskommissar) was simultaneously the head of the Town Council, and the\r\nchief of the commissariat department was also chief of the corresponding council\r\ndepartment. The police chiefs, the police institutions and formations in each territory\r\nwere subordinate to their Commissars. In some cases this subordination was only nominal.\r\nThe Reichsfuhrer SS and police chief H. Himmler had stipulated special rights for\r\n"police security" in the Occupied Territories & as a result, Commissariats\r\nwere staffed almost exclusively by Germans.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Institutions of local government included councils, village communities and village\r\nstarostas. Councils<\/strong> (auxiliary local institutions of the Occupation\r\nauthorities) were divided into okrug, town, district, district-town, volost (usually\r\nwithin territorial limits of the former selsovet) and village councils. They were headed\r\nby burgomasters or chiefs. The councils were either submitted to the Okrug, Town\r\nCommissariats and the district chiefs or they were submitted to the corresponding\r\ncommandant’s office. If the German garrison was located in the territory of a Volost, the\r\nCouncil also became subordinate to the commandant’s office of the garrison. The councils\r\nusually consisted of several departments (administrative, finance, health, school, and\r\nland depts). The Ordnungsdienst (local auxiliary police) <\/b>was subordinate to the\r\ncouncils. Village communities<\/strong> <\/b>were communities based on the\r\ncollective farms that existed before the Occupation. Several village communities were\r\nunited into one volost. <\/b>Villages that comprised a village community were headed by Starostas<\/strong>\r\n(they were subordinate to the Volost Council but did not have any administrative or other\r\npower). The work of the District and Volost Councils was supervised by specially assigned\r\nchiefs \u2013 "commissars", "commandants", "Kreislandwirts",\r\n"Sonderfuhrers".  <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n

Military and Police bodies<\/b><\/p>\r\n\r\n

The Wehrmacht \u2013 the armed forces of Nazi Germany \u2013 were represented in the Occupied\r\nTerritory by the land forces and the SS troops. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

Defence divisions<\/strong> <\/b>were the armed support of the Occupation\r\nregime. There were 5 of them in the territory of Belarus in 1941. They guarded\r\ncommunications and other military objects, POW camps, fought against partisans and the\r\nlocal population. The headquarters of these troops were the field and local commandant’s\r\noffices, which supervised the territory of regional commissariats. The commandant’s\r\noffices held total power within their territory. The local commandant’s offices (germ.\r\nOrtskommandantur) were subordinate to the field commandant’s offices (germ.\r\nFeldkommandantur). They were formed in towns, district Centers, large railway and highway\r\njunctions, or wherever garrisons were located. The municipal authorities, numerous\r\ngarrisons, groups of secret field police, gendarmerie squads were also subordinate to the\r\nfield commandant’s office. The commandant’s offices had the following objectives: to\r\ncombat partisans; to organize punitive expeditions against partisans and local population;\r\nto protect communications, military objects, & POW camps; to provide intelligence and\r\ncounter-intelligence service; to confiscate agricultural goods; to disseminate propaganda.\r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\n

All Occupation troops in the territory of Belarus General Okrug were subordinate to the\r\nWehrmacht Commander. The advanced German armies were followed by the special action\r\neinsatzgroups "B" and "A" <\/strong>(germ. Einsatzgruppen), which\r\ncarried out mass executions and punitive expeditions. Einsatzgroups were divided into\r\neinsatzcommands and sondercommands, which were subdivided into so-called teilcommands.\r\nEinsatzcommands operated in the strategic region of the armies, and sondercommands \u2013 in\r\na special zone. Einsatzcommands were controlled by the corresponding army commander.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

The military intelligence and counter-intelligence of the German Wehrmacht (germ. Abwehr<\/strong>)\r\nis known in Belarus as abwehrgroups<\/strong>. They were located in the largest\r\ntowns. As a rule, all abwehrgroups had specified numbers and were strictly ciphered. They\r\noperated in secret, using the cover of local trade & industry. The main function of\r\nthe abwehrgroups was to combat the intelligence activity of the Red Army agents,\r\nparatroopers, radio operators and members of Underground organisations.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

The Gendarmerie<\/strong> <\/b>(military police) was subordinate to the field\r\nand local commandant’s offices and later to commissariats. Each Okrug had its own Okrug\r\ngendarmerie administration. District Centers had gendarmerie posts. Villages had defensive\r\nposts. Sometimes, field gendarmerie detachments were subordinate to Councils. In the rear\r\nsection of the Center Army Group, the gendarmerie functioned in the corresponding army\r\nformations and administrative structures. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

The Secret Field Police<\/strong> (GFP – Geheimfeldpolizei) played an important\r\nrole in the structure of the Occupation administration in the rear section of the Center\r\nArmy Group. As part of the Wehrmacht, it carried out military-police functions and was\r\nstaffed by German police, Gestapo and other punitive bodies’ officials. The GFP sub-units\r\nwere represented by the groups in the army and army group headquarters, and in the field\r\ncommandant’s offices, as well as by commissariats and detachments in the army corps,\r\ndivisions and some local commandant’s offices. The GFP groups were subordinate to the\r\nfield police chief in the Center Army Group and to the Abwehr officer in 1z department of\r\nthe headquarters of the corresponding army or field commandant’s office. Each group had\r\n80-100 employees and soldiers and was divided into 2 – 5 "external detachments"\r\nand "external departments". Each GFP unit had a group of regular agents and a\r\nsmall army sub-unit, which carried out round-ups, punitive expeditions against partisans\r\nand the escorting and guarding of prisoners. The GFP groups and detachments were the\r\nexecutive bodies in the field and local commandant’s offices. The GFP groups were\r\nsubordinate to Wehrmacht Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence & to the field and\r\nlocal commandant’s offices. They fulfilled Gestapo functions in war zones and in the rear\r\nof the army. The GFP detachments in the local commandant’s offices and defence divisions\r\nhad contacts with SD, security police and field gendarmerie.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

In addition to military authorities, there were SS bodies<\/strong>\r\n(germ. SS – Schutzstaffeln – defence detachments), which supervised the various police\r\nforces. The police and SS chiefs were under the command of the General and Okrug\r\ncommissars and controlled the SS troops which fulfilled police functions; the Security\r\nPolice (Sicherheitspolizei); the Security Service (SD – Sicherheitsdienst); the Defence\r\nPolice (Schutzpolizei); and the OrPo German Police (Ordnungpolitzei). In the Occupied\r\nterritory of Belarus there were also the Field Police, subordinate to the field\r\ncommandant’s offices, and the Railway Police.<\/font><\/p>\r\n\r\n

The Security Police and SD Security Service<\/strong> formed a part of the\r\nintelligence and punitive bodies in the territory of Ostland Reichs Commissariat. The SD\r\nand security police administration of Belarus General Okrug was seated in Minsk, and its\r\ndepartments were located in okrugs and districts. The rear section of each army had SD and\r\nsecurity police commissioner administration, which coordinated its activities with Abwehr\r\nand the GFP secret field police. The task of SD and security police was to find the Nazi\r\nregime’s enemies, investigate public opinion, organise punitive expeditions and deal with\r\npolice personnel problems.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

The local auxiliary police, later renamed OD – Ordnungsdienst<\/strong> was\r\nestablished in July 1941. It was staffed by local inhabitants and had similar functions to\r\nthose of the OrPo German Police, such as public order, patrolling, guard duty, road\r\ntraffic, etc. The OD activities were supervised by defence police <\/b>departments,\r\nlocal commandant’s offices, and garrison commandants. The OD units consisted of one police\r\nofficer for every 100 rural inhabitants and one police officer for every 300 urban\r\ninhabitants. The OD was in charge of guard duty, and included both stationary & mobile\r\nposts and groups of orderlies. It was subordinate to the defence police leadership.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

The structure and functions of the police institutions were repeatedly changed.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By September 1941, Belarus (the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic, BSSR) was occupied by the "Center" Army Group of the German Wehrmacht. The invaders divided Belarus’s territory as follows (the territorial-administrative…","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":104476,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-153778","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/153778"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/153778\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/104476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}