Administrative divisions
Generalbezirk Estland had the following seven subdivisions called Kreisgebiete (County Areas). The seat of administration is in parentheses. [3]
Generalbezirk Estland (General District Estonia) was one of the four administrative subdivisions of Reichskommissariat Ostland , the 1941-1944 civilian occupation regime established by Nazi Germany for the administration of the three Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) and the western part of the Byelorussian SSR.
Generalbezirk Estland was the last of the four districts to be formally established on 5 December 1941. [1] It was organized on the territory of German-occupied Estonia, which had until then been under the military administration of the Wehrmacht's Army Group North. The capital of Generalbezirk Estland was Tallinn (Reval). [2]
Generalbezirk Estland had the following seven subdivisions called Kreisgebiete (County Areas). The seat of administration is in parentheses. [3]
Civil administration was led by a Generalkommissar (General Commissioner) directly appointed by Adolf Hitler, and who reported to Ostland Reichskommissar Hinrich Lohse, headquartered in Riga. [4] In addition, police and security matters were overseen by an SS and Police Leader (SSPF) directly appointed by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, and who reported to the Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF) Ostland und Russland-Nord in Riga, SS- Gruppenführer Hans-Adolf Prützmann until 1 November 1941, and SS- Obergruppenführer Friedrich Jeckeln after that date. [5]
Following the German invasion in June 1941, the death squads of Einsatzgruppe A and their Estonian collaborators immediately began the systematic murder of Estonian Jews. Approximately 75% of Estonian Jews had fled eastward into the Soviet Union ahead of the Nazi occupation. Virtually all of those who remained (between 950 and 1,000 people) were murdered. The Estonian International Commission for Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity estimated the total number of victims killed in Estonia to be roughly 35,000, including approximately 1,000 Estonian Jews, 10,000 foreign Jews, 1000 Estonian Romani, 7000 ethnic Estonians and 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war. [8]
On 17 September 1944, the Red Army launched the Tallinn offensive and Litzmann departed for Hungary. The city was abandoned by the German forces on 22 September and fell to the Soviets, who captured the rest of mainland Estonia by 26 September and Generalbezirk Estland effectively ceased to exist. Administration of those parts of Estonia still under German occupation reverted to military administration under Army Group North.
The Reichskommissariat Ostland was established by Nazi Germany in 1941 during World War II. It became the civilian occupation regime in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and the western part of Byelorussian SSR. German planning documents initially referred to an equivalent Reichskommissariat Baltenland. The political organization for this territory – after an initial period of military administration before its establishment – involved a German civilian administration, nominally under the authority of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories led by Nazi ideologist Alfred Rosenberg, but actually controlled by the Nazi official Hinrich Lohse, its appointed Reichskommissar.
The Reichskommissariat Ukraine was established by Nazi Germany in 1941 during World War II. It was the civilian occupation regime of much of Nazi German-occupied Ukraine. It was governed by the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories headed by Alfred Rosenberg. Between September 1941 and August 1944, the Reichskommissariat was administered by Erich Koch as the Reichskommissar. The administration's tasks included the pacification of the region and the exploitation, for German benefit, of its resources and people. Adolf Hitler issued a Führer decree defining the administration of the newly-occupied Eastern territories on 17 July 1941.
Hinrich Lohse was a German Nazi Party politician and a convicted war criminal, best known for his rule of the Reichskommissariat Ostland, during World War II. Reichskommissariat Ostland comprised the states of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, and parts of modern day Belarus.
Hans-Adolf Prützmann was among the highest-ranking German SS officials during the Nazi era. From June 1941 to September 1944, he served as a Higher SS and Police Leader in the occupied Soviet Union, and from November 1943 was the Supreme SS and Police Leader in Ukraine. He oversaw the activities of the Einsatzgruppen detachments that perpetrated the Holocaust in the Baltic States and Ukraine. After being captured at the end of the Second World War, he committed suicide.
In the course of Operation Barbarossa, Nazi Germany invaded Estonia in July–December 1941, and occupied the country until 1944. Estonia had gained independence in 1918 from the then-warring German and Russian Empires. However, in the wake of the August 1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact, the Soviet Union had invaded and occupied Estonia in June 1940, and the country was formally annexed into the USSR in August 1940.
The military occupation of Latvia by Nazi Germany was completed on July 10, 1941, by Germany's armed forces. Initially, the territory of Latvia was under the military administration of Army Group North, but on 25 July 1941, Latvia was incorporated as Generalbezirk Lettland, subordinated to Reichskommissariat Ostland, an administrative subdivision of Nazi Germany. Anyone not racially acceptable or who opposed the German occupation, as well as those who had cooperated with the Soviet Union, was killed or sent to concentration camps in accordance with the Nazi Generalplan Ost.
The Holocaust in Estonia refers to Nazi crimes during the occupation of Estonia by Nazi Germany.
Estonian Self-Administration, also known as the Directorate, was the puppet government set up in Estonia during the occupation of Estonia by Nazi Germany. It was headed by Hjalmar Mäe. The Estonian Self-Administration was subordinated to the administration of Generalbezirk Estland and its directors were appointed by the chief of the Generalbezirk, Commissioner-General Karl-Siegmund Litzmann.
Wilhelm Kube 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 occupation government of the Soviet Union, achieving the rank of Generalkommissar for Generalbezirk Weißruthenien. He was assassinated by a Soviet partisan in Minsk in 1943 after his participation in the Holocaust, triggering brutal reprisals against the city's citizens.
After the German invasion of the Soviet Union, the Baltic states were under military occupation by Nazi Germany from 1941 to 1944. Initially, many Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians considered the Germans liberators from the Soviet Union.
Generalbezirk Litauen was one of the four administrative subdivisions of Reichskommissariat Ostland, the 1941-1944 civilian occupation regime established by Nazi Germany for the administration of the three Baltic countries and the western part of the Byelorussian SSR.
Karl-Siegmund Hermann-Julius Litzmann was a Nazi German politician and SA-Obergruppenführer who commanded SA Equestrian troops and training. He also served as the Generalkommissar during the German occupation of Estonia in the Reichskommissariat Ostland from December 1941 to September 1944, and died under unexplained circumstances after the close of the Second World War in Europe.
Generalbezirk Lettland was one of the four administrative subdivisions of Reichskommissariat Ostland, the civilian occupation regime established by Nazi Germany for the administration of the Baltic States and the western part of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic.
Walther Schröder was a German Nazi Party politician, SS-Brigadeführer and Police President of Lübeck, who served as an SS and Police Leader in Latvia and Estonia during the Second World War.
Karl Schäfer was a German SS-Brigadeführer and Generalmajor of Police who served as an SS and Police Leader in the Soviet Union, where he was killed in action during the Second World War.
Generalbezirk Weißruthenien was one of the four administrative subdivisions of Reichskommissariat Ostland, the 1941–1945 civilian occupation regime established by Nazi Germany for the administration of the three Baltic countries and the western part of the Byelorussian SSR.
Hinrich Möller was a German SS-Brigadeführer and Generalmajor of Police. He served as police chief in Neumünster and Flensburg in the 1930s. During the Second World War, he was the SS and Police Leader (SSPF) "Estland". In this position, he played a significant role in the Holocaust in Estonia. Möller was never tried for his involvement after the war. He was, however, convicted of the 1934 murders of two Communist Party leaders.
Lucian Wysocki was a German Nazi Party politician, Police President and member of both the SA and the SS. As an SS-Brigadefuhrer and Generalmajor of police, he served as the SS and Police Leader of Generalbezirk Litauen during the Second World War.
Kurt Gustav Ernst Hintze was a Nazi Party politician, SS-Brigadeführer and Generalmajor of police, who served as the last SS and Police Leader (SSPF) in the Generalbezirk Litauen. He was killed in an air raid six months before the end of the war.