Administrative divisions
Generalbezirk Lettland had the following six subdivisions called Kreisgebiete (County Areas). The seat of administration is in parentheses. [1]
Generalbezirk Lettland (General District Latvia) 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 (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) and the western part of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic.
Generalbezirk Lettland was originally organized on 25 July 1941 on the territory of the then German-occupied Latvia, which had until then been under the military administration of the Wehrmacht's Army Group North. By 1 September 1941, in the wake of further German gains, it expanded to its full extent, reaching the former Estonian and Soviet borders. The capital of Generalbezirk Lettland was Riga. [1]
Generalbezirk Lettland had the following six subdivisions called Kreisgebiete (County Areas). The seat of administration is in parentheses. [1]
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. [2] 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. [3]
Following the German invasion in June 1941, the death squads of Einsatzgruppe A and their Latvian collaborators, including the Arajs Kommando , immediately began the systematic murder of Latvian Jews. It is estimated that approximately 70,000, or about three-quarters of the pre-war population, were killed. [6] In addition, thousands of Romani people and ethnic Latvians perished in the slaughter. Generalbezirk Lettland was the site of the Rumbula massacre, one of the most notorious mass executions in the eastern occupied territories.
On 14 September 1944, the Red Army launched its Riga offensive and Generalkommissar Drechsler departed for Lübeck in Germany. Riga fell on 13 October and Generalbezirk Lettland effectively ceased to exist. Administration of those parts of Latvia still under German occupation reverted to military administration under Army Group North. Some German forces were trapped in the Courland pocket and continued armed resistance until finally surrendering on 10 May 1945. [1]
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 Latvian Legion was a formation of the Nazi German Waffen-SS during World War II. Created in 1943, it consisted primarily of ethnic Latvians. The legion consisted of two divisions of the Waffen-SS: the 15th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, and the 19th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS. The 15th Division was administratively subordinated to the VI SS Corps, but operationally it was in reserve or at the disposal of the XXXXIII Army Corps, 16th Army, Army Group North. The 19th Division held out in the Courland Pocket until May 1945, the close of World War II, when it was among the last of Nazi Germany's forces to surrender.
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.
Viktors Arājs was a Latvian/Baltic German collaborator and Nazi SS SD officer who took part in the Holocaust during the German occupation of Latvia and Belarus as the leader of the Arajs Kommando. The Arajs Kommando murdered about half of Latvia's Jews.
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.
Otto-Heinrich Drechsler was the General Commissioner of Latvia for the Nazi Germany's occupation regime during World War II. In this capacity, he played a role in setting up the Riga ghetto and was implicated in the extermination of Latvian Jews. He committed suicide on 5 May 1945, after being captured by British forces.
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 Estland 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.
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.
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.
Wilhelm Traub was a German Nazi SS-Obersturmbannführer who, during the Second World War, served as the occupation administrator of the Navahrudak area of the Generalbezirk Weißruthenien, and as the SS and Police Leader of "Quarnero" based in Fiume. After the war ended, he died in captivity in Yugoslavia in 1946.