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Byelorussian collaboration with Nazi Germany

During World War II, some Belarusians collaborated with the invading Axis powers. Until the beginning of Operation Barbarossa in 1941, the territory of Belarus was under control of the Soviet Union, as the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. However, memories of Soviet repressions in Belarus and collectivization, as well as of the polonization and discrimination against Belarusians under the Second Polish Republic were still fresh.

Belarusian Central Council, a pro-Nazi semi-government of Belarus operating from Minsk 22 January 1944.
Headquarters of the Belarusian Central Rada June 1943.

Many Belarusians wanted an independent nation and co-operated with the invaders in hopes that Nazi Germany would allow them to have their own independent state after the war ended.

Belarusian organizations never had administrative control over the territory of Belarus. The real power was held by the German civil and military administrations. The collaborationist Belarusian Central Council, presenting itself as a Belarusian governmental body, was formed in Minsk a few months before Belarus was retaken by the Soviet Army.

Before the war, the Belarusian National Socialist Party [be; de; it] was formed by a small group of Belarusian nationalists in Polish-controlled Western Belorussia in 1933. The group was far less influential than other Belarusian political parties in interwar Poland such as the Belarusian Peasants' and Workers' Union and the Belarusian Christian Democracy. The Belarusian National Socialist Party was banned by the Polish authorities in 1937. Party leaders left for Berlin and became among the first advisers to the Germans at the onset of Operation Barbarossa.[1][2]

Administration

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Belarusian military and paramilitary units in the German army

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Minsk training base in 1942, leaders of the Schutzmannschaft Battalions 102 and 115, as well as the Battalion 118 ready for service in Reichskommissariat Ostland

German commanders and officers associated with Belarus

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Political leaders

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Military commanders

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German-collaborationist Biełaruskaja Krajovaja Abarona, Minsk, June 1944.

Political organizations

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Media

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See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Jury Turonak.
  2. ^ Rein 2013, The Kings and the Pawns, page 135.

References

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  • Loftus, John (1982). The Belarus Secret (New ed.). New York: Knopf.
  • Rein, Leonid (2013). The Kings and the Pawns: Collaboration in Byelorussia during World War II. New York: Berghahn. ISBN 978-1782380481. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  • Dean, Martin (2003). Collaboration in the Holocaust: Crimes of the Local Police in Belorussia and Ukraine, 1941-44 (New ed.). New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-1403963710.
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