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 the Soviet repressions in Belarus and collectivization, as well as of the polonization and discrimination of Belarusians in the Second Polish Republic were still fresh, and many people in Belarus wanted an independent Belarus. Many Belarusians chose to cooperate with the invaders in order to achieve that goal, assuming that Nazi Germany might allow them to have their own independent state after the war ended.

Headquarters of Belarusian Central Rada, a pro-Nazi semi-government of Belarus operating from Minsk, June 1943.

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

Before the war, a Belarusian National Socialist Party was formed by a small group of Belarusian nationalists in Poland-controlled West Belarus 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. BNSP was banned by the Polish authorities in 1937. Its leaders left for Berlin and became one of the first advisers to the Germans at the onset of Operation Barbarossa.[1][2]

Administration

Belarusian military and paramilitary units in the German army
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

Political leaders
  • Radasłaŭ Astroŭski, Mayor of Smolensk and later the President of Belarusian Central Rada
  • Jury Sabaleŭski, Major of Baranavičy and Vice-President of the Belarusian Central Council
  • Mikałaj Łapicki, Orthodox priest and Editor-in-Chief of the Ranica newspaper
  • Vacłaŭ Ivanoŭski, Mayor of Minsk
  • Ivan Jermačenka, local political adviser
  • Stanisłaŭ Stankievič, Mayor of Barysaŭ
  • Emmanuel Jasiuk, Mayor of Klecak
  • Jaŭchim Kipel, president of the Second All-Belarusian Rada Congress
  • Ivan Kasiak, Belarusian provincial governor
  • Jury Bartyševič, Minister of Administration of occupational Astroŭski government
  • Anton Adamovič, member in self-help Belarusian organization
  • Mikoła Abramčyk, editor of the Ranica newspaper
  • Stanisłaŭ Hrynkievič
  • Piotra Orsa, Minister of Economics and Agriculture

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

Political organizations
  • Belarusian National Socialist Party
  • Self-help Belarusian Groups
  • Belarusian affairs office
  • Belarusian "Ventruensausschuss" administrative-political organization
  • First Zentralrat political organization

Media
  • Ranica, a Berlin-based Belarusian newspaper

See also

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

References
  • 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. Volume 15 of War and Genocide. New York: Berghahn. ISBN 978-1782380481.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • 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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