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PART 18
Hypocrites and Liars
Once the dust had parted on the destructive eleven day long uprising that rocked the German controlled General Government; the true catastrophe that had transpired was crystal clear to all of the parties involved. Laying dead among the ruins of cities such as Warschau, Litzmannstadt and Krakau were hundreds of thousands of Germans and Poles; both civilian and military. Who had perished in the chaotic and unprecedented scale of fighting that had occurred. In addition to the grave loss in human life. Billions of Reichsmarks in overall damages were suffered across the General Government; damage that would ultimately take the German government over a decade to repair. However. The true long term consequences would be the wrath brought upon the Polish civilian populace by the Germans as a result of the chaos of May 1953. Resulting in the death of over 100,000 Poles by the end of the year alone. And many more as the years passed.
Outside of Poland. One cannot truly discuss events within the Reich without looking at what was truly the most important part of the Reich's Empire. And that is Ukraine.
Figure 1: The above is an example of a typical German propaganda poster published within the Reichskommissariat Ukraine during the 1950's. The above poster itself is a SS recruitment poster. Encouraging Ukrainian citizens to join their German "Brethren" in fighting "Bolshevik terrorists" by joining the SS.
Out of all of the great expanses and leagues of territory that Germany wrestled from the Soviet Union's control, none were more strategically or commercially important to the Reich than the Ukraine. The region, historically a part of the greater Russian nation state, had quickly became the indisputable centerpiece of the Third Reich's new eastern empire. Its resource-rich and fertile agricultural lands provided the Germans with an average yearly output of 8 to 10 million tonnes of grain and other food crops to fulfill the food needs of the German civilian populace, and many other natural resources such as natural gases and various rare minerals.
However; despite the widespread successes of many of the Reich's resource exploitation programs in Ukraine. The overall output of all industrial and agricultural production within the region would end up taking a significant nosedive during the early 1950's. This loss in productivity was ultimately caused by various mitigating factors, one of these being continued local unrest from both the disenfranchised Ukrainian civilian populace and the Russian locals in the eastern parts of the Reichskommissariat. While the unrest did grave damage to German activities in the region; the greatest of all factors was the widespread bureaucratic mismanagement and brutality on the part of Reichskommissar Erich Koch and the Rowno administration, particularly in their infamous "Land Redistribution Campaign" of the early 1950's. The campaign; originally conceived as a way to encourage potential colonists to settle in the Ukraine and the Generalbezirk Gotenland by providing settlers with ample free land and housing opportunities would wind up backfiring extensively on the Germans. Instead of the planned 20% growth in the annual harvest estimated by authorities in Rowno; the campaign would end up resulting in what was a poorly managed at best and sinisterly corrupt at worst confiscation of Slavic owned farmland. This; coupled with extensive droughts suffered by the region throughout the decade. In addition to a serious drop in external finance and other governmental support would ultimately lead to a sharp decline in agricultural exports, long the backbone of Ukraine's exporting sector. This ultimately would cost Berlin billions of Reichsmarks in overall losses and would leave not only many German farms and factories. But the region as a whole suffering in the long term.
Figure 2: Erich Koch; Most famous for serving as the "Reichskommissar of Ukraine" from his appointment in 1941 to his dismissal by Speer 13 years later.
As the economic and strategic reports from within Ukraine trickled back to the Chancellery in Berlin. Many within the German government began wondering if the need to reconsider previous government stances regarding the Ukrainians would becoming increasingly imminent. Under the Reich's "Nuremberg Laws"; updated by the Reichstag in 1948. The Ukrainians were classified as
"Untermensch" or sub-humans. And thus "racially inferior" to the "superior" Aryan Germans and unworthy of their life. Despite this official classification. The deteriorating economic situation within Ukraine soon forced many top German government officials to consider the possibility that a policy of assimilation or rather;
Aryanization of the local populace would be more logical and economically sound for the long term stability of German control then the current policy of extermination. The idea was however surprisingly not a new one within German circles. Several top officials; chief among them racial theorist Alfred Rosenberg; had expressed similar ideas regarding the Ukrainians in prior years. They however found themselves ramming into the toothbrush mustached brick wall that was Adolf Hitler; a uncompromising hard-line ideologue who refused to consider the validity of other ideas. Even if it meant ultimately causing long term economic instability for both the Ukraine and Germany as a whole.
Of course. Hitler at this point had long been dead, And Germany was now under the rule of a different and more compromising leader. While Albert Speer was indeed what you call a committed Nazi ideologue. He was not a hardliner along the lines of Hitler or even Reichskommissar Koch. Speer was ultimately a German patriot at first and a National Socialist at second; who while definitely committed to the party doctrine. Was personally not against edging off the course of said party doctrine if it ultimately meant long term stability and security for the Reich. So when the yearly economic reports from Ukraine for the period of 1954-1955 arrived on his desk in Berlin. Speer became increasingly concerned with the severity of the situation in Ukraine. And sought out to try and find a way to rectify the problem. Before 1954; Speer had generally preferred to take a hands off approach to the Incorporated Eastern Territories. Letting his assortment of governmental ministers and the various Reichskommissar's themselves handle the day to day affairs of operations in the East. Speer quickly regretted this policy as he learned the true nature of the widespread corruption and greed running rampant in Erich Koch's administration in Rowno. Furious; Speer immediately called Koch to Berlin. Where he unceremoniously dismissed the "Butcher of Rowno" from his post as Reichskommissar of Ukraine. Immediately appointing Ludolf von Alvensleben; a high ranking SS-Gruppenführer and former Chief of Police Forces in the Generalbezirk Gotenland in place of the dismissed Koch.
Figure 3: A group of Ukrainian SS officers (members of the 2. SS-Ukrainisch Freiwilligen Legion) inspect the credentials of a Russian man in Dnjepropetrowsk, Ukraine. circa 1957.
Almost immediately after Alvensleben's appointment. Speer ordered the new Ukrainian Reichskommissar to introduce a set of reforms that Speer hope would rejuvenate the slumping economy of the Ukraine. Chief among these were large scale agrarian reforms in what Speer called "The Agrarian New Order". Similar to a set of reforms proposed by Alfred Rosenberg in 1942; The "New Order" called for the abolishment of both the "Gemeindwirtschaften" (German Communal Farms) that had been established during the early years of the war; in addition to the state enterprise farm systems that Koch had established later as rewards for his political allies. In place of the former systems. The new legislation called for the immediate redistribution of farm land across the entirety of the Ukraine to not only German settler families that had resided in the Reichskommissariat; but Ukrainian families as well. Provided of course that said families were willing to collaborate with the German regime. Speer also introduced a pair of additional measures; the first measure introduced limited forms of religious liberty; while the other set of measures would became the more famous "Aryanization Protocol Act of 1955". Which established new protocols that would introduce the opportunity for many ethnic Ukrainians to quote on quote "integrate into mainstream society"; That is to say in short words. "Abandon" their Ukrainian heritage and culture and undergo a process of "Germanization". Which; if deemed successful by German authorities. Would result in the person being granted full German citizenship and the same rights held by all "ethnically sound" citizens of the Reich. Such as the right to serve in the German military, join the Nazi Party and own their own property.
Most Ukrainians that choose to undergo the process of Germanization did so as a means to a end to not only protect themselves and their families from governmental reprisal; but ultimately give their children better lives in the long term then they would have if they had chosen to continue to defy the Nazi regime's policies. Lest they suffer the fate that many of their fellow countrymen before them had suffered as a result of German brutality. Many did however choose to undergo the process out of an actual desire on their part to serve their "Führer"; usually earning the moniker of
Гонка Зрадник (Honka Zradnyk; or Race Traitor) from fellow Ukrainians. Those that outright refused to undergo the process of Germanization often would flee and join underground partisan efforts, or lest they end up arrested and shipped off to internment and concentration camps in the West as slave laborers and indentured servants as many of their brethren had before; and would after the introduction of the new German measures.
Figure 4: Members of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army; the armed wing of the anti-German "Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists" pose for a photo somewhere along the river Dnieper River; circa, 1958
In the long term; Speer and Alvensleben's reforms would end up successfully reversing much of the stagnation in Ukraine's economy that had occurred in the early part of the decade as a result of Koch's mismanagement. Within 3 years of the introduction of the new land reform measures; The annual output of the yearly harvest increased by over 200% percent. Bringing in additional 4 million tonnes of grain and other food crops to the tables of the Reich's citizens yearly. As well as a additional income of 3.5 billion Reichsmarks to the Rowno government. And the Reich as a whole itself. The new measures; particularly the
Aryanization Protocols also did much to decrease overall dissent from the local population within Ukraine. Even if said decrease was partly as a result of the Ukrainian populace's general fear of what dissent would bring upon them in the form of German governmental reprisals. This of course this did mean that the Ukrainian people had given up and submitted to German rule. That was as far from the actual truth as you could get. The underground Ukrainian resistance was in fact one of the largest resistance movements in all of occupied Europe; commanding the loyalty of over 6 million fighters by 1960. Including many ethnic Byelorussians and Tatars. Chief among the various groups of the Ukrainian resistance movement was the duly named "Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists"; which conducted various passive and aggressive operations within the boundaries of the Reichskommissariat Ukraine with the assistance and support of not only much of the civilian populace. But the governments of both the Soviet Union and the United States as well. The armed wing of the OUN. The "Ukrainian Insurgent Army" was the main force of the OUN's guerilla operations. Conducting various missions that ranged from raiding German and collaborator owned farms and burning crops. Attacking German political buildings, post offices, workplaces and civilian establishments within Ukraine. Raiding German railways and attacking supply lines. All in a effort to destabilize German control of the Ukraine and cause widespread morale loss among the Germans. The OUN's operations killed over 300 Germans alone during the latter half of the decade. Most of them civilians who perished as a effect of OUN attacks on German civilian establishments in Ukraine.
Ultimately. The overall situation of the Ukraine under the German administration in Rowno was. At least compared to overall more simplistic and barbaric conditions seen elsewhere in the Reich's Eastern Territories; Was what you could say a complicated matter. The extensively complex web of cooperation and collaboration between the German and the Ukrainian, the so called "schizophrenic" racial policies enacted by the German government. And the relative calm that was showcased came largely as a result of two things; grain and resources. The needs of the German government to keep both the region and it's economy stable had ultimately ending up forcing them to abandon much of their racial mantra and adopt policy fit to meet the reality on the ground. And by accepting the Ukrainian people; at least those willing to be "accepted". Into to the greater "Aryan racial family". The Germans had hoped that it would bring long term stability to not only the Ukraine; but ultimately forever cement German dominance over the region. The new policies had even greater and largely unintended consequences for the Ukrainians. As those who "assimilated" to protect themselves, those that "assimilated" out of a true political desire to work for the Reich and their Führer. And those that chose neither right and continued the fight for freedom found themselves increasingly at odds and divisions. Ultimately creating divisions among the Ukrainian people that potentially could never be healed. Even if Ukraine were to one day win her freedom from the tyranny of the German Reich.
