Имперское министерство по делам временно оккупированных восточных областей (г. Берлин)
- Reichsministerium für die besetzen Ostgebiete (Berlin); Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories (Berlin)
- Imperskoe ministerstvo po delam okkupirovannykh vostochnykh oblastei (g.Berlin)
Extent and Medium
1068 files
Biographical History
The Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories, created on 17 July 1941, carried out the civil administration of the occupied territory of the USSR. The ministry was headed by Alfred Rosenberg, and was organized as follows: the central office, for recordkeeping and organizational-economic issues; main department I, for policy; main department II, for governance and administration; main group III W, for political-economic cooperation; main group III E, for food and agriculture; main group III FH, for forestry and woodworking industries; and main department A, labor. Subject to the ministry were the Reichskommissariat Ostland in Riga, headed by Gauleiter Hinrich Lohse; the Estonian Generalkommissariat in Reval (Tallinn), headed by SA-Gruppenführer Karl Sigmund Litzmann; the Latvian Generalkommissariat in Riga, led by Oberbürgermeister Otto-Heinrich Drechsler; the Lithuanian Generalkommissariat in Kowno (Kovno, Kaunas), led by Dr. Adrian von Renteln; the Belorussian Generalkommissariat in Minsk, led by Gauleiter Wilhelm Kube; the Reichskommissariat Ukraine in Kiev (previously in Rovno), headed by Gauleiter Erich Koch; and the Generalkommissariat of Volhynia in Lutsk, led by SA-Obergruppenführer Heinrich Schtine. Each Generalkommisariat also had a local administration, made up of local collaborators who helped the Germans carry out their extermination policy against the Jews.
Scope and Content
The collection's contents are catalogued in four inventories. The inventories are arranged by document type. Among the collection's documents are orders, edicts, directives, dispatches, reports, briefings, job descriptions, accounts, overviews, memoranda, summaries, bulletins, employee directories, certificates of commendation, questionnaires, official documentation of employees' business trips, and ministry correspondence with the Reich Security Main Office and with Reichskommissariats in the occupied eastern territories. Documents in the collection reflect the policy of the Nazi occupation authorities with regard to the Jewish population residing in those occupied territories. The ministry's administrative and summary documentation contains information on mass arrests and robberies of Jews, the establishment of ghettos, and "actions" involving the annihilation of Jews. The collection's documents include a monthly report (dated 10 November 1941) by the Wehrmacht Ostland commander's commandant of Belorussia on plans for the total annihilation of Jews and on "actions" already taken, and statistical information on Jews residing in Poland, Romania, and Hungary.
Finding Aids
Nazi-Looted Jewish Archives in Moscow. A guide to Jewish Historical and Cultural Collections in the Russian State Military Archive, ed. by D. E. Fishman, M. Kupovetsky, V. Kuzelenkov, Scranton - London 2010.
Existence and Location of Copies
Microfilms are held by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives.
Archivist Note
Entry selected by Krzysztof Tyszka from the book “Nazi-Looted Jewish Archives in Moscow. A guide to Jewish Historical and Cultural Collections in the Russian State Military Archive”, ed. by D. E. Fishman, M. Kupovetsky, V. Kuzelenkov
Rules and Conventions
EHRI Guidelines for Description v.1.0