page_title: Byelorussian collaboration with Nazi Germany
section_title: Military commanders
hierarchical_section_title: Byelorussian collaboration with Nazi Germany / Military commanders
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Weißrussland, Minsk ADN-Bildarchiv II. Weltkrieg 1939-45 In den von faschistischen deutschen Truppen besetzten Gebieten der Sowjetunion; Juni 1944 Auf dem Weg zum Bahnhof marschieren in Minsk Jugendliche aus Belorussland unter einer Fahne in den Landesfarben weiß-rot-weiß am Präsidenten des Weißruthenischen Zentralrates, Prof. Astrovsky, vorbei. Sie sollen in Deutschland für den Kriegseinsatz ausgebildet werden. Aufnahme: Sachert Information added by Wikimedia users.Беларуская (тарашкевіца)‎: Па дарозе на вакзал маршыруюць маладзёны зь Беларусі. Чэрвень 1944 году.
context_page_description: 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.
  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.
context_section_description: Źmicier Kasmovič, the police chief of Smolensk
  Francišak Kušal, Commander of local BKA police forces
  Michał Vituška, Commander of "Black Cat" special unit
  Colonel Alexander Buglaj
caption: German-collaborationist Biełaruskaja Krajovaja Abarona, Minsk, June 1944.
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