Reichskommissariat Ostland Reichskommissariat Ostland ( RKO ) was the civilian occupation regime established by Germany in the Baltic states ( Estonia , Latvia , and Lithuania ) , the north - eastern part of Poland and the west part of the Belarusian SSR during World War II . It was also known initially as Reichskommissariat Baltenland ( " Baltic Land " ) . The political organization for this territory — after an initial period of military administration before its establishment — was that of a German civilian administration , nominally under the authority of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories ( ) led by Nazi ideologist Alfred Rosenberg , but was in reality controlled by the Nazi official Hinrich Lohse , its appointed Reichskommissar . The main political objective , which the ministry laid out in the framework of National Socialist policies for the east established by Adolf Hitler , were the complete annihilation of the Jewish population and the settlement of ethnic Germans along with the expulsion or Germanization of parts of the native population - not only in the Reichskommissariat Ostland but also in the other German - occupied Soviet territories . Through the use of Einsatzgruppen A and B over a million Jews were killed in the Reichskommissariat Ostland . The Germanization policies would , built on the foundations of the Generalplan Ost , later be carried through by a series of special edicts and guiding principles for the general settlement plans for the Ostland . Throughout 1943 and 1944 , the Red Army gradually recaptured most of the territory in their advance on Germany , but Wehrmacht forces held out in the Courland pocket . With the end of the war in Europe and the defeat of Germany in 1945 , the Reichskommissariat ceased to exist completely . Ostland should not be confused with Ober Ost , which had a similar role as an occupation authority for Baltic territories by the German Empire in World War I . History . Planning before the attack on the Soviet Union . Originally the Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories ( ) , Alfred Rosenberg envisioned usage of the term Baltenland ( " Baltic Land " ) before the summer of 1941 for the area that would eventually be known as " Ostland " . Otto Bräutigam , a major colleague of Rosenberg at the time , opposed this idea . In a later declaration he alleged that Rosenberg ( himself a Baltic German ) , was influenced by his " Baltic friends " in forwarding this initiative , in which a " Baltic Reichskommissariat " with the addition of Belarus would be formed , " and with this the White Ruthenians would also be regarded as Balts " . A more important additional colleague of Rosenberg , Georg Leibbrandt , spoke out against this . He argued that the sympathy of the Baltic peoples , who would naturally want the use of their own terminology , could be lost entirely . They would therefore not be won over either as supporters of the German war effort , nor as racially valuable settlers for the region . After Operation Barbarossa . After the German invasion of the Soviet Union , vast areas were conquered to Germany ' s east . At first these areas would remain under military occupation by Wehrmacht authorities , but as soon as the military situation allowed it , a more permanent form of administration under German rule for these territories would be instituted . A Führer Decree of 17 July 1941 provided for this move . It established Reichskommissariat s in the east , as administrative units of the Greater German Reich ( " Großdeutsches Reich " ) . The structure of the Reichskommissariats was defined by the same decree . Each of these territories would be led by a German civil governor known as a Reichskommissar appointed by Hitler and answerable only to him . The official appointed for the Ostland ( " Der Reichskommissar für das Ostland " ) was Hinrich Lohse , the " Oberpräsident " and " Gauleiter " of Schleswig - Holstein . An instruction for the administrators ( the " Allgemeine Instruktion für alle Reichskommissare in den besetzten Ostgebieten " ) of the territories was prepared by " Reichsleiter " Alfred Rosenberg . Local government in the Reichskommissariat was to be organized under a " National Director " ( " Reichskomissar " ) in Estonia , a " General Director " in Latvia and a " General Adviser " in Lithuania . Rosenberg ' s ministerial authority was , in practice , severely limited . The first reason was that many of the practicalities were commanded elsewhere : the Wehrmacht and the SS managed the military and security aspects , Fritz Sauckel as Reich Director of Labour had control over manpower and working areas , Hermann Göring and Albert Speer had total management of economic aspects in the territories and the Reich postal service administered the Eastern territories ' postal services . These German central government interventions in the affairs of Ostland overriding the appropriate ministries were known as " special administrations " ( " Sonderverwaltungen " ) . Later , from September 1941 , the civil administration that had been decreed in the previous July was actually set up . Lohse and Koch objected to these breaches of their supposed responsibilities , seeking to administer their territories with the independence and authority of Gauleiter s . on 1 April 1942 an " arbeitsbereich " ( lit . " working sphere " , a name for the party cadre organisation outside the Reich proper ) was established in the civilian - administered parts of the occupied Soviet territories , whereupon Koch and Lohse gradually ceased communication with Rosenberg , preferring to deal directly with Hitler through Martin Bormann and the Party Chancellery . In the process they also displaced all other actors including notably the SS , except in central Belarus where HSSPF Erich von dem Bach - Zelewsky had a special command encompassing both military and civil administration territories and engaged in anti - partisan warfare . In July 1941 , the civil administration was declared in much of the occupied Soviet territories before one had materialised in the field . A power vacuum emerged which the SS filled with its SS and Police Leadership Structure , exercising unlimited power over security and policing which it gave up only grudgingly in the autumn when civil administration came into being ; indeed Himmler would use various tactics until as late as 1943 in unsuccessful efforts to regain this power . This partly explains the strained relations between the SS and the civil administration . In the Ostland , matters were further complicated by the personality of the local superior SS officer Friedrich Jeckeln , attacked by the SS ' s opponents for his alleged corruption , brutality and mindless foolhardiness . German plans . The short - term political objectives for Ostland differed from those for the Ukraine , the Caucasus or the Moscow regions . The Baltic lands , which were to be joined together with Belarus ( to serve as a spacious hinterland of the coastal areas ) , would be organised as one Germanized protectorate prior to union with Germany itself in the near future . Rosenberg said that these lands had a fundamentally " European " character , resulting from 700 years of history under Swedish , Danish , and German rule , and should therefore provide Germany with " Lebensraum " , an opinion shared by Hitler and other leading Nazis . The Belorussians , however , were considered by the scholars of the RMfdbO as " little and weak peasant people " dwelling in " folkish indifference " , but also " the most harmless and because of this the least dangerous for us of all the peoples in the Eastern Space " and an ideal object of exploitation . Rosenberg suggested that Belarus will be in the future an appropriate reception area of various undesirable population elements from the Baltic part of Ostland and German - occupied Poland . He also toyed with the idea of turning the country into a huge nature reserve . The regime planned to encourage the post - war settlement of Germans to the region , seeing it as a region traditionally inhabited by Germans ( see the Teutonic Order and the Northern Crusades ) that had been overrun by Slavs . During the war itself in Pskov province ethnic Germans were resettled from Romania with some Dutch . The settlement of Dutch settlers was encouraged by the " Nederlandsche Oost - Compagnie " , a Dutch - German organisation . Historical German and Germanic - sounding placenames were also retained ( or introduced ) for many Baltic cities , such as " Reval " ( Tallinn ) , " Kauen " ( Kaunas ) , and " Dünaburg " ( Daugavpils ) , among many others . To underscore the region ' s planned incorporation into Germany some Nazi ideologists further suggested the future use of the names " Peipusland " for Estonia and " Dünaland " for Latvia once they had become part of Germany . The ancient Russian city of Novgorod , the easternmost foreign trading post of the Hanseatic League , was to be renamed " Holmgard " . During the occupation , the Germans also published a " local " German - language newspaper , the " Deutsche Zeitung im Ostland " . Administrative and territorial organization . The Reichskommissariat Ostland was sub - divided into four " General Regions " ( " Generalbezirke " ) , namely Estonia , Latvia , Lithuania , and White Ruthenia ( Belarus ) , headed by a " Generalkommissar " . The three Baltic states were further divided into " Districts " ( " Kreisgebiete " ) which were grouped into " Main Districts " ( " Hauptgebiete " ) , while Belarus was only composed of Districts . Conquered territories further to the east were under military control for the entirety of the war . The intention was to include these territories in the anticipated future extension of Ostland . This would have incorporated Ingria ( " Ingermannland " ) , as well as the Smolensk , Pskov , and Novgorod areas into the Reichskommissariat . Estonia ' s new eastern border was planned to be extent to the Leningrad - Novgorod line , with Lake Ilmen and Volkhov River forming the new eastern border of the Baltic country , while Latvia was to reach the Velikiye Luki region . Belarus was to extend east to include the Smolensk region . The local administration of the Reichskommissariat Ostland was headed by " Reichskommissar " Hinrich Lohse . Below him there was an administrative hierarchy : a " Generalkomissar " led each " Generalbezirk " , while " Hauptkommissars " and " Gebietskommissars " administered " Hauptgebieten " and " Kreisgebieten " , respectively . The administrative center for the entire region , as well as the seat of the Reichskommissar , was in Riga , Latvia . " Generalbezirk Estland " ( Estonia ) . District seat : Reval ( Tallinn ) Ruled by Generalkommissar Karl - Siegmund Litzmann . Subdivided into five " Gebietskommissariate " : " Generalbezirk Lettland " ( Latvia ) . District seat : Riga Ruled by Generalkommissar Otto - Heinrich Drechsler . Subdivided into five " Gebietskommissariate " : " Generalbezirk Litauen " ( Lithuania ) . District seat : Kauen ( Kaunas ) Ruled by Generalkommissar Theodor Adrian von Renteln . Subdivided into four " Gebietskommissariate " : " Generalbezirk Weißruthenien " ( Belarus ) . District seat : Minsk Ruled by Generalkommissar Wilhelm Kube ( 1941 - 1943 ) and Curt von Gottberg ( 1943 - 1944 ) . In March 1943 , Wilhelm Kube succeeded in installing the Belarusian Central Rada ( a collaborationist puppet regime ) , which existed concurrently with the German civil administration . On 1 April 1944 Generalbezirk Weißruthenien was detached from Reichskommissariat Ostland and was placed directly under the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories . Policies . State property . Upon taking control , Hinrich Lohse proclaimed the official decree " Verkündungsblatt für das Ostland " on November 15 , 1941 , whereby all Soviet State and Party properties in the Baltic area and Belarus were confiscated and transferred to the German administration . In Ostland , the administration returned lands confiscated by the Soviets to the former peasant owners . In towns and cities , small workshops , industries and businesses were returned to their former owners , subject to promises to pay taxes and quotas to the authorities . Jewish properties were confiscated . In Belarus , a state enterprise was established to manage all former Soviet government properties . One of the German administrators was General commissar Wilhelm Kube . " Ostgesellschaften " ( state monopolies ) and so - called " Patenfirmen " , private industrial companies linked to the German government , were quickly appointed to manage confiscated enterprises . The Hermann Göring Workshop s , Mannesmann , IG Farben and Siemens assumed control of all former Soviet state enterprises in Ostland and Ukraine . An example of this was the takeover , by Daimler - Benz and Vomag , of heavy repair workshops , in Riga and Kiev , for the maintenance of all captured Russia n T - 34 and KV - 1 tanks , linked with their repair workshops in Germany . In Belarus , the German authorities lamented the " Jewish - Bolshevik " extremist policies that had denied the people knowledge of the basic concepts of private property , ownership , or personal initiative . Unlike the Baltic area , where the authorities saw that " during the war and the occupation ' s first stages , the population gave examples of sincere collaboration , a way for possibly giving some liberty to autonomous administration " . Economic exploitation . According to Schwerin von Krosigk , the Reich Minister of Finances , until February 1944 , Reich Government receiving in concept of occupation costs and taxes ( in million of RM ) 753 , 6 RM . The German Ministry of East Affairs required Lohse and the Reichskommissar in Ukraine to deliver immediately slave labour from the occupied territories to Germany : 380 , 000 farm workers and 247 , 000 industrial workers . The Germans viewed the Slavs as a pool of slave work labour for use by the German Reich ; if necessary they could be worked to death . Extermination of the Jews in Ostland . At the time of the German invasion in June 1941 there were significant Jewish minorities in Ostland — nearly 480 , 000 people . To these were added deportees from Austria , Germany , and elsewhere . Jews were confined to ghettos in Riga and Kauen , which rapidly became overcrowded and squalid . From these they were taken to execution sites . The Soviet Red Army reported the discovery of Vilna and Kauen extermination centres as apparently part of the Nazi Final Solution . The extermination of the resident Jews began almost immediately after the invasion and was later extended to the deportees . In autumn 1943 the ghettos were " liquidated " , and the remaining occupants were moved to camps at Kaiserwald and Stutthof near Danzig or , if not capable of work , killed . Partisan movement . German and local security authorities were kept busy by Soviet partisan activities in Belarus . They noted that " infected zones " of partisan action included an area of 500 or 600 km² , around Minsk , Pinsk , Gomel , Briansk , Smolensk and Vitebsk , including the principal roads and railways in these areas .