The Nazis' main aims were first to exploit the occupied territories economically and second to guarantee a secure rear area and safe lines of communication for the troops advancing into Central Russia and the foothills of the Caucasus. The Nazis' entire policy was subordinated to these ends, and the methods they used corresponded to them: extermination of all Jews and members of other "inferior" nationalities; elimination of Communists and their families; pillage of the occupied territories; pitiless exploitation of the population; and elimination of the few rights they had enjoyed under the Soviet regime.
On the eve of the invasion Hitler had ordered the formation of Einsatz- gruppen, special detachments under Himmler's command, whose purpose was to seek out and destroy all Jews, Communists, and other "antisocial" elements. These units were later reinforced by units of Ukrainians and Baits, who served as rural and urban police. The extermination of Jews began immediately after the invasion and continued throughout the occupation. More than 7,000 Jews were killed in Lvov immediately after it was taken by German troops. Criminal elements among the "Banderaite" Ukrainian nationalists participated in hunting down and murdering Jews.55 Ghettoes were established for the Jews in many Ukrainian and Byelorussian cities, and afterward those who had been driven into the ghettoes were pitilessly annihilated. No mercy was shown to anyone—neither women nor children nor the elderly. They were shot, buried alive, burned alive, or killed in gas chambers. Tens of thousands of Jews, including Soviet citizens, were liquidated by the Nazis in such death camps as Auschwitz, Maidanek, and Treblinka. According to the estimates of a special Anglo—American committee in 1946, the Germans killed 1,050,000 Soviet Jews.56
Very unhappy with the Soviet regime after twenty years, part of the population undoubtedly had some illusions concerning improvements in their conditions under the Germans. In certain parts of the Ukraine the German army was welcomed with flowers. These illusions were soon shattered. The German government was even more brutal than its Soviet counterpart. In other words, however bad it was, the Soviet government was their own, whereas the Germans were strangers who despised the population and not only robbed them but humiliated them at every turn.
On the other hand, almost all families in the occupied territories had children, fathers, or brothers in the Red Army. Patriotism, the feeling of belonging to a common land and a common cause, a sentiment that had been lost or completely uprooted, was reborn as a reaction to the invaders' cruelty. This was fertile ground for active and passive resistance toward the invaders. The Germans deported 4,258,000 Soviet citizens to Germany to work in industry and agriculture.57 Most of them were mistreated and exploited mercilessly. They had to wear special badges that said Ostarbeiter (worker from the East) and were segregated from Western workers. Any contact with the local population was strictly forbidden.
An exception was made to this general policy in the case of the Kuban Cossacks. In mid-April 1942 Hitler authorized the formation of Cossack volunteer units to be used against the Red Army and the partisans. Hitler had been informed that the Kuban Cossacks constituted an independent nation whose ancestry was traceable to the Ostgoths. They were therefore counted as friends of the Reich. They were allowed to set up an autonomous government and granted freedom of religion, culture, and education. On October 1, 1942, a Cossack district consisting of six subdivisions was formed with a population of 160,000 inhabitants. The Cossacks were authorized to return to private landownership, under the condition that they serve in the German army. The Germans expected to increase their Cossack legions to 25,000. Nevertheless, the Germans had to withdraw from these areas in January 1943, and the main cities of the region, Rostov and
Novocherkassk, were retaken by the Red Army. Over 20,000 Cossacks joined the German army in its retreat. They were commanded by the German general von Pannowitz.
The Germans pursued a "special" policy in the Northern Caucasus, where they succeeded in forming several units of local mountaineers. The reason for this policy was their desire to use the Caucasus to supply their needs for oil. Their plans called for the formation of a General Commissariat of the Caucasus, which was to include the Northern Caucasus and Transcaucasia.
The occupied parts of the Caucasus were put under military rule. Unlike the rest of the occupied territories, where kolkhozes had been maintained as useful economic units to provide the food and raw materials Germany needed, the Caucasian mountain tribes were allowed to dissolve theirs if they so desired. Nevertheless, whenever the needs of the German army were at stake, the invaders acted just as harshly as in the other occupied regions, imposing forced requisitions, severe punishments, and collective responsibility for any sabotage against the German army.
The policy of employing non-Russians in the war against the Soviet Union was also used in the case of the Crimean Tatars, who were allowed to set up their own national institutions, and the Kalmyks, who were encouraged by the Germans to revive their nomadic traditions. But everywhere the Germans would crush the slightest attempt to attain any real national independence. The nationalist organizations were always strictly controlled by the authorities. Thus, the Germans suppressed attempts by the Crimean Tatars to use Muslim committees to create a national movement. Punitive expeditions by the Germans against partisans in the Crimea did not spare the Tatar villages, many of which were burned down.
Part of the population in the Caucasus, in the Crimea, and in Kalmykia collaborated with the Germans—on a very small scale. Some were guilty of atrocities and war crimes. We lack detailed information on this topic, since Soviet sources remain silent. According to some Western researchers, of the 134,000 Kalmyks who lived in the Soviet Union in 1939, 5,000 became active collaborators.58 For the Crimean Tatars, the figure was between 12,000 and 20,000 collaborators out of a population estimated at 250,000 in 1939.59
The German political and military command set itself three tasks when it planned the war against the Soviet Union: to eliminate bolshevism; to destroy any trace of a non-German state on Soviet territory; and to exploit the population and transform the occupied zones into German colonies. These objectives were based on the theory of the inferiority of the Slavic race and the superiority of the Aryan race over all others. The German political doctrine rejected in advance all collaboration with the peoples of the Soviet Union. The only relations it permitted were those of slavemaster to slave. This point of view, often expressed by Hitler, determined all policies in the occupied territories and even governed attitudes toward the anti-Communist forces willing to collaborate with the Germans.
Those forces included various Russian emigr6s, Ukrainian, Byelorussian, Polish, and Caucasian nationalists, as well as members of various anti-Soviet organizations. The German authorities used them as interpreters, technical personnel, sometimes as advisers, but never granted them political representation of any kind. The emigr6 organizations were torn by internal conflicts, each rival group seeking to win Germany's exclusive support, and they were hampered by the vagueness or absurdity of their political programs. As long as Germany held the initiative in the war, the Nazi leaders kept a tight rein on the anti-Soviet organizations, cutting short all their attempts at political action in the occupied territories.
For example, in the Ukraine, when the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) proclaimed the creation of a Ukrainian state in Lvov on June 30, 1941, their leaders Stetsko and Bandera were simply arrested by the German authorities, along with many of their supporters. Likewise, when another leader, Melnik, attempted to set up a government in Kiev, he was also arrested. This policy of repression led to a declaration of war on two fronts by the OUN, against the Red Army and against the Germans, but in reality they never attacked the Germans. In 1944 Bandera and Melnik were freed and allowed to lead the armed struggle of the Ukrainian nationalists against the Red Army, which at that time was on the offensive. Many exiled Ukrainian nationalists served in the SS Galichina division and in the Nachtigall regiment.