BETWEEN HITLER AND STALIN

DIRECT GERMAN RULE IN UKRAINE

In other German-occupied territories, puppet governments were set up consisting of local officials. In occupied Ukraine, however, this was not the case. As per Hitler’s plans to make the fertile plains of Ukraine the new lebensraum (living space) for the German nation, Ukrainian territory was administered directly by the German authorities.

The bulk of Ukrainian territory was divided between three German administrations; Western Ukraine was put under the control of the Generalgouvernment, most of central and eastern Ukraine was put under the control of Reichkommissariat Ukraine, and the easternmost Ukrainian territories, today Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts, stayed under military control.

Because they were forbidden from the higher administrative positions in these governments, it was very difficult for Ukrainians to protect their interests during the German occupation. The result was a plundering of Ukrainian territory by the Germans, and the institution of extremely brutal occupation regimes, particularly in Reichkommissariat Ukraine.