Ostministerium Was Not of Much Help

… simply because it did not have much power – almost all power in those territories belonged to Wehrmacht and to the SS and to the much lesser extent to the Nazi Party.

Ironically, it was Reinhard Heydrich who suggested (to Hermann G;ring) that responsibility for the civilian government of occupied territories should be given to Alfred Rosenberg, the NSDAP chief racial theorist (after Adolf Hitler, of course). Frankly, it was a no brainer as Rosenberg was a Baltic German (he was born in Revel – now Tallinn in Estonia) and spoke fluent Russian.

The Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories (commonly known as the Ostministerium) was created by Adolf Hitler shortly after the German invasion of the Soviet Union to control the vast areas captured by the Wehrmacht in the Baltic states, Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia. Two Reichskommissariats were established: Ostland and Ukraine. Two more were planned but never materialized.

The Ostministerium was involved in the development and implementation of Generalplan Ost, which fell under its jurisdiction (but never really took off); however, in reality the SS (mostly RSHA) was in charge.

It was established on July 17, 1941 – although for unknown reason its creation was not publicly announced until November of that year. Rosenberg was appointed Reichsminister; Alfred Meyer served as his deputy and later represented him and Ostministerium at the Wannsee Conference.

Rosenburg’s plans were intended to win over the non-Jewish populations of the conquered territories, for the sake of minimizing anti-German resistance if nothing else, and wished to portray the Germans as liberators from Soviet tyranny.

The latter was true, of course; however, it turned out that the Nazi tyranny in many cases was worse (sometimes much worse) that the Soviet one. In other words, “brown medicine” turned out to be worse than “red disease”.

Ostministerium was supposed to provide support for the “Final Solution” in occupied territories of the USSR (with its own resources and by enlisting the help of local population) – hence the presence of its officials at Wannsee Conference.

However, its’ resources and power were limited (Wehrmacht and the SS pretty much ran the territories helped by NSDAP) – and the locals did not care much about German propaganda (anti-Semitic or other).

Consequently, Ostministerium in reality was not of much help in the “Holocaust Project” and by the end of 1944 faded into oblivion as territories were lost.