Participation of local administration bodies of provisional military administration and Reichskommissariat ‘Ukraine’ in ensuring holocaust measures (1941-1944)

The property of the Jews voluntarily handed over to the authorities could be bought back. In Kyiv, the last deadline for the voluntary return of such property was set on December 16, 1941. The property was subject to assessment and redemption. 30% of the required sum was transferred to the current account of the raion administration within ten days from the day of assessment, and the rest sum should be transferred within two months. In case of non-payment of the whole sum or absence of the appeal, the property was confiscated53.

It is typical that announcements in the local press about the prohibition of Jewish property looting coincided with the executions. The newspaper `Vasylkivski Visti'

reported: “Recently, the cases occur when empty houses, requisitioned by the Gebietskommissar have been looted. I remind you once again that the persons guilty of looting or damaging empty houses will be severely punished”54.

The problem complexity of the local authorities participating in the Holocaust also lies in the fact that Ukrainian-language newspaper offices functioned in their territories. Some of those newspapers were authorized by the German military authorities and established by the local authorities and intelligentsia in the first days and weeks of the occupation.

Journalists of such newspaper offices were only nominally the employees of local administration institutions, but their salaries and material and technical support they were getting from local sources. Strict censor control was established over their work, so the journalists of that time could not have personal opinions or positions. All their activities were aimed at propagandistic brainwashing of the local population, legitimization of the German authorities, and justification of the events of the Holocaust, which were conducted directly before the eyes of the local society.

During the subordination of the occupied territories to the PMA, the newspapers were usually published in raion centers and cities. But during the existence of the RKU, the newspapers were printed where the Gebietskommissariat institution was placed, spreading over its entire territory. This is evidence of the German authorities' efforts to control the content of Ukrainian-language publications and to prevent any degree of the editorial staff's willfulness. Thus, the work of those periodicals was financed at the expense of local authorities, and censorship duties were performed by the Gebietskommissariat officials.

Taking into account the presence of a considerable number of publications, the main subject of the study of which are the anti-Semitic and anti-Jewish components of that time press, we should note that the Jews of Ukraine in the Nazi's interpretation were shown as a collective absolute evil, guilty of all the atrocities committed by the Soviet regime against Ukrainians in general in the 1920s - 1930s.

Many of the employees of the local administration bodies acted as active authors of the materials to the occupation press, convincing Ukrainian society of the justice of the `historical mission' of Germany, in particular, regarding the crimes of the Soviet regime against Ukrainians as an ethnic group. Also, some of those employees, often in defiance of their own position, had to speak at official rallies and meetings of the local population timed to coincide with certain events, for example, the `liberation' from the `Jewish-Bilshovyk regime'55.

CONCLUSIONS

Thus, in the territories under the control of the PMA and the RKU, local administration bodies were established, which, although not unified, were still typical institutions of occupation administration. Despite the unequal organizational structure, local administration bodies had to perform all the tasks assigned by the German authorities. Although there were no repressive and punitive functions, but it was their staff who had to provide the measures that were the basis of the Holocaust policy, which was consistently and all-out conducted by the Nazis in occupied Ukraine.

Performing the functions of the occupation administration, the employees of the local administration bodies of the PMA and the RKU took an active part in both the preparatory measures and the purely technical support of actions for the extermination of the Jews. With the assistance of the local administrative staff members, the German authorities managed to settle the matter of registration and identification of the Jewish population, establish an effective system of control over issuing personal documents, as well as search and selection of places for conducting the massacres. Without their active participation, the Nazis would not have been able to organize actions of exterminating people so quickly, as well as to identify systematically those who managed to avoid death and were hiding from the persecution of the German occupiers. Also quite actively, some employees of local administration bodies participated in propagandistic provision and justification of massacres of the Jews in Ukraine.

Local authorities took part in the redistribution of property that belonged to the killed Jews. A great part of the former Jewish property, with the permission of the German authorities, was given to the local administration bodies, and the funds received after its sale were transferred to the bank accounts of the local authorities and used to finance their activities. At the same time, many employees of local administration bodies, using their official position, tried to obtain part of the property of people who had already been killed.

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