Barys Rahulja

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Barys Rahulja ( Belarusian Барыс Рагуля ; born January 1, 1920 in Turez near Nawahrudak , Hrodsenskaja Woblasz ; † April 22, 2005 in London , Canada ) was a Belarusian officer of the Belarusian Home Guard and political activist.

Life

Barys Rahulja went to school in Nawahrudak , where he was younger and less prudent than his classmates. He graduated from high school in the late 1930s . In September 1938 Rahulja was drafted into the Polish Army as a reservist and in June 1939 commanded about 60 soldiers as a lieutenant. As a result of the Soviet invasion of Poland in September 1939, Rahulja was captured by the Red Army and held as a prisoner of war in eastern Poland until he was released in 1940. After he had already learned German at school, he was able to teach the language at the local high school. At the beginning of 1941 he was arrested by the NKVD on the basis of politically subversive remarks and held in Minsk until the beginning of the German occupation in the summer of the same year .

Second World War

After his release, Rahulja returned to Nawahrudak and worked as an interpreter and liaison officer between the German military administration and the local officials appointed by Radaslau Astrouski . He accompanied the area commissioner Traub on trips and was responsible for interrogating local citizens who were suspected of sympathizing with the communists. He continued to teach German at the grammar school in Nawahrudak and taught his students military arts . Rahulja joined the trust council of Commissioner General Wilhelm Kube together with Stanislau Stankewitsch and Jury Sabaleuski . Shortly after Curt von Gottberg was appointed General Commissioner, Rahulja was given the task of mobilizing volunteers to found her own Belarusian military unit. He succeeded in persuading 150 people to join the Belarusian squadron, which was founded in autumn 1943 under the leadership of the SS . His cavalry squadron was expanded into a battalion and transferred to the White Ruthenian Home Guard in 1944 . Rahulja herself received the rank of major . He was also one of the leading officers of the White Ruthenian Home Guard. Rahulja was also appointed representative of the Belarusian Central Council in the Nawahrudak region. He was also the commander of a Belarusian officers' school that was established in Grafenwöhr . Rahulja withdrew to Germany in July 1944. From September 1944 he was in command of the officers' school of the first cadre battalion of the White Ruthenian Home Guard. From December 1944 Rahulja was a liaison officer of the 30th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (Belarusian No. 1) .

exile

After the end of the Second World War he managed to live in West Germany, where he became a member of the Belarusian exile community. During a stay in Belgium , he began working with the US and received a monthly payment of 15,000 Belgian Francs, which was delivered to him monthly by a US employee at his home in Leuven in exchange for being the main point of contact for Operation Aequor. The aim of this operation was to promote the anti-communist activities of the Rada BNR , illegally smuggle Belarusian agents into the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic and to coordinate the activities of the remaining members of the Black Cats resistance group . Rahulja later moved to Canada , where he worked as a doctor and died on April 22, 2005.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Mark Alexander: Nazi Collaborators, American Intelligence, and the Cold War. The Case of the Byelorussian Central Council. University of Vermont Graduate College Dissertations and Theses, No. 424, 2015, p. 19
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Antonio J. Munoz, Oleg V. Romanko: Hitler's White Russians. Collaboration, Extermination and Anti-partisan Warfare in Byelorussia, 1941-1944. Europa Books, Bayside NY 2003, ISBN 1-891227-42-4 , p. 448.
  3. ↑ Mark Alexander: Nazi Collaborators, American Intelligence, and the Cold War. The Case of the Byelorussian Central Council. University of Vermont Graduate College Dissertations and Theses, No. 424, 2015, p. 48
  4. ↑ Mark Alexander: Nazi Collaborators, American Intelligence, and the Cold War. The Case of the Byelorussian Central Council. University of Vermont Graduate College Dissertations and Theses, No. 424, 2015, p. 49
  5. ↑ Mark Alexander: Nazi Collaborators, American Intelligence, and the Cold War. The Case of the Byelorussian Central Council. University of Vermont Graduate College Dissertations and Theses, No. 424, 2015, p. 50
  6. ↑ Mark Alexander: Nazi Collaborators, American Intelligence, and the Cold War. The Case of the Byelorussian Central Council. University of Vermont Graduate College Dissertations and Theses, No. 424, 2015, p. 51
  7. ↑ Mark Alexander: Nazi Collaborators, American Intelligence, and the Cold War. The Case of the Byelorussian Central Council. University of Vermont Graduate College Dissertations and Theses, No. 424, 2015, p. 55
  8. ^ A b Mark Alexander: Nazi Collaborators, American Intelligence, and the Cold War. The Case of the Byelorussian Central Council. University of Vermont Graduate College Dissertations and Theses, No. 424, 2015, p. 102
  9. ↑ Mark Alexander: Nazi Collaborators, American Intelligence, and the Cold War. The Case of the Byelorussian Central Council. University of Vermont Graduate College Dissertations and Theses, No. 424, 2015, p. 73
  10. ^ CIA document on Operation Aequor
  11. ↑ У Канадзе памёр Барыс Рагуля , svaboda.org, accessed on August 5, 2016 (Belarusian)
personal data
SURNAME Rahulja, Barys
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Рагуля, Барыс (Belarusian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belarusian officer in the Belarusian Home Guard and political activist
DATE OF BIRTH January 1, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Turez , Hrodsenskaja Woblasz
DATE OF DEATH April 22, 2005
Place of death London , Canada