Reichskommissariat Belgium and Northern France

The Reichskommissariat Belgium and Northern France (formally referred to as the Reichskommissariat for the occupied territories of Belgium and Northern France ) was an administrative unit of the German civil administration in the German- occupied Belgium and Northern France during the Second World War . The Reichskommissariat replaced a previous military government, the Military Administration in Belgium and Northern France , which had been established in the same area in 1940. On July 18, 1944, the first Gauleiter, Josef Grohé, was appointed Reich Commissioner for the territory.

As part of Operation Overlord , the area was conquered by the Allies in September 1944, so that its existence was very short-lived, and subsequently connected directly to Germany (although no longer under German de facto control). For this purpose, it was divided into three separate Reichsgaue on December 15, 1944: Reichsgau Flanders , Reichsgau Wallonia and District Brussels .

literature

• Konrad Kwiet : Reichskommissariat Netherlands. Attempt and failure of the National Socialist reorganization (= series of the quarterly books for contemporary history. 17). Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1968, (Excursus: The question of the appointment of a Reich Commissioner in Belgium, pp. 61–68; At the same time: Berlin, Free University, dissertation, 1967: The establishment of the German civil administration in the Netherlands and the beginnings of its Nazification policy . ).
• Germany and the Second World War. Volume 5: Bernhard R. Kroener , Rolf-Dieter Müller , Hans Umbreit: Organization and Mobilization of the German Sphere of Power. Part 2: Wartime Administration, Economy, and Manpower Resources 1942–1944 / 5. Clarendon Press, Oxford 2003, ISBN 0-19-820873-1 , p. 26.