Belarusian self-help organization

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Documents from members of the Belarusian self-help organization

The Belarusian Self-Help Organization (WSW / Belarus. Беларуская народная самапомач (БНС) / Bielaruskaja Narodnaja Samapomatsch (BNS)) was an organization in the general district of Belarus , which existed from the end of 1941 to February 1944.

history

The WSW was founded on the order of General Commissioner Wilhelm Kube in order to "eliminate the emergencies that arose through communist rule". Ivan Yermatschenka , a representative of the Belarusian exile community in Prague , was initially appointed head .

At the beginning of April 1943, at a general assembly of all WSW regional managers, it was decided to remove Jermachenka as chairman of the organization on the pretext of personal enrichment. National ambitions were also forbidden, which resulted in the renaming of the WSW from “Belarusian National Self-Help” (Bielaruskaja Narodnaja Samapomatsch) to “Belarusian Self-Help” (Bielaruskaya Samapomatsch). The mayor of Baranowicz , Jury Sabaleuski , was appointed to succeed Jermatschenka . With the advance of the Red Army , the WSW was dissolved.

Fields of activity of the Belarusian self-help organization

The organization's tasks included helping the homeless, job creation for the unemployed, childcare and serving food. A specific representative of the WSW was appointed for each rayon, each municipality and each village. The organization was particularly successful in the city of Baranowicze . Members distributed clothing and food and set up an orphanage for 500 children. The funds for this were raised through donations from the population and with German financial help. At the same time it received the right of disposal over the property of murdered Jews. The extermination of the Jews was never publicly rejected by representatives of the WSW.

In addition, the WSW organized the search for Belarusian Red Army soldiers in German prisoner-of-war camps in order to inform their relatives about their whereabouts. Yermachenka was also interested in promoting Belarusian national awareness by cultivating the Belarusian language and culture. The main task of the WSW, however, was to recruit workers for the Germans, but this was unsuccessful.

The WSW representatives hoped that their organization would become the starting point for achieving greater autonomy, even for a later Belarusian nation-state. To this end, they tried, on the one hand, to displace political opponents, to occupy as many positions as possible and to make themselves indispensable for the occupiers; on the other hand, they made themselves the mouthpiece of German propaganda and praised the Germans as liberators “from the Jewish-Bolshevik and Polish yoke”.

literature

  • Alexander Brakel: Under the Red Star and Swastika. Baranowicze 1939 to 1944. Western Belarus under Soviet and German occupation . (= Age of World Wars. Volume 5). Ferdinand Schöningh Verlag, Paderborn et al. 2009, ISBN 978-3-506-76784-4 , pp. 206-210.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Беларуская народная самапомач. Беларуская самаахова, library.by
  2. ↑ Alexander Brakel: Under Red Star and Swastika. Baranowicze 1939 to 1944. Western Belarus under Soviet and German occupation . (= Age of World Wars. Volume 5). Ferdinand Schöningh Verlag, Paderborn et al. 2009, ISBN 978-3-506-76784-4 , p. 207.
  3. ↑ Alexander Brakel: Under Red Star and Swastika. Baranowicze 1939 to 1944. Western Belarus under Soviet and German occupation . (= Age of World Wars. Volume 5). Ferdinand Schöningh Verlag, Paderborn et al. 2009, ISBN 978-3-506-76784-4 , p. 213.
  4. ↑ Alexander Brakel: Under Red Star and Swastika. Baranowicze 1939 to 1944. Western Belarus under Soviet and German occupation. (= Age of World Wars. Volume 5). Ferdinand Schöningh Verlag, Paderborn et al. 2009. XII, p. 208.
  5. ↑ Alexander Brakel: Under Red Star and Swastika. Baranowicze 1939 to 1944. Western Belarus under Soviet and German occupation. (= Age of World Wars. Volume 5). Ferdinand Schöningh Verlag, Paderborn et al. 2009. XII, pp. 206-210.
  6. ↑ Alexander Brakel: Under Red Star and Swastika. Baranowicze 1939 to 1944. Western Belarus under Soviet and German occupation . (= Age of World Wars. Volume 5). Ferdinand Schöningh Verlag, Paderborn et al. 2009, ISBN 978-3-506-76784-4 , p. 208.