District Galicia
Encyclopedia
General Government
The General Government was an area of Second Republic of Poland under Nazi German rule during World War II; designated as a separate region of the Third Reich between 1939–1945...
in Nazi-occupied Ukraine from 1941 to 1944 centered in Lemberg (Lviv
Lviv
Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...
).
It was composed of Western territories of Ukraine, during the interwar period incorporated into the Second Polish Republic
Second Polish Republic
The Second Polish Republic, Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland refers to Poland between the two world wars; a period in Polish history in which Poland was restored as an independent state. Officially known as the Republic of Poland or the Commonwealth of Poland , the Polish state was...
. In 1941 after Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
those territories were taken over by Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
and incorporated into the General Government
General Government
The General Government was an area of Second Republic of Poland under Nazi German rule during World War II; designated as a separate region of the Third Reich between 1939–1945...
until they were retaken by the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
in 1944.
The area was governed by Karl Lasch from 1 August 1941 to 6 January 1942, and by SS Brigadeführer
Brigadeführer
SS-Brigadeführer was an SS rank that was used in Nazi Germany between the years of 1932 and 1945. Brigadeführer was also an SA rank....
Dr. Otto Wächter
Otto Wächter
The Baron Otto Gustav von Wächter , was an Austrian lawyer and later German SS officer and National Socialist official...
from 6 January 1942 to September 1943. Wächter utilised the district capital Lemberg
Lviv
Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...
as a recruitment base for the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Galicia (1st Ukrainian).
See also
- Administrative division of Polish territories during World War IIAdministrative division of Polish territories during World War IIAdministrative division of Polish territories during World War II can be divided into several phases, when territories of the Second Polish Republic were administered first by Nazi Germany and Soviet Union , then in their entirety by Nazi Germany and finally by the Soviet Union...
- Soviet annexation of Western Ukraine, 1939–1940Soviet annexation of Western Ukraine, 1939–1940On the basis of a secret clause of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union , the Soviet Union invaded Poland on September 17, 1939, capturing the eastern regions of Poland , with Galicia and Volhynia, facing little Polish opposition and occupying the principal city of...
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