Operation Bamberg
Encyclopedia
Operation Bamberg was an anti-partisan operation during the Occupation of Belarus by Nazi Germany
. The pilot project for offensive anti-partisan fighting was the operation Bamberg in the area of Hłusk-Pariczi-Oktiabrskij
to the south of Bobrujsk, in the eastern Polesie
. The operation had already been prepared since 26 February 1942 from the southerly Regional Commissariat Żytomierz
by actions of the Slovakian infantry regiment with the subordinated German police battalion 325 in the area Mozyr-Szitkowiczi, which probably claimed more than 1,000 lives. This action seems to have been held up by the fact that the commander of the police battalion, a major of the order police
(Schutzpolizei
) didn't mobilize his troops for some time. From the north the operation was to be conducted not by the 203rd security division
, responsible for the area, but by the 707th infantry division, which had been transferred specifically for this purpose from the Regional Commissariat White Ruthenia. During a preliminary meeting on 8 March von Schenkendorff thanked the security police
and the SD
for their support so far and assured them that for the success of the great action they were absolutely necessary. The operation plan of the 203 security division defined as tasks
While this division, which also foresaw a bombing of four villages from the air, still recommended to make a distinction between the guilty and the innocent, demanding that only truly guilty and elements alien to the localities are to be shot, the 707th division from the start planned no broad development, i.e. against the partisans in the forest areas, which was said to be impossible due to snow and ice and the beginning of the mud period soon to be expected, but a proceeding along the streets and mainly against the villages in the area of operation, where most partisans could in the meantime have established themselves. The commander v. Bechtolsheim ordered that during this action the crimes against Jews and people alien to a locality, as carried out with success in White Ruthenia, especially in the autumn months of 1941, were to be imitated with all harshness: The respective instructions for ruthless action against men, women and children
also apply for the new operation area.
Operation Bamberg already showed all essential tactical elements and procedures
that were to become typical of the later actions and fateful for the population of the affected areas. Between 26 March and 6 April 1942, within 12 days, the reinforced 707th infantry division, the Slovakian infantry regiment and the German police battalion 315 destroyed a series of villages in a broken through forest area between Oktiabrskij and Kopakewiczi and murdered their inhabitants. In Chwoineja (Chojno
) 1,350 people were among other things locked into their houses and killed by hand grenades and burning, in Rudnia
(Rudnia, Gmina Czarna Białostocka?, Rudnia, Gmina Michałowo?) 800 persons were collected and shot in groups (the men first had to undress), in Oktiabrskij 190 persons were burned alive inside the club house, the inhabitants of Kurin
were in part shot, in part burned alive, similar as in Kowali, where the children were burned. The number of Belarusian dead was officially put at about 3,500 by the Germans, but the actual number was much higher. The partisans estimated it at 5,000, and according to the listing by Romanowski at all 4,396 people died in 15 localities alone.
The actions that took place before and afterwards in the surrounding areas are not included in these figures, which means it must be assumed that at least 6,000 people were murdered. The great majority of them were locally residing peasant
s and non-fugitive Jews, who were also targeted by the operation. It is justified to speak of people murdered, for there was hardly any fighting, there was no greater resistance
to be broken, which is not surprising for actions against villages. The losses of the German and allied troops during the core action were merely seven dead and eight wounded, 47 rifle
s and machine pistol
s were captured. The partisans in the area, whose number was estimated at 1,200 to 2,000 men, got away.
Like almost all later major actions against partisans or those around them, operation Bamberg consisted of four phases:
Fighting with the partisans and losses on the German side were most frequent in the third phase. The infamous mass crimes
, the destruction of villages and the murder of their inhabitants, occurred in phase 3 and mainly in phase 4, when after conclusion of the coordinated military advance with daily objectives to be reached under all circumstances more time was left therefor. This depopulation was always planned in advance. Only thereafter was the operation considered as concluded. In phase 4 there also commenced the more or less organized plundering of agricultural product
s of the affected area, the so-called collection.
The key importance of the 4th phase becomes apparent from several sources about operations of so-called fighting against bandits, such as a passage in the diary of Bach-Zelewski wherein the operation of so-called mopping up is criticized, which would always lead to a great number of destroyed bandit subjects as its object was to annihilate the population sympathizing with the Bolshevik
s rather than the partisans. This can be proven not only for the operations mentioned in this context, Nürnberg and Erntefest II, but also for instance for Sumpffieber, Franz and Hornung
. The number of victims accordingly went up during the respective final phase, like in operation Bamberg. It is not without reason that the SS and Police Commander of White Ruthenia, v. Gottberg
, wrote the following about the final phase of operation Nürnberg: What followed was then more or less a hare hunt.
Another typical feature of such operations was the setting of daily objectives practiced during Operation Bamberg. Certain units had to cover a certain distance until an established final point during a day while mopping up all localities. The further away the daily objective was, the greater the probability, that there was no time for an exact investigation as to who supported the partisans (and for the collection of agricultural products) and thus the tendency was to kill everyone around. The possibility of allowing many people to run away was often not considered by the executing units because the inhabitants of the affected areas were generally seen as sympathizers of the partisans. To need to set such daily objectives resulted from the inner logic of such an operation under participation of various units for a coordinated proceeding. Thus the remote message post of Combat Group von Gottberg during the Operation Frühlingsfest sent and received 3,500 remote messages. The determination of what distance was to be covered until the respective daily objectives, however, contained a conscious preliminary decision on the procedure inside the villages. The troops were thus put under pressure. Daily distances of up to 30 kilometers with a crossing and mopping up, i.e. a march with combat actions and searching of the villages, such as Himmler considered possible, indicated an annihilation intention present from the very start. Sometimes the closing of the cauldron failed wholly due to a too stretched target area, to great daily objectives and too splintered German forces. If - as during later operations such as Weichsel - more laborer
s were to be collected, on the other hand, a most thorough searching and short daily objectives were ordered.
Yet another typical feature was the carrying out of investigations and verifications, examinations and interrogation
s in the villages, mainly by GFP
(Geheime Feldpolizei
= Secret Field Police) and SD, as in the case of Bamberg. Given the great marching distances their anyway dubious activity was reduced to identify not person
s, but villages suspect of partisan activity and suggesting the next targets of verification. These commandos often also carried out a part of the executions. The support by the Luftwaffe
in the form or reconnaissance
and combat
flight
s, which later became a rule, also existed already during Operation Bamberg.
The same applied to the activity of agriculture officials (in this case 24), given that an essential goal of the action was the confiscation
of agricultural products. The task was the total encirlement and annihilation
of the partisan groups and the securing and pacification of this area, in order to collect the great stock
s of agricultural products and take them away, reported General Major
v. Bechtolsheim. Instead of the expected at least 10-20,000 units of cattle
the reported booty consisted of only 2,454 cattle, 2,286 sheep, 115 ton
s of grain
, 120 tons of potato
es and more. In this respect fundamental difficulties for the Germans showed up, which were also characteristic of later actions. The affected area had until then delivered no agrarian products to the Germans (no collection at all so far due to partisan activity). The economy staff in Bobrujsk had prior to the operation suggested to either occupy the area militarily on a constant basis or to carry out a total collection including the last cow and the seed
grain
, which would lead to a deterioration of the mood
of the population
. For a longer occupation
there were not enough troops, however, and the total collection was a task almost impossible to solve
due to transportation difficulties caused by the weather
. From the point of view of the agriculture authorities the operation was thus condemned to fail as a collection operation, given that the confiscation remained a partial success and the so-called pacification as a pre-conditions for a long-term exploitation
did not occur. As will be shown, the agrarian administration could nevertheless consider the strategy
of the great operations against partisans to make sense due to other reasons.
The development and results of Operation Bamberg were followed with attention by high and highest authorities. The commander of the rear area of Army Group Center, for instance, constantly kept himself informed. While he internally remarked that the result had been not fully satisfactory because the partisans had got away and among those reported by the division as partisan helpers there seem to have been many who had only very loose connections to the partisans, he congratulated the 707th infantry division nevertheless on its having annihilated 3,000 partisans. Army Group Center and its supreme commander v. Kluge also let themselves be informed on a regular basis. Also informed were the head of the administration department at the Army Supreme Command/General Quarter Master, Schmidt v. Altenstedt, General Quarter Master Wagner himself and through him also Hitler.
The Major Actions were not invented with Operation Bamberg. An action near Sewsk (Sjwosk) to the south of Lokot in the Briańsk area, apparently in support of the local self administration district of Russian collaborators and claiming 1,936 lives, had been carried out shortly before by an Hungarian unit
. (Here also the Germans thus tried to transfer the responsibility to allied troops.) It was the Operation Bamberg, however, that became a model
in many respects.
The operation Bamberg was the beginning of a series of campaigns of plunder, murder
and deportation
against the peasant
population
of Belarus in the surroundings of the partisan areas.
Occupation of Belarus by Nazi Germany
The occupation of Belarus by Nazi Germany occurred as part of the German invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941 and ended in August 1944 with the Soviet Operation Bagration.- Background :...
. The pilot project for offensive anti-partisan fighting was the operation Bamberg in the area of Hłusk-Pariczi-Oktiabrskij
Aktsyabar Raion
Aktsyabarski Raion or Oktyabrsky Raion is an administrative subdivision, a raion of Gomel Region, in southern Belarus, with capital Aktsyabarski-External links:/...
to the south of Bobrujsk, in the eastern Polesie
Polesia
Polesia is one of the largest European swampy areas, located in the south-western part of the Eastern-European Lowland, mainly within Belarus and Ukraine but also partly within Poland and Russia...
. The operation had already been prepared since 26 February 1942 from the southerly Regional Commissariat Żytomierz
Zhytomyr
Zhytomyr is a city in the North of the western half of Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Zhytomyr Oblast , as well as the administrative center of the surrounding Zhytomyr Raion...
by actions of the Slovakian infantry regiment with the subordinated German police battalion 325 in the area Mozyr-Szitkowiczi, which probably claimed more than 1,000 lives. This action seems to have been held up by the fact that the commander of the police battalion, a major of the order police
Ordnungspolizei
The Ordnungspolizei or Orpo were the uniformed regular police force in Nazi Germany between 1936 and 1945. It was increasingly absorbed into the Nazi police system. Owing to their green uniforms, they were also referred to as Grüne Polizei...
(Schutzpolizei
Schutzpolizei
The Schutzpolizei , or Schupo for short, is a branch of the Landespolizei, the state level police of the German states. Schutzpolizei literally means security or protection police but is best translated as Uniformed Police....
) didn't mobilize his troops for some time. From the north the operation was to be conducted not by the 203rd security division
Security Division (Germany)
The Wehrmacht Security Divisions were German military units which operated during World War II.-History and organisation:...
, responsible for the area, but by the 707th infantry division, which had been transferred specifically for this purpose from the Regional Commissariat White Ruthenia. During a preliminary meeting on 8 March von Schenkendorff thanked the security police
Sicherheitspolizei
The Sicherheitspolizei , often abbreviated as SiPo, was a term used in Nazi Germany to describe the state political and criminal investigation security agencies. It was made up by the combined forces of the Gestapo and the Kripo between 1936 and 1939...
and the SD
Sicherheitsdienst
Sicherheitsdienst , full title Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS, or SD, was the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. The organization was the first Nazi Party intelligence organization to be established and was often considered a "sister organization" with the...
for their support so far and assured them that for the success of the great action they were absolutely necessary. The operation plan of the 203 security division defined as tasks
- a) annihilation of the main partisan bands,
- b) pacification of the country
- c) collection of grain and livestock.
While this division, which also foresaw a bombing of four villages from the air, still recommended to make a distinction between the guilty and the innocent, demanding that only truly guilty and elements alien to the localities are to be shot, the 707th division from the start planned no broad development, i.e. against the partisans in the forest areas, which was said to be impossible due to snow and ice and the beginning of the mud period soon to be expected, but a proceeding along the streets and mainly against the villages in the area of operation, where most partisans could in the meantime have established themselves. The commander v. Bechtolsheim ordered that during this action the crimes against Jews and people alien to a locality, as carried out with success in White Ruthenia, especially in the autumn months of 1941, were to be imitated with all harshness: The respective instructions for ruthless action against men, women and children
The history of children in the Holocaust
Children were especially vulnerable in the era of the Holocaust. The Nazis advocated killing children of "unwanted" or "dangerous" groups in accordance with their ideological views, either as part of the "racial struggle" or as a measure of preventive security...
also apply for the new operation area.
Operation Bamberg already showed all essential tactical elements and procedures
Procedure (term)
A procedure is a sequence of actions or operations which have to be executed in the same manner in order to always obtain the same result under the same circumstances ....
that were to become typical of the later actions and fateful for the population of the affected areas. Between 26 March and 6 April 1942, within 12 days, the reinforced 707th infantry division, the Slovakian infantry regiment and the German police battalion 315 destroyed a series of villages in a broken through forest area between Oktiabrskij and Kopakewiczi and murdered their inhabitants. In Chwoineja (Chojno
Chojno
Chojno may refer to the following places:*Chojno, Brodnica County in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship *Chojno, Kalisz County in Greater Poland Voivodeship...
) 1,350 people were among other things locked into their houses and killed by hand grenades and burning, in Rudnia
Rudnia
Rudnia may refer to the following places:*Rudnia, Gmina Czarna Białostocka in Podlaskie Voivodeship *Rudnia, Gmina Michałowo in Podlaskie Voivodeship *Rudnia, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship...
(Rudnia, Gmina Czarna Białostocka?, Rudnia, Gmina Michałowo?) 800 persons were collected and shot in groups (the men first had to undress), in Oktiabrskij 190 persons were burned alive inside the club house, the inhabitants of Kurin
Kurin
Kurin is a military term that was established by the cossacks.During the Second World War, the basic combat unit of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army was a kurin...
were in part shot, in part burned alive, similar as in Kowali, where the children were burned. The number of Belarusian dead was officially put at about 3,500 by the Germans, but the actual number was much higher. The partisans estimated it at 5,000, and according to the listing by Romanowski at all 4,396 people died in 15 localities alone.
The actions that took place before and afterwards in the surrounding areas are not included in these figures, which means it must be assumed that at least 6,000 people were murdered. The great majority of them were locally residing peasant
Peasant
A peasant is an agricultural worker who generally tend to be poor and homeless-Etymology:The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district.- Position in society :Peasants typically...
s and non-fugitive Jews, who were also targeted by the operation. It is justified to speak of people murdered, for there was hardly any fighting, there was no greater resistance
Resistance (military)
In military terminology, resistance or organised resistance refers to the ability of a military unit to continue to oppose an attack. Resistance ends when a unit surrenders, when all members of unit are killed or captured, or when a unit disperses...
to be broken, which is not surprising for actions against villages. The losses of the German and allied troops during the core action were merely seven dead and eight wounded, 47 rifle
Rifle
A rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas of the rifling are called "lands," which make contact with the projectile , imparting spin around an axis corresponding to the...
s and machine pistol
Machine pistol
A machine pistol is a handgun-style, often magazine-fed and self-loading firearm, capable of fully automatic or burst fire, and normally chambered for pistol cartridges. The term is a literal translation of Maschinenpistole, the German term for a hand-held automatic weapon...
s were captured. The partisans in the area, whose number was estimated at 1,200 to 2,000 men, got away.
Like almost all later major actions against partisans or those around them, operation Bamberg consisted of four phases:
- Phase 1: executing a large encirclementEncirclementEncirclement is a military term for the situation when a force or target is isolated and surrounded by enemy forces. The German term for this is Kesselschlacht ; a comparable English term might be "in the bag"....
((german kessel, or cauldron)), in this case with a diameter of 25-30 kilometers, until 28 March inclusively, - Phase 2: Tightening the encirclement - in this case until 31 March inclusively,
- Phase 3: The so-called clearing out of the cauldron in the form of the last concentric attack - in this case on the 1st and 2 April, and
- Phase 4: The so-called mopping up backwards - here the repeated thorough cleaning and crossing of the area in backward direction up to the second initial position, during which the villages and farmsteads lying inside the inner target area were destroyed together with the majority of their inhabitants, in this case between 3 and 6 April (see figure 4).
Fighting with the partisans and losses on the German side were most frequent in the third phase. The infamous mass crimes
Mass murder
Mass murder is the act of murdering a large number of people , typically at the same time or over a relatively short period of time. According to the FBI, mass murder is defined as four or more murders occurring during a particular event with no cooling-off period between the murders...
, the destruction of villages and the murder of their inhabitants, occurred in phase 3 and mainly in phase 4, when after conclusion of the coordinated military advance with daily objectives to be reached under all circumstances more time was left therefor. This depopulation was always planned in advance. Only thereafter was the operation considered as concluded. In phase 4 there also commenced the more or less organized plundering of agricultural product
Product (business)
In general, the product is defined as a "thing produced by labor or effort" or the "result of an act or a process", and stems from the verb produce, from the Latin prōdūce ' lead or bring forth'. Since 1575, the word "product" has referred to anything produced...
s of the affected area, the so-called collection.
The key importance of the 4th phase becomes apparent from several sources about operations of so-called fighting against bandits, such as a passage in the diary of Bach-Zelewski wherein the operation of so-called mopping up is criticized, which would always lead to a great number of destroyed bandit subjects as its object was to annihilate the population sympathizing with the Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
s rather than the partisans. This can be proven not only for the operations mentioned in this context, Nürnberg and Erntefest II, but also for instance for Sumpffieber, Franz and Hornung
Operation Hornung
Operation Hornung was an anti-partisan operation during the Occupation of Belarus by Nazi Germany, carried out in February 1943. It was directed against the area Hancewicze-Morocz-Lenin-Łuniniec, a thinly populated area of about 4,000 square kilometers southwest of Słuck on the southern border of...
. The number of victims accordingly went up during the respective final phase, like in operation Bamberg. It is not without reason that the SS and Police Commander of White Ruthenia, v. Gottberg
Curt von Gottberg
Curt von Gottberg was a Nazi official and military commander. Beginning in October 1942, within a few years he had personally combined the highest civil and military powers in occupied Belarus: from March 1943 as representative of the HSSPF for central Russia, and from October 1943 as the acting...
, wrote the following about the final phase of operation Nürnberg: What followed was then more or less a hare hunt.
Another typical feature of such operations was the setting of daily objectives practiced during Operation Bamberg. Certain units had to cover a certain distance until an established final point during a day while mopping up all localities. The further away the daily objective was, the greater the probability, that there was no time for an exact investigation as to who supported the partisans (and for the collection of agricultural products) and thus the tendency was to kill everyone around. The possibility of allowing many people to run away was often not considered by the executing units because the inhabitants of the affected areas were generally seen as sympathizers of the partisans. To need to set such daily objectives resulted from the inner logic of such an operation under participation of various units for a coordinated proceeding. Thus the remote message post of Combat Group von Gottberg during the Operation Frühlingsfest sent and received 3,500 remote messages. The determination of what distance was to be covered until the respective daily objectives, however, contained a conscious preliminary decision on the procedure inside the villages. The troops were thus put under pressure. Daily distances of up to 30 kilometers with a crossing and mopping up, i.e. a march with combat actions and searching of the villages, such as Himmler considered possible, indicated an annihilation intention present from the very start. Sometimes the closing of the cauldron failed wholly due to a too stretched target area, to great daily objectives and too splintered German forces. If - as during later operations such as Weichsel - more laborer
Laborer
A Laborer or labourer - see variation in english spelling - is one of the construction trades, traditionally considered unskilled manual labor, as opposed to skilled labor. In the division of labor, laborers have all blasting, hand tools, power tools, air tools, and small heavy equipment, and act...
s were to be collected, on the other hand, a most thorough searching and short daily objectives were ordered.
Yet another typical feature was the carrying out of investigations and verifications, examinations and interrogation
Interrogation
Interrogation is interviewing as commonly employed by officers of the police, military, and Intelligence agencies with the goal of extracting a confession or obtaining information. Subjects of interrogation are often the suspects, victims, or witnesses of a crime...
s in the villages, mainly by GFP
Geheime Feldpolizei
The ' or GFP, was the secret military police of the German Wehrmacht until the end of Second World War. These units were used to carry out plain-clothed security work in the field such as counter-espionage, counter sabotage, detection of treasonable activities, counter-propaganda and to provide...
(Geheime Feldpolizei
Geheime Feldpolizei
The ' or GFP, was the secret military police of the German Wehrmacht until the end of Second World War. These units were used to carry out plain-clothed security work in the field such as counter-espionage, counter sabotage, detection of treasonable activities, counter-propaganda and to provide...
= Secret Field Police) and SD, as in the case of Bamberg. Given the great marching distances their anyway dubious activity was reduced to identify not person
Person
A person is a human being, or an entity that has certain capacities or attributes strongly associated with being human , for example in a particular moral or legal context...
s, but villages suspect of partisan activity and suggesting the next targets of verification. These commandos often also carried out a part of the executions. The support by the Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
in the form or reconnaissance
Reconnaissance
Reconnaissance is the military term for exploring beyond the area occupied by friendly forces to gain information about enemy forces or features of the environment....
and combat
Combat
Combat, or fighting, is a purposeful violent conflict meant to establish dominance over the opposition, or to terminate the opposition forever, or drive the opposition away from a location where it is not wanted or needed....
flight
Flight
Flight is the process by which an object moves either through an atmosphere or beyond it by generating lift or propulsive thrust, or aerostatically using buoyancy, or by simple ballistic movement....
s, which later became a rule, also existed already during Operation Bamberg.
The same applied to the activity of agriculture officials (in this case 24), given that an essential goal of the action was the confiscation
Confiscation
Confiscation, from the Latin confiscatio 'joining to the fiscus, i.e. transfer to the treasury' is a legal seizure without compensation by a government or other public authority...
of agricultural products. The task was the total encirlement and annihilation
Annihilation
Annihilation is defined as "total destruction" or "complete obliteration" of an object; having its root in the Latin nihil . A literal translation is "to make into nothing"....
of the partisan groups and the securing and pacification of this area, in order to collect the great stock
Stock
The capital stock of a business entity represents the original capital paid into or invested in the business by its founders. It serves as a security for the creditors of a business since it cannot be withdrawn to the detriment of the creditors...
s of agricultural products and take them away, reported General Major
Major General
Major general or major-general is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. A major general is a high-ranking officer, normally subordinate to the rank of lieutenant general and senior to the ranks of brigadier and brigadier general...
v. Bechtolsheim. Instead of the expected at least 10-20,000 units of cattle
Cattle
Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...
the reported booty consisted of only 2,454 cattle, 2,286 sheep, 115 ton
Ton
The ton is a unit of measure. It has a long history and has acquired a number of meanings and uses over the years. It is used principally as a unit of weight, and as a unit of volume. It can also be used as a measure of energy, for truck classification, or as a colloquial term.It is derived from...
s of grain
GRAIN
GRAIN is a small international non-profit organisation that works to support small farmers and social movements in their struggles for community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems. Our support takes the form of independent research and analysis, networking at local, regional and...
, 120 tons of potato
Potato
The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...
es and more. In this respect fundamental difficulties for the Germans showed up, which were also characteristic of later actions. The affected area had until then delivered no agrarian products to the Germans (no collection at all so far due to partisan activity). The economy staff in Bobrujsk had prior to the operation suggested to either occupy the area militarily on a constant basis or to carry out a total collection including the last cow and the seed
Seed
A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...
grain
GRAIN
GRAIN is a small international non-profit organisation that works to support small farmers and social movements in their struggles for community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems. Our support takes the form of independent research and analysis, networking at local, regional and...
, which would lead to a deterioration of the mood
Mood (psychology)
A mood is a relatively long lasting emotional state. Moods differ from emotions in that they are less specific, less intense, and less likely to be triggered by a particular stimulus or event....
of the population
Population
A population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals...
. For a longer occupation
Military occupation
Military occupation occurs when the control and authority over a territory passes to a hostile army. The territory then becomes occupied territory.-Military occupation and the laws of war:...
there were not enough troops, however, and the total collection was a task almost impossible to solve
Sölve
Sölve was a sea-king who conquered Sweden by burning the Swedish king Östen to death inside his hall.The Heimskringla relates that he was the son Högne of Nærøy, and that he had his home in Jutland...
due to transportation difficulties caused by the weather
Weather
Weather is the state of the atmosphere, to the degree that it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloudy. Most weather phenomena occur in the troposphere, just below the stratosphere. Weather refers, generally, to day-to-day temperature and precipitation activity, whereas climate...
. From the point of view of the agriculture authorities the operation was thus condemned to fail as a collection operation, given that the confiscation remained a partial success and the so-called pacification as a pre-conditions for a long-term exploitation
Exploitation
This article discusses the term exploitation in the meaning of using something in an unjust or cruel manner.- As unjust benefit :In political economy, economics, and sociology, exploitation involves a persistent social relationship in which certain persons are being mistreated or unfairly used for...
did not occur. As will be shown, the agrarian administration could nevertheless consider the strategy
Strategy
Strategy, a word of military origin, refers to a plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal. In military usage strategy is distinct from tactics, which are concerned with the conduct of an engagement, while strategy is concerned with how different engagements are linked...
of the great operations against partisans to make sense due to other reasons.
The development and results of Operation Bamberg were followed with attention by high and highest authorities. The commander of the rear area of Army Group Center, for instance, constantly kept himself informed. While he internally remarked that the result had been not fully satisfactory because the partisans had got away and among those reported by the division as partisan helpers there seem to have been many who had only very loose connections to the partisans, he congratulated the 707th infantry division nevertheless on its having annihilated 3,000 partisans. Army Group Center and its supreme commander v. Kluge also let themselves be informed on a regular basis. Also informed were the head of the administration department at the Army Supreme Command/General Quarter Master, Schmidt v. Altenstedt, General Quarter Master Wagner himself and through him also Hitler.
The Major Actions were not invented with Operation Bamberg. An action near Sewsk (Sjwosk) to the south of Lokot in the Briańsk area, apparently in support of the local self administration district of Russian collaborators and claiming 1,936 lives, had been carried out shortly before by an Hungarian unit
Gyorshadtest
The Gyorshadtest was the most modern and best-equipped mechanized unit of the Royal Hungarian Army at the beginning of World War II. However, the "Rapid Corps" name was something of a misnomer as it was only "mechanized" compared to other Hungarian units...
. (Here also the Germans thus tried to transfer the responsibility to allied troops.) It was the Operation Bamberg, however, that became a model
Prototype
A prototype is an early sample or model built to test a concept or process or to act as a thing to be replicated or learned from.The word prototype derives from the Greek πρωτότυπον , "primitive form", neutral of πρωτότυπος , "original, primitive", from πρῶτος , "first" and τύπος ,...
in many respects.
The operation Bamberg was the beginning of a series of campaigns of plunder, murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
and deportation
Deportation
Deportation means the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. Today it often refers to the expulsion of foreign nationals whereas the expulsion of nationals is called banishment, exile, or penal transportation...
against the peasant
Peasant
A peasant is an agricultural worker who generally tend to be poor and homeless-Etymology:The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district.- Position in society :Peasants typically...
population
Population
A population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals...
of Belarus in the surroundings of the partisan areas.