General Government administration


General Government administration - government and administration of General Government created on part of area of the Second Republic of Poland under Nazi German rule during the duration of World War II between 1939 and early 1945.
The formation of the General Government was created because of the German-Soviet claim to the total collapse of the Polish state. The German Wehrmacht attacked Poland with strong air power, massive numbers of troops, and tanks on September 1, 1939. The Germans initial intent was to clear the western part of Poland, the Reichsgau, and bring it into the Reich. However, those plans quickly stalled. On 23 August 1939, German foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop and his Soviet counterpart agreed to a nonaggression pact and divided Poland.

Background

"No government protectorate is anticipated for Poland, but a complete German administration. Leadership layer of the population in Poland should be as far as possible, disposed of. The other lower layers of the population will receive no special schools, but are to be oppressed in some form". - The excerpts of the minute of the first conference of Heads of the main police officers and commanders of operational groups led by Heydrich`s deputy, SS-Brigadefuhrer Dr. Werner Best, Berlin 7 September 1939.

After Invasion of Poland the first German administration on occupied Polish areas was set by German military Wehrmacht. Subordinated to them was improvised civilian "Chiefs of Civil Administration" led by Hans Frank. As of late September in 1939, most Polish territory was in German hands. The other parts of Poland were controlled by either the USSR or Lithuania, with Lithuania controlling barely 2% of the area. The Reich Interior Ministry drafted two bills on October 8, 1939 – one for the incorporation of western and northern Poland into the Reich, the other for the creation of a General Government in the remaining German-held territory. The General Government was located in the center of Poland, covering about a third of the country’s former territory and including about 45% of its population. Four days later, on October 12 of 1939, a decree by Hitler establish the General Government administered by a General Governor and aided by the Office of the General-Governor, which changed on December 9, 1940 to the Government of the General Government. The Governor General was headed by Dr. Hans Frank and the Office was headed by Chief of the Government Seyss-Inquart. Josef Bühler took over Seyss-Inquart’s position in March 1940. The General Government creation was prompted due to the ending of military actions in the Autumn of 1939.
Several other individuals had powers to issue legislative decrees in addition to the General Governor, most notably the Higher SS and Police Leader of General Government. All members of the first office:
The General Government had no international recognition. The territories it administered were never either in whole or part intended as any future Polish state. According to the Nazi government the Polish state had ceased to exist, in spite of the existence of a Polish government-in-exile. Its character was that of a puppet state. It was not a Polish puppet government, as there were no Polish representatives above the local administration.

Administrative division

The General Government was divided into four districts initially: Krakow, Radom, Warsaw and Lublin. Each of these districts was headed by a governor who were directly responsible to Frank. In 1941, after the outbreak of Russian and German hostilities, the district of Galicia was added as the fifth district.
The 5 districts in the General Government include:
The districts were divided into sub-districts, known as Kreise, each headed by a Kreishauptmann. Stadtkreise were the city districts, then below that were the Kreishauptmannschaften, which was the county level. The General Government’s six largest cities – Warsaw, Krakow, Czestochowa, Lublin, Radom and Kielce were governed by Stadthauptmänner. Kreis- and Stadthauptmänner had wide-ranging responsibilities over political and economic life within their area. However, authority at any level was solely in the hands of the Governor General or Hans Frank. In order to avoid competing jurisdiction, which what the government in the Reich was like, each administrative chief was to ensure the individual departments were subordinated to his authority. Frank had also modeled his departments based on the Reich, therefore Berlin saw them as subordinates. There was to be no interferences by any agencies in Berlin. There were eleven plenipotentiaries of various Reich ministries in the GG but also one plenipotentiary or “ambassador” of the GG in the Reich. The bureaucracy of each district consisted of ten departments.
At the end of 1941 when Galicia was incorporated as the fifth district, there were fifty-six county leaders and seven city leaders distributed throughout.
DistrictCounty LeadersCity Leaders
Krakow121
Lublin101
Radom101
Warsaw93
Galicia151

Central and district administrative offices were staffed and controlled by Germans, however Russians and Ukrainians were placed in many less important positions. Also, Poles were employed in autonomous institutions such as management of municipalities, municipal enterprises and public utilities. Decrees and regulatory announcements pertaining to the GG were published in an official bulletin. Similar bulletins were published for each district.

Organization of Government

The government seat of the General Government was located in Kraków rather than the traditional Polish capital Warsaw for security reasons. The official state language was German, although Polish continued to be used to a large degree as well, especially on the local levels. Several institutions of the old Polish state were retained in some form for ease of administration. The Polish police, with no high-ranking Polish officers, was renamed the Blue Police and became subordinated to the Ordnungspolizei. The Polish educational system was similarly kept, but most higher institutions were closed. The Polish local administration was kept, subordinated to new German bosses. The Polish fiscal system, including the złoty currency, was kept, but with revenues now going to the German state. A new bank was created, and was issuing new banknotes.
The General Government was modeled based on the Reich, with 12 departments, which would later become 14, responsible for areas such as finance, justice and labour along with a Secretariat of State with several offices. However, the offices of the State Secretariat were not created until the March of 1941.
The Government of the General Government 12 departments:
On all territorial levels, whether it was the district, city or county, authority was concentrated in the hands of one person. This idea of Führerprinzip was adopted, meaning all authority was concentrated in the hands of one man, the head of the administration at the given territorial level. Although this principle of Führerprinzip was supposed to unify the administration, it had effects on policy implementation. In each district, functionaries responsible for all branches of the administration were fully subordinate to a Kreishauptman or a Governor. Local leaders had to agree before any lower level wanted to move forward with a plan.
Frank also established the GG administration to be run under the guiding principle of “unity of administration.” The idea was the centralization of all administrative agencies designated as main divisions under the direction of Buehler. Once a policy from one of the four districts was approved by Frank and Buehler, it went from the seat of the General Governor in Krakow to the district chief in charge of all administration within the designated area. The district chief also authorized implementation through the district administrative division. The town or rural chief received orders from the district chief and passed them to the local administrative offices. Although “unity of administration” was the goal, there were frequent disputes found anywhere from between departments in Krakow, between the central administration and districts or between governors and Kreshaputleute.

Administrative Differences

Unlike the territories incorporated into the Reich, the Generalgouvernement had a different administrative structure. All branches of the administration were to be directed by the Governor General rather than by parallel Reich ministries from Berlin. No interferences by the reich was the goal. Polish law was to remain in place unless it diverged from the taking over of the administration by the German Reich. The territories incorporated into the Reich were administratively modeled after the Reich itself. The difference between the incorporated territories and the general government was the degree of centralization of bureaucracy. Generalgouverneur Hans Frank took orders from Adolf Hitler and then forwarded it down to the Hauptabteilung. This system skips the ministerial offices that the incorporated areas followed. Furthermore, Frank had more authority than the Reichsstatthalter or an Oberpräsident. The regional network of the general government administration closely resembled the Reich, apart from some various differences in titles. For example, Gouveneur was originally called Distriktchef, but the title was changed to boost moral.
There were three key administrative assets the General Government did not control. The Generalgouvernement was separated from the Reich by customs laws, financial barriers and passport control, but did not have its own armed forces or foreign ministry. The GG's budget had to be approved by the Reich Finance Ministry. Generalgouverneurur Frank had no command over the army, troops, and war production. The power over the army, troops and war productions was held exclusively by a general.z The power of the army went as following: Oberbefehlshaber Ost, Militarbefehlshaber im Gerneralgouvernement, and Wehrkreisbefehlshaber im Generalgouvernement. The war production was in the hands of the Rustungsinspektion, or Armament Inspectorate.
Frank and the administration also had no command over the railway system or the post. However, Frank did have a Main Division Railway under the direction of Präsident Gerteis, who was also the Generalddirektor of the Ostbahn, which was run by the Reichbhn. It was the Ostbahn who operated the former Polish State Railways in the Generalgouvernment.
The third exception was the SS and police. From the beginning of the GG, the position of the police and SS was not clearly defined which created some conflict between the groups. The police enjoyed a special status due to the fact of how important security was in the occupied territory. Frank and his administration did not control those entities as they fell under the jurisdiction of Heinrich Himmler.

Police Officials in the General Government

Key police officials in the generalgouvernement:
BdO : Becker, Riege, Winkler, Becker, Günwald, Höring
BdS : Streckenbach, Schöngarth, Bierkamp
The SS and Police organization was centralized at both the Generalgouverneur level and under the Gouverneure.
In succession, the five SS and Police leaders were:
Kraków: Zech, Schwedler, Scherner, Thier
Lublin: Globocnik, Sporrenberg
Radom: Katzmann, Oberg, Böttcher
Warsaw: Moder, Wigand, von Sammern, Stroop, Kutschera, Geibel
Galicia: Oberg, Katzmann, Diehm

Inner Conflict and Quality of Administration

There was some conflict in the understanding of the power structure within the generalgouvernement, particularly with Frank. He saw himself as the "supreme territorial chief" and more powerful than SS and Police Leader Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger. Frank would go on an appoint Krüger as his Staatssekretär for Security, meaning Krüger would take orders from Frank. Himmler was not thrilled by these decisions, as both men were hungry for power. This conflict would be taken out on the Jews.
The quality of German personnel in the GG administration was low, albeit with exceptions. Better-qualified people were to be sent West and “strong personalities” or fanatic Nazis, as stated by Hitler, were to be sent to the East. Frank knew many of his subordinates were not well-qualified, often complaining about the lack of middle-level civil servants. Corruption was present everywhere in the administration. For example, the governor of the Radom district, Dr. Lasch, died in prison after being arrested for corruption and sentenced to death. The GG was a dumping ground not just for the Nazis' racial undesirables, but also its unwanted officials. With high turnover already a problem, the tendency of better officials to work for the central administration in Krakow created further difficulties.

Collaborators

The Germans sought to play Ukrainians and Poles off against each other. Within ethnic Ukrainian areas annexed by Germany, beginning in October 1939, Ukrainian Committees were established with the purpose of representing the Ukrainian community to the German authorities and assisting the approximately 30,000 Ukrainian refugees who fled from Soviet-controlled territories. These committees also undertook cultural and economic activities that had been banned by the previous Polish government. Schools, choirs, reading societies and theaters were opened, and twenty Ukrainian churches that had been closed by the Polish government were reopened. A Ukrainian publishing house was created in Cracow, which, despite having to struggle with German censors and paper shortages was able to publish school textbooks, classics of Ukrainian literature, and the works of dissident Ukrainian writers from the Soviet Union. By March 1941 there were 808 Ukrainian educational societies with 46,000 members. Ukrainian organizations within the General Government were able to negotiate the release of 85,000 Ukrainian prisoners of war from the German-Polish conflict.
After the war, the Polish Supreme National Tribunal declared that the government of the General Government was a criminal institution.

Decrees issued for the Jews in the Generalgouvernement

These issues were declared by Generalgouverneur Hans Frank for the Jews in the Generalgouvernement.