Army Group South Rear Area

Army Group South Rear Area
Rückwärtiges Heeresgebiet Süd
Active	1941-43
Country	Nazi Germany
Branch	Army (Wehrmacht)
Part of	Army Group CentreandArmy High Command
Engagements	World War II
Commanders
Notable commanders	Karl von Roques Erich Friderici Joachim Witthöft Friedrich Mieth

Army Group South Rear Area(Rückwärtiges Heeresgebiet Süd) was one of the threeArmy Group Rear Area Commands,established during the 1941 Germaninvasion of the Soviet Union.Commanded by GeneralKarl von Roques,it was an area of military jurisdiction behindWehrmacht'sArmy Group South.

The Group South Rear Area's outward function was to provide security behind the fighting troops. It was also a site of mass murder duringThe Holocaustand othercrimes against humanitytargeting the civilian population. In the words of historian Michael Parrish, the army commander "presided over an empire of terror and brutality".

Organisation

The commander of the Army Group South Rear Area, GeneralKarl von Roques,was responsible for the rear area security. Its headquarters was subordinated toArmy Group South,while also reporting to the Wehrmacht's Quartermaster GeneralEduard Wagner,who had the overall responsibility for rear area security.

Roques controlled threeSecurity Divisions(213th,444th,and454th) and oversaw the units ofSecret Field Policeof the Wehrmacht. He operated in parallel, and in cooperation, withFriedrich Jeckeln,theHigher SS and Police Leadersappointed by the head of theSS,Heinrich Himmler.

Security warfare and crimes against humanity

The area commanders' duties included security of communications and supply lines, economic exploitation and combatting guerillas (partisans) in Wehrmacht's rear areas, which were the primary tasks of the security divisions.In addition, security and police formations of the SS and theSD(SS Security Service) operated in the areas, being subordinated to the respective Higher SS and Police Leaders. These units included multipleEinsatzgruppendeath squaddetachments,Police Regiment Southand additionalOrder Police battalions.These units perpetrated mass murder duringThe Holocaustand othercrimes against humanity.While under military jurisdiction, the area was the site of the massacres atBabi YarandKamianets-Podilskyi.

The security formations, often in coordination with or under the leadership of the Wehrmacht, conducted security warfare targeting the civilian population. The so-called anti-partisan operations in "bandit-infested" areas amounted to destruction of villages, seizure of livestock, deporting of able-bodied population for slave labour to Germany and murder of those of non-working age.

Commanders

• Karl von Roques
• Erich Friderici
• Joachim Witthöft(as Army Group B Rear Area)
• Friedrich Mieth(as Army Group Don Rear Area)

References

Sources

• Brandon, Ray;Lower, Wendy(2008).The Shoah in Ukraine: history, testimony, memorialization.Indiana University Press. p. 12.ISBN978-0-253-35084-8.
• Beorn, Waitman Wade (2014).Marching into Darkness: The Wehrmacht and the Holocaust in Belarus.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.ISBN978-0-674-72550-8.
• Megargee, Geoffrey P.(2007).War of Annihilation: Combat and Genocide on the Eastern Front, 1941.Rowman & Littlefield.ISBN978-0-7425-4482-6.
• Parrish, Michael (1996).The Lesser Terror: Soviet State Security, 1939–1953.Praeger Press.ISBN978-0-275-95113-9.
• Pohl, Dieter (2008).Die Herrschaft der Wehrmacht: Deutsche Militärbesatzung und einheimische Bevölkerung in der Sowjetunion 1941–1944.Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag.ISBN978-3486580655.
• Shepherd, Ben H. (2003). "The Continuum of Brutality: Wehrmacht Security Divisions in Central Russia, 1942".German History.21(1): 49–81.doi:10.1191/0266355403gh274oa.
• Shepherd, Ben H. (2004).War in the Wild East the German Army and Soviet Partisans.Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.ISBN0674043553.