Instruction for a Reich Commissar in the Baltic Countries and White Russia [Ostland]
[Found in Rosenberg's files.]
All the regions between Narwa and Tilsit have constantly been in close relationship with the German people. A 700-year-old history has moulded the. inner sympathies of the majority of the races living there in a European direction, and has added this region to the living space of Greater Germany.
The aim of a Reich Commissar for Esthonia, Latvia, Lithuania and White Russia [last two words added in pencil] must be to strive to achieve the form of a German Protectorate, and then transform the region into part of the Greater German Reich by germanising racially possible elements, colonising Germanic races and banishing undesirable elements. The Baltic Sea must become a Germanic inland sea under the guardianship of Greater Germany.
For certain cattle-raising products, the Baltic region was a land of surplus, and the Reich Commissar must endeavor to make this surplus once more available to the German people, and, if possible, to increase it. With regard to the process of germanising or resettling, the Esthonian people are strongly germanised to the extent of 50% by Danish, German and Swedish blood and can be considered as a kindred nation. In Latvia, the section capable of being assimilated is considerably smaller than in Esthonia. In this country, stronger resistance will have to be
690
I029-PS
reckoned with, and banishment on a larger scale will have to be envisaged. A similar development may have to be reckoned with in Lithuania, for here too the emigration of racial Germans is called for in order to promote very intensive Germanisation (on the East Prussian border).
White Russia is directly joined to these three territories. For a long time, White Russia had a strong Separatist movement, but presumably Bolshevist has succeeded in suppressing it. In any case, White Russia will first of all have the difficult task of admitting some of those elements who are expelled from Esthonia, Latvia and Lithuania and from the Polish section of the Warthe territory. It seems expedient not to accommodate the Poles in the General gouvernement but in the East of "White Russia (Smolensk District) and to form there a buffer against Russianism. In addition, the Commissar-General in White Russia would have the task of rousing this country, which cannot be considered as a land of surplus, to productive activity by employment of labour on a vast scale. [Marginal note in pencil: Every autonomous White Russian awareness against Russia is to be encouraged.] '
The task of a Reich Commissar with his seat of office in Riga will therefore largely be an extraordinarily positive one. A country which 700 years ago was captured by German Knights, built up by the Hanseatic League, and by reason of a constant influx of German blood, together with Swedish elements, was a predominantly Germanised land, is to be established as a mighty German borderland. The preliminary cultural conditions are available everywhere, and the German Reich will be able to guarantee the right to a later emigration to all those who have distinguished themselves in this war, to the descendants of those who gave their lives during the war, and also to all who fought in the Baltic campaign, never once lost courage, fought on in the hour of despair and delivered Baltic civilisation from Bolshevism.
For the rest, the solution of the colonisation problem is not a Baltic question, but one which concerns Greater Germany, and it must be settled on these lines.
The Reich Commissar, together with the other Reich Commissars, must strive to introduce the improvement of water-way communication between the Black Sea and the Baltic, i. e., start the construction of the Duena-Dnieper Canal. In this way the circulation of a great European economic system can be completed, which will guarantee the future exchange of goods, and render it independent of any overseas blockade. Thus the Reich
691
1029-PS
1029-PS
Commissar in the Baltic lands will have great problems to solve in the realm of economics, and particularly in the domain of racial politics.