District of Galicia

The District of Galicia (German: Distrikt Galizien, Polish: Dystrykt Galicja, Ukrainian: Дистрикт Галичина) was a World War II administrative unit of the General Government created by Nazi Germany on 1 August 1941 after the start of Operation Barbarossa, based loosely within the borders of the ancient Principality of Galicia and the more recent Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. Initially, during the invasion of Poland by Germany and the Soviet Union, the territory temporarily fell under Soviet occupation in 1939 as part of Soviet Ukraine.

District of Galicia Distrikt Galizien
District of General Governorate
1941–1944
The District of Galicia (green), from 1941–1944
Capital	Lemberg
Area
•	51,200 km2 (19,800 sq mi)
Population
•	4,400,000
Historical era	World War II
• Established	1941
• Disestablished	1944
Preceded by Lviv Oblast Stanislav Oblast Ternopil Oblast General Government
Today part of	Ukraine

Administrative division of the district

Adolf Hitler formed a capital in Lemberg (Lviv) (Document No. 1997-PS of 17 July 1941), and the district existed from 1941 until 1944. It ceased to exist after the Soviet counter-offensive.^[1][2]

History

The District of Galicia comprised mainly the pre-war Lwów, Tarnopol, and Stanisławów voivodeships of the Second Polish Republic, which are today part of western Ukraine. The territory was taken over by Nazi Germany in 1941 after the attack on the USSR and incorporated into the General Government, which had been governed by Gauleiter Hans Frank since the 1939 invasion of Poland. The region was retaken by the Soviet Union in 1944.

The district area was managed by Frank's brother-in-law Karl Lasch (de, pl) from 1 August 1941 to 6 January 1942, and by SS Brigadeführer Dr. Otto Wächter from 6 January 1942 to September 1943. Wächter utilised the district capital Lemberg (pl: Lwów, ukr: Lviv) as a recruitment base for the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Galicia (1st Ukrainian). In the course of the Holocaust in occupied Poland starting from the year of the invasion, the largest Jewish extermination ghettos were created in Lwów (Lemberg) and in Stanisławów (Stanislau).^[3]

On the territory of the Halychyna (Galicia) region during the German occupation of 1941–1944 were published publications on the labour in Germany. German propaganda policy of the time encouraged Galician workers to work in Germany and the way the policy was changed over the time.^[4]

Governors

No.	Portrait	Governor	Took office	Left office	Time in office
1		Lasch, KarlKarl Lasch [de] (1904–1942)	1 August 1941	6 January 1942	5 months
2		Wächter, OttoOtto Wächter (1901–1949)	22 January 1942	August 1944	2 years, 6 months

See also

• Administrative division of Polish territories during World War II
• Soviet annexation of Western Ukraine, 1939–1940