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NAZI policies in the East were not carefully planned other than Hitler instructed the generals at the onset thst it would be a campaign of annialation sand conducted differently from the campaigns in the West. The East was to provide the raw materials the Reich so desperately needed to conduct the war. And thus an administrative structure was needed to exploit those resources. Hitler as was often the case, however, did not create a clear administrative structure. There was an Ostministerium (East Ministry), but in fact it was more of a beaureacratic fiction. There were competing ministeries and officials as well as the Wehrmacht and the SS involved in a eastern muddle. These agencies often had different attitudes toward policies in the East. And the policies changed as the military campaign shifted from what looked like another swift Bkitzkrieg victory to a desperate struggle for survival. As a result, the barbarities that occurred were not the result of a carefully executed master plan. In the end, however, kit was the SS who had Hitler's blessing and the force to execute its plans.
The German Army in World War I occupied and administered large areas of the Russian Empire. Army administratioin was harsh, but not genocidal. During World War II combat operations, occupied teritory again came under military rule. We are not entirely sure what the process was of transferring occupied lands to civilian administration. Even after the front-line pasrt to the east, however, Whermacht units played a major fole in the occupation. Hitler's war plan was that the resources of the East would support the war effort. As it turned out, resources from France and other occupied countries in the West proved much more important. The Eastern conquests were never completed. And the resources of the East that the Germans were able to complete were barely sufficent to cover the needs of the Whermacht units deployed there.
The huge area conquered by the Wehrmacht in the East theoretically came under the jurisdiction of Alfred Rosenberg's Ostministerium (East Ministry). Rosenberg had a rather practical vision of the East, at least practical withon NAZI circles. He saw advantages in creating puppet states as a balwark agains whatever remained of the Bolshevick state in the East. This is not to say that Rosenberg was not a committed NAZI. He wanted to impose authoritarian NAZI rule and a German ruling class. But he saw some advantages to gaining the cooperation of the local population. He thought that after Stalin that the peoples of the East would see "civilized" German rule as comparatively a kind of liberaion. Rosenberg while having a seeming high post, has in reality little real authority in the NAZI state are prestige within the heirarchy. Authority came from Hitler who did not take Rosenberg seriously. Hitler's vision for the East was very different. It is not clear then why he appointed Rosenberg to the Ostministerium. Hitler seems to have had a feeing of obligation toward Rosenberg for his service to Hitler, explining his appontment. He had not intention, however, of trearing the Slavs generously. He saw them as a threat to Aryan Germany. Not only did Hitler have different ideas. but more powerful NAZI figures had their own plans for the East.
Rosenberg's relative weakness within the ANZI structure mean that his Ministry played a relatvely minor role in the East. Hitler in particular had a very different attitude toward the Slavs. He saw them as unredeamable untermensch. Martin Bormann, SS Commander Himmler and Reichsmarshall Goering all had their own vision for the East. The formal NAZI plan was to set up four regions called "Kommissariats". These lands were to be eventually colonized by Aryans as the Slavs were eliminated. The real struggle for the East was over who would be placed in charge of each of the Kommissariats. Each was placed under the authority of a proconsul or "ReichsKommissars". 1) The Baltic States were placed under Heinrich Lohse. 2) Belorussia was given to Wilhelm Kube. 3) The Ukraine was assigned to Eric Koch. 4) A fourth region was to be Muscovia, which the NAZIs never suceeded in conquering. It was extend from Moscow east to the Urals. Hitler wanted Moscow itself demolished and the city converted into an artificial lake.
The ReichsKommissars in each of the three regions under NAZI control were in fact not in fact totally in control of their Kommissariat. Rosenberg's Ostministerium was only a minor irritant. Himmler's SS was, however, a major power to contend with and often operated independently. THe SS often acted outside the law and formal administrative structure. And Himmler and the SS was much more in conformity with the racial program Hitler wanted to wage in the East. The first SS action in the East was conducted by the SS
Einsatzgruppen (special action groups) which followed in the wake of the Panzers as the Wehrmacht moved easr. There were four Einsatzgruppen of about 3,000 men each.They were under the overall command of SS General Erich von dem Bach-Zelewsky. The real power lay with the SS. The plan was to reduce the population of Poles and Russians in these territories through outright murder and forced expulsions. Some would remain to serve as slave laborers. Many would be killed outright. Millions more would be expelled or "evacuated" with the understanding that large numbers would die in the process. The goal was to make the east ethnically German. Here Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler had the responsibility for persuing this effort. He appears to have assigned his deputy Reinhard Heydrich to coordinate this effort and essentially the SS's entire eastern operations. The SS vossion for the East emerged as Generalplan Ost.
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