(Reich Commissariat for Ostland), one of two major administrative units in the German civil administration that controlled the occupied territories of the Soviet Union during World War II.
In mid-1941 the Nazis decided to establish a Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories, Under Alfred Rosenberg which would administer the territories newly-conquered from the Soviet Union. That July, they further decided to divide the territories in two, Reichskommissariat Ukraine and Reichskommissariat Ostland, and assigned each a civilian administration. From 1941--1944 Henrich Lohse was the Reichskommissar.
Reichskommissariat Ostland covered the Baltic states (Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia) and parts of western Belorussia. Accordingly, it was divided into four "General Commissariats" (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Belorussia), each headed by a German official. In turn, these were also comprised of smaller units. The Germans made future plans to settle the three Baltic states with ethnic Germans (Volksdeutsche) and incorporate the areas into the Reich. Belorussia was to be a separate administrative entity.
The Jews living in the Reichskommissariat Ostland were exterminated by the mobile killing units of Einsatzgruppen A (in the Baltic states) and B (in Belorussia), along with members of the SIPO, SD, and local collaborators. All of Ostland was liberated by the Soviet army during the summer of 1944.
