German occupation of Crimea during World War II
During World War II, the Crimean Peninsula was subject to military administration by Nazi Germany following the success of the Crimean campaign. Officially part of Generalbezirk Krym-Taurien, an administrative division of Reichskommissariat Ukraine, Crimea proper never actually became part of the Generalbezirk, and was instead subordinate to a military administration. This administration was first headed by Erich von Manstein in his capacity as commander of the 11th Army and then by Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist as commander of Army Group A.
German interests in Crimea were multifaceted and a matter of great sensitivity due to German–Turkish relations, with Turkey serving as the primary champion of the rights of Crimean Tatars. Basing their interests in Crimea off of the historical existence of the Crimean Goths, German authorities sought to transform Crimea into a tourist destination, including the deportation and genocide of Crimea's non-German inhabitants. Plagued by Soviet resistance from the outset of occupation, they failed to establish order to any extent that allowed for colonisation to take place, and lost further support due to the slow pace of land reform programmes and a lack of response to Crimean Tatar nationalist sentiment.
A matter of significant strategic and ideological importance, Germany's occupation of Crimea remained a matter of hot debate between the Wehrmacht, NSDAP Office of Foreign Affairs, and Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories. It was variously proposed to be annexed into Reichskommissariat Ukraine, made part of Germany proper, or transformed into an independent state under German suzerainty. Collaboration by some Crimean Tatars during the German occupation served as the basis for the deportation of the Crimean Tatars in 1944, despite active Crimean Tatar participation in the war effort and the desire by certain sectors of the German government to deport Tatars themselves.
Background
Crimean Tatars against the Soviet government
Prior to Operation Barbarossa, Crimea operated as an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union. Though Crimean Tatars, a Turkic and religiously-Muslim ethnic group, were the eponymous people and a significant portion of the population, tensions existed between them and ethnic Slavs. These tensions were compounded by Soviet government opposition to expressions of Crimean Tatar national desires, such as a government-backed proposal for Jewish autonomy in Crimea in the early 1920s, the arrest and execution of national communist leader Veli İbraimov in 1928, and the mass killings of Crimean Tatar leaders during the Great Purge in the late 1930s. These tensions were used by German occupational forces as a method of driving a wedge between Crimean Tatars and other ethnic groups, including Jews.Crimea's Germanic peoples
In addition to local conflicts which preceded Germany's occupation of Crimea in 1941, the region had historically been home to a significant Germanic population. The Crimean Goths, the final surviving Gothic group, survived in Crimea from the 3rd century CE until at least and possibly still existed by the time of World War II, though they intermingled with Crimean Tatars much like other ethnic groups. According to the Nazis, these Goths had existed long enough to intermingle with the later Crimea Germans, settlers who began arriving as part of the migrations of the late-18th century with the support of the German-born Russian Empress Catherine the Great. Later, Mennonites began arriving from Russia and Ukraine proper.By the time of the Russian Revolution of 1917, Crimean Germans made up the local élite, comprising 20% of the Simferopol city council. German had the right to organise local self-government in their settlements, and were free from paying taxes. German had been one of the official languages of the Crimean Regional Government of 1918-1919, which was established with the support of German forces during World War I. Following the 1920 takeover of Crimea by the Red Army, the Soviets established two German raions within the Crimean ASSR; and Telman Raion. Despite this, however, after the Axis powers launched Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, Soviet authorities from August 1941 deported over 60,000 ethnic Germans from Crimea; "evacuating" them eventually to Siberia or to Central Asia.
German–Turkish relations
Matters involving Crimea were a focal point of German–Turkish relations during World War II. Turkish interests in Crimea, stretching back to the early days of the Ottoman Empire, primarily involved the protection of the Crimean Tatars. Following the dissolution of the Crimean People's Republic at the hands of the Red Army, Turkey had become a base for many Crimean Tatar nationalists, among them Cafer Seydamet Qırımer, the Crimean People's Republic's Prime Minister. Though Turkish interests also concerned themselves with additional areas of the Soviet Union inhabited by Turkic peoples, Crimea held the most Turkish public and governmental interest of all regions.Timeline
1941
Operation Barbarossa began on 22 June 1941, thus drawing the Soviet Union into World War II. By 26 September 1941, German forces, supported by the Kingdom of Romania, had started fighting for Crimea, beginning the Crimean campaign. Consecutively with the entrance of German troops, structures by Soviet forces for the development of a partisan movement were established in the city of Kerch, in the eastern Kerch Peninsula. In the winter of 1941, Soviet forces landed in the Kerch Peninsula over the Kerch Strait, in what became known as the Battle of the Kerch Peninsula.Even prior to the beginning of Germany's occupation of Crimea, German leadership had already begun planning for the colonisation of the peninsula. In a directive dating to early July 1941, Hitler called for the immediate expulsion of all Russians from the peninsula, with Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars only to be removed in case of absolute necessity. This measure, explicitly outlining the protection of Crimean Tatars from deportation, demonstrated to the Turkish government Germany's willingness to protect their interests. Turkey, not pleased with the level of autonomy granted, made continuous demands through Franz von Papen, Germany's ambassador to Turkey. After much lobbying and the intervention of Turkish general Hüseyin Hüsnü Emir Erkilet, two followers of Seydamet Qırımer were granted visas to enter Turkey. The process of granting visas, done during a period when Germans intended to ethnically cleanse Crimean Tatars in the near future, was deliberate, and the Crimean Tatars were not granted requests to inspect Crimean prisoner of war camps. Nonetheless, following the visit, Rosenberg noted that it would be necessary to ensure Crimean Tatar prisoners of war be treated humanely out of respect for Turkey.
The first commander of German occupational forces in Crimea was Erich von Manstein. Manstein declared upon taking command that, "The Jewish-Bolshevik system must be wiped out once and for all." With this began the recruitment of Crimean Tatars to serve as anti-partisan volunteer detachments under the aegis of the Sicherheitsdienst. Another element of collaboration was local-level "Muslim Committees", established as a compromise between pro-Turkic voices and the Wehrmacht, which viewed Crimean Tatars as insignificant in comparison to Crimea's Slavic majority.
1942
The end of the Crimean campaign brought little stability to Germany's occupational regime, with the partisan movement only continuing its activities. The groundwork of Crimea's colonisation by German settlers began being laid in early 1942, though it remains unknown exactly when. The same year, preparations also began in earnest for the genocide of Crimea's peoples. On 6 July 1942, in spite of previous protests against the liquidation of Crimea's Russian population, officials the Wehrmacht participated in a conference with Schutzstaffel members on resettlement camps, the genocide of "untermenschen", and the establishment of transport facilities for deported peoples.Despite the support of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht for these plans, individual officers still disputed them, along with resettlement plans, as unhelpful to the war effort. General Georg Thomas protested to Hermann Göring and field marshal Wilhelm Keitel, noting that Alfred Frauenfeld, Crimea's General Commissioner, was also opposed to deportation during the war. Three weeks later, he was told that the plans for colonisation and deportation had been halted until the war's end.
In late 1942, Manstein was replaced by Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist as commander of German forces in Crimea. Alongside his position as commander of forces in Crimea, Kleist was involved in the Battle of the Caucasus, and his attitudes towards the North Caucasian peoples served as a basis for later activity he conducted in regards to the Crimean Tatars.
Another noteworthy development in 1942 was the establishment of the, which served as a central organisational authority for Crimea's Muslim Committees. These committees in late 1942 established a plenum with the intention of representing all Crimean Tatars. They elected Amet Özenbaşlı as their leader, and granted him broad permission to negotiate with the Germans on behalf of the Crimean Tatar people. However, the election of Özenbaşlı as the Muslim Committees' representative was followed only by further hesitation on the part of German authorities when dealing with the Crimean Tatars, leading Özenbaşlı to remark in 1943, "We have found ourselves between Scylla and Charybdis." Such sentiment was widespread among nationalist circles, as Germany's unclear attitude and gains by the Red Army led to increased feelings of consternation. Also negatively affecting the German-Tatar relationship was anti-partisan reprisals against Crimean Tatar villages. Özenbaşlı made an unsuccessful effort to effectively rebuild Milliy Firqa, the leading party of the Crimean Tatars during the Russian Revolution.