country reich ministry for the occupied eastern territories
The Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories ( German : Reichsministerium für die besetzten Ostgebiete or RMfdbO ) was created by Adolf Hitler in July 1941 and headed by the Nazi theoretical expert and Baltic German , Alfred Rosenberg . Alfred Meyer served as Rosenberg ' s deputy . This ministry was created to control the vast areas captured by the Germans in Eastern Europe and ___MASK12___ . It also played a part in supporting anti - Soviet groups in Central Asia . In February 1942 , under Rosenberg ' s plans , the Ministry tried to promulgate a program of land reform in the occupied territories in the USSR that included promises of decollectivization through the abolition of kolkhozes and the re - distribution of land to peasants for individual farming . ___MASK84___ established two Reichskommissariats , for Ostland and Ukraine , and planned for two more , for Moscow and for the Caucasus . The Wehrmacht never established firm possession of the areas designated for the last two Reichskommissariats , so German civilian control never developed there . In practice , the appointment of Erich Koch to administer the Reichskommissariat Ukraine substantially undermined Rosenberg ' s authority . Hitler ordered Koch to take a hard and brutal approach ; Rosenberg wished to portray the Germans as liberators of Ukraine from Soviet domination , but Koch ' s brutality helped to push potential Ukrainian allies back to the Soviet camp . Furthermore , Rosenberg ' s ministry was denied authority over army and other security formations within the occupied territories . The other Reich Commissar , Hinrich Lohse ( Ostland ) was widely disregarded . The SS filled the resulting power vacuum , acting as they wished . Saint Petersburg is ___MASK12___ ' s second - largest city after Moscow , with five million inhabitants in 2012 , and an important Russian port on the Baltic Sea . It is politically incorporated as a federal subject ( a federal city ). Situated on the Neva River , at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea , it was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on May . In 1914 , the name was changed from Saint Petersburg to Petrograd , in 1924 to Leningrad , and in 1991 back to Saint Petersburg . Between 1713  1728 and 1732  1918 , Saint Petersburg was the imperial capital of ___MASK12___ . In 1918 , the central government bodies moved to Moscow . ___MASK25___ , officially the People ' s Republic of ___MASK25___ ( PRC ), is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia . With a population of over 1 . 381 billion , it is the world ' s most populous country . The state is governed by the Communist Party of ___MASK25___ , and its capital is Beijing . It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces , five autonomous regions , four direct - controlled municipalities ( Beijing , Tianjin , Shanghai , and Chongqing ), and two mostly self - governing special administrative regions ( Hong Kong and Macau ), and claims sovereignty over Taiwan . The country ' s major urban areas include Shanghai , Guangzhou , Beijing , Chongqing , Shenzhen , Tianjin and Hong Kong . ___MASK25___ is a great power and a major regional power within Asia , and has been characterized as a potential superpower . Eastern Europe , also known as East Europe , is the eastern part of the European continent . There is no consensus on the precise area it covers , partly because the term has a wide range of geopolitical , geographical , cultural , and socioeconomic connotations . There are " almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region ". A related United Nations paper adds that " every assessment of spatial identities is essentially a social and cultural construct ". A Gauleiter was the party leader of a regional branch of the NSDAP ( more commonly known as the Nazi Party ) or the head of a " Gau " or of a " Reichsgau ". The word can be singular or plural , depending on the context . " Gauleiter " was the second highest Nazi Party paramilitary rank , subordinate only to the higher rank " Reichsleiter " and to the position of " Führer ". During ___MASK59___ War II , the rank of " Gauleiter " was obtained only by direct appointment from Adolf Hitler . Göttingen (; Low German : " Chöttingen ") is a university city in Lower ___MASK10___ , Germany . It is the capital of the district of Göttingen . The River Leine runs through the town . In 2011 the population was 116 , 052 . The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed inland body of water on Earth by area , variously classed as the ___MASK59___ ' s largest lake or a full - fledged sea . It is in an endorheic basin ( it has no outflows ) located between Europe and Asia . It is bound by ___MASK55___ to the northeast , Russia to the northwest , Azerbaijan to the west , Iran to the south , and Turkmenistan to the southeast . Führer ( spelled Fuehrer when the umlaut is not available ) is a German word meaning " leader " or " guide ". As a political title it is most associated with the Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler . Adolf Hitler was the only person to hold the position of Führer . The word Führer in the sense of " guide " remains common in German , and it is used in numerous compound words . However , because of its strong association with ___MASK61___ , the isolated word may come with some stigma and negative connotations when used with the meaning of " leader ", especially in political contexts . The word " Führer " has cognates in the Scandinavian languages , spelled " fører " which have the same meaning and use as the German word , but without political connotations . ___MASK19___ ( Pashto / Dari : , " Afnistn "), officially the Islamic Republic of ___MASK19___ , is a landlocked country located within South Asia and Central Asia . It has a population of approximately 32 million , making it the 42nd most populous country in the world . It is bordered by ___MASK63___ in the south and east ; Iran in the west ; Turkmenistan , ___MASK68___ , and Tajikistan in the north ; and ___MASK25___ in the far northeast . Its territory covers , making it the 41st largest country in the world . Adolf Hitler ( 20 April 1889  30 April 1945 ) was a German politician who was the leader of the Nazi Party (" Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei "; NSDAP ), Chancellor of ___MASK84___ from 1933 to 1945 , and Führer (" Leader ") of ___MASK61___ from 1934 to 1945 . As dictator of the German Reich , he initiated World War II in Europe with the invasion of ___MASK91___ in September 1939 and was central to the Holocaust . ___MASK61___ is the common English name for the period in German history from 1933 to 1945 , when ___MASK84___ was governed by a dictatorship under the control of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party ( NSDAP ). Under Hitler ' s rule , ___MASK84___ was transformed into a fascist state in which the Nazi Party took totalitarian control over nearly all aspects of life . The official name of the state was " Deutsches Reich " from 1933 to 1943 and " Großdeutsches Reich " (" Greater German Reich ") from 1943 to 1945 . The period is also known under the names the Third Reich and the National Socialist Period ( abbreviated as " NS - Zeit "). The Nazi regime came to an end after the Allied Powers defeated ___MASK84___ in May 1945 , ending World War II in Europe . Alfred Ernst Rosenberg ( 12 January 1893  16 October 1946 ) was a Baltic German theorist and an influential ideologue of the Nazi Party . Rosenberg was first introduced to Adolf Hitler by Dietrich Eckart and later held several important posts in the Nazi government . He is considered one of the main authors of key National Socialist ideological creeds , including its racial theory , persecution of the Jews , " Lebensraum ", abrogation of the Treaty of Versailles , and opposition to degenerate modern art . He is known for his rejection of and hatred for Christianity , having played an important role in the development of German Nationalist Positive Christianity . At Nuremberg he was sentenced to death and executed by hanging for war crimes and crimes against humanity . The Treaty of Versailles was the most important of the peace treaties that brought ___MASK59___ War I to an end . The Treaty ended the state of war between ___MASK84___ and the Allied Powers . It was signed on 28 June 1919 , exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand . The other Central Powers on the German side of ___MASK59___ War I signed separate treaties . Although the armistice , signed on 11 November 1918 , ended the actual fighting , it took six months of Allied negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference to conclude the peace treaty . The treaty was registered by the Secretariat of the League of Nations on 21 October 1919 . Central Asia or Middle Asia is the core region of the Asian continent and stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to ___MASK25___ in the east and from Afghanistan in the south to Russia in the north . It is also colloquially referred to as " the ' stans " ( as the six countries generally considered to be within the region all have names ending with the Persian suffix "- stan ", meaning " land of ") and is within the scope of the wider Eurasian continent . A continent is one of several very large landmasses on Earth . Generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria , up to seven regions are commonly regarded as continents . Ordered from largest in size to smallest , they are : Asia , Africa , North America , South America , ___MASK15___ , Europe , and Australia . In geology , areas of continental crust include regions covered with water . The United Nations ( UN ) is an intergovernmental organization to promote international co - operation . A replacement for the ineffective League of Nations , the organization was established on 24 October 1945 after ___MASK59___ War II in order to prevent another such conflict . At its founding , the UN had 51 member states ; there are now 193 . The headquarters of the United Nations is in Manhattan , New York City , and experiences extraterritoriality . Further main offices are situated in Geneva , ___MASK27___ , and Vienna . The organization is financed by assessed and voluntary contributions from its member states . Its objectives include maintaining international peace and security , promoting human rights , fostering social and economic development , protecting the environment , and providing humanitarian aid in cases of famine , natural disaster , and armed conflict . Positive Christianity was a movement within ___MASK61___ which mixed ideas of racial purity and Nazi ideology with elements of Christianity . Hitler used the term in Article 24 of the 1920 Nazi Party Platform , stating : " the Party represents the standpoint of Positive Christianity ". Non - denominational , the term could be variously interpreted . Positive Christianity allayed fears among ___MASK84___ ' s Christian majority as expressed through their hostility towards the established churches of large sections of the Nazi movement . In 1937 , Hans Kerrl , the Nazi Minister for Church Affairs , explained that " Positive Christianity " was not " dependent upon the Apostle ' s Creed ", nor was it dependent on " faith in Christ as the son of God ", upon which Christianity relied , rather , it was represented by the Nazi Party : " The Fuehrer is the herald of a new revelation ", he said . To accord with Nazi antisemitism , Positive Christianity advocates also sought to deny the Semitic origins of Christ and the Bible . In such elements Positive Christianity separated itself from Christianity and it is considered apostasy by Catholics and Protestants . The Chancellor of ___MASK84___ is the head of government of ___MASK84___ . The official title in German is " Bundeskanzler ( in )" ( literally , Federal Chancellor ), sometimes shortened to " Kanzler ( in )". The term , dating from the early Middle Ages , is derived from the Latin term " cancellarius ". Westphalia is a region in northwestern ___MASK84___ and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine - Westphalia . It has an area of 7 , 802 sq mi ( 20 , 208 km² ) and 7 . 9 million inhabitants . Eurasia is the combined continental landmass of Europe and Asia . The term is a portmanteau of its constituent continents . Located primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres , it is bordered by the ___MASK20___ to the west , the Pacific Ocean to the east , the Arctic Ocean to the north , and by Africa , the Mediterranean Sea , and the Indian Ocean to the south . The division between Europe and Asia as two different continents is a historical and cultural construct , with no clear physical separation between them ; thus , in some parts of the world , Eurasia is recognized as the largest of five or six continents . In geology , Eurasia is often considered as a single rigid megablock . However , the rigidity of Eurasia is debated based on the paleomagnet data . Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia . Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north , the ___MASK20___ to the west , and the Mediterranean Sea to the south . To the east and southeast , Europe is generally considered as separated from Asia by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains , the Ural River , the Caspian and Black Seas , and the waterways of the Turkish Straits . Yet the non - oceanic borders of Europe  a concept dating back to classical antiquity  are arbitrary . The primarily physiographic term " continent " as applied to Europe also incorporates cultural and political elements whose discontinuities are not always reflected by the continent ' s current overland boundaries . ___MASK59___ War I ( WWI or WW1 ), also known as the First ___MASK59___ War , or the Great War , was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918 . More than 70 million military personnel , including 60 million Europeans , were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history . Over nine million combatants and seven million civilians died as a result of the war ( including the victims of a number of genocides ), a casualty rate exacerbated by the belligerents ' technological and industrial sophistication , and the tactical stalemate caused by gruelling trench warfare . It was one of the deadliest conflicts in history , and paved the way for major political changes , including revolutions in many of the nations involved . The National Socialist German Workers ' Party ( abbreviated NSDAP ), commonly referred to in English as the Nazi Party , was a political party in ___MASK84___ that was active between 1920 and 1945 and practised the ideology of Nazism . Its precursor , the German Workers ' Party (" Deutsche Arbeiterpartei "; DAP ), existed from 1919 to 1920 . Gustav Alfred Julius Meyer ( 5 October 1891 in Göttingen  11 April 1945 in Hessisch Oldendorf ) was a Nazi official . He joined the Nazi party in 1928 and was from 1930 to 1945 the Gauleiter of North Westphalia and from 1933 to 1945 the " Reichsstatthalter " in Lippe and Schaumburg - Lippe The Invasion of ___MASK91___ , also known as the September Campaign , or the 1939 Defensive War in ___MASK91___ ( or " Wojna obronna 1939 roku "), and alternatively the ___MASK91___ Campaign or " Fall Weiss " in Germany ( Case White ), was a joint invasion of ___MASK91___ by ___MASK61___ , the Free City of Danzig , the Soviet Union , and a small Slovak contingent , that marked the beginning of World War II in Europe . The German invasion began on 1 September 1939 , one week after the signing of the Molotov  Ribbentrop Pact , while the Soviet invasion commenced on 17 September following the Molotov - Tg agreement that terminated the Russian and Japanese hostilities in the east on 16 September . The campaign ended on 6 October with Germany and the Soviet Union dividing and annexing the whole of ___MASK91___ under the terms of the German - Soviet Frontier Treaty . Nizhny Novgorod , colloquially shortened to Nizhny , is a city in the administrative center of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast and Volga Federal District in ___MASK12___ . From 1932 to 1990 , it was known as Gorky , after the writer Maxim Gorky , who was born there . The city is an important economic , transportation , scientific , educational and cultural center in ___MASK12___ and the vast Volga - Vyatka economic region , and is the main center of river tourism in ___MASK12___ . In the historical part of the city there are a large number of universities , theaters , museums and churches . Nizhny Novgorod is located about 400 km east of Moscow , where the Oka empties into the Volga . Population : ___MASK12___ is not proportionately populated between the smaller western portion ( almost 25 %) of the country that is considered part of Europe , and the larger eastern portion ( more than 75 %) that is part of Asia . European ___MASK12___ contains about 77 % of the country ' s population ( 110 , 000 , 000 people out of about 144 , 000 , 000 ) in an area comprising almost 4 million km ( 1 . 54 million mi ); an average of 27 . 5 persons per km ( 70 per mi ). This territory makes up 38 % of Europe . Its eastern border is defined by the Ural Mountains and in the south , it is defined by the border with ___MASK55___ . This area includes Moscow and Saint Petersburg , the two largest cities in ___MASK12___ . ___MASK12___ ( from the  Rus '), also officially known as the Russian Federation , is a country in Eurasia . At , ___MASK12___ is the largest country in the world by surface area , covering more than one - eighth of the Earth ' s inhabited land area , and the ninth most populous , with over 140 million people at the end of March 2016 . The European western part of the country is much more populated and urbanised than the eastern , about 77 % of the population live in European ___MASK12___ . ___MASK12___ ' s capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world , other major urban centers include Saint Petersburg , Novosibirsk , Yekaterinburg , Nizhny Novgorod and Samara . Moscow ( or ) is the capital and most populous city of ___MASK12___ , with 12 . 2 million residents within the city limits and 16 . 8 million within the urban area . Moscow has the status of a Russian federal city . Yekaterinburg , alternatively romanised as " Ekaterinburg ", is the fourth - largest city in ___MASK12___ and the administrative centre of Sverdlovsk Oblast , located in the middle of the Eurasian continent , on the border of Europe and Asia . At the 2010 Census , it had a population of 1 , 349 , 772 . Novosibirsk is the third - most populous city in ___MASK12___ after Moscow and St . Petersburg . It is the most populous city in Asian ___MASK12___ , with a population of 1 , 473 , 754 as of the 2010 Census . It is the administrative center of Novosibirsk Oblast as well as of the Siberian Federal District . The city is located in the southwestern part of Siberia on the banks of the Ob River adjacent to the Ob River Valley , near the large water reservoir formed by the dam of the Novosibirsk Hydro Power Plant , and occupies an area of . Crimes against humanity are certain acts that are deliberately committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population or an identifiable part of a population . The first prosecution for crimes against humanity took place at the Nuremberg trials . Crimes against humanity have since been prosecuted by other international courts  such as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former ___MASK28___ and the International Criminal Court , as well as in domestic prosecutions . The law of crimes against humanity has primarily developed through the evolution of customary international law . Crimes against humanity are not codified in an international convention , although there is currently an international effort to establish such a treaty , led by the Crimes Against Humanity Initiative . Hessisch Oldendorf is a town in the Hamelin - Pyrmont district , in Lower ___MASK10___ , Germany . It is situated on the river Weser , approx . 10 km northwest of Hamelin . The adjective " Hessisch " is used since 1905 , to distinguish it from other towns named Oldendorf . Hessisch Oldendorf was part of Landgraviate of Hessen - Kassel from 1640 until 1932 . The Holocaust ( from the Greek ': " hólos ", " whole " and " kaustós ", " burnt "), also referred to as the Shoah "' ( Hebrew : , " HaShoah ", " the catastrophe "), was a genocide in which Adolf Hitler ' s ___MASK61___ and its collaborators killed about six million Jews . The victims included 1 . 5 million children and represented about two - thirds of the nine million Jews who had resided in Europe . Some definitions of the Holocaust include the additional five million non - Jewish victims of Nazi mass murders , bringing the total to about 11 million . Killings took place throughout ___MASK61___ , German - occupied territories , and territories held by allies of ___MASK61___ . The German concept of Lebensraum refers to policies and practices of settler colonialism proliferated in ___MASK84___ from the 1890s to the 1940s . The most extreme form of this ideology was supported by the Nazi Party ( NSDAP ) in the Third Reich until the end of World War II . First popularized around 1901 , " Lebensraum " became a geopolitical goal of Imperial ___MASK84___ in World War I ( 1914  1918 ) originally , as the core element of the " Septemberprogramm " of territorial expansion .< ref name =" E / N301 "></ ref >