Ostland

Reichskommissariat Ostland (RKO) was the civilian occupation regime established by Germany in the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania), the north-eastern part of Poland and the west part of the Belarusian SSR during World War II. It was also known initially as Reichskommissariat Baltenland ("Baltic Land"). The political organization for this territory—after an initial period of military administration before its establishment—was that of a German civilian administration, nominally under the authority of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories (German: Reichsministerium für die besetzten Ostgebiete) led by Nazi ideologist Alfred Rosenberg, but was in reality controlled by the Nazi official Hinrich Lohse, its appointed Reichskommissar.