Mogilev Conference
The Mogilev Conference was a September 1941 Wehrmacht training event aimed at improving security in the rear of Army Group Centre during the German invasion of the Soviet Union.
In June 1941, the Axis Powers launched Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union and by 26 July 1941, Mogilev, Byelorussian SSR, had been occupied by the Wehrmacht.
Army Group Centre Rear Area, commanded by General Max von Schenckendorff, established its headquarters there on 7 September,[2] but members of Einsatzgruppe B had entered the city in August and already begun murdering Jews.
[5] By August 1941, Nebe came to realize that his Einsatzgruppe's resources were insufficient to meet the expanded mandate of the killing operations, due to the inclusion of Jewish women and children since that month.
[8] In that environment, Schenckendorff, in cooperation with Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, the Higher SS and Police Leader for Army Group Centre, organised a three-day conference for security troops.
[10] The conference began on 24 September and focused on "combatting partisans" (Bekämpfung von Partisanen, later Bandenbekämpfung) and reflected Schenckendorff's views on the need for total eradication of the resistance to German forces as the only way to secure the occupied territories.
[8] Presentations covered the evaluation of Soviet "bandit" organisations and tactics, why it was necessary to kill political commissars immediately upon capture, and gaining intelligence from local collaborators.
The document focused on tactics of security warfare, while also prescribing harsh measures, such as "the streets should be kept clear of 'wanderers'" who should be handed over to the Secret Field Police or sent to filtration camps for further screening.
[18] The summary proclaimed that "the enemy must be completely annihilated", while specifying that the distinction between a "partisan" and a "suspicious person" was not always possible, thus giving a carte blanche to the troops for the most brutal approach possible.
Underlining the importance of the event, the closing text of Schenckendorff's summary was reproduced verbatim:[19] The constant decision between life and death for partisans and suspicious persons is difficult even for the hardest soldier.
He acts correctly who fights ruthlessly and mercilessly with complete disregard for any personal surge of emotion.In the opinion of historian Waitman Wade Beorn, the Mogilev Conference was a key event that, in the Army Group Center Rear Area, helped incorporate the Wehrmacht into the Nazi genocide as part of "the anti-partisan war and the Jew-Bolshevik-partisan construct".
Beorn concludes that verbal instructions to this effect were, most likely, communicated during the sessions, given the speaker lineup, which included experienced mass murderers such as Bach-Zalewski, Nebe, Lombard, and Fegelein.
The exercises during the conference put the punitive operations into military context, by breaking down the actions into something that soldiers could relate to, such as surrounding a village, guarding and escorting the suspects, interrogations, etc.
Beorn concludes that "the Mogilev conference shows that these two were never separate, but intentionally connected in an effort to include the combat power of the Wehrmacht more efficiently in Hitler's genocidal projects in the east".
