Editing Alfred Rosenberg (section)

===Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1985-0723-500, Alfred Rosenberg headcrop.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Alfred Rosenberg as Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories]]
[[File:Alfred Rosenberg's office from 1942.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Former Nazi Ministry for Occupied Eastern Territories, Berlin (2014)]]
Following [[Operation Barbarossa|the invasion]] of the [[Soviet Union|USSR]], Rosenberg was appointed head of the [[Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories]] (''Reichsministerium für die besetzten Ostgebiete'') on 17 July 1941. [[Alfred Meyer]] served as his deputy and represented him at the [[Wannsee Conference]]. Another official of the Ministry, [[Georg Leibbrandt]], also attended the conference, at Rosenberg's request.

Rosenberg had presented Hitler with his plan for the organization of the conquered Eastern territories, suggesting the establishment of new administrative districts, to replace the previously [[Soviet Union|Soviet]]-controlled territories with new [[Reichskommissar]]iats. These would be:

* ''[[Reichskommissariat Ostland|Ostland]]'' ([[Baltic countries]] and [[Belarus]]),
* ''[[Reichskommissariat Ukraine|Ukraine]]'' ([[Ukraine]] and nearest territories),
* ''[[Reichskommissariat Kaukasien|Kaukasien]]'' ([[Caucasus]] area),
* ''[[Reichskommissariat Moskowien|Moskowien]]'' (Moscow metropolitan area and the rest of nearest Russian European areas)

Although Rosenberg believed that all of the peoples of the Soviet Union were subhumans because of their [[Communism|communist]] beliefs,<ref>[[David Irving|Irving, David]] (1996) ''Goebbels: Mastermind of the Third Reich'', London: Focal Point. p. 769. {{ISBN|1872197132}}</ref> such suggestions were intended to encourage certain non-Russian forms of nationalism and promote German interests for the benefit of future [[Aryan race|Aryan]] generations, in accord with geopolitical "[[Lebensraum]] im Osten" plans. They would provide a buffer against Soviet expansion in preparation for the total eradication of Communism and [[Bolshevism]] by decisive pre-emptive military action.

Following these plans, when [[Wehrmacht]] forces invaded Soviet-controlled territory, they immediately implemented the first of the proposed Reichskommissariats of [[Ostland]] and [[Ukraine]], under the leadership of [[Hinrich Lohse]] and [[Erich Koch]], respectively. The organization of these administrative territories led to conflict between Rosenberg and the [[SS]] over the treatment of [[Slavs]] under German occupation. As Nazi Germany's chief racial theorist, Rosenberg considered Slavs, though lesser than Germans, to be Aryan. Rosenberg often complained to Hitler and Himmler about the treatment of non-Jewish occupied peoples.<ref name = "kev">Kevin P. Spicer, ''Antisemitism, Christian ambivalence, and the Holocaust'', Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, Indiana University Press, 2007, p. 308</ref> He proposed the creation of buffer satellite states made out of Greater Finland, Baltica, Ukraine, and Caucasus.<ref name="Russian Liberation Movement page 30"/>

During an 18 November 1941 [[press conference]], he made the following statements about the [[Jewish question]]:
{{blockquote|Some six million Jews still live in the East, and this question can only be solved by a biological extermination of the whole of Jewry in Europe. The Jewish Question will only be solved for Germany when the last Jew has left German territory, and it will only be solved for Europe when not a single Jew stands on the European continent as far as the Urals... And to this end, it is necessary to force them beyond the Urals or otherwise bring about their eradication.<ref>Peter Longerich, Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews, p.289</ref>}}

At the [[Nuremberg trials]] he said he was ignorant of the [[Holocaust]], despite the fact that Leibbrandt and Meyer were present at the [[Wannsee conference]].