Belarusian Home Defence (BKA)

The Belarusian Home Defence (BKA), or Bielaruskaja Krajevaja Abarona (Беларуская краёвая абарона) was the name of the collaborationist battalions of the pro-Nazi Belarusian Central Rada – a puppet self-government in Reichskommissariat Ostland during World War II, active from February 23, 1944 to April 28, 1945. The twenty-thousand strong Belarusian Home Defence Force was formed under the leadership of Governor-General Curt von Gottberg (known as a notorious sadist) with logistical help from the German special services (the Poachers’ Brigade) commanded by Oskar Dirlewanger. After the military disasters at Stalingrad and Kursk the Germans made some concessions by proposing a quasi state. Assistance was offered by the local administrative governments from the Soviet era, and prewar public organizations including the former Soviet Belarusian Youth (Soyuz bielarusskoi molodezhi).

On March 6, 1944 the general mobilization of all healthy men born between 1908 and 1924 into the BKA started. Some 40,000 individuals reported to recruitment bureaus setup in seven cities; although 30% of them were sent back home on German orders for overcrowding. From each region (Uezd) about 500 to 600 men were recruited, for the total of 28,000 soldiers ready for training. On March 26, all men already enlisted to BKA gave their oath to Germany at the Freedom Square in Minsk: "I swear, that arm to arm with the German soldier, I will not lay down my weapons until there is peace and security in our farms and cities, until in our land the last enemy of the Belarusian people is destroyed." The oath was accepted by the BKA Belarusian commander Ermachenka in the presence of the SS and Police Leader Curt von Gottberg. The president of the pupet Belarusian Rada Radasłaŭ Astroŭski was concerned that some Soviet partisans might have infiltrated the new BKA structures and therefore it would need a thorough inspection afterwards.

Auxiliary battalions
On March 31, the BKA battalions received their individual designations. In total, there were 45 battalions formed, mostly infantry. However, to prevent possible staged desertions to "forest people" weapons were handed out only during training exercises with nothing to spare. The German SS didn't have enough officers to train all of them, therefore members of the Belarusian Auxiliary Police not older than 57 years and Unteroffiziers not older than 55 years of age (except those protecting the collaborationist government) were brought into the fold of BKA. Organization was controlled by the German Police and SD commandants. After training, the main assignments of BKA were anti-partisan operations in which some 30,000 Jews were killed (usually during pacification of villages). Later, BKA was used at the front against the Red Army. Belarusian Central Rada sent the BKA throughout Belarus except the Pripyat River and around the town of Lida.

In mid-June 1944 an officer school for BKA volunteers was started in Minsk, but the city was overrun by the Soviets only two weeks later. After evacuating Rada to Königsberg and soon to Berlin in November 1944 along with upper echelon, the 1st personnel battalion was formed. Meanwhile, battalions of BKA on Belarusian territory, were mainly used in anti-partisan operations and later at the front against the Red Army, but the BKA ceased to exist after Soviets took over Belarus. Some of the BKA units retreated to the West. Many conscripts quietly went back home to their Belarusian villages.

The BCR formed under occupation of Belarus by Nazi Germany exists today in the US and president Radasłaŭ Astroŭski worked till 1960. Most of its members, as members of other organizations, received political asylum as immigrants. In April and May 1945, most of the BKA and SBM submitted to Russian Liberation Army surrendered to the Allies, knowing that in their motherland a long and difficult death by NKVD awaited them. Later propagandists hold that the Belarusian Liberation Armies 1st personnel battalion in Berlin in fact was a reserve for the 30th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (2nd Russian). Eleven its officers, including B. D. Rahula and others entered the 1st Grenadier Sturm Brigade SS "Belarus", formed in Nazi Germany; it was sent to the Battle of Monte Cassino, and acted against the II Corps (Poland) of General Władysław Anders (Anders Army). BKA soldiers were not trusted by the Germans, which explains why Russian Liberation Army formations weren't sent to the Eastern Front, and combat at Western Front.