Operation Hermann

Operation Hermann
Part of Bandenbekämpfung in German-occupied Belarus during World War II
Operation "Herman". Waffen-SS soldiers and a village boy captured by them
Date 13 July – 11 August 1943 (1943-07-13 – 1943-08-11) Location Naliboki Forest, German-occupied Belarus Result Inconclusive
Belligerents
Germany Belarusian Polizei	Home Army Bielski partisans
Commanders and leaders
Curt von Gottberg Barys Rahula	Kacper Miłaszewski
Units involved
1st and 12th Police Armored Companies 47th Belarusian Schutzmannschaft Battalions
Casualties and losses
52 killed 165 wounded 5 missing several armored vehicles and cars[1]	Polish Underground State: approx. 40 killed approx 100–150 missing several dozen wounded[2]
4,280 civilians killed 60 villages destroyed

Operation Hermann was a German anti-partisan action in the Naliboki forest area carried out between 13 July 1943 and 11 August 1943. The German battle groups destroyed settlements in the area. During the operation, German troops burned down over 60 Polish and Belarusian villages and murdered 4280 civilians. Between 21,000 and 25,000 people were sent to forced labour in the Third Reich.^[3][4]

The Germans, with the support of Belarusian collaborationists, killed most of the local Jews and launched merciless terror against the Polish population. At the same time, the boundless Nalibotsky Forest became a refuge for Red Army soldiers who managed to escape German capture and for Jews who escaped from the surrounding ghettos.^[5]

Following the operation, the communities around the Naliboki forest were devastated, the Germans deported the non-Jewish residents fit for work to Germany for slave labor and murdered most of the rest. Prior to the manhunt, homeless refugees were mainly Jews who had escaped the ghetto, but in the fall of 1943 non-Jewish Belarusians, Poles, and Roma who managed to flee roamed in the forest. Many joined partisan units, special family camps set up by the Soviets, and some joined the Bielski group who returned to the area and accepted anyone willing to join. While the Germans wrecked many communities, much was left behind in and around the forest that could sustain life. Fields, orchards, and beehives all had their produce and farm animals roamed the area around the forest.^[6]

References

1. Hubert Kuberski. Unternehmen „Hermann” – pacyfikacja Puszczy Nalibockiej z perspektywy SS-Sonderbataillon Dirlewanger. „Studia nad Autorytaryzmem i Totalitaryzmem”. 44 (2), 2022. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego. p. 132.
2. Kazimierz Krajewski. Powstanie iwienieckie i zapomniane boje w Puszczy Nalibockiej. „Biuletyn Informacyjny AK” p. 36.
3. Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin, Timothy Snyder, pages 273-274
4. In the Shadow of the Red Banner: Soviet Jews in the War Against Nazi Germany, Yitzhak Arad, pages 297-298
5. Podgóreczny. 2010.
6. Defiance, Oxford University Press, Nechama Tec, 1993, pages 127-129