Wilhelm Kube was rumored to have had a premonition of his own imminent death.
In the tumultuous years of World War II, Wilhelm Kube served as the German Nazi Generalkommissar for Weissruthenien, effectively acting as the chief civilian administrator of the Nazi occupation in the Minsk region. Born in 1887 in Silesia, Kube had a rich academic background, graduating from the faculty of history and law at Berlin University.
Kube's military career began during World War I, and he emerged from the conflict as a fervent nationalist. He joined the National Socialist German Workers' Party in 1927 and rose through the ranks, becoming a gauleiter and a deputy in the Reichstag and the Prussian parliament.
In June 1941, the city of Minsk fell to German occupation forces, and Kube was appointed as the general commissioner of the general district of "Belorussia" by Adolf Hitler. His tenure in Minsk was marked by violence, looting, enslavement, and annihilation of the population. Over 260 concentration camps were established during his rule, including 14 for children.
Kube's role in the atrocities committed during the Nazi occupation was particularly evident in his involvement in the persecution and systematic murder of Jews. One of the most horrifying incidents occurred at the Minsk Ghetto, where children were buried alive after being taunted with sweets by Kube and other SS officers during the liquidation of the ghetto's nursery.
Valery Nadtachaev, a scientific employee of the Center for Military History of Belarus, described the police measures under Kube as the most horrifying page of Belarusian history. However, Kube's service in Minsk was not just a continuation of his brutal policies; it was also an opportunity for him to redeem himself in the eyes of the Third Reich.
But Kube's downfall came in 1943 when he was assassinated in Minsk by Yelena Mazanik, a Soviet partisan. The killing was a targeted political assassination, reflecting resistance efforts against the Nazi occupation leadership in Belarus. This assassination ended his direct role in the administration and the atrocities committed under Nazi rule in Minsk.
The death toll from the Trostenets camp alone during Kube's time in Minsk was over 200,000 people. Despite his meteoric rise and fall, Wilhelm Kube's legacy continues to haunt the history of World War II and the atrocities committed under the Nazi regime.
Wilhelm Kube, amidst his tumultuous political career as a gauleiter and a deputy in the Reichstag and the Prussian parliament, found an opportunity for entertainment during World War II, where he served as the general commissioner of the general district of "Belorussia" in Minsk, marked by violence and atrocities. However, his rule was not just a continuation of his brutal policies; it was also an opportunity for him to redeem himself in the eyes of the Third Reich, until his downfall in 1943, when the general news of his assassination by Yelena Mazanik, a Soviet partisan, showed the world the face of politics in the Minsk region, a face hideous with violence and murder.
