Anastasiya Lisovskaya

Ms. Lisovskaya will research the treatment of the Byelorussian population by Germany during World War II. Ms. Lisovskaya will focus her research on the attempts of the German Wehrmacht and SS-Verbande to induce Byelorussian soldiers to defect to Germany s side. The first experiments with the formation of special military units composed of Soviet prisoners occurred in the territory of Belarus. The use of Byelorussian soldiers reveals a dichotomy between propagandized Nazi viewpoint which stated that only Germans would be allowed to bear arms and the utilitarian approach of military commanders toward the Slavic population and Byelorussian defectors. As the experiment generally ended in friction, frustration and failure, Ms. Lisovskaya contends that the pattern developed in Belarus during the first years of World War II affected the attitude of German military towards the Soviet population in general.