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After a number of events, during World War II in Belarus collaboration of the local people with the German occupation authorities took place. One of the most obvious episodes of collaboration was the establishment and the activity of the Belarusian National Defence. The armed unit was formed at the end of spring and in the beginning of summer 1944 through mobilization and was intended for armed combat with Soviet partisans and the Red Army. The article analyzes the process of establishing the unit, its numbers, the degree of combat readiness and participation in warfare. In summer 1944, after withdrawal of German forces from Belarus some of the soldiers of the Belarusian National Defence turned up at the Western front. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During World War II, many residents of Belarus occupied by Nazi Germany being driven by the great variety of motives were drafted to the local auxiliary police (Schutzmannschaften). The total number of which in General District of Belarus accounted for some 30 thousand people in the years 1941-1944. In 1943 the 13th battalion of 1,000 strong auxiliary police SD (Schutzmannschafts Bataillon der SD 13) was formed, a subordinate formation of the Security Service (SD) SS. In years 1943-1944, this formation participated in numerous anti-partisan campaigns and pacification. After the withdrawal from Belarus in the summer of 1944 it took part in the suppression of Warsaw's Uprising and fought together with the Red Army in Poland and the resistance movements in Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]