Summary

Taking into account previous experiences related to the investigation of occupation systems of the Axis powers during World War II, and in particular the dominant role of the Third Reich, it seems that there are large gaps in this area and the status of those studies can be considered largely insufficient.

The weakness of the existing studies is their reduction to the occupation policy and formal structures, i.e. they are rather fragmentary. Only rarely do they take into consideration comparative documentation which shows the holistic development of organizational structures of invader’s administration along with its entire experience and collective functioning mechanisms as well as the demonstration of its effectiveness.

This article is an attempt to determine whether and to what extent the exercise of occupation or other forms of governance by the Third Reich under Hitler’s rule over other territories or nations constituted a political and legal system, what were different types of governance over individual territories and conquered populations in a specific legal, socio-economic and political situation. It should be noted, however, that the term “occupation” used commonly in the political history of that period is not sufficient to properly describe this phenomenon in the language of law. It is too general and inadequate to the legal status of the territories occupied or controlled by Germany, including those illegally annexed (such as “eingegliederte Ostgebiete” [annexed Eastern territories] in Poland), those that have been politically subordinated with the deprivation of peoples living there of their sovereign political power (such as the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia), as well as those which were only forcibly incorporated into the orbit of influence of the Third Reich but with the maintenance of satellite governments (e.g. Slovakia).

Keywords: legal systems in the time of World War II, Academy of German Law, law of nations, international law, occupatio bellica, debellatio, Hague Convention, Regierungsverwaltung, Kolonialverwalutng, Aufsichtsverwaltung, Grossraum, Besatzungsrichtungen, Führerprinzip, the Third Reich, the First Slovak Republic, the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, General Government, World War II, types and systems of occupation, economy in the occupied territories, culture and cultural policy, occupation regime, extermination of population, war crimes, repressive state apparatus, Weimar Republic, Hlinka Guard, HSPL, Hlinka’s Slovak People's Party, Gestapo, SS, NSDAP, Einsatzgruppe, RSHA, Reich Main Security Office, Reich Protector Office.