During
World War II,
Reichskommissariat Ukraine (abbreviated as
RKU), was the
civilian occupation regime of much of German-occupied
Ukraine (which included adjacent areas of modern
Belarus and pre-war
Poland). Between September 1941 and March 1944, the Reichskommissariat was administered by
Reichskommissar Erich Koch. The administration's tasks included the pacification of the region and the exploitation, for German benefit, of its resources and people. Adolf Hitler issued a Führer Decree defining the administration of the newly occupied Eastern territories on 17 July 1941.