A. The Ukraine on the Right of the Dnieper can, for all purposes, be considered as inactive.
a. The German Wehrmacht was regarded by the populace now, as ever, as emancipator and liberator from physical and mental pressure; the political points of view at present are not as important as the physical.
A temporary administration was almost put in everywhere by the troops, especially by officers of Defense II, who were reserved for this, and will be enlarged upon by the field commanders under the direction of Section VII (military) with the commander-in-chief of the rear communication zone; the proportional far-reaching net of the field and Army post command will be support and condensed through the organization of the office of the inspector of economy (especially the chief group of agriculture) which is of the same opinion. Occasional or regular conferences lead to unification of the points of view. Upon my trip through the land (so far about 6000 km), I have tried through personal contacts, to work for clearness and unification as much as possible; through speeches, conferences, participation in informal discussions, etc., I have reached, so far, some 600 native village burgermeisters, 12 larger city governments with their burgermeisters, about 500 professors or students, 30 ministers with their church councils and 20 leaders of rayons or their assistants. I was asked by 4 commanders-in-chief, several garrison leaders [Standortaelteste], and a few division commanders of various German garrisons, to lecture. I was heard by almost all Ic officers of the armies and other higher command posts, also some 100 agriculture leaders, 30 communications officers and 3 propaganda companies. The present Defense II officers gladly procured such connections for me and guaranteed continued execution of probable decisions.
b. Where friction arises between German-(Retinue) sections and the native populations, they are not of political, but economical or personal nature.
Economy. The populace is aware and understands that a very large part of their total harvest has to be given to the Wehrmacht (and economical command); but they resist against "unjust" and "individual" requisitions, that means against continued confiscation in the villages along the same large routes of march, without uniformly requisitioning in the country; and also against unrationalized or wild demands (the confiscation of pregnant cows, requisition without proper receipts, disregarding of letters of safe conduct issued by higher German echelons, etc.).
Individual German economical commands made complaints, and rightly so, over delayed terms and quantities; in most cases it was found that technical hindrances were the reasons (delayed or curtailed orders, lack of transportation) and not malice or sabotage. The farmers reply to the oft heard remarks of their laziness and lack of working effort, was that they brought in the large harvest on their own free will without having many machines, manpower and the time.
Personal. The Bolshevists, using brutal measures (such as prison, deportation, etc.) in general nevertheless refrained from punishing individuals (by whipping). Now that it occasionally is done by German troops, well meaning people blame it on the misunderstanding or ignorance of the language; but should it be done too often, antipathy and distrust will be created.
Furthermore the population emphasizes the difference which exists between the occasional mistakes of the Germans and the systematic oppressions by our allies. Here especially the Rumanians and Hungarians caused much gossip. The German Army Command, which operated for the safeguarding of German property in the newly acquired Rumanian special (partly drastic) countermeasures. [sic]
c. A complete report on these so-called Partisan-movements was made on 14 Sept 1941.
The Army High Command decided, therefore, in favor of centralizing the work on the problem, and requested Captain Lazarek for this, who until now was assigned to me (Koch).