During World War II, some Belarusians collaborated with the invading Axis powers. Until the beginning of Operation Barbarossa in 1941, the territory of Belarus was under control of the Soviet Union, as the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. However, memories of Soviet repressions in Belarus and collectivization, as well as of the polonization and discrimination against Belarusians under the Second Polish Republic were still fresh.
Many Belarusians wanted an independent nation and co-operated with the invaders in hopes that Nazi Germany would allow them to have their own independent state after the war ended.
Belarusian organizations never had administrative control over the territory of Belarus. The real power was held by the German civil and military administrations. The collaborationist Belarusian Central Council, presenting itself as a Belarusian governmental body, was formed in Minsk a few months before Belarus was retaken by the Soviet Army.
Before the war, the Belarusian National Socialist Party was formed by a small group of Belarusian nationalists in Polish-controlled Western Belorussia in 1933. The group was far less influential than other Belarusian political parties in interwar Poland such as the Belarusian Peasants' and Workers' Union and the Belarusian Christian Democracy. The Belarusian National Socialist Party was banned by the Polish authorities in 1937. Party leaders left for Berlin and became among the first advisers to the Germans at the onset of Operation Barbarossa.[1][2]
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