the "Nederlandsche Oost-Compagnie", a Dutch-German Company dedicated to encourage the colonization of the east by Dutch citizens. The German civil administration met "Volksdeutsche" (ethnic Germans) in Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro. The archives of the Soviet census in 1926 counted them as 393,924 persons. The Soviets counted ethnic Germans in all Russia at 1,423,534, or 1% of the total population in 1939. The administration took measures to protect Germans in the area who were entered on their Volksdeutsch racial list. They received special rights the return of their land and property prior to the Soviet Revolution permission to return to visit parents in the motherland the creation of special German resident zones in Dnipro and other areas encouraged recruitment to the Wehrmacht or service in the civil administration in the territory, amongst other special measures. In Ukraine the Germans published a local journal in the German language, the Deutsche Ukrainezeitung. During the occupation a very small number of cities and their accompanying districts maintained German names. These cities were designated as urban strongholds for Volksdeutsche natives. Hegewald (Himmler's field headquarters and the location of a small, experimental German colony), Försterstadt (also a Volksdeutsche colony), Halbstadt (a Low German Mennonite settlement), Alexanderstadt, Kronau and Friesendorf were some of these. On 12 August 1941 Hitler ordered the complete destruction of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv by the use of incendiary bombs and gunfire. Because the German military lacked sufficient material for this operation it wasn't carried out, after which the Nazi planners instead decided to starve the city's inhabitants. Heinrich Himmler on the other hand considered Kyiv to be "an ancient German city" because of the Magdeburg city rights that it had acquired centuries prior, and often referred to it as "Kiroffo". See also Hunger Plan Ukrainian collaborationism with the Axis powers Ostarbeiter Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia Babi Yar The Death Match Word of the Righteous References Further reading . . . External links Map of Occupied Europe Ukraine German occupation of Poland during World War II Belarus in World War II Military history of Germany during World War II Military history of the Soviet Union during World War II 1941 establishments in Ukraine 1944 disestablishments in Ukraine States and territories established in 1941 States and territories disestablished in 1944 Babi Yar German military occupations