>>4216749Koch's first act as Reichskommissar was to close local schools, declaring that "Ukraine children need no schools. What they'll have to learn will be taught them by their German masters."[1] His brutality is best exemplified by his remark, "If I meet a Ukrainian worthy of being seated at my table, I must have him shot."[8] Koch worked together with the General Plenipotentiary for Labour Deployment (Generalbevollmächtigter für den Arbeitseinsatz) Fritz Sauckel in providing the Reich with forced labor. He was also involved in the persecution of Polish and Ukrainian Jews. Due to his brutal actions, Nazi rule in Ukraine was disturbed by a growing number of partisan uprisings.[1]
Statements about the Germans as a Herrenvolk (gentleman race) belong to the Nazi officials of various ranks. In particular when Reichskommissar Ukraine Erich Koch said:
We are a master race, which must remember that the lowliest German worker is racially and biologically a thousand times more valuable than the population here.
—Erich Koch, March 5th 1943, [9]
