The »Reichskommissariat Ostland« was an administrative unit of the »Greater German Reich« created in July 1941, which included the former Baltic States Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia as well as the major part of western Belarus. The Schleswig-Holstein Gau leader Hinrich Lohse acted as »Reichskommissar« headquartered in Kaunas (Kowno/Kauen), later in Riga. The extermination policy started immediately with the German invasion on 22 June 1941 and was expanded in autumn 1941 to the deported Jews from the »Altreich,« the »Protectorate,« and Austria.

Close to 15,000 Jewish Austrians were killed in the ghettos and extermination camps of the »Reichskommissariat Ostland.« Between November 1941 and October 1942, fifteen transports left Vienna for Kaunas, Riga, Minsk, and Maly Trostinec near Minsk. While in Riga and Minsk at least the majority of the deportees was sent to the ghetto and killed only later on, arrival in Kaunas and Maly Trostinec already meant death upon arrival.