Like other Army Group Rear Areas, the territories under Roques control were the sites of mass murder during the Holocaust and other crimes against humanity targeting the civilian population. Rear Area commanders operated in parallel, and in cooperation, with the Higher SS and Police Leaders appointed by the head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, for each of the army group's rear areas.[1] In the words of historian Michael Parrish, these army commanders "presided over an empire of terror and brutality".[2]