The 22nd SS Police Regiment (german: SS-Polizei-Regiment 22) was initially named the 4th Police Regiment (''Polizei-Regiment 4'') when it was formed in 1939 from existing

Order Police The ''Ordnungspolizei'' (), abbreviated ''Orpo'', meaning "Order Police", were the uniformed police force in Nazi Germany from 1936 to 1945. The Orpo organisation was absorbed into the Nazi monopoly on power after regional police jurisdiction w ...

(''Ordnungspolizei'') units for rear-area security duties during the

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...

. It then became Police Regiment Warsaw (''Polizei-Regiment Warschau''). It was redesignated as the 22nd Police Regiment in mid-1942 before it received the SS title in early 1943.

Formation and organization

The 4th Police Regiment was redesignated as Police Regiment Warsaw on 4 November 1939. Under its control were the four

battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions are ...

s of Police Group 6 (''Polizeigruppe 6'') as well as Police Battalions (''Polizei-Batallion'') 6, 10. The latter battalion had been transferred to Police Regiment Lublin before the other five battalions were formally assigned to the regiment in mid-December. By early 1940 the regiment had only four battalions under command and it remained that size until around September 1940 when another battalion was transferred elsewhere, although the individual battalions assigned periodically changed. The invasion of Russia in June 1941 created a need for rear-area security units on the Eastern Front and Police Regiment Warsaw provided some of these. They were partially replaced by worn-out units returning from Russia. When the regiment was redesignated on 9 July 1942 as the 22nd Police Regiment, its I Battalion came from

Police Battalion 41 The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and ...

, II Battalion was formed from independent police

companies A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of people, whether natural, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specific, declared go ...

scattered throughout occupied Poland, and III Battalion was formed by redesignating

Police Battalion 53 The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and ...

, although it was still Russia and remained there until September. All of the police regiments were redesignated as SS police units on 24 February 1943. The 22nd SS Police Regiment helped to crush the

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising; pl, powstanie w getcie warszawskim; german: link=no, Aufstand im Warschauer Ghetto was the 1943 act of Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto in German-occupied Poland during World War II to oppose Nazi Germany's ...

in April–May. Together with the 25th SS Police Regiment and other security forces, the regiment participated in

Operation Harvest Festival Operation Harvest Festival (german: Aktion Erntefest) was the murder of up to 43,000 Jews at the Majdanek, Poniatowa and Trawniki concentration camps by the SS, the Order Police battalions, and the Ukrainian ''Sonderdienst'' on 3–4 Novembe ...

(''Aktion Erntefest'') on 3–4 November, the massacre of 42,000 Jews imprisoned in the

Majdanek extermination camp Majdanek (or Lublin) was a Nazi concentration camps, Nazi concentration and extermination camp built and operated by the SS on the outskirts of the city of Lublin during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. It had seven gas chamber ...

and several of its sub-camps. In July 1944, the regiment was transferred to

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

and was destroyed there.Tessin & Kanapin, p. 624

Notes

References

* Arico, Massimo. ''Ordnungspolizei: Encyclopedia of the German Police Battalions'', Stockholm: Leandoer and Ekholm (2010). * Blood, Phillip W. '' Hitler's Bandit Hunters: The SS and the Nazi Occupation of Europe'', Dulles, Virginia: Potomac Books (2006) *Tessin, Georg & Kannapin, Norbert. ''Waffen-SS under Ordnungspolizei im Kriegseinsatz 1939–1945: Ein Überlick anhand der Feldpostübersicht'', Osnabrück, Germany: Biblio Verlag (2000). {{SS Police Regts #