The 25th SS Police Regiment (german: SS-Polizei-Regiment 25) was initially named Police Regiment Lublin (''Polizei-Regiment Lublin'') when it was formed in late 1939 after the
German invasion of Poland 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 security duties there. It was redesignated as the 25th Police Regiment in mid-1942 before it received the
SS title in early 1943.
Formation and organization
Police Regiment Lublin was formed on 4 November 1939. Under its control were two
battalions from Police Group 1 (''Polizeigruppe 1'') as well as
Police Battalion 102 (''Polizei-Batallion 102''). One of its early commanders was
Gerret Korsemann, the chief of the Order Police in
Lublin District from March 1940 through January 1941. The regiment maintained a strength of three battalions until July 1941, although the individual battalions were frequently rotated in and out.
The invasion of Russia in June 1941 created a need for rear-area security units on the
Eastern Front and Police Regiment Lublin 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 25th Police Regiment,
Police Battalion 65,
Police Battalion 67, and
Reserve Police Battalion 101 were redesignated as the regiment's first through third
battalions, respectively. All of the police regiments were redesignated as SS police units on 24 February 1943.
Together with the
22nd SS Police Regiment
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 (''Ordnungspolizei'') units for rear-area security duties duri ...
and other security forces, the regiment participated in
Operation Harvest Festival (''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. During this time it was commanded by
SS-''
Gruppenführer
__NOTOC__
''Gruppenführer'' (, ) was an early paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party (NSDAP), first created in 1925 as a senior rank of the SA. Since then, the term ''Gruppenführer'' is also used for leaders of groups/teams of the police, fire de ...
und Generalleutnant der Polizei''
Jakob Sporrenberg
Jakob Sporrenberg (16 September 1902 – 6 December 1952) was an SS-'' Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Polizei'' in Minsk, Belarus and Lublin, Poland. After the war, Sporrenberg stood trial in Poland and was convicted in 1950 of war crimes ...
,
SS and Police Leader (''SS- und Polizeiführer'') Lublin.
[Blood, pp. 223–224]
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
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