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The ''Ordnungspolizei'' (''Orpo'', , meaning "Order Police") were the uniformed
police force The police are a constituted body of people empowered by a state with the aim of enforcing the law and protecting the public order as well as the public itself. This commonly includes ensuring the safety, health, and possessions of citizen ...
in
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
from 1936 to 1945. The Orpo was absorbed into the Nazi monopoly of power after regional police jurisdiction was removed in favour of the central Nazi government ("
Reich ( ; ) is a German word whose meaning is analogous to the English word " realm". The terms and are respectively used in German in reference to empires and kingdoms. In English usage, the term " Reich" often refers to Nazi Germany, also ca ...
-ification", ''Verreichlichung'', of the police). In 1936,
Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 â€“ 23 May 1945) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician and military leader who was the 4th of the (Protection Squadron; SS), a leading member of the Nazi Party, and one of the most powerful p ...
, the commander (''
Reichsführer-SS (, ) was a special title and rank that existed between the years of 1925 and 1945 for the commander of the (SS). ''Reichsführer-SS'' was a title from 1925 to 1933, and from 1934 to 1945 it was the highest Uniforms and insignia of the Schut ...
'') of the ''
Schutzstaffel The ''Schutzstaffel'' (; ; SS; also stylised with SS runes as ''ᛋᛋ'') was a major paramilitary organisation under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II. It beg ...
'' (SS), was appointed Chief of the German Police in the
Interior Ministry An interior ministry or ministry of the interior (also called ministry of home affairs or ministry of internal affairs) is a government department that is responsible for domestic policy, public security and law enforcement. In some states, the ...
. The top and upper leadership positions of the Orpo were filled by police officers who belonged to or had joined the SS. Owing to their green uniforms, Orpo members were also referred to as ''Grüne Polizei'' (Green Police). The force was established as a centralised organisation based in Berlin uniting the municipal, city, and rural uniformed police that had been previously organised on a state-by-state basis. The ''Ordnungspolizei'' encompassed virtually all of Nazi Germany's law-enforcement and emergency response organisations, including
fire brigades A fire department (North American English) or fire brigade (Commonwealth English), also known as a fire company, fire authority, fire district, fire and rescue, or fire service in some areas, is an organization that provides fire prevention and ...
,
coast guard A coast guard or coastguard is a Maritime Security Regimes, maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with cust ...
, and
civil defence Civil defense or civil protection is an effort to protect the citizens of a state (generally non-combatants) from human-made and natural disasters. It uses the principles of emergency management: prevention, mitigation, preparation, response, ...
. Himmler and
Kurt Daluege Kurt Max Franz Daluege (15 September 1897 â€“ 24 October 1946) was a German ''SS-Oberst-Gruppenführer'' and ''Generaloberst'' of the police, the highest ranking police officer, who served as chief of ''Ordnungspolizei'' (Order Police) of N ...
, chief of the Orpo, worked to transform the police force into militarised formations ready to serve the regime's aims of conquest and racial annihilation. Police troops were first formed into battalion-sized formations for the
invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...
, where they were deployed for security and policing purposes, also taking part in executions and mass deportations. During World War II, the force was tasked with policing the civilian population of the occupied and colonised countries. In 1941, the Orpo's activities escalated to
genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...
after the
Order Police battalions Order Police battalions were battalion-sized militarised units of Nazi Germany's ''Ordnungspolizei'' which existed during World War II from 1939 to 1945. They were subordinated to the ''Schutzstaffel'' and deployed in areas of German-occupied E ...
formed into independent regiments or were attached to ''Wehrmacht'' security divisions and ''
Einsatzgruppen (, ; also 'task forces') were (SS) paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass murder, primarily by shooting, during World War II (1939–1945) in German-occupied Europe. The had an integral role in the imp ...
''. Independently and in collaboration with those units, members of the Orpo perpetrated
crimes against humanity Crimes against humanity are certain serious crimes committed as part of a large-scale attack against civilians. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity can be committed during both peace and war and against a state's own nationals as well as ...
and mass-murder during the
Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
.


History

Almost immediately after the Nazis seized power, they instituted measures to gain political control of German police and to use them against their perceived enemies. The commander of the SS, ''
Reichsführer-SS (, ) was a special title and rank that existed between the years of 1925 and 1945 for the commander of the (SS). ''Reichsführer-SS'' was a title from 1925 to 1933, and from 1934 to 1945 it was the highest Uniforms and insignia of the Schut ...
''
Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 â€“ 23 May 1945) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician and military leader who was the 4th of the (Protection Squadron; SS), a leading member of the Nazi Party, and one of the most powerful p ...
, had already been deputy chief of the Prussian secret police, when by decree of 17 June 1936, he was appointed Chief of the Police force; he performed both functions in parallel and was officially and publicly referred to as "Reichsführer-SS and Chief of the German Police in the Reich Ministry of the Interior". Although nominally subordinate to Interior Minister
Wilhelm Frick Wilhelm Frick (12 March 1877 – 16 October 1946) was a German prominent politician of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) and convicted war criminal who served as Minister of the Interior in Adolf Hitler's cabinet from 1933 to 1943 and as the last governor ...
, Himmler could participate in meetings of the Reich Cabinet—when and if police agendas were discussed. In 1943, Himmler himself was appointed Minister of the Interior. Traditionally, law enforcement in Germany had been a state and local matter. When Himmler was given the lead over all of Germany's uniformed law enforcement agencies in 1936, he divided the police into two main areas: the ''Ordnungspolizei'' (Orpo or Order Police) under the command of Kurt Daluege and the ''
Sicherheitspolizei The often abbreviated as SiPo, is a German term meaning "security police". In the Nazi Germany, Nazi era, it referred to the state political and criminal investigation security agency, security agencies. It was made up by the combined forces of ...
'' (SiPo or security police) under
Reinhard Heydrich Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich ( , ; 7 March 1904 â€“ 4 June 1942) was a German high-ranking SS and police official during the Nazi era and a principal architect of the Holocaust. He held the rank of SS-. Many historians regard Heydrich ...
. The Orpo assumed duties of regular uniformed law enforcement while the SiPo was made up by the combined forces of the ''Geheime Staatspolizei'' (
Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...
; secret state police) and the ''
Kriminalpolizei ''Kriminalpolizei'' (, "criminal police") is the standard term for the criminal investigation agency within the police forces of Germany, Austria, and the German-speaking cantons of Switzerland. In Nazi Germany, the Kripo was the criminal polic ...
'' (Kripo; criminal investigation police). The Gestapo was a political police agency with additional legally guaranteed powers of arrest. On 27 September 1939, shortly after the start of
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, the SiPo and the ''
Sicherheitsdienst ' (, "Security Service"), full title ' ("Security Service of the ''Reichsführer-SS''"), or SD, was the intelligence agency of the Schutzstaffel, SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. Established in 1931, the SD was the first Nazi intelligence ...
'' (SD; SS security service) were folded into the
Reich Security Main Office The Reich Security Main Office ( , RSHA) was an organization under Heinrich Himmler in his dual capacity as ''Chef der Deutschen Polizei'' (Chief of German Police) and , the head of the Nazi Party's ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS). The organization's stat ...
(''Reichssicherheitshauptamt'' or RSHA). The RSHA symbolised the close connection between the SS (a party organisation) and the police (a state organisation). The Order Police (uniformed police, enforcement police) remained in the Ministry of the Interior. Himmler's multiple attempts to increase the proportion of SS members in the Orpo failed. Nonetheless, his reorganisation of the police under the RSHA enabled him to have "watchdogs" in multiple army districts and coordinated the power of the SS, SiPo, and Orpo, which historian Helmut Langerbein says "perverted normal police work". Himmler pursued the amalgamation of SS and police into a form of "State Protection Corps" (''Staatsschutzkorps''), and used the expanded reach the police powers gave him to persecute ideological opponents of the Nazi regime and "undesirables" such as Jews,
freemasons Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...
, churches, homosexuals,
Jehovah's Witnesses Jehovah's Witnesses is a Christian denomination that is an outgrowth of the Bible Student movement founded by Charles Taze Russell in the nineteenth century. The denomination is nontrinitarian, millenarian, and restorationist. Russell co-fou ...
, and other groups defined as "
asocial Asociality refers to the lack of motivation to engage in social interaction, or a preference for solitary activities. Asociality may be associated with avolition, but it can, moreover, be a manifestation of limited opportunities for social relati ...
". The Nazi conception of criminality was racial and biological, holding that criminal traits were hereditary, and had to be exterminated to purify German blood. As a result, even ordinary criminals were consigned to concentration camps to remove them from the German racial community (''
Volksgemeinschaft ''Volksgemeinschaft'' () is a German expression meaning "people's community", "folk community", Richard Grunberger, ''A Social History of the Third Reich'', London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1971, p. 44. "national community", or "racial community" ...
'') and ultimately exterminate them. The Order Police was one—among several—of the executing organisations that facilitated inhumane goals pursued by Himmler and the RSHA, transforming and reorienting police functions into part of the Nazi security apparatus as they prepared for war. Instructions for the Orpo came through the regional political administrative authorities and/or the Higher SS and Police Leaders ( HSSPF)—the latter had authority to command both police branches and the SS-forces, because Himmler intended all along to establish harmony between the police and the SS. Most of the battalions of the Order Police troops in the east were deployed for the expulsion and extermination of the Jewish population, since parts were assigned to the SS ''
Einsatzgruppen (, ; also 'task forces') were (SS) paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass murder, primarily by shooting, during World War II (1939–1945) in German-occupied Europe. The had an integral role in the imp ...
''. Their personnel were used to guard
ghetto A ghetto is a part of a city in which members of a minority group are concentrated, especially as a result of political, social, legal, religious, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished than other ...
s or to carry out mass shootings. Order police played an executive role in the
Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
by providing men for the tasks involved, "both career professionals and reservists, in both battalion formations and precinct service" (''Einzeldienst'').


Indoctrination

Before the Nazi seizure of power, there was already a penchant for nationalistic beliefs and militarism among police officers in Germany, since most of its members consisted of men who had fought in
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
. Many officers of the police forces in Weimar believed the causation of Germany's loss in that war was bound up in the myths of being stabbed in the back by profiteers and Jews, which certainly contributed to their willingness to believe the National Socialist message. Beginning in February 1933, Nazi minister
Hermann Göring Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; ; 12 January 1893 â€“ 15 October 1946) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician, aviator, military leader, and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which gov ...
issued a decree that Nazi party members and those in related organisations "were to receive priority as applicants for the Order Police." Just a few months later, Kurt Daluege issued a secret memorandum that emphasised eight to ten weeks worth of ideological indoctrination for SA and SS members transitioning into the Order Police at the rank of captain or higher, to ensure "close ties between the state instruments of power he policeand the SA and SS." By 1935, there was an increased national political curricula and intensive ideological training by the "Comradeship of the German Police" (''Kameradschaftsbund der deutschen Polizei''). Monthly national political lectures were instituted, and all police officers were encouraged to attend courses in state and party training facilities. Historian Edward B. Westermann writes that the "transformation of the police into political soldiers and instruments of genocide occurred in large part due to the efforts of Heinrich Himmler and Kurt Daluege to create an organizational culture within the ''Ordnungspolizei'' that married a "martial attitude" with Nazi racial ideology." In keeping with Nazi ideological programmatic lines, the Order Police, alongside the SS, played a key role in implementing Nazi racial policies. Unlike the SS, whose members voluntarily aligned with its ideology, the police required extensive ideological training to adopt and support the SS's goals, which was generally accepted due to a combination of Nazi propaganda, latent antisemitism, and a societal disposition towards obedience to authority. Within the administrative organ (''Verwaltungspolizei'') for instance, the Order Police were required to read specific history books and essays on Nazi ideology, which were integrated into their practical police training and exams, ensuring alignment with Nazi goals. Training for State Protection Police (''Schutzpolizei'') at the Berlin-Schöneberg School in 1937 included 44 weekly hours focused on police and criminal law, with two hours dedicated to national politics and ideological training by SS instructors. Similarly, the curriculum included history and National Socialist ideology. From the end of 1942 to the end of 1944, the Mariaschein Police School (later moved to Heidenheim) conducted monthly ideological training sessions for the ''Schutzpolizei'' with corresponding training of like kind being held at other police and police weapons schools across Nazi-occupied Europe.


Organization

The German Order Police had grown to 244,500 men by mid-1940. In preparation for the war of aggression and conquest, a replacement police force was set up as early as 1937 to take over patrol and guard duties. This auxiliary police could be activated by decree for service in their home districts and had grown to over 90,000 by the beginning of the war. These older men were drafted and conscripted into the reserve police, and in the course of the war, veterans were also called up. The majority of them served in their home environment, some were deployed in police reserve battalions. In 1936, Himmler divided the Nazi police into two branches. The central command office known as the ''Ordnungspolizei Hauptamt'' was housed in the old office building of the Prussian Ministry of the Interior in
Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
at NW 7, Unter den Linden 72/74. From 1936 to 1941, it consisted of two offices: the Command Department (''Kommandoamt''), responsible for finance, personnel and medical; and the Office of Administration and Law (''Verwaltung''), responsible for handling all administrative police, legal and economic tasks of the entire Order Police. In 1941, the Colonial Office, the Office of Fire Brigades, and the Office of Technical Emergency Aid were added. While the Order Police was initially commanded by Kurt Daluege, in May 1943, he had a massive heart attack and was removed from duty. He was replaced by Police and
Waffen-SS The (; ) was the military branch, combat branch of the Nazi Party's paramilitary ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, volunteers and conscr ...
General
Alfred Wünnenberg __NOTOC__ Alfred Wünnenberg (20 July 1891 – 30 December 1963) was a high-ranking commander in the Waffen-SS and the police of Nazi Germany. He commanded the SS Polizei Division between December 1941 and June 1943. He was a recipient of the Kn ...
, who had previously spent his career as a professional police officer.


Branches of police

The administration police ('' Verwaltungspolizei'') was the branch with overall command authority for all Orpo
police station A police station is a facility operated by police or a similar law enforcement agency that serves to accommodate police officers and other law enforcement personnel. The role served by a police station varies by agency, type, and jurisdiction, ...
s. The ''Verwaltungspolizei'' also was the central office for record keeping and was the command authority for civilian law enforcement groups, which included the ''Gesundheitspolizei'' (health police), ''Gewerbepolizei'' (commercial or trade police), and the ''Baupolizei'' (building police). In the main towns, ''Verwaltungspolizei'', ''Schutzpolizei'' and ''Kriminalpolizei'' would be organised into a police administration known as the ''Polizeipräsidium'' or ''Polizeidirektion'', which had authority over these police forces in the urban district. Generally speaking, there were three subtypes of uniformed police forces within the Order Police, arranged according to the population size and density of the community they served." These were: * ''Gendarmerie'' (rural police), who were tasked with frontier law enforcement to include small communities, rural districts, and mountainous terrain. * Municipal protection police ''( Gemeindepolizei)'' municipal uniformed police in smaller and some large towns. * State protection police ''(
Schutzpolizei The ''Schutzpolizei'' (), or ''Schupo'' () for short, is a uniform-wearing branch of the ''Landespolizei'', the state (''Land'') level police of the states of Germany. ''Schutzpolizei'' literally means security or protection police, but it is ...
)'', state uniformed police in cities and most large towns, which included police-station duties (''Revierdienst'') and barracked police units for riots and public safety (''Kasernierte Polizei''). Inspectors of the Order Police in various branches were established in September 1936, overseeing the entire Order Police within their jurisdictions. At the start of the war, they were gradually renamed "Commanders of the Order Police" (BdO) and given greater authority, directly reporting to Higher SS and Police Leaders. Although fully integrated into the ''Ordnungspolizei''-system, its police officers were still considered municipal civil servants. The civilian law enforcement in towns with a municipal protection police was not performed by the ''Verwaltungspolizei'', but by municipal civil servants. Until 1943, they also had municipal criminal investigation departments, but that year, all such departments with more than 10 detectives were integrated into the
Kripo ''Kriminalpolizei'' (, "criminal police") is the standard term for the criminal investigation agency within the police forces of Germany, Austria, and the German-speaking cantons of Switzerland. In Nazi Germany, the Kripo was the criminal polic ...
.


Other police forces

Additional police units not entirely subordinate to the ''Hauptamt Ordnungspolizei'' or the Reich Security Main Office existed across Germany, which made them outside the regular Nazi police structure and were "staffed mainly by officials from the police and judiciary who had served under Weimar." Despite the seeming independence of other functional policing and public safety organizations, they were still part of the Nazi state, which was monitored and controlled by the SS and its subordinated agencies, such as the
Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...
.


Leadership


Police battalions in the East and the Holocaust


Invasion of Poland

By the time of the invasion of Poland in 1939, the Order Police had reached a strength of 131,000 men. Correspondingly, between 1939 and 1945, the ''Ordnungspolizei'' maintained military formations, who were trained and outfitted by the main police offices within Germany. Specific duties varied widely from unit to unit and from one year to another. Generally, the Order Police were not directly involved in frontline combat, except for
Ardennes The Ardennes ( ; ; ; ; ), also known as the Ardennes Forest or Forest of Ardennes, is a region of extensive forests, rough terrain, rolling hills and ridges primarily in Belgium and Luxembourg, extending into Germany and France. Geological ...
in May 1940, and the
Siege of Leningrad The siege of Leningrad was a Siege, military blockade undertaken by the Axis powers against the city of Leningrad (present-day Saint Petersburg) in the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front of World War II from 1941 t ...
in 1941. The first 17 battalion formations (from 1943 renamed ''SS-Polizei-Bataillone'') were deployed by the Orpo in September 1939 along with the ''
Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...
'' during the
invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...
. One unit was organised under the command of Udo von Woyrsch and its members were specifically tasked to "carry out executions". Under Woyrsch, these Orpo men terrorised the Jews of Bedzin, Katowice, and Sosnowiec, where they wrecked Jewish-owned property, shot dozens, and in one case in the town of Dynow, forced a dozen Jews into a synagogue before setting it on fire. The battalions also guarded
Polish prisoners of war Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...
behind the German lines, and carried out expulsion of Poles from '' Reichsgaue'' under the banner of ''
Lebensraum (, ) is a German concept of expansionism and Völkisch movement, ''Völkisch'' nationalism, the philosophy and policies of which were common to German politics from the 1890s to the 1940s. First popularized around 1901, '' lso in:' beca ...
''. They also committed atrocities against both the
Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
and the
Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
populations as part of those "resettlement actions". After hostilities had ceased, the battalions—such as
Reserve Police Battalion 101 Reserve Police Battalion 101 () was a Nazi German paramilitary formation of the uniformed police force known as the ''Ordnungspolizei'' (Order Police, ''Orpo''), the organization formed by the Nazi unification of the civilian police forces in th ...
—took up the role of
security forces Security forces are statutory organizations with internal security mandates. In the legal context of several countries, the term has variously denoted police and military units working in concert, or the role of irregular military and paramilitar ...
, patrolling the perimeters of the
Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland Ghettos were established by Nazi Germany in hundreds of locations across occupied Poland after the German invasion of Poland.Yitzhak Arad, ''Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka.'' Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis, 1987.''Biuletyn GÅ ...
(the internal ghetto security issues were managed by the ''SS'', ''SD'', and the Criminal Police, in conjunction with the Jewish ghetto administration). Each battalion consisted of approximately 500 men armed with light infantry weapons. In the east, each company also had a heavy machine-gun detachment. Administratively, the Police Battalions remained under the Chief of Police
Kurt Daluege Kurt Max Franz Daluege (15 September 1897 â€“ 24 October 1946) was a German ''SS-Oberst-Gruppenführer'' and ''Generaloberst'' of the police, the highest ranking police officer, who served as chief of ''Ordnungspolizei'' (Order Police) of N ...
, but operationally they were under the authority of regional
SS and Police Leaders The title of SS and Police Leader (') designated a senior Nazi Party official who commanded various components of the SS and the German uniformed police (''Ordnungspolizei''), before and during World War II in the German Reich proper and in the o ...
(''SS- und Polizeiführer''), who reported, in a separate
chain of command A command hierarchy is a group of people who carry out orders based on others' authority within the group. Military chain of command In a military context, the chain of command is the line of authority and responsibility along which orders ...
, directly to ''Reichsführer-SS''
Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 â€“ 23 May 1945) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician and military leader who was the 4th of the (Protection Squadron; SS), a leading member of the Nazi Party, and one of the most powerful p ...
. The battalions were used for various auxiliary duties, including the so-called
anti-partisan operations During the Second World War, resistance movements that bore any resemblance to irregular warfare were frequently dealt with by the German occupying forces under the auspices of anti-partisan warfare. In many cases, the Nazis euphemistically used ...
, support of combat troops, and construction of defence works (i.e. the
Atlantic Wall The Atlantic Wall () was an extensive system of coastal defence and fortification, coastal defences and fortifications built by Nazi Germany between 1942 and 1944 along the coast of continental Europe and Scandinavia as a defense (military), d ...
). Some of them were focused on traditional security roles as an occupying force, while others were directly involved in actions designed to inflict terror and in the ensuing
Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
. While they were similar to ''
Waffen-SS The (; ) was the military branch, combat branch of the Nazi Party's paramilitary ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, volunteers and conscr ...
'', they were not part of the thirty-eight ''Waffen-SS'' divisions, and should not be confused with them, including the national
4th SS Polizei Panzergrenadier Division The 4th SS Polizei Panzergrenadier Division (4. SS-Polizei-Panzergrenadier-Division) or SS Division Polizei was one of the thirty-eight divisions fielded as part of the Waffen-SS during World War II. Formation The division was formed in October ...
. The battalions were originally numbered in series from 1 to 325, but in February 1943 were renamed and renumbered from 1 to about 37, to distinguish them from the ''
Schutzmannschaft The ''Schutzmannschaft'', or Auxiliary Police ( "protection team"; plural: ''Schutzmannschaften'', abbreviated as ''Schuma'') was the collaborationist auxiliary police of native policemen serving in those areas of the Soviet Union and the Balti ...
'' auxiliary battalions recruited from local population in German-occupied areas.


Invasion of the Soviet Union

The
Order Police battalions Order Police battalions were battalion-sized militarised units of Nazi Germany's ''Ordnungspolizei'' which existed during World War II from 1939 to 1945. They were subordinated to the ''Schutzstaffel'' and deployed in areas of German-occupied E ...
, operating both independently and in conjunction with the ''
Einsatzgruppen (, ; also 'task forces') were (SS) paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass murder, primarily by shooting, during World War II (1939–1945) in German-occupied Europe. The had an integral role in the imp ...
'', became an integral part of the
Final Solution The Final Solution or the Final Solution to the Jewish Question was a plan orchestrated by Nazi Germany during World War II for the genocide of individuals they defined as Jews. The "Final Solution to the Jewish question" was the official ...
in the two years following the attack on the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941,
Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and several of its European Axis allies starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during World War II. More than 3.8 million Axis troops invaded the western Soviet Union along ...
. The first mass-murder of 3,000 Jews by
Police Battalion 309 The Police Battalion 309 (''Polizeibattalion 309'') was a formation of the Order Police (uniformed police) during the Nazi era. During Operation Barbarossa, it was subordinated to the German Army's 221st Security Division and deployed in Germa ...
occurred in occupied
Białystok Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the List of cities and towns in Poland, tenth-largest city in Poland, second in terms of population density, and thirteenth in area. Biał ...
on 12 July 1941. Police battalions were part of the first and second wave of murders in 1941 and into 1942 throughout the
territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union Seventeen days after the German invasion of Poland in 1939, which marked the beginning of the Second World War, the Soviet Union entered the eastern regions of Poland (known as the ) and annexed territories totalling with a population of 13,299 ...
and also earlier, during the killing operations within the 1939 borders of the USSR—whether as part of Order Police regiments, or as separate units reporting directly to local ''SS'' and Police Leaders. Over 11,000 members of the Order Police entered the Soviet Union in the wake of the Nazi invasion. They included the
Reserve Police Battalion 101 Reserve Police Battalion 101 () was a Nazi German paramilitary formation of the uniformed police force known as the ''Ordnungspolizei'' (Order Police, ''Orpo''), the organization formed by the Nazi unification of the civilian police forces in th ...
from Hamburg, Battalion 133 of the Nürnberg Order Police, Police Battalions 45, 309 from Köln, 91 and
316 __NOTOC__ Year 316 ( CCCXVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Sabinus and Rufinus (or, less frequently, year 1069 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 316 f ...
from
Bottrop Bottrop () is a city in west-central Germany, on the Rhine–Herne Canal, in North Rhine-Westphalia. Located in the Ruhr area, Ruhr industrial area, Bottrop adjoins Essen, Oberhausen, Gladbeck, and Dorsten. The city had been a coal-mining and ...
-
Oberhausen Oberhausen (, ) is a city on the river Emscher in the Ruhr Area, Germany, located between Duisburg and Essen ( ). The city hosts the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and its Gasometer Oberhausen is an anchor point of the European Rout ...
. These units—among others—carried out extensive murder operations across the Eastern Front. In the immediate aftermath of World War II, this latter role was obscured both by the lack of court evidence and by deliberate obfuscation, while most of the focus was on the better-known ''Einsatzgruppen'' ("Operational groups") who reported to the ''Reichssicherheitshauptamt'' (RSHA) under
Reinhard Heydrich Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich ( , ; 7 March 1904 â€“ 4 June 1942) was a German high-ranking SS and police official during the Nazi era and a principal architect of the Holocaust. He held the rank of SS-. Many historians regard Heydrich ...
.
Order Police battalions Order Police battalions were battalion-sized militarised units of Nazi Germany's ''Ordnungspolizei'' which existed during World War II from 1939 to 1945. They were subordinated to the ''Schutzstaffel'' and deployed in areas of German-occupied E ...
involved in direct killing operations were responsible for at least 1 million murders. Starting in 1941, the regional Order Police units helped to transport Jews from ghettos in both Poland and the USSR (and elsewhere in
occupied Europe German-occupied Europe, or Nazi-occupied Europe, refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly militarily occupied and civil-occupied, including puppet states, by the (armed forces) and the government of Nazi Germany at ...
) to concentration and extermination camps; they also participated in operations to hunt down and murder Jews outside the ghettos. The Order Police and the ''Waffen-SS'' were the two primary sources from which the ''Einsatzgruppen'' drew personnel.


Waffen-SS Police Division

The militarization of the police during the war was reflected in the restructuring of police units, with companies replacing traditional formations. In October 1939, a Police Division of 15,800 militarily trained personnel was formed, initially part of the police but made available to the ''Wehrmacht'', participating in the 1940 Western Campaign and later restructured as the ''SS Polizei'' Division officially integrated into the Waffen-SS in 1942. Many members of the ''Ordnungspolizei'', along with other reservists and men from the ''
Allgemeine SS The ''Allgemeine SS'' (; "General SS") was a major branch of the '' Schutzstaffel'' (SS) paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany; it was managed by the SS Main Office (''SS-Hauptamt''). The ''Allgemeine SS'' was officially established in the autu ...
'' were organised into the ''SS Totenkopfdivision''. In 1940, the ''SS Polizei'' Division was stationed along the
Maginot Line The Maginot Line (; ), named after the Minister of War (France), French Minister of War André Maginot, is a line of concrete fortifications, obstacles and weapon installations built by French Third Republic, France in the 1930s to deter invas ...
to provide passive defense and in preparation for the
Nazi invasion of France The Battle of France (; 10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign (), the French Campaign (, ) and the Fall of France, during the Second World War was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of the Low Countries (Belgium, Luxembour ...
. Eventually the ''SS Polizei'' Division was called into offensive action, when on 9 June and 10 June, the 1st and 2nd Police Regiments participated in the assault across the Aisne River and the Ardennes Canal where they faced fierce French resistance before the 2nd Police Regiment broke through and took the town of Voncq. The unit was then ordered to advance through the Argonne Forest and again, despite fierce French fighting, managed to capture Les Islettes. Nonetheless, the ''SS Polizei'' Division was taken out of front-line fighting and placed in reserve near Bar le Duc, but not before they had suffered some 704 casualties in two engagements. Throughout the course of the war, Himmler established as many as thirty SS-Police regiments for regions occupied by German forces. These units were created to carry out "special tasks" behind the Russian front, and each SS-Police regiment was assigned two armored car and antitank platoons with this "police army" subordinated to HSSPF leaders under Himmler's authority. Between 5,500 and 6,000 additional members of the Order Police were dispatched across central and southern Russia, accompanied by the ''SS-Einsatzgruppen''. During periods of intense fighting and crisis, these SS-Police units were thrown into the front lines, but normally were used for anti-partisan activities or the mass execution of political prisoners and Jews. During the spring of 1944—after a disastrous year on the Russian front—the 4th ''SS-Polizei'' Division fought Greek guerrilla forces near Klissura, after which, the division carried out "savage reprisals against the local inhabitants." The same thing happened at Distomo near Delphi, where members of this division slaughtered men, women, and children alike. Days after the massacre at Distomo, a Red Cross team from Athens "found bodies dangling from the trees that lined the road into the village." Nearly 15 percent of all Waffen-SS general officers and colonels, as well as another 11 percent of its lieutenant-colonels and majors, began their careers as policemen.


See also

*
Bandenbekämpfung In Military history of Germany, German military history, (), also referred to as Nazi security warfare during World War II, refers to the concept and military doctrine of Counterinsurgency, countering Resistance movement, resistance or insurrec ...
* Executions in Warsaw's police district *
Ranks and insignia of the Ordnungspolizei The ranks and insignia of the ''Ordnungspolizei'' were developed in 1936 after the nationalisation of Germany's regular police forces. ''Ordnungspolizei'' ''Ordnungspolizei'' (Orpo) ranks were based on local police titles and were considered a ...
*
Police Long Service Award The Police Long Service Award (Germany) (''Polizei-Dienstauszeichnung'') was a long service medal awarded to active members of the German Police during the era of Nazi Germany as a political award. Professor Richard Klein designed the awards, wh ...
*
Police forces of Nazi Germany There were two main Police forces of Nazi Germany under the , Heinrich Himmler from 1936: * (Orpo; order police) consisting of the regular uniformed police ** (GemPo; municipal protection police) ** (SchuPo; state protection police) * (SiPo; sec ...
*
Glossary of Nazi Germany This is a list of words, terms, concepts and slogans of Nazi Germany used in the historiography covering the Nazi regime. Some words were coined by Adolf Hitler and other Nazi Party members. Other words and concepts were borrowed and appropriated, ...
* ''
Schutzmannschaft The ''Schutzmannschaft'', or Auxiliary Police ( "protection team"; plural: ''Schutzmannschaften'', abbreviated as ''Schuma'') was the collaborationist auxiliary police of native policemen serving in those areas of the Soviet Union and the Balti ...
'', auxiliary policemen raised from local populations in occupied
Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...
during World War II


References


Notes


Citations


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Further reading

* * Nix Philip and Jerome Georges (2006). ''The Uniformed Police Forces of the Third Reich 1933-1945'', Leandoer & Ekholm. * {{Authority control Allgemeine SS Holocaust terminology Nazi SS Ordnungspolizei Police forces of Nazi Germany