Lithuanian Security Police
The Lithuanian Security Police (LSP), also known as Saugumas (
Background and formation
When
After the German took Lithuania, it became apparent that they had no intention of granting autonomy to Lithuania. Instead, on 25 July 1941, they established a civil administration known as Generalbezirk Litauen under Generalkommissar Adrian von Renteln, and dissolved the Provisional Government on 5 August 1941. But they found the police and intelligence agencies created in the transitional period useful and incorporated them into the German security system. The former State Security Department was reorganised into the Lithuanian Security Police.[3]
Organization
External structure
The police in German-occupied Lithuania consisted of separate German and Lithuanian units. The most important German police organizations were the SiPo (security police,
The LSP was dependent on the German SiPo and SD. It had the authority to sentence suspects to up to three years.
Internal structure
The head of the Lithuanian Security and Criminal Police was Stasys Čenkus , an agent of the Abwehr. He kept this position until the end of the German occupation. His deputy assistants were head of the Security Police Kazys Matulis and his personal secretary Vytenis Stasiškis. Petras Pamataitis headed the Criminal Police.[3]
The LSP had a staff of approximately 400 people, 250 of them in Kaunas[3] and about another 130 in Vilnius.[6] Many of its members came from the fascist Iron Wolf organisation.[2] For comparison, as of December 1943, the German SiPo and SD had 112 employees in Kaunas and 40 employees in Vilnius.[3] The combined Lithuanian Security and Criminal Police had 886 employees in 1943.[3]
LSP was headquartered in Kaunas. The headquarters were divided onto several departments: Organization (recruitment and employee selection), Economical and Financial (general administration), and Information (reports from other departments and agencies, registry of state enemies, archive).[3]
LSP had six regional branches in Kaunas (headed by Albinas Čiuoderis), Vilnius (Aleksandras Lileikis), Šiauliai (Juozas Pakulis), Ukmergė (Aleksandras Braziukaitis), Marijampolė (Petras Banys) and Panevėžys (Antanas Liepa). Regional branches usually had seven commissariats:[3]
- Guards' Commissariat – guarded buildings and prisons
- General Commissariat – general administrative functions
- Information Commissariat – screened applicants for governmental institutions, gathered operative information, created lists of state enemies, gathered information on political attitudes of local population, preparing reports and publications
- Communist Commissariat – gathered information on communists and Soviet partisans, arrested and interrogated suspects, recruited agents
- Polish Commissariat – investigated activities of illegal Polish organizations, arrested and interrogated suspects, recruited agents
- Commissariat of Ethnic Minorities – investigated activities of Russians, Belarusians and other ethnic minorities
- Reconnaissance Commissariat
Regional branches sometimes had different set of commissariats, for example Kaunas's branch had a separate commissariat for
Activities
Persecution of communists and Polish resistance
The initial task of LSP was to identify and arrest Communists. In the first months of German occupation, the Communist Commissariat of the Vilnius branch, headed by Juozas Bagdonis, was especially active. In 1941 documents this commissariat is sometimes referred to as the Communist-Jewish section (Lithuanian: Komunistų-žydų sekcija). It was responsible for spying on, arresting and interrogating Communists, members of Komsomol, former Soviet government workers, NKVD collaborators, Jews and supporters of Jews.[4] In Kaunas, the LSP arrested about 200 Communists; about 170 of them were on a list of known Communists. On 26 June 1941, this group was transferred to the Seventh Fort and executed. The next day Germans forbade Lithuanians to order executions independently.[4]
As the war continued, the focus shifted to operations against Soviet partisans and the Polish resistance, particularly active in eastern Lithuania.[4] In February 1942, the SiPo and SD mandated registration of Polish intelligentsia (cf. proscription list).[5]
Persecution of Jews
In the first weeks of German occupation, the LSP focused on persecuting Communists regardless of their nationality. At the time, Jews were persecuted only if they were involved in Communist activities.[4] Members of the LSP collected at least some evidence to support the charge. However, that quickly changed and Jews became persecuted solely because of their ethnicity. The LSP targeted Jews and suspected Jews, supporters of Jews, people evading imprisonment in the ghettos, escapees from ghettos,[7] or those who violated the Nazi racial laws.[4]
The activities of the LSP offices in major cities (Vilnius, Kaunas) and in the provinces differed in principle.
Postwar developments
At the end of the war many members of the Lithuanian Security Police fled to
Kazys Gimžauskas, Lileikis' deputy, returned to Lithuania after US authorities began to investigate him in 1996, and was convicted in 2001 of participation in genocide.[11] In 2006, Algimantas Dailidė was convicted in Lithuania of persecuting and arresting two Poles and 12 Jews while he was a member of Lithuanian Security Police.[12][13]
See also
References
- ^ a b United States Department of Justice (1996-06-26). "Court Revokes U.S. Citizenship of Former Security Police Official in Nazi-Occupied Lithuania". Retrieved 2006-06-09.
- ^ ISBN 0-253-33359-8.
- ^ ISSN 1392-3463. Retrieved 2006-06-09.
- ^ ISSN 1392-3463. Retrieved 2015-04-05.
- ^ ISBN 978-5-417-00958-7.
- ^ a b MacQueen, Michael (2005). "Lithuanian Collaboration in the "Final Solution": Motivations and Case Studies". Lithuania and the Jews; The Holocaust Chapter (PDF). Washington, D.C.: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. p. 6.
- ^ Jewish Telegraphic Agency (1996-07-12). "World Report. Deported Nazi Denies any Guilt". Jewish Bulletin of Northern California. Retrieved 2006-06-09.
- ISSN 0209-1747. Retrieved 2006-06-09.
- ISSN 0137-7604.
- ^ Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (2001-02-23). "Lithuania. Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – 2000". Retrieved 2006-06-12.
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Walsh, Nick Paton (2004-01-18). "Refugee Faces Nazi War Trial". The Observer. Retrieved 2006-06-12.
- ^ "Nazi helper avoids Lithuania jail". BBC News. 2006-03-27. Retrieved 2006-06-09.
- ^ United States Department of Justice (2001-07-11). "Justice Department Moves to Deport Florida Man Who Participated in Wartime Nazi Roundups of Lithuanian Jews". Retrieved 2006-06-09.