Ordnungspolizei
Order Police Ordnungspolizei | |
---|---|
Common name | Grüne Polizei |
Abbreviation | Orpo |
Agency overview | |
Formed | 26 June 1936 |
Dissolved | 1945 |
Employees | 401,300 (1944 est.) Occupied Europe |
General nature | |
Operational structure | |
Headquarters | Berlin NW 7, Unter den Linden 72/74 52°30′26″N 13°22′57″E / 52.50722°N 13.38250°E |
Elected officers responsible |
|
Agency executives |
|
Parent agency | Interior Ministry |
The Ordnungspolizei (German:
The Ordnungspolizei encompassed virtually all of Nazi Germany's law-enforcement and emergency response organisations, including
History
The police were divided into the Ordnungspolizei (Orpo or order police) and the Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo or security police), which had been established in June 1936.[5] The Orpo assumed duties of regular uniformed law enforcement while the SiPo consisted of the secret state police (Geheime Staatspolizei or Gestapo) and criminal investigation police (Kriminalpolizei or Kripo). The Kriminalpolizei was a corps of professional detectives involved in fighting crime and the task of the Gestapo was combating espionage and political dissent. On 27 September 1939, the SS security service, the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) and the SiPo were folded into the Reich Security Main Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt or RSHA). The RSHA symbolised the close connection between the SS (a party organisation) and the police (a state organisation).[6][7]
In broad terms, 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 and "undesirables" of the Nazi regime such as Jews,
The Order Police played a central role in carrying out the
Organization
The German Order Police had grown to 244,500 men by mid-1940.
The central command office known as the Ordnungspolizei Hauptamt was located in Berlin. From 1943 it was considered a full SS-Headquarters command.[11] The Orpo main office consisted of Command Department (Kommandoamt), responsible for finance, personnel and medical; Administrative (Verwaltung) charged with pay, pensions and permits; Economic (Wirtschaftsverwaltungsamt); Technical Emergency Service (Technische Nothilfe); Fire Brigades Bureau (Feuerwehren); Colonial Police (Kolonialpolizei); and SS and Police Technical Training Academy (Technische SS-und Polizeiakademie).[12]
Branches of police
- Administration police (Verwaltungspolizei) was the administrative branch of the Orpo and had overall command authority for all Orpo police stations. 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.
- State protection police (Schutzpolizei), 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).
- Municipal protection police (Kripo.
- Gendarmerie (Rural police) were tasked with frontier law enforcement to include small communities, rural districts, and mountainous terrain. With the development of a network of motorways or Autobahnen, motorised gendarmeriecompanies were set up in 1937 to secure the traffic.
- Traffic police (Verkehrspolizei) was the traffic-law enforcement agency and road safety administration of Germany. The organisation patrolled Germany's roads (other than motorways which were controlled by Motorized Gendarmerie) and responded to major accidents. The Verkehrspolizei was also the primary escort service for high Nazi leaders who travelled great distances by automobile.
- Water protection police (Allgemeine-SSunits assigned as port security personnel.
- Fire protection police (fire departmentsunder a national command structure.
Hilfspolizei
- The Orpo Hauptamt also had authority over the Freiwillige Feuerwehren, the local volunteer civilian Second World War, in response to heavy bombing of Germany's cities, the combined Feuerschutzpolizei and Freiwillige Feuerwehren numbered nearly two million members.
- Air raid protection police (Luftschutzpolizei) was the civil protection service in charge of air raid defence and rescue victims of bombings in connection with the Technische Nothilfe (Technical Emergency Service) and the Feuerschutzpolizei (professional fire departments). Created as the Security and Assistance Service (Sicherheits und Hilfsdienst) in 1935, it was renamed Luftschutzpolizei in April 1942. The air raid network was supported by the Reichsluftschutzbund (Reich Association for Air Raid Precautions) an organisation controlled from 1935 by the Air Ministry under Hermann Göring. The RLB set up an organisation of air raid wardens who were responsible for the safety of a building or a group of houses.
- Technical Emergency Corps (Technische Nothilfe; TeNo) was a corps of engineers, technicians and specialists in construction work. The TeNo was created in 1919 to keep the public utilities and essential industries running during the wave of strikes. From 1937, the TeNo became a technical auxiliary corps of the police and was absorbed into Orpo Hauptamt. By 1943, the TeNo had over 100,000 members.
- Volunteer Fire Department (Feuerwehren), volunteer fire departments, conscripted fire departments and industrial fire departments were auxiliary police subordinate to the Ordnungspolizei.
- Radio protection (Funkschutz) was made up of SS and Orpo security personnel assigned to protect German broadcasting stations from attack and sabotage. The Funkschutz was also the primary investigating service which detected illegal reception of foreign radio broadcasts.
- Urban and rural emergency police (Stadt- und Landwacht) created in 1942 as a part-time police reserve. Abolished in 1945 with the creation of the Volkssturm.
- Auxiliary Police (Schutzmannschaft) was the collaborationist auxiliary police in occupied Eastern Europe.
Sonderpolizei
The Sonderpolizei were the
- Reichsbahnfahndungsdienst, the "Railway criminal investigative service", subordinate to the Deutsche Reichsbahn.
- Bahnschutzpolizei (Railway protection police), subordinate to the Deutsche Reichsbahn.
- SS-Bahnschutz replaced the Bahnschutzpolizei within the Reich territory from 1944.
- Postal protection (telegraphsystems.
- Allgemeine-SSin 1942.
- Forest Protection Service, (Forstschutzkommando) under the Reichsforstamt.
- Jagdpolizei (Hunting Police), under the Reichsforstamt. It was largely exercised through the Deutsche Jägerschaft.
- Zollgrenzschutz (Customs Border Guards), exercised through the Border guard and the Customs Authorities under the Ministry of Finance.
- Flurschutzpolizei (Agricultural Field Police), under the Ministry of Agriculture.
- Factory protection police (Werkschutzpolizei) were factory guard of Nazi Germany. Its personnel were civilians employed by industrial enterprises, and typically were issued paramilitary uniforms. They were ultimately subordinated to the Ministry of Aviation.
- Deichpolizei (Dam and Dyke Police), subordinated to the Ministry of Economy.
- Hafenpolizei (Harbour Police) under the Ministry of Transport.
Police battalions
Invasion of Poland
Between 1939 and 1945, the Ordnungspolizei maintained military formations, trained and outfitted by the main police offices within Germany.
Each battalion consisted of approximately 500 men armed with light infantry weapons.
Invasion of the Soviet Union
The Order Police battalions, operating both independently and in conjunction with the Einsatzgruppen, became an integral part of the Final Solution in the two years following the attack on the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, Operation Barbarossa. The first mass-murder of 3,000 Jews by Police Battalion 309 occurred in occupied Białystok on 12 July 1941.[27] Police battalions were part of the first and second wave of murders in 1941–42 in the territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union and also 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 the local SS and Police Leaders.[28] They included the Reserve Police Battalion 101 from Hamburg, Battalion 133 of the Nürnberg Order Police, Police Battalions 45, 309 from Koln, and 316 from Bottrop-Oberhausen.[25] Their murder operations bore the brunt of the Holocaust by bullet on the Eastern Front.[29] 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.[30]
Order Police battalions involved in direct killing operations were responsible for at least 1 million murders.[31] Starting in 1941 the Battalions and local Order Police units helped to transport Jews from the ghettos in both Poland and the USSR (and elsewhere in occupied Europe) to the concentration and extermination camps, as well as operations to hunt down and murder Jews outside the ghettos.[32] The Order Police were one of the two primary sources from which the Einsatzgruppen drew personnel in accordance with manpower needs (the other being the Waffen-SS).[33]
In 1942, the majority of the police battalions were re-consolidated into thirty
Waffen-SS Police Division
The primary combat arm of the Ordnungspolizei was the SS Polizei Division of the Waffen-SS. The division was formed in October 1939, when thousands of members of the Orpo were drafted and placed together with artillery and signals units transferred from the army.[34] The division consisted of four police regiments composed of Orpo personnel and was typically used to rotate police members into a military situation, so as not to lose police personnel to the general draft of the Wehrmacht or to the full SS divisions of the regular Waffen-SS. Very late in the war several Orpo SS-Police regiments were transferred to the Waffen-SS to form the 35th SS-Police Grenadier Division.[citation needed] Cossack Orpo units were rolled into the XV SS Cossack Cavalry Corps with other units to nominally form 2nd Cossack Division.
Orpo and SS relations
By the start of the Second World War in 1939, the SS had effectively gained complete operational control over the German Police, although outwardly the SS and Police still functioned as separate entities. The Ordnungspolizei maintained its own system of insignia and
In 1940, standard practice in the German Police was to grant equivalent SS rank to all police generals. Police generals who were members of the SS were referred to simultaneously by both rank titles – for instance, a Generalleutnant in the Police who was also an SS member would be referred to as SS Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Polizei. In 1942, SS membership became mandatory for police generals, with SS collar insignia (overlaid on police green backing) worn by all police officers ranked Generalmajor and above.
The distinction between the police and the SS had virtually disappeared by 1943 with the creation of the SS and Police Regiments, which were consolidated from earlier police security battalions. SS officers now routinely commanded police troops and police generals serving in command of military troops were granted equivalent SS rank in the Waffen-SS. In August 1944, when Himmler was appointed Chef des Ersatzheeres (Chief of the Home Army), all police generals automatically were granted Waffen-SS rank because they had authority over the prisoner-of-war camps.
See also
- Ranks and insignia of the Ordnungspolizei
- Police Long Service Award
- Glossary of Nazi Germany
- Schutzmannschaft, auxiliary policemen raised from local populations in occupied Eastern Europe during World War II
- Hilfspolizei, a type of German police unit
Notes
- ^ Burkhardt Müller-Hillebrandt: Das Heer (1933-1945), Vol. III Der Zweifrontenkrieg, Mittler, Frankfurt am Main 1969, p. 322
- ^ a b c Struan Robertson. "The 1936 "Verreichlichung" of the Police". Hamburg Police Battalions during the Second World War. Archived from the original (Internet Archive) on February 22, 2008. Retrieved 2009-09-24.
- ^ Showalter 2005, p. xiii.
- ^ Browning, Christopher R. (1998). Arrival in Poland (PDF). Archived from the original on 19 October 2013. Retrieved 27 June 2014 – via Internet Archive, direct download 7.91 MB.)
also: PDF cache archived by WebCite.
{{cite book}}
:|work=
ignored (help); External link in
(help)CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link|quote=
- ^ a b c Williams 2001, p. 77.
- ^ Weale 2012, pp. 140–144.
- ^ Zentner & Bedürftig 1991, p. 783.
- ISBN 978-3-570-55122-6.
- ^ Browning, Nazi Policy, p. 143.
- ^ McKale 2011, p. 104.
- ^ ISBN 978-1780963402..
- ^ McNab 2013, pp. 60, 61.
- ^ Davis, Brian L. (2007). The German Home Front 1939-1945. Oxford, p. 9.
- ^ Goldhagen 1997, p. 204.
- ^ a b Browning 1998, p. 38.
- ^ Breitman, Richard, Official Secrets, Hill and Wang: NY, 1998, p 5 & Goldhagen, Daniel J., Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust, Random House: USA, 1996, p 186.
- ^ ]
- ^ Browning 1992, p. 5 (22/298 in PDF).
- ^ Browning 1992, p. 38.
- ^ Rossino, Alexander B., Hitler Strikes Poland, University of Kansas Press: Lawrence, Kansas, 2003, pp 69–72, en passim.
- ^ Hillberg, p 81.
- ^ Browning 1992, p. 45 (72 in PDF).
- ^ Hillberg, pp 71–73.
- ^ ISBN 0-8071-2011-1.
- ^ a b Browning 1998, pp. 11-12, 31-32.
- ^ "A German police officer shoots Jewish women still alive after a mass execution of Jews from the Mizocz ghetto". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
- ^ Browning 1998, pp. 9-12 (26/298 in PDF).
- ^ Hillberg, pp. 175, 192–198, en passim.
- ^ Patrick Desbois (27 October 2008). "The Shooting of Jews in Ukraine: Holocaust By Bullets". Museum of Jewish Heritage, New York, NY. Archived from the original on 25 December 2014. Retrieved 2 January 2015.
- ^ Hillberg, Raul, The Destruction of the European Jews, Holmes & Meir: NY, NY, 1985, pp. 100–106.
- ^ Goldhagen, pp 202, 271–273, Goldhagen's citations include Israel Gutman, Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, NY: Macmillan 1990
- ^ Goldhagen, p 195.
- ^ Hillberg, pp 105–106.
- ^ Stein 1984, pp. 33–35.
References
- ISBN 0-521-77490-X.
- ISBN 978-0-06-019013-2.
- ISBN 0679772685.
- McKale, Donald M (2011). Nazis after Hitler: How Perpetrators of the Holocaust Cheated Justice and Truth. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-4422-1316-6.
- McNab, Chris (2013). Hitler's Elite: The SS 1939-45. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1782000884.
- ISBN 978-0-7006-1724-1.
- Stein, George (1984) [1966]. The Waffen-SS: Hitler's Elite Guard at War 1939–1945. Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-9275-0.
- ISBN 978-0-451-23791-0.
- Westermann, Edward B. (2005). Hitler's Police Battalions: Enforcing Racial War in the East. Kansas City: ISBN 978-0-7006-1724-1.
- Williams, Max (2001). Reinhard Heydrich: The Biography, Volume 1—Road To War. Church Stretton: Ulric Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9537577-5-6.
- ISBN 978-1780963402.
- Zentner, Christian; Bedürftig, Friedemann (1991). ISBN 0-02-897500-6.
Further reading
- ISBN 978-0-253-35328-3.
- Nix Philip and Jerome Georges (2006). The Uniformed Police Forces of the Third Reich 1933-1945, Leandoer & Ekholm. ISBN 91-975894-3-8