Police Battalion 303

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Police Battalion 303
Polizeibattalion 303
Active1941–
Country 
SS
command

The Police Battalion 303 (Polizeibattalion 303) was a formation of the German

Holocaust and was responsible for large-scale crimes against humanity
targeting civilian populations.

Background and formation

The German

SS chief Heinrich Himmler and Kurt Daluege, chief of the Order Police, cooperated in transforming the police force of the Weimar Republic 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 1939 invasion of Poland, where they were deployed for security and policing purposes, also taking part in executions and mass deportations.[1]

Twenty-three

death squads of the SS, and Organisation Todt, the military construction group. Twelve were formed into regiments, three battalions each, and designated as Police Regiments Centre, North, South, and Special Purpose.[2] The goals of the police battalions were to secure the rear by eliminating the remnants of the enemy forces, guarding the prisoners of war, and protecting the lines of communications and captured industrial facilities. Their instructions also included, as Daluege stated, the "combat of criminal elements, above all political elements".[3]

Along with

Higher SS and Police Leader (HSS-PF) for Army Group South in Ukraine.[5]

Operational history

Police Battalion 303's actions quickly escalated to genocide while in the occupied Soviet Union. During the summer months, the battalion took part in joint actions with the 1st SS Infantry Brigade of the Waffen-SS, both providing support and undertaking independent killings. The brigade's report of 19 August to the Command Staff Reichsführer-SS (SS operational staff set up for the invasion) noted that the battalion and the brigade jointly participated in "combat of gangs".[6]

During the massacre at Babi Yar, all three battalions of the regiment took part. The police cordoned off the area, while Sondercommando 4a and a platoon of Waffen-SS men did the shooting.[7]

The killing activities of both the Einsatzgruppen detachments and the Police Regiment South slowed down the farther the

communists and "suspicious elements".[8] In July 1942, the regiment was redesignated as the 10th Police Regiment.[9]

Aftermath

The Order Police as a whole had not been declared a criminal organisation by the Allies, unlike the SS. Its members were able to reintegrate into society largely unmolested, with many returning to police careers in Austria and West Germany.[10]

References

  1. ^ Showalter 2005, p. xiii.
  2. ^ Westermann 2005, pp. 163–164.
  3. ^ Westermann 2005, p. 165.
  4. ^ Westermann 2005, p. 15.
  5. ^ a b Breitman 1998, pp. 63–65.
  6. ^ Westermann 2005, p. 181.
  7. ^ Breitman 1998, pp. 65–66.
  8. ^ Brandon & Lower 2008, p. 277.
  9. ^ Tessin & Kannapin 2000, p. 619.
  10. ^ Westermann 2005, p. 231.

Bibliography

Further reading
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