Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz

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Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz
SS
TypeParamilitary police reserve
Bromberg Werner Kampe with Josef Meier and Ludolf von Alvensleben
, leader of Selbstschutz in Pomerania, during inspection of Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz in 1939
Ludolf von Alvensleben as leader of Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz in West Prussia, 1939

The Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz was an ethnic-German self-protection militia,[1] a paramilitary organization comprising ethnic Germans (Volksdeutsche) mobilized from among the German minority in Poland.

The Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz operated before, and during the opening stages of, World War II in the western half of Poland[2] and were responsible for, and took part in, massacres of Poles, along with SS Einsatzgruppen.

The Selbstschutz numbered some 100,000 members, who formed the greater part of the German minority "fit for action".[3]

Background

Main article: Special Prosecution Book-Poland

In the interwar period, the German minority organizations in Poland included

NSDAP (Nazi Party), Auslandsorganisation (Foreign Affairs Organization), Gestapo (Secret Police), SD (Security Service) and Abwehr (Defense).[5] Ethnic Germans with Polish citizenship had been trained in the Third Reich in various sabotage methods and guerilla tactics. Before the war began, Selbstschutz activists from Poland compiled lists of Poles who were to be removed or executed in Operation Tannenberg. The list was distributed among Nazi death squads as the Special Prosecution Book-Poland (Germ. Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen).[6]

History

Main articles:
Hauptamt Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle

Immediately after the

Himmler's protégé Gottlob Berger was placed in charge of the organization. District commanders from the army in occupied zones were put in charge at West Prussia, Upper Silesia and Warthegau.[7]

While the SS leadership was limited to overseeing the operations, local units remained under the control of ethnic Germans who had proven their commitment at the beginning of the war.

Bydgoszcz (Bromberg), Brodnica (Strasburg), Chełmno (Kulm), Dorposz Szlachecki, Kamień Krajeński, Karolewo, Lipno (Lippe), Łobżenica, Nakło (Nakel), Nowy Wiec (near Skarszewy), Nowe (over Vistula), Piastoszyn, Płutowo, Sępólno Krajeńskie, Solec Kujawski (Schulitz), Tuchola (Tuchel), Wąbrzeźno (Briesen), Wolental (near Skórcz), Wyrzysk (Wirsitz). The majority of the Poles imprisoned in those camps (consisting of men, women and youth) were brutally murdered.[7]

Ethnic cleansing

Main articles:
Mass murders in Piaśnica; Valley of Death (Bydgoszcz); Forest of Szpęgawsk; Luszkówko; Rudzki Most; Chojnice § World War II and Nazi German occupation (1939–1945); Mniszek, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship; Grudziądz § Selbstschutz participation in mass murder; and German retribution against people of Bydgoszcz
mass murders in Piaśnica

After the

German invasion of Poland, the Selbstschutz worked together with the Einsatzgruppen to massacre Poles. Commander of the Selbstschutz Ludolf von Alvensleben
told the men on 16 October 1939:

You are now the master race here. Nothing was yet built up through softness and weakness... That’s why I expect, just as our Führer Adolf Hitler expects from you, that you are disciplined, but stand together hard as Krupp steel. Don’t be soft, be merciless, and clear out everything that is not German and could hinder us in the work of construction.[8][9]

The Selbstschutz took part in the first action of elimination of Polish intelligentsia, the

German AB-Aktion operation in Poland.[13]

By 5 October 1939, in West Prussia alone, the Selbstschutz under the command of Alvensleben was 17,667 men strong, and had already executed 4,247 Poles, while Alvensleben complained to Selbstschutz officers that too few Poles had been shot. (German officers had reported that only a fraction of Poles had been "destroyed" in the region with the total number of those executed in West Prussia during this action being about 20,000. One Selbstschutz commander, Wilhelm Richardt, said in Karolewo (Karlhof) camp that he did not want to build big camps for Poles and feed them, and that it was an honour for Poles to fertilize the German soil with their corpses.[14] There was little opposition to or lack of enthusiasm for the activities of the Selbstschutz among those involved in the action.[14] There was even a case where a Selbstschutz commander was relieved after he failed to account for all the Poles that were required, and it was found that he executed "only" 300 Poles.[14]

After the conquest of Poland

The organization was ordered to be dissolved on 26 November 1939, but the changeover continued until the spring of 1940. Among the reasons were instances of extreme corruption, disorderly behavior and conflicts with other organizations. Members were instructed to join

Gau.[15]

It is difficult to estimate the extent and impact of VS activities, as Polish authorities were not able to properly gather evidence once the invasion started, and much of the German documentation related to those activities did not survive the war.

expulsion of Germans after the war.[12] According to German researcher Dieter Schenk, some 1,701 former members of Selbstschutz who committed mass atrocities were identified in postwar Germany. However, there were only 258 cases of judicial investigations, and 233 of them were cancelled. Only ten Selbstschutz members were ever sentenced by the German courts. This situation was described by Schenk as a "disgrace for the German court system".[17]

References

  1. ^ Richard J. Evans, The Third Reich at War: 1939–1945 (Penguin, 2009).
  2. ISBN 3-486-64564-1
  3. ^ Peter Longerich, Heinrich Himmler: A Life, Oxford University Press, 2012, p. 429.
  4. ISBN 978-1-107-00830-4
    .
  5. ^ Kazimierz Sobczak (1975). Encyklopedia II wojny światowej. Wydawictwo Ministerstwa Obrony Narodowej. p. 420.
  6. ^ Digital version of "Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen" in Śląska Biblioteka Cyfrowa "Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen", hrsg. vom Reichskriminalpolizeiamt, Berlin 1939.
  7. ^ a b c Konrad Ciechanowski, Monografia. KL Stutthof (Auffangslager, Zivilgefangenenlager) (in Polish)
  8. ISBN 978-1-4766-3762-4
    .
  9. ISBN 978-0-14-192581-3
    .
  10. ISBN 978-3639047219
  11. ^ Encyklopedia PWN
  12. ^
    ISBN 978-83-7629-063-8
  13. ISBN 978-3-639-04721-9
  14. ^ a b c The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939-March 1942 Christopher R. Browning University of Nebraska Press 2007 page 33
  15. Browning, Christopher R. (1998) [1992]. "Arrival in Poland" (PDF file, direct download 7.91 MB complete). Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland. Penguin Books. pp. 51, 98, 109, 124. Retrieved May 1, 2013. Also: PDF cache archived by WebCite. {{cite web}}: External link in |quote= (help
    )
  16. ISBN 978-1-00-000809-8
    .
  17. ^ Biuletyn IPN 2003-2004 Nr 12-1(35-36) page 23 Paweł Kosiński, Barbara Polak: "Nie zamierzam podejmować żadnej polemiki – wywiad z prof. Witoldem Kuleszą".

Bibliography

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