Ordungspolizei (ORPO) – German Order Police (1936-1942)

The Ordnungspolizei (Order Police or Orpo) served as a primary force for the security of Nazi Germany. In the 1930s, Heinrich Himmler, leader of the SS, and Kurt Daluege, commander-in-chief of the Order Police, completely restructured the police force of the Weimar Republic into several robust militarized units.

The German Ordungspolizei (ORPO)

Members of the newly established police force were fully prepared to execute any directives issued by the Nazis, including the persecution of Jews and anyone considered inferior by the dictatorship. In 1938, police units were involved in the annexation of Austria and the occupation of Czechoslovakia. A year later, when Germany invaded Poland, the function of the police underwent a permanent transformation.

Law enforcement teams were dispatched in conjunction with the German military, notably the specialized Einsatzgruppen (killing squads). In Poland, the Order Police were converted into militarized police battalions and engaged in combat operations, which involved executing security responsibilities behind enemy lines. The police battalions, often in collaboration with the Wehrmacht, Waffen-SS, and Einsatzgruppen, participated in the methodical extermination of Poles and Jews.

Subsequent to the conquest of Poland, the Nazi leadership initiated an extensive recruitment campaign, conscripting over 95,000 men in their thirties. A further 26,000 young men were recruited, indoctrinated into Nazi philosophy, and readied for combat.
The new recruits would participate not only in military operations but also play a crucial role in the Holocaust, responsible for mass executions and overseeing certain Jewish ghettos. They would also help destroy the ghettos and move Jews to death camps. In the summer of 1941, these police troops participated in the mass executions at Babi Yar, Rumbula, and Stanislaviv. However, post-war, numerous Order Policemen asserted that they had never participated in Nazi atrocities.

Introduction to Terror

In June 1936, Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, was officially appointed chief of the German police, subsequently reorganizing the existing uniformed law enforcement organization into the Ordnungspolizei. The primary office was managed by SS officers. The German police were divided into the newly established Order Police and the Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo, or Security Police), instituted in June 1936.

The Orpo managed its police units for standard uniformed law enforcement, while the SiPo functioned as a clandestine state police force, referred to as the Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo), which encompassed the criminal investigative police known as the Kriminalpolizei or Kripo.

In the late 1930s, the Orpo expanded significantly and remained under Himmler's direct authority from the Hauptamt Ordnungspolizei central command office in Berlin. The office, directed by Chief of the Order Police Kurt Daluege, was tasked with mobilizing the Orpo for wartime operations in the summer of 1939. Himmler sought to transform units of the Orpo into military formations, with personnel educated and equipped by the principal police offices throughout Germany. The Orpo were organized into Polizei battalions, each consisting of approximately 500 men equipped with light infantry weaponry.

Instead of participating in frontline combat, these police battalions often accompanied the advancing Wehrmacht forces into enemy territory to carry out more nefarious operations. Despite the numerous policemen continuing to perform their standard responsibilities, such as traffic management, order maintenance, and crime prevention, their role as a conventional police force was on the verge of transformation. Every individual was to undergo Nazification and agree with the principles of the Nazi regime to enable the police to execute their new responsibilities in the East.

For the Orpo personnel to execute such threatening responsibilities in Poland, Himmler explicitly instructed Daluege during their training that his police force must be militarized. He asserted the necessity of Nazifying the Order Police. This strategy necessitated unwavering and total loyalty, coupled with a fervent animosity for the enemy. This encompassed the study of state adversaries and the men's indoctrination into SS ideology and notions of racial superiority. Himmler believed that these intellectual doctrines would produce individuals who fervently embraced the new Aryan order.

A significant number of recruits and reservists, frequently youthful and zealous Nazis, received training and leadership from seasoned Order Policemen. The police units mainly consisted of young recruits in their twenties who preferred not to serve in the military, aspiring instead to establish a career within the police force. Himmler perceived this as an optimal opportunity and assumed that the new recruits would be vulnerable to anti-Semitic propaganda. He believed that once these recruits were indoctrinated in their conviction of the Aryan order, which encompassed the principal fascist ideologies of enslavement, extermination, and ethnic persecution, they would be prepared to police the occupied rear lands without remorse. This would encompass anti-Jewish violence.

The training was less rigorous than that of the military, and while recruits and reservists engaged in standard police duties, the primary emphasis of their education was on Nazi philosophy and battle preparation. All the men were instructed to exhibit specific animosity towards the Jews. The trainees often listened while their superiors audaciously lectured on whoever they deemed the most formidable adversaries of National Socialism. They directed the police to be primarily violent towards the Jews and to employ any necessary force.

As of August 1939, the Orpo consisted of 17 battalions, totaling roughly 8,500 personnel. Administratively, they remained under Police Chief Daluege's direction; however, operationally, they were directly governed by regional SS and police officials, all of whom reported to SS chief Himmler through a distinct line of command. In operations against Poland, the SS intended to deploy police battalions for multiple functions, including auxiliary roles in anti-partisan activities to help advancing soldiers in the rear areas of the occupied lands.

Some battalions were assigned conventional security duties as an occupying force, while others received direct orders to engage in more egregious actions, including operating independently and in coordination with the Einsatzgruppen, the special task forces that followed the German armies and perpetrated mass shootings and gassings. The task forces were established from an ad hoc Einsatzkommando and were tasked with securing government edifices and papers. Initially, these Einsatzkommando units were components of the Sicherheitspolizei. Alongside other battalions of the Orpo, they would play a crucial role in genocide on an unparalleled scale.

The Ordungspolizei in Poland

On 1 September 1939, the Germans initiated their invasion of Poland under Directive No. 1, codenamed “Fall Weiss” (Case White). As the Luftwaffe targeted essential Polish bridges alongside urban centers throughout Poland, the Wehrmacht engaged the Polish army with two army groups: Army Group North, comprising the Fourth and Third armies, and Army Group South, consisting of the Eighth, Tenth, and Fourteenth armies. The German army's offensive was rapid; the speedy and destructive blitzkrieg had started.

Himmler's military faction, the SS-VT (subsequently known as the Waffen-SS), entered combat for the first time in collaboration with the Wehrmacht. Nevertheless, a more formidable force was subsequently deployed to the rear regions of Poland, namely the SS Death's Head units, or SS-Totenkopfverbände, under the infamous leadership of Theodor Eicke. Three regiments were deployed: SS Oberbayern, Brandenburg, and Thüringen. The soldiers were the Einsatzgruppen SS paramilitary murder squads.

To facilitate the ground invasion of Poland, the Order Police received explicit directives for several battalions to engage in operations in the rear to oversee and quell local resistance. The "Jewish question in the occupied territory" was communicated to the heads of all police and Einsatzgruppen, who received implicit directives to apprehend all Jewish individuals in Poland for the purpose of confining them in holding areas designated for ghettos. In actuality, the preparations were more brutal than merely apprehending individuals deemed unfavorable to the Reich.

The objective of the police and the Einsatzgruppen in Poland was to eliminate members of the Polish leadership. This includes intellectuals, educators, clergy, and nobility. Lists of those designated for execution in Poland were compiled using dossiers gathered by the SD. This list comprised individuals from Polish society, including Jews, prostitutes, Romani individuals, and the mentally ill. The Einsatzgruppen, along with auxiliary personnel, SS, and police battalions, were assigned not to utilize their military capabilities but to instill terror in the civilian population through actions such as pursuing isolated Polish soldiers, seizing livestock and agricultural goods, and torturing and executing numerous Polish political leaders, businessmen, priests, intellectuals, and Jews.

Upon deployment to the rear areas, these forces swiftly acquired notoriety and within days commenced the systematic extermination of the Poles through torture and murder. By the conclusion of the campaign in Poland, it was believed that approximately 531 towns and villages had been incinerated.

To safeguard the rear areas, the police battalions would be incorporated into these brutal operations. Police Battalion I/1, established in early September 1939 and comprising regular policemen and reservists, was instructed to be deployed to the rear areas of Poland, where the German 14th Army was active. Upon the battalion's arrival in southern Silesia, German forces had already consolidated extensive regions of seized territory. The unit was ordered to impose severe measures on the Jewish population and compel their expulsion from the nation. Upon the police's arrival in multiple towns and villages, they executed several individuals, made numerous arrests, and incinerated several synagogues. They were directed to hold anyone thought to be a partisan after Kraków, Tarnów, and Przemysl were taken. The subsequent events involved the shootings of Jews and Poles who showed resistance to the invading German army.

During these brutal acts, Police Battalion II/1 accompanied the Einsatzgruppen in the Katowice/Kattowitz region of the German 14th Army, perpetrating brutality against both Jewish and Polish populations. Police Battalion III/1 was instructed to stabilize the vicinity surrounding the town of Oświęcim (which subsequently became Auschwitz). It conducted multiple actions, including reconnaissance patrols with the 13th Armored Company. These forces traversed the countryside and conducted summary executions in local Jewish communities.

This involved the shooting of women and children, the incineration of synagogues, and the coercion of frightened Jewish individuals to escape across the Polish border. Several additional police battalions participated in the indiscriminate killings of Jews and Poles in the rear zones. These included Police Battalions IV/1, V/1, and I/2, which functioned in the rear zones of the German 10th Army. Police Battalion II/2 was tasked with apprehending Polish prisoners of war, gathering abandoned Polish military spoils, and securing the detainees. Nonetheless, it also participated in executing a retaliatory massacre of several hundred Polish individuals in response to what it deemed "the murder of German soldiers."

Police Battalion III/2 was another police unit involved in the apprehension of Polish POWs within the German 10th Army sector. It participated in a sequence of executions of Polish prisoners, including apprehended Polish soldiers. Nevertheless, several police officers, particularly among the senior ranks, declined to participate in these homicides.

Police Battalions IV/2 and V/2 functioned in the Oppeln area, embracing the areas of Czestochowa, Radomski, Piotrków Trybunalski, Końskie, and Tomaszów Mazowiecki. The battalion was instructed to secure Polish army prisoners of war.

The Police Battalion I/3 was instructed to eliminate the remaining elements of the Polish Army in the Łódź region. Nonetheless, it also conducted numerous executions and repressive measures.

The Poznań Police Battalion I/4 was directed to apprehend Polish army stragglers who had not capitulated and execute those classified as “plunderers, snipers, and outlaws.”

Police Battalion I/5 functioned in the northern region of the country, trailing behind the German 4th Army. It conducted several reconnaissance missions and investigated the region for Polish army stragglers.

Police Battalion I/6 was positioned at the rear of the German 3rd Army and was involved in intense combat to the northwest of Warsaw, specifically in the regions of Grudziadz and Mława. It was established in early September from a coalition of Berlin battalions, and its primary function during operations was to safeguard the rear of the 3rd Army as it advanced southward.

Within the operational area of the 3rd Army were the Police Battalions II/6 and III/6, which conducted operations to the northwest of Warsaw. They were instructed to safeguard the rear of the advancing 3rd Army.

In the northern area of the new Gau of Danzig-Westpreussen, Police Battalion 1, which was set up in Berlin, stayed alert in the city to protect government buildings from being taken over by Wehrmacht and SS-Heimwehr Danzig forces, the latter being an SS unit formed in the Free City of Danzig.

Police Battalion 2 was deployed north of Warsaw and aided in the suppression of enemy forces, including Jews, during the capture of the Polish capital.

Police Battalions 3 and 4 operated concurrently in the rear zone of the German 3rd Army. They were personally implicated in the expulsion of Poles and Jews, pursuing them across the Soviet border.

Police Battalion 5 was concurrently conducting operations and apprehending inmates in the Kraków region, while Police Battalion 6 executed several actions between 11 and 12 September, detaining approximately 900 Poles and executing an additional 120 on-site. Hans Gabel, who subsequently joined Einsatzgruppe D during the 1941 conflict in Russia, commanded a series of mandated actions that involved the expulsion and execution of Polish intelligentsia in the town of Bydgoszcz. Days afterward, Gabel proclaimed the town as “judenfrei” (free of Jews).

Ghettos - Transporting and Cleansing Actions by the ORPO

Subsequent to the annexation of Poland, a period of largely unchecked terror ensued. This involved a sequence of operations featuring multiple police battalions aiding the Einsatzgruppen in extensive purging activities throughout the nation. Before the end of 1939, this period of terror in Pomerania resulted in the murder of approximately 40,000 Poles, including children.

The Nazis were resolute in their intent to exterminate as many individuals as possible and to prepare the remaining Jews for deportation via train to detention facilities, extermination camps, and ghettos. To prevent any future insurrection against Germany, the Germans intended to destroy, partition, and repopulate Poland. What followed in Poland were plans drawn up facilitating the movement of vast numbers of people destined for what would initially be known as the General Government of the Occupied Polish Region. It comprised the Polish province of Lublin and portions of the provinces of Warsaw and Kraków. Thousands of individuals were essentially abandoned in this region and were perceived by the Nazi regime as adversaries of the State.

Many of those who were resettled in the General Government region were frequently carried on foot, and it was typically the Orpo that were responsible for policing and accompanying these vast numbers of people. They were assigned various security responsibilities, including traffic law enforcement and road safety management. These were frequently regulated by the mechanized gendarmerie.

By February 1940, the substantial challenge of simultaneously relocating Poles and Jews had evolved into an administrative ordeal, leading to the conclusion that Jews should be compelled to reside in ghettos. This would not only alleviate the strain of the resettlement effort, but it would also serve as a means of temporarily mitigating the escalating Jewish issue. The Nazis fostered animosity and dread towards the Jews, rendering their isolation in ghettos easily feasible.

The General Government region, with a population of around 11 million, was designated as the repository for all undesirables and individuals considered enemies of the state. Thousands of Poles and Jews were forcibly relocated to the General Government region, where the initial ghettos would be established. The Germans regarded these ghettos solely as a temporary strategy to manage and isolate Jews, while the Nazi leadership in Berlin considered several methods for their elimination.

The Order Police would play a crucial role in the resettlement program of Jews in Poland and collaborate with other German occupation forces in the Nazi persecution of Jews and Poles. The "ghettoization action" of Polish Jews in the General Government region was orchestrated and led by Hans Frank, appointed Chief of Administration for the German military administration in occupied Poland. He assumed the role of governor-general of the annexed Polish territories. His primary responsibility was supervising the General Government region, and he facilitated and orchestrated the segregation of the Jews and their "ghettoization."

Frank's strategy involved displacing Polish Jews from their residences and enterprises through enforced expulsions. Entire Jewish communities were to be forcibly relocated to designated zones isolated from their original locales by various Order Police battalions. The battalions were given clear orders to attack the local people in the General Government area and to remove Poles from the Reichsgau Wartheland as part of the new Lebensraum policies, which aimed to expand German territory. They were instructed to employ severe measures to comply with these policies and to perpetrate any atrocities deemed necessary against the Jewish population under the guise of "resettlement actions." During the initial phase of the conflict, there were two categories of ghettos.

The first type was an open ghetto lacking walls or fences, while the second was a closed or sealed ghetto, typically encircled by brick walls, fences, or barbed wire strung between posts. Jews were prohibited from residing in any other regions under the threat of punishment or death. To prohibit unlawful interaction between the Jewish and non-Jewish populations in the cities and towns, German Order Police battalions were deployed to police the boundaries of these new ghettos. Each ghetto established a Jewish Ghetto Police unit to prevent any prisoners from attempting to escape.

The Reserve Police Battalion 101 was assigned the responsibility of implementing security measures. In early summer 1940, the battalion, primarily consisting of regular policemen, was redeployed to the Łódź region with the objective of apprehending Poles who had evaded evacuation. It was later responsible for the “surveillance of ghettos.” Its major function as Reserve-Polizei Bataillon Ghetto was to patrol the perimeters of the Jewish ghettos, while internal security was undertaken by the SS, SD, and the criminal police in collaboration with the Jewish ghetto administration. Nonetheless, its responsibilities surpassed conventional security standards, involving acts of brutality and shootings against individuals being transferred to the ghettos as well as those already dwelling there.

In April and May 1941, the battalion returned to Hamburg and experienced a comprehensive reorganization. The men subsequently executed tasks assisting local police units in escorting trainloads of Jews from Hamburg destined for ghettos throughout Eastern Europe. A report from 24 October 1941 indicates that there were 16 Ordnungspolizei personnel escorting the trains for every 1,000 Jews deported during these operations.

In June 1942, Police Battalion 101, with 11 officers and 491 personnel of diverse ranks, returned to Poland, where it participated in several atrocities and deaths. It was assigned security responsibilities, actively escorting Jews during “ghetto cleaning operations” in support of the SS during Aktion Reinhardt. This action entailed the liquidation of the ghettos inside the General Government region and the deportation of Jews to three extermination camps specifically established for mass murder: Treblinka, Sobibor, and Belzec.

The police battalion, accompanied by members of the Jewish police and the Sonderdienst battalion of Ukrainian Trawnikis, supported by regular SS soldiers, was instructed to enter the ghettos and promptly commence the roundup of Jews with the purpose of liquidating the ghettos. The liquidation method involved the Jews being either marched out of the ghetto or loaded onto waiting vehicles for transportation directly to the camps or by railway livestock or freight wagons to their destination.

The purging of the camps was frequently executed in a cruel manner. Police often assaulted and humiliated Jews in public spaces. They would then be expelled from the ghetto and conveyed to their destiny, frequently to the "Reinhardt Camps." The Czestochowa Ghetto, for example, witnessed the expulsion of most of its 40,000 residents onto trains under the pretense of resettlement, transported directly to the Treblinka death camp and executed. In the Międzyrzec Ghetto, around 11,000 to 12,000 Jews were apprehended by German Order Police battalions and then sent to Treblinka. Approximately 5,000 Jews from the Minsk Ghetto were compelled to leave their deplorable living circumstances and board freight trains destined for Treblinka.

During some ghetto cleaning operations, police officers were instructed to execute the Jews rather than send them to the extermination camps. Numerous individuals were killed in this way. Approximately 4,500 Jews from the Izbica Ghetto were forcibly marched out and executed before being buried in mass graves by police battalions and the SS. Nearly 6,000 Jews were expelled from the Lida Ghetto and transported to a neighboring military firing range, where they were executed and interred in mass graves. In the summer of 1942, the Nowogródek Ghetto was dissolved, commencing with the execution of members of the “Judenrat” (Jewish council), who were either shot or hanged.

Subsequently, around 1,200 Jews were expelled from the town and compelled to march to the Kurpiesze Forest, where they were executed and interred in hurriedly dug trenches. On 6 August 1942, the concluding phase of the ghetto's elimination occurred, marked by an additional atrocity. Approximately 2,000 to 3,000 Jews were killed and interred in mass graves at the Jewish cemetery on the southern periphery of Zdzięcioł.

The liquidation process in numerous ghettos was executed in phases to ensure the efficient removal of Jews by the German authority. In the summer of 1942, most residents of the Końskowola Ghetto were gathered and deported to the Sobibor extermination camp. The complete liquidation of the ghetto inhabitants occurred in October 1942. Nevertheless, the surviving Jews would not be conveyed to their demise. Reserve Police Battalion 101 executed a massacre of around 800 to 1,000 Jews, including women and children. The terrified residents were transported to a nearby forest and executed. The remaining Jews of the ghetto were relocated to another camp. In the summer of 1942, around 4,500 Jews were either executed or deported to the Belzec extermination camp in the Buczacz Ghetto.

By mid-1943, the eradication of the ghettos in the General Government region was nearly finished, and the extermination camps were receiving several final transports by early summer. The police battalions were instrumental in facilitating the transportation of Jewish individuals to their demise. They had indiscriminately executed men, women, and children during their purging operations. Individuals not dispatched to work camps or extermination facilities were executed en masse at remote killing locations. By the conclusion of the war, almost 3 million Jews had perished in occupied Poland due to the actions of the Nazis. The creation of the ghettos in Poland was essential in the Holocaust. The police battalions were unequivocally engaged in the Nazi efforts to purge the majority of the ghettos and transport numerous innocent men, women, and children to their demise.

The Ordungspolizei in Russia (1941–42)

On 22 June 1941, as the Nazi war machine initiated its assault on the Soviet Union, the Jewish problem intensified significantly. Four Einsatzgruppen were sent into the rear territories to address these issues while the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS progressed through the Baltic States and engaged retreating Red Army soldiers.

The units were categorized as A, B, C, and D, operating under the authority of the senior SS police commanders within their respective operational zones. The initial three groups were affiliated with Army Groups North, Center, and South, while Group D was designated for the 11th Army in Crimea. Their objectives were "cleansing and security operations," and their deployment in the East would provide the villages and towns they traversed with an appropriate introduction to the nature of Nazi governance.

Several Order Police battalions were dispatched to Russia to function both autonomously and in collaboration with the Einsatzgruppen. On 11 June 1941, an order from the OKH mandated the deployment of police units integrated with security divisions. While it specified that the police would be designated for anti-partisan duties and the escort of prisoners of war, it was also to assume a more nefarious role in operations, similar to its actions in Poland.

This involved instilling fear among the civilian populace by actions such as pursuing isolated Russian soldiers, seizing cattle and agricultural goods, and inflicting torture and murder upon numerous Polish political figures, businesspeople, clergy, intellectuals, and Jews. Immediately before the invasion, the police units were informed that the conflict in Russia would not be a conventional battle but rather an "ideological war of extermination." The Nazis perceived the Soviet Union as the epicenter of Bolshevism and international Jewry, which they deemed necessary to eradicate and annihilate.

A multitude of police battalions was deployed to the East to implement various forms of what were classified as “security measures.” Police Battalion 105 was deployed to the Baltic States and conducted rear cleaning operations in Latvia alongside the Einsatzgruppen. It subsequently progressed into Estonia, entering Russian territory after engaging with Wehrmacht soldiers. It stayed at Gdov on the eastern bank of Lake Peipus for almost three weeks. Afterward, the battalion conducted several anti-partisan operations, which included executing and lynching Russian individuals. The battalion engaged in action and suffered significant casualties as the year progressed and Russian defenses strengthened. The military situation in the Ljuban region was precarious, and the battalion continued to fight through the winter and into the spring.

The Police Battalion No. 321 was designated to operate in the Baltic States. It was relocated to Kaunas, Lithuania, where it conducted "pacification actions" in conjunction with the Einsatzgruppen during June and early July 1941. These acts pertained to local offenders freed from incarceration, as well as patriotic and anti-Semitic factions. Approximately 4,000 Jews were murdered either in the city streets or led to adjacent open pits and ditches for execution.

Subsequent to the Kaunas pogrom, the brigade progressed across the Baltics and reached Russian territory. In the Soviet Union, the battalion conducted various security missions but was forced to assist the SS-Totenkopf Division near the city of Demjansk owing to intense combat. It subsequently became ensnared within a substantial Russian encirclement alongside the whole II Army Corps from 8 February to April 1942.

In May of that year, Police Battalion 111 was deployed to central Russia, where it was instructed to perform security duties and assist operations conducted by the Security Police (Sicherheitspolizei or SiPo). In the Vitebsk region, the battalion, accompanied by security police troops, executed several lethal operations against Russian partisans.

During this period, Police Battalion 112 was dispatched from the Netherlands to northern Russia, where it functioned in the rear region of the German 18th Army starting in June 1942. Police Battalion 121 was also transferred to northern Russia. It was flown from Vichy France in January 1942, where it engaged in combat in the Leningrad region. The unit was subsequently disbanded in the summer and integrated into the SS-Polizei Division at Kolpino.

In October 1939, the SS established this division by conscripting numerous members of the Order Police to augment its personnel. At that time, these individuals were not formally registered in the SS but theoretically maintained their status as policemen, preserving their police rank structure and insignia.

Additional police battalions functioned in Russia, including Battalion No. 122, which engaged in anti-partisan operations during the spring and summer of 1942. Police Battalion 131 was directed to support the Einsatzgruppen near Suwałki, serving as a reserve battalion. It was directly implicated in the massacre of Jews in Belarus during June and July of 1941.

In the Eastern provinces of the Soviet Union, police battalions accompanying the Einsatzgruppen traversed extensive regions, conducting searches and executing numerous members of Soviet and Jewish populations as they progressed. The Order Police received assistance from local police units and auxiliaries in several massacres. A significant number of the deaths, particularly in Ukraine and Belarus, were executed by Ukrainians and Belarusians under the command of German troops.

Multiple police battalions, notably No. 133, were implicated in murders, specifically the extermination of Jews and partisans in Kołomyja, Deliatin, Jaremcze, and Drohobycz. Between October 1941 and the summer of 1942, it is estimated that around 15,000 people were exterminated by this specific battalion alone. Furthermore, it escorted approximately 8,000 deportees to their demise at the Belzec detention camp.

Additional battalions also perpetrated several heinous massacres. Police Battalion 303 was one of six battalions that functioned in Ukraine during the early phases of the Soviet Union's invasion. It was involved not only in eliminating Soviet pockets of resistance but also in conducting security operations against the surrounding populace, which included executing partisans and destroying farmsteads. It participated in the Chudniv massacre in early September 1941, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of Jews, and collaborated with Einsatzkommando units in operations that led to widespread slaughter in and around Zhitomir.

The meticulousness and savagery of these "cleansing actions" were both violent and merciless. Police Battalion 303, in conjunction with the Einsatzgruppen, executed numerous operations in the rear areas aimed at the Jewish population, with Babi Yar being one of the most gruesome killings of the war involving Police Battalion 303. From 29 to 30 September 1941, about 33,000 Jews were executed at Babi Yar, which thereafter continued to function as an execution ground for Romani individuals and Soviet prisoners of war in the following months.

The killings continued at Babi Yar as police battalions pursued partisans and Soviet army stragglers. Their killing spree was abruptly interrupted by the arrival of winter behind Army Group South. Several police officers were awarded medals for their "pacification activities" and recognized for their alleged "heroism."

In 1942, additional police battalions were assigned 'special missions' on the Eastern Front, encompassing various responsibilities, primarily execution operations and securing rear areas. Nonetheless, units such as Police Battalion 305 were dispatched to the Leningrad Front, where they integrated into a front-line combat division. The primary objective was to bolster I Army Corps in the Puschkino-Krasnoye Selo region, designated as Polizei-Kampfgruppe Jeckeln.

Additional police battalions, including No. 324, were dispatched to the Leningrad Front to assist the Polizei Division engaged in combat along the front lines. The personnel were outfitted with divisional uniforms. Nonetheless, its tenure as a battalion in Russia was brief, culminating in its disbandment in the autumn of 1941. Several additional police battalions were dispatched to Russia for the aim of performing "police duties" or as military reinforcements.

Police Battalion 306 was deployed to the Soviet Union on the Leningrad Front. It had previously participated in numerous atrocious acts in Poland, including the execution of Jews with Police Battalion 307 in the vicinity of Biała Podlaska and the assassination of former Polish officials. It was also assigned responsibilities, including evacuations and arrests, and it was instructed to execute Polish peasants who were delinquent in their rural tax payments. Currently, Police Battalion 306 in Russia has been designated as "military reinforcement." Police Battalion 307 persisted in its operations in the Brest-Litovsk region, where the entire battalion committed mass atrocities. It additionally facilitated actions in conjunction with Einsatzkommando 8.

German Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS units seized an increasing expanse of land as hostilities escalated in the Soviet Union's core territories. This led to significant surrenders by the Red Army. This resulted in logistical and organizational challenges for the German authorities in managing the PoWs. Numerous PoW camps were established, and captives who survived starvation were frequently dispatched to labor or concentration camps throughout the Nazi regime.

Police Battalion 308, along with numerous other police units, was instructed to escort thousands of Soviet prisoners of war and conduct mass executions. This unit had already participated in several acts of genocide. It encompassed suppression in the Warsaw Ghetto, involving reprisals against both Poles and Jews. It served as the primary armed escort for the death trains bound for the concentration and extermination camps of Auschwitz, Buchenwald, and Ravensbrück.

Although the systematic execution of Russian prisoners of war was perceived as essential to alleviate the increasing strain of their confinement in camps, Himmler sought to move hundreds of thousands to labor camps to exploit them to death for the German war effort. Consequently, many police battalions escorted the prisoners of war to trains bound for labor or concentration camps.

The German authorities in Russia faced the escalating issue of partisans. As early as the summer of 1941, this emerged as a significant worry. Consequently, police battalions were assigned the responsibility of ensuring road security to maintain the accessibility of major motorways for military vehicles progressing eastward.

Police Battalion 309 was one of the police battalions designated for road security. It accompanied the progression of the 2nd Panzer Army towards Orel during its offensive on Moscow. The settlement of Yefremov participated in a partisan operation. The unit persisted in road security operations and partisan activities until May 1942. Additional security measures to counter political attacks were also instituted, including railway protection.

Police Battalion 310 was assigned the responsibility of securing both roadways and railways. It functioned in Poland in 1940 and had previously executed purported Polish partisans. In early August 1941, it was relocated to Galicia, where it undertook guard duties, civil protection, road security, anti-airborne patrols, air-raid protection, and anti-smuggling operations for the subsequent six months. Its responsibilities included eliminating Russian stragglers, providing armed escorts for freight transports, overseeing and executing Soviet prisoners of war, and conducting raids in the Lwów (present-day Lviv) Ghetto, which involved seizures and arrests.

Police Battalion 311 also functioned in and around Lwów, where it participated in mopping-up operations and the death of several Jews. The unit was formally tasked with anti-partisan actions. Police Battalion 316 was another unit tasked with anti-partisan operations. It was additionally mandated to eliminate Soviet stragglers. Numerous commanders valued the successful mopping-up operations, and they even honored certain policemen with medals and other commendations. The battalion subsequently operated in the metropolitan region of Mogilev, where it, in conjunction with Police Battalion 322, was accountable for the killings in the local Jewish ghetto. Subsequently, in 1941, it was assigned road security responsibilities along the freeway connecting Orsha and Smolensk.

Police Battalion 317 was also active in the Orsha region, participating in both security and anti-partisan operations, supported by Police Battalions 309 and 131. The officers were once more honored with awards for their operations, which involved the execution of Jews accused of purportedly aiding partisan activities against the German authority. The police battalions were allocated to the Wehrmacht security divisions until July 1942.

As security operations persisted relentlessly, additional police battalions engaged in different purging activities, including multiple mass killings. Police Battalion 318 participated in the killing of Jews and communists during the latter half of 1941. In the summer of 1942, it was repositioned east of the Dnieper River, where it initiated a "pacification drive" against bandits and paratroopers in a forested region south of Nowoja-Bassan, commencing on July 4 and 5. Police Battalion 319 was also active in Ukraine. Despite its cleansing operations being conducted on a somewhat lesser scale than Police Battalion 318, its activities in the Ukrainian heartlands were considered effective, resulting in successful pacification.

One police squad, specifically Police Battalion 320, was accountable for the murders of around 45,000 individuals. It traversed the Soviet border in mid-August 1941, advancing eastward to the towns and cities of Przemyśl, Lwów, and Tarnopol. The battalion's mission was designated for "special employment," and from its inception, it consistently participated in genocidal acts against Jewish villages.

The police forces executed a series of extensive massacres in Stara Konstantinova, Kamianets Podilskyi, Minkovsky, Zwianczyk, and Sokolek. Those who evaded the massacre were pursued and executed. In February 1942, the police battalion was assigned anti-partisan responsibilities and then relocated south along the Mius River at Taganrog, behind the 1st Panzer Army.

Police Battalion No. 322 was assigned to anti-partisan activities. In June 1941, as it progressed through Russian territory, it conducted roadblock operations, patrols, and residential searches in and around the city of Bialystok. Orders were also issued for the significant diminution of the Jewish community of Bialystok, located in the adjacent Pietrasze forest.

Subsequent to the massacre of around 5,000 Jews in the forest, the battalion was reassigned to Białowieża to execute an evacuation directive for a substantial wooded region desired by Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring for his hunting lodge. The whole local populace was relocated to other regions. The battalion was subsequently relocated to Minsk, where it was tasked with executing an operation against the ghetto. The Jews were expelled from their deplorable living conditions, and several were killed throughout the process. In October, the battalion received orders to ruthlessly "eliminate" the Mogilev Ghetto.

Police Battalion 323 operated first in the Bialystok region, alongside Police Battalion 322. Its primary objective, however, was "pacification/resettlement actions," which entailed the expulsion of the indigenous populace from numerous villages and hamlets between July and October 1941. It participated in the protection of the Bialystok Ghetto and in mopping-up operations from July 1941 to May 1942.

By the summer of 1942, the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS had traversed extensive regions of the Eastern provinces of the Soviet Union. In their wake, Einsatzgruppen, police battalions, auxiliaries, and local law enforcement traversed the countryside, conducting searches and systematically exterminating several Soviet and Jewish villages. German officers commanded compatriots who carried out a significant number of the murders, particularly in Ukraine and Belarus.

Nevertheless, despite the successful operations, the atrocities diminished until the extensive liquidation of the ghettos commenced throughout Europe and the Eastern regions. By the summer of 1942, as subsequent military developments hindered the German war effort on the Eastern Front, some police battalions were disbanded and reconstituted into Waffen-SS divisions or SS police regiments. From 1942 to 1943, thirty SS police regiments were established from the existing Order Police. Numerous regiments were established for security operations in occupied Europe.

Other Areas of Operations of the Ordnungspolizei (1939–42)

The police battalions were extensively deployed throughout the Reich, assisting Wehrmacht, Waffen-SS, and Einsatzgruppen units in the Baltics and the Soviet Union, as well as in occupied territories, including regions annexed by the Nazis. The Order Police were involved in the annexation of Austria and the occupation of the Sudetenland in 1938. By 1939, the Order Police numbered around 100,000.

A significant police presence was observed throughout the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The Czech territories were largely seized by Nazi Germany, a status established in March 1939. The protectorate was ostensibly an autonomous state; however, it operated under a dual system of governance. German legislation was applicable to ethnic Germans, while other inhabitants held the legal status of the Protectorate, which was administered by a puppet Czech government.

Police battalions within the Protectorate were frequently designated based on their respective districts of deployment. The Police Battalion Prague was located in the Czech capital, Prague. It commenced operations in the city in October 1939 but was relocated to Poland in December of that year. By the summer of 1941, a portion of the battalion was relocated to Russia, while the remaining companies continued operations in Prague.

On 10 June 1942, it participated in the retaliatory operation at Lidice subsequent to the assassination of Reichsprotektor Reinhard Heydrich. The retaliatory response resulted in the total annihilation of the settlement, the murder of 173 male residents, and the deportation of women to Ravensbrück and children to Łódź.

In the weeks subsequent to Heydrich's death, the Order Police initiated a repressive campaign by executing severe actions against the residents of Prague. The Reich deployed a multitude of companies from various police administrations to Bohemia and Moravia. This operation, termed a "mopping-up" action, engaged approximately 2,630 policemen and 84 officers in the towns and cities of Dresden, Vienna, Breslau, Berlin, Potsdam, Troppau, Waldenburg, Würzburg, and Leipzig, which were allocated to the local garrisons of Brunn, Iglau, Holleschau, and Mährisch-Ostrau. A total of twenty-two companies were activated in response to Heydrich's assassination. Each police unit was instructed to enforce German authority over the Protectorate and to execute a campaign of terror in retaliation for the killing of the Reichsprotektor.

Following the assault on Heydrich, martial law was instituted, resulting in extensive arrests as individuals were apprehended by the police and sent to the Gestapo headquarters in Prague, where they were subjected to torture and execution. Numerous individuals were also dispatched to detention camps. In the days immediately subsequent to the incident, the SS issued 247 death sentences.

The Czech population of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia experienced an intensified period of tyranny. Law enforcement units were instructed to conduct house searches, establish random roadblocks, and perform surveillance on suspected anti-Nazis or individuals designated by German authorities as adversaries of the Reich. The individuals primarily consisted of those suspected of participating in the resistance movement, communists, and members of the Jewish community.

In 1941, about 90,000 Jews resided in Bohemia and Moravia, the majority of whom were subsequently deported to extermination camps. Several police units were tasked with escorting the Jews to transit facilities, where they were loaded onto overloaded freight cars and dispatched further east.

In the southwestern region of Prague, within the districts of Pilzen and Klattau, Jewish communities faced persecution and public humiliation at the hands of the Order Police. The Police Battalion Klattau functioned in both Pilzen and Klattau from March to October 1939 before being recalled to Germany and subsequently disbanded. In early 1941, after its reformation, it was relocated to Pilzen. The battalion would assist local police units, although its effectiveness was diminished due to being dispersed over a rather extensive area. Nevertheless, by the spring of 1942, the battalion was expanded to encompass the areas of Tabor and Budweis.

In other regions, the Protectorate Order Police troops persisted in their operations. The town of Jung-Bunzlau in northeastern Bohemia was among the oldest Jewish communities. The Police Battalion Jung-Bunzlau was stationed here. Subsequent to the establishment of the Protectorate, the rights and liberties of the Jewish residents of the town and adjacent areas were swiftly restricted. The oppression of the Jews swiftly escalated into a systematic anti-Jewish strategy, which involved the Order Police threatening and persecuting them from March to October 1939. Later that year, the unit was recalled to Germany and was initially partially disbanded, followed by complete disbandment.

In eastern Bohemia, additional Order Police units persisted in patrolling extensive regions that encompassed Jewish villages. The municipalities of Pardubitz and Königgrätz were administered by Police Battalion Pardubitz from fall 1939 to summer 1942. In April 1942, it was disbanded and incorporated into the Reserve Police Battalion Kolin, situated in Bohemia, and designated as reinforcements for the police battalion garrisons in Jung-Bunzlau, Kolin, Königgrätz, and Pardubitz after the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich.

In the weeks subsequent to Heydrich's demise, Kolin was assigned specific responsibilities, including executing death sentences imposed by the SS and conducting retaliatory operations against individuals and towns suspected of involvement in the killing of the Reichsprotektor. Between 3 June and 9 July 1942, a total of 173 executions were conducted. The murders also occurred in the hamlet of Ležáky, which was annihilated in a comparable operation against the village of Lidice.

In southern Bohemia, numerous local district police and auxiliaries received support from Police Battalion Tabor. It encompassed regions of the town of Tabor and was expanded to incorporate Budweis. The battalion functioned from March to October 1939 before being relocated to Prague. By April 1942, it was dissolved and incorporated into the Reserve Police Battalion Klattau.

To the east in Bohemia was Police Battalion Iglau. From March to October 1939, a distinct police unit operated until its relocation to Poland in 1941. In April 1942, it was relocated to Norway, disbanded, and integrated into the Reserve Police Battalion Holleschau.

Police Battalion Brunn was stationed approximately 100 miles east of Iglau in the town of Brunn. The battalion operated from March to October 1939, and in the summer of 1941, they relocated a portion to Iglau. One company relocated to Slovenia, while a year later, another company was transferred to Russia and subsequently dissolved.

A police battalion, referred to as the Police Battalion Holleschau, was stationed in the ancient town of Holleschau in Moravia. It functioned from March to October 1939 and was ultimately dissolved by April 1941.

The Order Police stationed themselves in many other conquered nations, in addition to Bohemia and Moravia. Various police agencies recruited and trained a number of Volksdeutsche (ethnic Germans) after the Baltic States incorporated them in June 1941. These were referred to as the Ostland police. The training of the police volunteers was overseen by the Waffen-SS. The recruits were dispatched to Berlin for training, and by July 1941, approximately 400 Estonians and Estonian Volksdeutsche had been gathered.

Approximately 200 Latvians and Latvian Volksdeutsche were enlisted under the direction of Hauptmann August Hanner. The police units in Estonia and Latvia were ethnically segregated to eliminate any ambiguity. By August 1941, they were ultimately organized into the Police Reserve Battalion Ostland. The brigade primarily consisted of Estonian and Latvian police but also included regular German police officers.

These individuals underwent rigorous and prolonged training, and the battalion's deployment to the Soviet Union did not occur until October 1941. Its operational area encompassed Ukraine, reaching Lwów on October 10 before proceeding to the country. The Ostland police battalion was short-lived, as the Latvian company integrated into Police Battalion 320 and the Estonian Police Battalion 304.

From 1939 to 1942, across the Reich, occupied territories, and military operational zones where German forces were engaged, numerous police battalions were either dissolved or integrated into other police formations. Despite these ongoing alterations, the Order Police continued to perform various duties, including guard responsibilities, civil protection, road security, aerial patrols, air-raid defense, anti-smuggling operations, black-market enforcement, apprehending Russian stragglers, providing armed escorts for freight transport, safeguarding individuals and property, conducting deportations and arrests, and general law enforcement in the occupied territories linked to the Einsatzgruppen and German military units; some were later reassigned to the newly established 4th SS-Polizei Panzer Division.

The Order Police were stationed in numerous countries, including France, Norway, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Yugoslavia, Croatia, and Slovenia, where they conducted anti-partisan operations.

During the initial phase of the war, the SS and police operated as distinct organizations; however, by the summer of 1942, amid the ongoing conflict on the Eastern Front, it was determined that the Order Police would gradually be integrated into the Waffen-SS or transformed into new SS Police Regiments. The new SS units executed comparable functions to the Order Police; however, they were frequently better equipped. Their responsibilities encompassed security, anti-partisan operations, and assisting Waffen-SS forces on the Eastern Front. Distinct police units continued to function in all theaters; however, these were military police of the Wehrmacht and were entirely independent from the responsibilities undertaken by the Order Police.

By 1943, the distinction between the SS and the Order Police had nearly vanished. SS officers then commenced commanding police troops, while police generals overseeing soldiers were granted equivalent SS ranks within the Waffen-SS.

Ordnungspolizei Battalions (1939 to 1942)

The Order Police battalions were military units of battalion size operated by the Ordnungspolizei from 1939 until 1942. They were subordinate to the SS and stationed in regions of German-occupied Europe; furthermore, they functioned in the rear areas of Wehrmacht, Waffen-SS, and Einsatzgruppen operations. They were accountable for various crimes, facilitating military operations in the rear and exterminating thousands of Jews and others deemed adversaries of the Nazi regime.

Police Battalions in Poland (September 1939)

Police Battalion I/1, Police Battalion II/, Police Battalion III/1, Police Battalion IV/1, Police Battalion V/1, Police Battalion I/2, Police Battalion II/2, Police Battalion III/3, Police Battalion IV/2, Police Battalion V/2, Police Battalion I/3, Police Battalion I/4, Police Battalion I/5, Police Battalion I/6, Police Battalion II/6, Police Battalion III/6, and Police Battalion IV/6 1–2.

Regular Police Battalions (October 1939 to July 1942)

Police Battalions 1 to 14, Police Battalions 21 to 23, Police Battalions 25 and 26, Police Battalions 31 to 33, Police Battalions 41 to 45, Police Battalions 51 to 56, Police Battalions 61 to 74, Police Battalions 81 to 85, Police Battalions 207 to 210, Police Battalions 251 to 256, and Police Battalions 301 to 325.

Regular Police Battalions in the Protectorate (October 1939 to July 1942)

Police Battalion Prague, Police Battalion Klattau, Police Battalion Jung-Bunzlau, Police Battalion Pardubitz, Police Battalion Kolin, Police Battalion Tabor, Police Battalion Iglau, Police Battalion Brunn, Police Battalion Holleschau, Police Battalion Ostland, and Reserve Police Battalion Leipzig.

 

 

Ordnungspolizei after the War

Police battalions tasked with direct killing operations were responsible for at least one million homicides. Commencing in 1941, the regional Order Police units assisted the transportation of Jews from ghettos in Poland, the USSR, and other occupied European areas to concentration and extermination camps; they also conducted operations to identify and eliminate Jews outside the ghettos. The Einsatzgruppen predominantly enlisted individuals from the Order Police and the Waffen-SS.

The Order Police, in contrast to the SS, had not been classified as a criminal organization by the Allies, enabling its members to reintegrate into society with minimal obstruction, many of whom resumed police careers in Austria and West Germany. This omission is particularly unexpected given the availability of information, including confidential radio intercepts and analyses conducted by British military intelligence throughout the conflict. A British intelligence assessment of the German police in April 1945 characterized the police battalions as among of the most ideologically indoctrinated, fanatical, and violent German field troops. Their involvement in punitive acts has rendered them a source of terror in Norway, Poland, Yugoslavia, Greece, Czechoslovakia, and Italy.

Subsequent investigations in the 1950s and 1960s disclosed that numerous individuals who served as police officers in the East and engaged in the heinous crimes detailed in preceding chapters resumed their roles as policemen in the Federal Republic of Germany and Austria. Given that these individuals were conscripted from particular cities and regions during the conflict and subsequently continued their roles in law enforcement, it is plausible to infer that many maintained communication and collaborated in fabricating alibis as their transgressions were revealed in the postwar era.

Their role in German law enforcement enabled them to obtain information from acquaintances regarding potential investigations, and their familiarity with the legal system rendered them acutely aware of the regulations governing evidence and testimony. This is particularly apparent in the numerous interviews performed by state prosecutors, when individuals repeatedly assert ignorance regarding any murders or only acknowledge having "heard about such things." Nevertheless, when faced with wartime accounts or allegations from witnesses, several acknowledged having "witnessed" acts of genocide, and a few even confessed to involvement.

What is notable about these investigations is the paucity of former policemen who supplied the impetus or initial information to initiate inquiries into their previous units. Individuals who had perpetrated the murder of men, women, and children, or who had witnessed such acts regularly, somehow maintained the ability to rationalize their actions or those of their associates’ decades post-conflict. These guys not only liberated themselves from emotions of shame or guilt, but some also succeeded in mythologizing their wartime service.