Ordnungspolizei in the context of "Schutzmannschaft"

The Waffen-SS (German: [ˈvafn̩ʔɛsˌʔɛs]; lit. 'Armed SS') was the combat branch of the Nazi Party's paramilitary Schutzstaffel (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with volunteers and conscripts from both German-occupied Europe and unoccupied lands. With the start of World War II, tactical control was exercised by the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW, "High Command of the Armed Forces"), with some units being subordinated to the Kommandostab Reichsführer-SS (lit. 'Command Staff Reich Leader-SS') directly under Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler's control. It was disbanded in May 1945.

The Waffen-SS grew from three regiments to over 38 divisions during World War II. Combining combat and police functions, it served alongside the German Army (Heer), Ordnungspolizei (Order Police), and other security units. Originally, it was under the control of the SS Führungshauptamt (SS operational command office) beneath Himmler.

The Chełmno trials were a series of consecutive war-crime trials of the Chełmno extermination camp personnel, held in Poland and in Germany following World War II. The cases were decided almost twenty years apart. The first judicial trial of the former SS men – members of the SS-Sonderkommando Kulmhof – took place in 1945 at the District Court in Łódź, Poland. The subsequent four trials, held in Bonn, Germany, began in 1962 and concluded three years later, in 1965 in Cologne.

A number of camp officials, gas-van operators and SS guards, were arraigned before the court on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed at Chełmno (a.k.a. Kulmhof) in occupied Poland in the period between December 1941 and January 1945. The evidence against the accused, including testimonies by surviving witnesses, former prisoners, and mechanics attending to repair needs of the SS, was examined in Poland by Judge Władysław Bednarz of the Łódź District Court (Sąd Okręgowy w Łodzi). Three convicted defendants were sentenced to death, including the camp deputy commandant Oberscharführer Walter Piller (wrongly, Filer); the gas van operator Hauptscharführer Hermann Gielow (Gilow), as well as Bruno Israel from Ordnungspolizei (Order Police), his sentence was later commuted to life. All three were members of the SS Special Detachment Kulmhof responsible for the extermination of Jews and non-Jews during the Holocaust in occupied Poland.

Order Police battalions were battalion-sized militarised units of Nazi Germany's Ordnungspolizei which existed during World War II from 1939 to 1945. They were subordinated to the Schutzstaffel and deployed in areas of German-occupied Europe, specifically the Army Group Rear Area Commands and territories under civilian administration. Alongside the Einsatzgruppen, Waffen-SS and Wehrmacht, these units were involved in perpetrating the Holocaust and were responsible for large-scale crimes against humanity against civilian populations under German occupation.

There were two main Police forces of Nazi Germany under the Reichsführer-SS, Heinrich Himmler from 1936:

• Ordnungspolizei (Orpo; order police) consisting of the regular uniformed police
  • Gemeindepolizei (GemPo; municipal protection police)
  • Schutzpolizei (SchuPo; state protection police)
• Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo; security police) consisting of two sub-departments
  • Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo; secret state police)
  • Kriminalpolizei (Kripo; criminal police)

In September 1939, the SiPo and the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) were folded into the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA; Reich Security Main Office) where they were made separate departments.

Sonderaktion 1005 (German pronunciation: [zɔndɐakt͡sjoːn aɪ̯ntaʊ̯zəntfʏnf], 'Special Action 1005'), also called Aktion 1005 or Enterdungsaktion (German pronunciation: [ɛntɐdʊŋsakt͡sjoːn], 'Exhumation Action'), was a top-secret Nazi operation conducted from June 1942 to late 1944. The goal of the project was to hide or destroy any evidence of the mass murder that had taken place under Operation Reinhard, the attempted (and largelysuccessful) extermination of all Jews in the General Government occupied zone of Poland. Groups of Sonderkommando prisoners, officially called Leichenkommandos ("corpse units"), were forced to exhume mass graves and burn the bodies; inmates were often put in chains to prevent them from escaping.

The project was put in place to destroy evidence of the genocide that had been committed by the Order Police battalions and Einsatzgruppen, the German death squads who murdered millions, including more than one million Jews, Roma and Slavs. The Aktion was overseen by selected squads of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) and the uniformed Order Police.

Jürgen Stroop (born Josef Stroop, 26 September 1895 – 6 March 1952) was a German SS commander and perpetrator of the Holocaust during the Nazi era, who served as SS and Police Leader in occupied Poland and Greece from 1942-1943 (in Poland) and 1943-1944 (in Greece). He held the rank of SS-Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Polizei from 1942-1945 (equivalent to a Heer Generalleutnant/Lt-Gen in the Wehrmacht). He led the suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943 with German Troops consisted of Heer Troops including Waffen-SS and the Order Police battalions and wrote the Stroop Report, a twelve-page account of the operation annexed with many original documents and pictures. Following the defeat of Germany, Stroop was prosecuted during the Dachau Trials and convicted of murdering nine U.S. prisoners of war. After his extradition to Poland, Stroop was tried, convicted, and executed for crimes against humanity.

Latvian Auxiliary Police was a paramilitary force created from Latvian volunteers and conscripts by the Nazi German authorities who occupied the country in June/July 1941. It was part of the Schutzmannschaft (Shuma), native police forces organized by the Germans in occupied territories and subordinated to the Order Police (Ordnungspolizei; Orpo). Some units of the Latvian auxiliary police were involved in the Holocaust.

In addition to regular stationary police (patrolmen in cities and towns), 30 police battalions were formed. These mobile groups carried out guard duties of strategic objects or building fortifications, participated in anti-partisan operations and fought on the Eastern Front.

The Ukrainian Auxiliary Police (German: Ukrainische Hilfspolizei; Ukrainian: Українська допоміжна поліція, romanized: Ukrainska dopomizhna politsiia) was the official title of the local police formation (a type of hilfspolizei) set up by Nazi Germany during World War II in Eastern Galicia and Reichskommissariat Ukraine, shortly after the German occupation of the Western Ukrainian SSR in Operation Barbarossa.

The Ukrainian Auxiliary Police was created by Heinrich Himmler in mid-August 1941 and put under the control of German Ordnungspolizei within General Government. The actual Reichskommissariat Ukraine was formed officially on 20 August 1941. The uniformed force was composed in large part of the former members of the Ukrainian People's Militia created by the Banderite faction of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN-B) in June. There were two categories of German-controlled Ukrainian armed organisations. The first comprised mobile police units most often called Schutzmannschaft, or Schuma, organized on the battalion level and which engaged in the murder of Jews and in security warfare in most areas of Ukraine. It was subordinated directly to the German Commander of the Order Police for the area.