Ukrainian Auxiliary Police
Encyclopedia
The Ukrainische Hilfspolizei (Ukrainian Auxiliary Police Constabulary) was a German mobile police force that operated in the General Government
beginning on July 27, 1941. The total number enlisted numbered slightly more than 35,000. 6,000 of them - including 120 low-level officers - served in the District of Galicia. In Reichskommissariat Ukraine
auxiliary police were named Schutzmannschaft
.
The name of the unit reflected its geographic jurisdiction rather than the ethnic makeup of recruits. The makeup of the officer corps
were often representative of various nationalities. Professor Wendy Lower from Towson University
writes that as the largest population under German occupation rule, Ukrainians outnumbered other non-Germans in the auxiliary police forces; the Volksdeutsche Germans
from Ukraine meanwhile were given leadership roles.
Many of those who joined the ranks of the police had served as militiamen under Soviet rule since 1939. Tadeusz Piotrowski
claims the majority of the police was made from members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
-B, while Ivan Patryljak claims that the German authorities expressly forbade drafting known nationalists. Nonetheless, the ethnic composition of Auxiliary Police reflected the demographics of the land and included Russians
, Poles
, and Volksdeutsche Germans drafted from the local population and from Soviet POWs.
The auxiliary police were directly under the command of the Germanic-SS
, Einsatzgruppen
, and military administration. The units were used primarily to keep order among the civilian population and carry out normal constabulary duties. Their actions were restricted by other police groups such as the Sonderdienst, made up of Volksdeutsche
; the Kripo (Criminal police); Bahnschutz (railroad and transport police); and the Werkschutz, who kept order and guarded industrial plants. They were supported by the Ukrainian Protection Police and the Ukrainian Order Police.
In Galicia, Ukrainian and Polish
auxiliary police units were under the command of Ordnungspolizei
(ORPO) in Kraków
. A special Ukrainian command for the auxiliary police did not exist. The highest ranked Ukrainian auxiliary police officer only rose to the rank of major - V. Pituley, who became a district commandant (Major der Ukrainische Polizei und Kommandeur) in Lemberg (now Lviv). A police school was established in Lviv by the district SS and Police leader in order to meet plans for growth. The school director was Ivan Kozak.
writes that Ukrainian Auxiliary Police were the major perpetrator of Holocaust on Soviet territories based on native origins, and those police units participated in the extermination of 150.000 Jews in the area of Volhynia
alone German historian Dieter Pohl in The Shoah in Ukraine: History, Testimony, Memorialization writes that the auxiliary police was active during killing operations of Germans in the first phases of the German occupation.The auxiliary policy registered Jews, conducted raids and guarded ghettos, loaded convoys to execution sites and cordoned them off; around 300 auxiliary policemen from Kiev helped organize the massacre in Babi Yar
.
They also took part in the massacre in Dnipropetrovsk
, where the field command noted that the cooperation ran "smoothly in every way"; cases where local commandants ordered murder of Jews using the policy are known. In killings of Jews in Kryvy Rih the "entire Ukrainian auxiliary police" was put to use.
, located in Volhynia
. After the crime the village was burned down. On December 16, 1942, the Ukrainian policemen, led by Germans, killed 360 Poles in Jezierce (former powiat
Rivne
).
In Lviv
, in late February and March 1944, the Ukrainische Hilfspolizei arrested a number of young men of Polish nationality. Many of them were later found dead and their Identity document
s stolen. The Government Delegation for Poland started negotiations with the OUN-B
. When they failed, Kedyw
began an action called "Nieszpory" (Vespers) where 11 policemen were shot in retaliation and the murders of young Poles in Lviv stopped.
Bandera
's OUN leadership on March 20, 1943 issued secret instructions ordering their members who had joined the German auxiliary police to desert with their weapons and join with the "military detachment of OUN (SD)" units in Volyn. The number of trained and armed policemen who in spring 1943 joined the ranks of the future Ukrainian Insurgent Army were estimated to be 10 thousand. This process in some places involved engaging in armed conflict with German forces as they tried to prevent desertion.
General Government
The General Government was an area of Second Republic of Poland under Nazi German rule during World War II; designated as a separate region of the Third Reich between 1939–1945...
beginning on July 27, 1941. The total number enlisted numbered slightly more than 35,000. 6,000 of them - including 120 low-level officers - served in the District of Galicia. In Reichskommissariat Ukraine
Reichskommissariat Ukraine
Reichskommissariat Ukraine , literally "Reich Commissariat of Ukraine", was the civilian occupation regime of much of German-occupied Ukraine during World War II. Between September 1941 and March 1944, the Reichskommissariat was administered by Reichskommissar Erich Koch as a colony...
auxiliary police were named Schutzmannschaft
Schutzmannschaft
Schutzmannschaft or Hilfspolizei were the collaborationist auxiliary police battalions of native policemen in occupied countries in East, which were created to fight the resistance during World War II mostly in the Eastern European countries occupied by Nazi Germany. Hilfspolizei refers also to...
.
The name of the unit reflected its geographic jurisdiction rather than the ethnic makeup of recruits. The makeup of the officer corps
Corps
A corps is either a large formation, or an administrative grouping of troops within an armed force with a common function such as Artillery or Signals representing an arm of service...
were often representative of various nationalities. Professor Wendy Lower from Towson University
Towson University
Towson University, often referred to as TU or simply Towson for short, is a public university located in Towson in Baltimore County, Maryland, U.S...
writes that as the largest population under German occupation rule, Ukrainians outnumbered other non-Germans in the auxiliary police forces; the Volksdeutsche Germans
Volksdeutsche
Volksdeutsche - "German in terms of people/folk" -, defined ethnically, is a historical term from the 20th century. The words volk and volkische conveyed in Nazi thinking the meanings of "folk" and "race" while adding the sense of superior civilization and blood...
from Ukraine meanwhile were given leadership roles.
Many of those who joined the ranks of the police had served as militiamen under Soviet rule since 1939. Tadeusz Piotrowski
Tadeusz Piotrowski (sociologist)
Tadeusz Piotrowski or Thaddeus Piotrowski is a Polish-American sociologist. He is a Professor of Sociology in the Social Science Division of the University of New Hampshire at Manchester in Manchester, New Hampshire, where he lives....
claims the majority of the police was made from members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists is a Ukrainian political organization which as a movement originally was created in 1929 in Western Ukraine . The OUN accepted violence as an acceptable tool in the fight against foreign and domestic enemies particularly Poland and Russia...
-B, while Ivan Patryljak claims that the German authorities expressly forbade drafting known nationalists. Nonetheless, the ethnic composition of Auxiliary Police reflected the demographics of the land and included Russians
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
, Poles
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
, and Volksdeutsche Germans drafted from the local population and from Soviet POWs.
The auxiliary police were directly under the command of the Germanic-SS
Germanic-SS
The Germanic SS was the collective name given to SS groups which arose in Occupied Europe between 1939 and 1945.The units were modeled on the Allgemeine-SS in Nazi Germany...
, Einsatzgruppen
Einsatzgruppen
Einsatzgruppen were SS paramilitary death squads that were responsible for mass killings, typically by shooting, of Jews in particular, but also significant numbers of other population groups and political categories...
, and military administration. The units were used primarily to keep order among the civilian population and carry out normal constabulary duties. Their actions were restricted by other police groups such as the Sonderdienst, made up of Volksdeutsche
Volksdeutsche
Volksdeutsche - "German in terms of people/folk" -, defined ethnically, is a historical term from the 20th century. The words volk and volkische conveyed in Nazi thinking the meanings of "folk" and "race" while adding the sense of superior civilization and blood...
; the Kripo (Criminal police); Bahnschutz (railroad and transport police); and the Werkschutz, who kept order and guarded industrial plants. They were supported by the Ukrainian Protection Police and the Ukrainian Order Police.
In Galicia, Ukrainian and Polish
Blue Police
The Blue Police, more correctly translated as The Navy-Blue Police was the popular name of the collaborationist police in the German occupied area of the Second Polish Republic, known as General Government during the Second World War...
auxiliary police units were under the command of Ordnungspolizei
Ordnungspolizei
The Ordnungspolizei or Orpo were the uniformed regular police force in Nazi Germany between 1936 and 1945. It was increasingly absorbed into the Nazi police system. Owing to their green uniforms, they were also referred to as Grüne Polizei...
(ORPO) in Kraków
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
. A special Ukrainian command for the auxiliary police did not exist. The highest ranked Ukrainian auxiliary police officer only rose to the rank of major - V. Pituley, who became a district commandant (Major der Ukrainische Polizei und Kommandeur) in Lemberg (now Lviv). A police school was established in Lviv by the district SS and Police leader in order to meet plans for growth. The school director was Ivan Kozak.
Participation in Holocaust and Nazi atrocities
Professor Alexander Statiev of the Canadian University of WaterlooUniversity of Waterloo
The University of Waterloo is a comprehensive public university in the city of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The school was founded in 1957 by Drs. Gerry Hagey and Ira G. Needles, and has since grown to an institution of more than 30,000 students, faculty, and staff...
writes that Ukrainian Auxiliary Police were the major perpetrator of Holocaust on Soviet territories based on native origins, and those police units participated in the extermination of 150.000 Jews in the area of Volhynia
Volhynia
Volhynia, Volynia, or Volyn is a historic region in western Ukraine located between the rivers Prypiat and Southern Bug River, to the north of Galicia and Podolia; the region is named for the former city of Volyn or Velyn, said to have been located on the Southern Bug River, whose name may come...
alone German historian Dieter Pohl in The Shoah in Ukraine: History, Testimony, Memorialization writes that the auxiliary police was active during killing operations of Germans in the first phases of the German occupation.The auxiliary policy registered Jews, conducted raids and guarded ghettos, loaded convoys to execution sites and cordoned them off; around 300 auxiliary policemen from Kiev helped organize the massacre in Babi Yar
Babi Yar
Babi Yar is a ravine in the Ukrainian capital Kiev and a site of a series of massacres carried out by the Nazis during their campaign against the Soviet Union. The most notorious and the best documented of these massacres took place on September 29–30, 1941, wherein 33,771 Jews were killed in a...
.
They also took part in the massacre in Dnipropetrovsk
Dnipropetrovsk
Dnipropetrovsk or Dnepropetrovsk formerly Yekaterinoslav is Ukraine's third largest city with one million inhabitants. It is located southeast of Ukraine's capital Kiev on the Dnieper River, in the south-central region of the country...
, where the field command noted that the cooperation ran "smoothly in every way"; cases where local commandants ordered murder of Jews using the policy are known. In killings of Jews in Kryvy Rih the "entire Ukrainian auxiliary police" was put to use.
Persecution of Poles
On November 13, 1942, members of the Ukrainische Hilfspolizei robbed and executed 32 Poles and 1 Jew in the village of ObórkiObórki
Obórki may refer to the following places:*Obórki, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship *Obórki, Piaseczno County in Masovian Voivodeship *Obórki, Przasnysz County in Masovian Voivodeship...
, located in Volhynia
Volhynia
Volhynia, Volynia, or Volyn is a historic region in western Ukraine located between the rivers Prypiat and Southern Bug River, to the north of Galicia and Podolia; the region is named for the former city of Volyn or Velyn, said to have been located on the Southern Bug River, whose name may come...
. After the crime the village was burned down. On December 16, 1942, the Ukrainian policemen, led by Germans, killed 360 Poles in Jezierce (former powiat
Powiat
A powiat is the second-level unit of local government and administration in Poland, equivalent to a county, district or prefecture in other countries. The term powiat is most often translated into English as "county", although other terms are also sometimes used...
Rivne
Rivne
Rivne or Rovno is a historic city in western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Rivne Oblast , as well as the administrative center of the surrounding Rivne Raion within the oblast...
).
In Lviv
Lviv
Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...
, in late February and March 1944, the Ukrainische Hilfspolizei arrested a number of young men of Polish nationality. Many of them were later found dead and their Identity document
Identity document
An identity document is any document which may be used to verify aspects of a person's personal identity. If issued in the form of a small, mostly standard-sized card, it is usually called an identity card...
s stolen. The Government Delegation for Poland started negotiations with the OUN-B
Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists is a Ukrainian political organization which as a movement originally was created in 1929 in Western Ukraine . The OUN accepted violence as an acceptable tool in the fight against foreign and domestic enemies particularly Poland and Russia...
. When they failed, Kedyw
Kedyw
Kedyw , was an underground movement - Armia Krajowa organization during World War II, which specialized in active and passive sabotage, propaganda and armed action against Nazi German forces and collaborators.-Operations:...
began an action called "Nieszpory" (Vespers) where 11 policemen were shot in retaliation and the murders of young Poles in Lviv stopped.
Role in the Ukrainian Insurgent Army formation
For many who joined the police force, enlistment served as an opportunity to receive military training and direct access to weapons.Bandera
Bandera
Bandera carries the following meanings:* Spanish for Flag*for the city in Texas see: Bandera, Texas*for the city in Argentina see: Bandera *for the Ukrainian nationalist see: Stepan Bandera...
's OUN leadership on March 20, 1943 issued secret instructions ordering their members who had joined the German auxiliary police to desert with their weapons and join with the "military detachment of OUN (SD)" units in Volyn. The number of trained and armed policemen who in spring 1943 joined the ranks of the future Ukrainian Insurgent Army were estimated to be 10 thousand. This process in some places involved engaging in armed conflict with German forces as they tried to prevent desertion.
See also
- 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Galicia (1st Ukrainian)
- Collaboration with the Axis Powers during World War II
- Foreign relations of the Axis of World War II#Ukraine
- Holocaust in PolandHolocaust in PolandThe Holocaust, also known as haShoah , was a genocide officially sanctioned and executed by the Third Reich during World War II. It took the lives of three million Polish Jews, destroying an entire civilization. Only a small percentage survived or managed to escape beyond the reach of the Nazis...
- Holocaust in UkraineHolocaust in UkraineThe Holocaust in Ukraine refers to the Nazi crimes during the Occupation of Ukraine by Nazi Germany. Between 1941 and 1945 the Holocaust in Ukraine killed approximately 3,000,000 Ukrainian victims as part of Nazi extermination policies, along with between 850,000 - 900,000 Jews who lived in the...
- Responsibility for the HolocaustResponsibility for the HolocaustHistorians differ as to where the responsibility for the Holocaust lies. Intentionalist historians such as Lucy Dawidowicz argue that Adolf Hitler planned the extermination of the Jewish people from as early as 1918, and that he personally oversaw its execution...
- Ukrainian-German collaboration during World War IIUkrainian-German collaboration during World War IIDuring the military occupation of Ukraine by Nazi Germany, a number of Ukrainians initially chose to cooperate with the Nazis. Their reasons included the hopes of independence from the Soviet Union and past maltreatment by Soviet authorities....
- Bohdan KoziyBohdan KoziyBohdan Koziy was a Ukrainian war criminal and member of the Ukrainische Hilfspolizei .-Wartime activities:...