Police Regiment South
| Police Regiment South | |
|---|---|
| Polizei-Regiment Süd | |
| Active | 1941–1942 |
| Country |  Nazi Germany |
| Role | Rear-area security; participation in the Holocaust |
| Size | Regiment |
| Part of | Orpo units under SS command, reporting directly to Higher SS and Police Leader, South Russia |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders | Hermann Franz |
The Police Regiment South (Polizei-Regiment Süd) was a police formation under the command of the SS of Nazi Germany. During Operation Barbarossa, it was deployed in German-occupied areas of the Soviet Union, in the Army Group South Rear Area. In July 1942 it was redesignated as the 10th Police Regiment.
Alongside the Einsatzgruppen detachments and the 1st SS Infantry Brigade, it perpetrated mass murder in the Holocaust and was responsible for large-scale crimes against humanity against the civilian population. The scope of the regiment's operations were known to the British intelligence since August 1941. However, for reasons of national security, these materials were not released until 1993.
Operational history
Police Regiment South was formed in June 1941 by combining Order Police (Orpo) Battalions 45, 303, and 314 under the command of Hermann Franz, a career policeman who had previously served in the Order Police in the occupied Poland. The regiment was subordinated to Friedrich Jeckeln, the Higher SS and Police Leader (HSS-PF) for Army Group South in Ukraine.[1]
The regiment began executing Jewish women and children in July 1941. On 22 July, Police Battalion 314 killed 214 Jews in a settlement near Kovel, including entire families. Police Regiment 45 murdered the entire Jewish population of Shepetovka while stationed there between 26 July and 1 August. The orders came down from the regimental commander, who had referred to an order from Heinrich Himmler.[2]
During August, the regiment murdered Jews in Slavuta, Kowel and other areas, often killing hundreds of victims per battalion per day. On 25 August, it murdered 1,153 Jews, while on 27 August, it killed 914 more. Later that month, the regiment perpetrated the Kamianets-Podilskyi massacre, alongside Jeckeln's staff company. The staff company performed the shooting, while Police Battalion 320 cordoned off the area. The massacres resulted in the murder of thousands of Jews deported from Hungary and rounded up Ukrainian Jews. Shortly thereafter, Police Battalion 320 reported the shooting of twenty-two hundred Jews at another location north-east of Kamianets-Podilskyi. The overall Einsatzgruppen report for the operation listed a total of 23,000 victims.[1]
In September, Police Battalion 45 participated in the murder of Jews in Berdichev, cordoning off the execution site and leading the victims to the pits where they were shot by Jeckeln's staff company.[3] About 16,000 Jews were killed.[4] During the massacre at Baby Yar, the same police battalion cordoned off the area, while Sondercommando 4a and a platoon of Waffen-SS men did the shooting.[3] Police Battalion 303 participated in the massacre as well.[4]
The killing activities of both the Einsatzgruppen detachments and the Police Regiment South slowed down the farther the Wehrmacht advanced, as more Jews were able to escape east and the density of the pre-war Jewish population was lower in Eastern Ukraine. Nonetheless, the murder operations continued, targeting Jews, communists and "suspicious elements".[5]
In July 1942 the regiment was redesignated as the 10th Police Regiment.[6]
Decrypts by British intelligence
While the activities of the Police Regiment South, the Einsatzgruppen detachment and the 1st SS Brigade, progressed, the reports by the murder squads were being intercepted and decoded by MI6, the British intelligence service. As part of Ultra, British signals intelligence program, the codebreaking facilities at Bletchley Park decoded and analysed the messages. The first message decrypted was the 18 July report on the mass murders by the Police Regiment Centre of over 1,100 Jews at Slonim, in the Army Group Centre Rear Area. In late July and early August, similar reports were intercepted on a regular basis. The first messages mentioning the murders by the Police Regiment South were intercepted on August 23, with Police Battalion 314 reporting executions of 367 Jews south-east of Kiev.[7]
Starting with 27 August, Bletchley Park delivered specially prepared intelligence reports on the activities of the police troops. By these point, the British intelligence had detailed information on the activities of police troops in both Army Group South and Army Group Centre Rear Areas. On 12 September, the German Police changed their cipher; the following day, the SS officials were instructed to stop transmitting the reports over the radio.[8]
Subsequently, the code breaker produced monthly reports detailing the crimes perpetrated by Nazi Germany. For reasons of national security, the Ultra program remained classified after the war and these materials had not been shared with Britain's allies. Thus they were not used during the Nuremberg trials and subsequent investigations of German war crimes and crimes against humanity. The materials were finally released in 1993.[9]
See also
References
- ^ a b Breitman 1998, pp. 63–65.
- ^ Longerich 2010, p. 226.
- ^ a b Breitman 1998, pp. 65–66.
- ^ a b Brandon & Lower 2008, p. 276.
- ^ Brandon & Lower 2008, p. 277.
- ^ Tessin & Kannapin 2000, p. 619.
- ^ Smith 2004, pp. 112–113.
- ^ Smith 2004, pp. 114–115.
- ^ Smith 2004, pp. 116–119.
Bibliography
- Brandon, Ray; Lower, Wendy (2008). The Shoah in Ukraine: History, Testimony, Memorialization. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-35084-8.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help); Unknown parameter|lastauthoramp=ignored (|name-list-style=suggested) (help) - Breitman, Richard (1998). Official Secrets: What the Nazis Planned, What the British and Americans Knew. New York: Hill and Wang/Farrar Straus & Giroux.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Longerich, Peter (2010). Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-280436-5.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Persico, Joseph E. (22 October 2002). Roosevelt's Secret War: FDR and World War II Espionage. Random House. ISBN 0-3757-6126-8.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Smith, Michael (2004). "Bletchley Park and the Holocaust". In Scott, L. V.; Jackson, P. D. (eds.). Understanding Intelligence in the Twenty-First Century: Journeys in Shadows. ISBN 0714655333.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Tessin, Georg; Kannapin, Norbert (2000). Waffen-SS und Ordnungspolizei im Kriegseinsatz 1939 - 1945: ein Überblick anhand der Feldpostübersicht. Osnabrück: Biblio-Verlag. ISBN 3-7648-2471-9.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help); Unknown parameter|lastauthoramp=ignored (|name-list-style=suggested) (help)
Further reading
- Blood, Phillip W. (2006). Hitler's Bandit Hunters: The SS and the Nazi Occupation of Europe. Potomac Books. ISBN 978-1-59797-021-1.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help)