HIPO Corps
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| HIPO Corps | |
|---|---|
| Active | 1944-45 |
| Country | Denmark |
| Allegiance | Nazi Germany |
| Branch | Auxiliary police |
| Role | Helping the Gestapo fighting the Danish resistance movement |
The HIPO Corps (danish: HIPO korps) was a Danish auxiliary police corps, established in 1944 by the German Gestapo when the Danish police was disbanded and most of the regular policemen on September 19, 1944 were arrested and sent to concentration camps in Germany. Most members were recruited among Danish collaborators. The word HIPO is an abbreviation of the German word Hilfspolizei.
The purpose of HIPO was to help the Gestapo as an auxiliary police unit. HIPO was organized under and quite similar to the Gestapo. Some men were uniformed to be visible and some civil dressed working in secrecy. HIPO as well as Gestapo had their informers. The major difference was that Gestapo was Germans working in enemy country. In the HIPO Corps were only Danes and thereby enemies to their own countrymen. The uniformed men wore a black uniform with the Danish police insignia.
During the last winter HIPO members killed, tortured, blew up houses, factories and even Tivoli in Copenhagen ordered by Adolf Hitler personally and the Nazi occupation forces.
After the war 2-300 HIPO members were sentenced to death for brutality, killings and torture of their own countrymen. 46 of these got executed in the years 1946-50 by firing squadrons of the Danish police.
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