SS and police leaders
SS and Police Leader ( SSPF ) was an influential function within the Schutzstaffel (SS) during the Nazi era . The SS and police leaders were in personal union police and SS officers.
The office and function of the Higher SS and Police Leaders (HSSPF) were introduced by decree of the Reich Ministry of the Interior of November 13, 1937. These should bundle and lead the respective forces of the SS and the police in all military districts. They acted as Himmler's agents and held a great deal of power, especially in the occupied territories in the east.
SS and Police Leader was both the functional designation and the lowest position in the structure of the office.
The first SS and Police Leader was appointed to the General SS Section in 1938 . The purpose was the formation of hierarchies for each SS and police unit, which were only under the command of Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler and Adolf Hitler .
SSPF had a management staff with representatives from all SS organizations, e.g. B. Ordnungspolizei , Gestapo , concentration camp , SS-Totenkopfverbände , security and partly also the weapon SS .
After the start of the war, the following hierarchy was established in the service positions:
- Reichsführer SS and Chief of the German Police (RF Heinrich Himmler)
- Higher SS and police leaders ( HSSPF , HSS-PF , HSSuPF )
- SS and Police Leader (SSPF)
The office of the Higher SS and Police Leader was brought into being before the beginning of the war on November 13, 1937 by a decree of the Reich and Prussian Ministry of the Interior :
"[...] In agreement with the Reich Minister of War and Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht, I therefore order the appointment of a 'Higher SS and Police Leader' in every military district in the event of a mob. The 'higher SS and police leaders' are appointed by the Reichsführer-SS and chief of the German police, who also gives orders about their participation in the mob preparatory work in peacetime. [...] "
As mentioned above, the offices were assigned by appointment . There were mostly geographic responsibilities, which were often identical to the SS upper sections. With the Führer decree on police security of the newly occupied eastern territories of July 17, 1941, police security was transferred to the "Reichsführer SS and Chief of the German Police" (Himmler). In order to carry out police security, there was a higher SS and police leader for each Reich Commissioner, and an SS and police leader for each General , Main and Area Commissioner . In addition, by decree of the Reichsführer SS on May 21, 1941, each commander of a rear army area was assigned a higher SS and police leader. The Einsatzgruppen were led by the SS and Police Leader responsible, but lost their original command structure.
One functional responsibility was, for example, the supervision of ghettos in Poland . They were directly involved in the deportations to extermination camps (with administrative support from the Reich Security Main Office ) (RSHA). Another function was the command of police battalions and SD regiments in combat operations . A motorized police regiment was placed under the command of the SS and police leaders .
The highest SS and Police Leader of the SS Upper Section Italy was from 1942 at the same time special commissioner for police matters with the Italian government.
Many SS and police leaders committed war crimes , especially in Eastern Europe and towards the end of the war . There were 111 SS and police leaders in the Third Reich. 12 of them were killed in fighting. 16 committed, usually at the end of the war, suicide . 15 were sentenced to death and executed after the war. 21 were imprisoned for their crimes after the war.
An alphabetical list of officials can be found on the page List of SS and Police Leaders .
literature
- Ruth Bettina Birn: The Higher SS and Police Leaders. Himmler's representative in the Reich and the occupied territories. Droste, Düsseldorf 1986, ISBN 3-7700-0710-7 .
- Hans Buchheim : The SS - the instrument of rule. In: Hans Buchheim, Martin Broszat , Hans-Adolf Jacobsen, Helmut Krausnick: Anatomy of the SS State. Munich 1967, ISBN 3-423-02915-3 .
- Hans Buchheim: The higher SS and police leaders. In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte . Issue 4, 1963 ( PDF ).
- Joseph Wulf : The Third Reich and its executors . Munich: Saur 1978, ISBN 3-598-04603-0 , p. 232.
- Kurt Mehner (Ed.): The Waffen-SS and Police 1939–1945. From the files of the Federal Archives Koblenz. (Series commanders and troops, Volume 4), K. Patzwall, Norderstedt 1995, ISBN 3-931533-02-6 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Paul Hoser: Schutzstaffel (SS), 1925-1945. In: Historical Lexicon of Bavaria. Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, November 12, 2007, accessed on January 8, 2020 .
- ↑ Hans Buchheim: The SS - the instrument of rule, command and obedience. Munich 1967, p. 113 f.