Police Battalion 111

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The police battalion 111 was a military unit of the NS- Ordnungspolizei during the Second World War .

history

The police battalion 111 was set up as the first police battalion in military district XI in Hanover from September 1, 1939 and initially housed for training in the barracks on Welfenplatz in Hanover. In December 1939 the police battalion was transferred to Kielce in Poland. Here it replaced the Reserve Police Battalion 101 . On December 13, 1939, it was subordinated to the Radom Police Regiment by the Chief of the Ordnungspolizei in the General Government with police battalions 42, 51, 71, 72, 101, 111, 171 and 181 .

In the Kielce area, the battalion was used for security and training, property protection, patrol duty, searches of houses for weapons and the fight against partisans . Already in this phase it also executed executions under the law . Between March 30 and April 11, 1940, Police Battalion 111 was involved in the break-up of the Hubalczycy partisan unit under the Polish Major Henryk Dobrzański in the Końskie and Kielce districts . The Polish partisans had previously inflicted severe losses on the German occupiers on several occasions, which then retaliated against the Polish civilian population. During the action from the end of March to April 1940, the German police troops raged in 31 Polish villages. 12 villages went up in flames, 5 of which burned down completely. 600 farmsteads were destroyed. Mainly the male civilian population was arrested in the places and later executed on execution sites.

On August 7, 1940, under the pretext that the Jews named by the Jewish Council of Elders would not appear in full for forced labor in Kielce , an operation directed against people of Jewish faith took place with the participation of Police Battalion 111 and numerous other units. In the course of this, according to a report from one of the associations involved, "all Jews and young Jews capable of working in the specifically Jewish quarters of Kielce were arrested and made available to the employment office". The action described was against the background of the establishment of a huge forced labor camp near Belzec in the Lublin district .

On October 5, 1940, Police Battalion 305 from Itzehoe replaced Police Battalion 111 in Kielce. The police battalion 111 was then stationed in Hanover, Magdeburg and Dessau and used for guarding tasks and for pioneering work in armaments factories, especially at the Reichswerke Hermann Göring .

In January 1942, the 111 Police Battalion was relocated to Poland again, this time to the area around Reichshof ( Rzeszów ). The battalion headquarters was in Rzeszów. The 1st Company was in the places Tarnów ( Tarnów ), Gorlice and Nowy Sacz ( Nowy Sacz stationed). The 2nd company was in Reichshof and Jassel , the 3rd company was distributed between Przemyśl and Sanok . The battalion was subordinate to the Krakow Police Regiment . Here, too, the 111 Police Battalion was involved in actions against the Polish and Jewish civilian populations. The files of the Lower Saxony State Archives contain the results of the investigation by the State Criminal Police Office of Lower Saxony , which investigated members of the police battalion after the end of the Second World War. The following testimony is recorded:

“One day in 1942 (?) - presumably on a Saturday - a small Jewish campaign took place on the outskirts of Tarnow, Neu-Sandez or Gorlice. A Jewish boy between the ages of 10 and 12 was discovered in a group of children. I can still hear the boy saying in German: 'I'm an orphan , let me live!' The aforementioned B […] shot the boy in the leg with his carbine. Thereupon the wounded boy ran away as best he could from his leg injury and shouted: 'Let me live; I no longer have a father or a mother! ' Then B. shot him again, so that the boy fell dead. The Polish children had to watch the killing of their playmate. I cannot say whether B [...] acted of his own accord. The child probably died because he was of Jewish descent. B. was of medium height and came from Hanover. I don't want to say any more details today, because the memory of the crime upset me too much. "

In an addition, the Lower Saxony State Criminal Police Office noted: "He [ie the witness] also appears bitter because some of the officers and officials are or were once again employed by the police, although Battalion 111 was significantly involved in unlawful acts." denied the act, the investigation had to be closed.

By order of May 7, 1942 from the General in Command of the Security Forces and Commander of the Rear Army Area Center, Police Battalion 111 was to be sent to Polotsk for Security Brigade 201 . Instead, however, the police battalions 91, 111 and 134 became the I., II. And III. 8th Battalion of the Police Regiment. The battalions were divided into various security divisions . The 2nd Battalion, the previous Police Battalion 111, came to the 403rd Security Division . With this change, the new 2nd Battalion of Police Regiment 8 received its home base in Wiesbaden. The 403rd Security Division was deployed from July 1942 to March 1943 in the rear area of Army Group B , Army Group Don and Army Group South .

This was followed by assignments of the 2nd / Police Regiment 8 in the Kursk area and east of Kharkov . The battalion was disbanded after the loss-making Battle of Stalingrad in March 1943 and the remnants of the crew were brought to Gotenhafen and assigned to various troop units such as the 2nd Battalion of SS Police Regiment 26 or the Himmler Attendant Battalion. The SS Police Regiment 26 was involved in the liquidation of the Jewish ghettos in Bialystok and Glebokie in August 1943 .

Commanders

  • September 1, 1939 to May 4, 1940: Major in the Schutzpolizei Friedrich-Wilhelm Bock
  • May 5, 1940 to?: Major Großmann

Investigations into war crimes

Regarding the investigations against members of the Police Battalion 111 after the end of the Second World War, the Lower Saxony State Archives say the following:

“In the 1960s, the Hanover Public Prosecutor's Office initiated investigations into murder against members of Police Battalion 111, some of whom were again active in the police force in Hanover. The investigations were supported by Special Commission Z at the Lower Saxony State Criminal Police Office, which also carried out the interrogations of the police members who were still to be investigated. The subject of an investigation was mistreatment, shooting of prisoners, mass executions of Jews and the evacuation of Bialystok. In the 1970s, further investigations into the shooting of a Jewish child of a so-called 'Exzesstat' began. "

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Gunnar Bettendorf “The Reserve Police Battalion 111 in Osteinsatz”, in: Hannoversche Geschichtsblätter, Volume 62/2008, publisher: Landeshauptstadt Hannover, p. 105.
  2. ↑ Stefan Klemp: "Not determined." Police battalions and the post-war justice system. A manual ., 2nd edition, Klartext Verlag, Essen 2011, p. 75.
  3. ↑ a b Lower Saxony State Archives, “Obliged to Order…” On the trail of the Hanoverian police between 1918 and 1955, STATION 10: OPERATION IN THE EAST - POLICE Battalion 111, at: http://www.nla.niedersachsen.de/live/live .php? navigation_id = 24757 & article_id = 85827 & _psmand = 187
  4. ^ Robert Seidel "German Occupation Policy in Poland, Radom District 1939–1945", 1st edition, Schöningh Paderborn 2006, p. 190.
  5. ↑ Martin Cüppers “Wegbereiter der Shoah, Die Waffen-SS, the Kommandostab Reichsführer SS and die Judenvernichtung 1939–1945”, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt, 2005, pp. 42–43 and p. 362, note 58: Einsatzbefehl für die Judenaktion , Kielce Police Department, August 7, 1940, BA RS 4/334.
  6. ^ A b Gunnar Bettendorf "The Reserve Police Battalion 111 in Osteinsatz", in: Hannoversche Geschichtsblätter, Volume 62/2008, publisher: Landeshauptstadt Hannover, p. 106.
  7. ↑ profil news magazine from Austria, article under: http://www.profil.at/articles/0338/560/65152/ns-verbrechen-operation-chance
  8. ↑ Lower Saxony State Archives, 'Committed to Order ...' In the footsteps of the Hanoverian police between 1918 and 1955, STATION 10: EINSATZ IM OSTEN - POLIZEIBATAILLON 111, at: http://www.nla.niedersachsen.de/live/live .php? navigation_id = 24757 & article_id = 85827 & _psmand = 187