Police Battalion 304

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The police battalion 304 was a military unit of the NS- Ordnungspolizei during the Second World War . The battalion was actively involved in the Holocaust . It is responsible for the murder of around 17,000 people.

history

With the circular issued by the Reichsführer SS and Chief of the German Police , Heinrich Himmler , on October 11, 1939, 26,000 unused conscripts and members of older age groups were to be recruited as police recruits to ensure the need for police forces in the areas occupied by the Wehrmacht . A total of 38 police training battalions were created for training purposes, in which the recruits were accepted separately according to age group. The recruits of the later police battalions 301 to 325 came from the older age groups 1909 to 1912. They were referred to as so-called "Wachtmeister battalions". The leading positions in the battalions were mostly occupied by professional police officers who trained the recruits. The recruits were promised exemption from military service and rapid promotion opportunities.

The Police Battalion 304 was formed on September 16, 1940 from the Police Training Battalion “Chemnitz”, which had been set up in Chemnitz since the beginning of 1940 and initially relocated to Warsaw as the 2nd Battalion of the Warsaw Police Regiment .

In October and November 1940, the battalion took deportations of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto before. From November 1940 to July 1941, the unit was responsible for guarding the Warsaw ghetto alongside the 301 police battalions from Bochum and 308 from Duisburg .

In Cracow in January 1941 a "course" was held for parts of the 304 Police Battalion, during which the members of the battalion were taught how to kill by shooting in the neck. 75 Jews died in this action.

With the attack on the Soviet Union , the battalion was moved to Ukraine, where it left a trail of blood: From August 21, 1941 to September 5, 1941, a massacre of Jews took place in Starokostjantyniw in western Ukraine, killing 500. On September 5, 1941, further executions followed in Vinnytsia , in which 2,200 Jews were killed. Then on September 13, 1941, the battalion's troops appeared in Ladyschyn , where they murdered 486 civilians. Three days later, on September 16, 1941, the German police forces raged in Gaisin , where they executed around 4,000 Jews. In the Uman area , the battalion killed 450 Jews from September 17 to 20, 1941. On September 30, 1941, another 4,000 Jews in Kirovograd fell victim to the police force. On October 5, 1941, the battalion killed another 350 people. 6,000 Jews were murdered in Sukhoyarka near Belaya Tserkov on October 8, 1941. On October 14, 1941, 20 prisoners were executed in Snamenka . At the end of 1941, 100 Soviet prisoners of war and communists fell victim to the police battalion in Kiev .

In the spring of 1942 to the summer of 1942, the battalion was deployed at the front. It was also subordinate to the " Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler ". After that inserts followed west of Kiev and in the Pripet Marshes at Skorodnoje in space Yel'sk today Gomel Region .

In 1942, Police Battalion 304 was initially subordinated to Police Regiment, e.g. V. in the rear of Army Group South , and was finally renamed as I. Battalion of Police Regiment 11 . The II. Battalion of Police Regiment 11 was made up of Police Battalion 315 and the III. formed from the police battalion 320.

Commanders

  • September 16, 1940 until unknown: Kurt Deckert

War crimes convictions

After the end of the Second World War, Soviet military tribunals (SMT) sentenced 90 members of Police Battalion 304 to death in the GDR . Almost all of them were executed.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stefan Klemp: "Not determined". Police Battalions and the Post War Justice. A manual . 2nd edition, Klartext Verlag, Essen 2011, ISBN 978-3-8375-0663-1 , p. 250.
  2. ↑ Torsten Schäfer: “In any case, I also took part in the shooting”. The NSG proceedings against Johann Josef Kuhr and other former members of Police Battalion 306, Police Rider Department 2 and the SD Office of Pinsk at the Frankfurt am Main Regional Court 1962–1973. A text analytical case study on the history of mentality . Lit, Hamburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-8258-0604-0 , p. 59 f.
  3. ↑ Stefan Klemp: “Not determined” , op. Cit., P. 247.
  4. ↑ Stefan Klemp: “Not determined” , op.cit., P. 247/250.
  5. ↑ Stefan Klemp: “Not determined” , op.cit., P. 251.
  6. ↑ CF Rüter, DW de Mildt: GDR justice and Nazi crimes. The East German trials for Nazi homicide crimes . In: Justice and Nazi crimes. The German criminal proceedings for National Socialist homicides . Institute for Criminal Law of the University of Amsterdam Proceedings 1002, 1012, 1017, 1020, 1029 against members of the Police Battalion 304 ( Memento of the original from April 24, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www1.jur.uva.nl
  7. ↑ Andreas Weigelt: Judgments of Soviet military tribunals against members of the police battalion 304 Chemnitz. An unknown chapter in the judicial NS process . In: Andreas Weigelt, Klaus-Dieter Müller, Thomas Schaarschmidt, Mike Schmeitzner (eds.): Death sentences of Soviet military tribunals against Germans (1944–1947). A historical-biographical study . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2015, ISBN 978-3-525-36968-5 , pp. 103–158.