Police Battalion 306

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The police battalion 306 was a military unit of the NS- Ordnungspolizei during the Second World War . The battalion was actively involved in the Holocaust . It is particularly responsible for the massacre of 6,780 prisoners of war, communists and Jews in the main camps 307 in Husinka near Biała Podlaska and 325 in Zamosch ( Zamość ) in September and November 1941. Members of the battalion were also involved in the murder of more than 26,200 Jews Involved in clearing the Ghetto in Pinsk in late October and early November 1942.

history

With the circular issued by the Reichsführer SS and Chief of the German Police , Heinrich Himmler , on October 11, 1939, 26,000 unserved conscripts and members of older age groups were to be recruited as police recruits to meet 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 from 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 306 was formed on October 3, 1940 from the police training battalion "Frankfurt / Main" in the Gutleut barracks in Frankfurt am Main . At that time the battalion was transferred to Lublin . There it was assigned to the Lublin Police Regiment under the regiment commander Colonel Walter Griphan as a staff battalion.

Jews were murdered in the first months of the battalion's deployment in the Lublin area. According to an order, the police officers had to shoot Jews at every opportunity.

In the course of 1941 the battalion was used to deport Jews from Lublin to the Auschwitz concentration camp . In addition, it had to carry out the “fight against bandits and smuggling” and the “quota collection”. The victims were Polish peasants who were executed. In addition, the battalion burned down numerous courtyards during these actions. Jews who were found trading with the peasants were also killed. Finally, the battalion also took part in "resettlement campaigns" in which Polish farmers were driven from their estates in order to be able to settle Germans. In addition to individual acts, there was an increasing number of group shootings, which killed 10–12 Jews outside Lublin, then another 15 and 8 Jews.

From September 21 to 28, 1941, the 2nd Company and the Cavalry Division of the battalion were deployed to shoot 6,000 Soviet prisoners of war from the main camp 307 in Husinka. In November 1941 another 780 prisoners of war from the main camp 325 in Zamosch followed. On February 10, 1942, the battalion launched a retaliatory action against the Polish civilian population in the area around Lubartów after a German police officer was found killed. At least 20 people, including women, were murdered.

On February 19, 1942, the battalion was moved to the front near Leningrad and deployed under the Jeckeln combat group . The battalion was used to fight alleged partisans. 33,000 people fell victim to the deployment of police regiments 2, 10, 11, 13, 14 and 15, which also included police battalion 306.

In July 1942, the Police Battalion 306 was renamed the 2nd Battalion of Police Regiment 15 . Even after it was renamed, the battalion left a trail of blood. On October 29, 1942, the evacuation of the Pinsk Ghetto by the 2nd Battalion of Police Regiment 15, Police Cavalry Division 2 and a company of Police Regiment 11 began . 10,000 Jews were murdered on that day alone. On October 30 and 31, and on November 1, 1942, a total of 15,000 Jews were rounded up to be shot outside the city of Pinsk. Another 1,200 Jews, especially the sick and children, were immediately executed in the ghetto.

Commanders

  • 0October 6, 1940 to February 19, 1942: Major Ernst Dreier
  • February 20, 1942 to December 3, 1942: Captain Paul Landwehr

War Crimes Investigation

Criminal proceedings were carried out against members of Police Battalion 306 in the Federal Republic of Germany after the end of World War II, for example against Johann Josef Kuhr before the Frankfurt am Main Regional Court from 1962 to 1973 because of the massacre in Pinsk.

The captain of the police force and company commander Günter Waltz was sentenced to thirteen years in prison in 1965 because several shootings in the Biała Podlaska area could be proven.

The police officer Klaus Hornig refused to shoot Soviet prisoners of war in 1941 and testified in post-war trials on the alleged “imperative to order”.

literature

  • 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. 258 ff.
  • 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 department of Pinsk at the Frankfurt am Main Regional Court 1962–1973; a text analytical case study on the history of mentality . LIT-Verlag, Münster 2007, ISBN 978-3-8258-0604-0 . (At the same time dissertation at TU Darmstadt 2006.)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Justice and Nazi Crimes, The German Criminal Proceedings for National Socialist Homicide, Compiled in the Institute for Criminal Law at the University of Amsterdam by Christiaan F. Rüter and Dick W. de Mildt Archived copy ( Memento of the original from April 6, 2008 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
  2. ↑ http://www.ordnungspolizei.org [1]  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.ordnungspolizei.org  
  3. ↑ Torsten Schäfer: “In any case, I also took part in the shooting” . Münster 2007, p. 14ff.
  4. ↑ Torsten Schäfer: “In any case, I also took part in the shooting” . Münster 2007, p. 59f.
  5. ↑ Torsten Schäfer: “In any case, I also took part in the shooting” . Münster 2007, p. 75.
  6. ↑ Torsten Schäfer: “In any case, I also took part in the shooting” . Münster 2007, p. 77ff.
  7. ↑ Torsten Schäfer: “In any case, I also took part in the shooting” . Münster 2007, p. 79f., P. 82.
  8. ↑ Torsten Schäfer: “In any case, I also took part in the shooting” . Münster 2007, pp. 93-96
  9. ↑ Torsten Schäfer: “In any case, I also took part in the shooting” . Münster 2007, p. 99.
  10. ↑ Torsten Schäfer: “In any case, I also took part in the shooting” . Münster 2007, p. 14 ff.
  11. ^ LG Augsburg, April 2, 1965 . In: Justice and Nazi crimes . Collection of German convictions for Nazi homicidal crimes 1945–1966, Vol. XX, edited by Irene Sagel-Grande, HH Fuchs, CF Rüter. Amsterdam: University Press, 1979, No. 589, pp. 817–839 Subject matter of the proceedings: shooting of 6 Polish villagers after an unsuccessful clean-up operation. Individual shooting of a total of 7 Jews for violating the ordinance on residence restrictions in the Generalgouvernement. Shooting of two allegedly escaped Russian prisoners of war ( memento of the original from March 14, 2016 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