Postal protection
The postal security was a paramilitary armed unit of the Deutsche Reichspost , which was originally set up to protect postal facilities .
Origins of Postal Protection
Reichspostminister Paul Freiherr von Eltz-Rübenach ordered on March 7, 1933 the deployment of an armed post guard to secure the post office's transport facilities against attacks and communist riots, as neither the police nor the Reichswehr would be able to do so. As early as June 1933, a “new instruction” regulated the framework. Postal workers who belonged to the SA or SS were not allowed to be used as auxiliary policemen, but could be used to protect the mail. Although an imminent communist threat was ruled out as early as September 1933, postal protection remained in place. At the end of December 1933 it consisted of about 26,000 men.
Assignments and training
In 1937 there was an agreement between the Reichspost and the Wehrmacht , according to which the strength of the "reinforced postal protection" - that is, the number of personnel in the event of war - was determined for the individual military districts with 29,000 men who were supposed to protect the Reichspost facilities essential to the war effort. At the beginning of 1939 the postal protection consisted of around 40,000 men and in February 1939 the postal protection also took over the postal air protection. Any physically capable postal worker could voluntarily join the postal protection service; it was compulsory for all newly hired postal workers under the age of 35. Entry into postal security was seen as one of the ways to prove one's own ideological convictions with a minimum of commitment. In the postal security schools, which corresponded to the SS Junker Schools of the Waffen SS and the SS leadership schools of the General SS, 20,000 members of the Reichspost were trained annually. Postal security schools existed at the following (and other) locations:
- Alexisbad
- Bad Lippspringe
- Broom nest
- Ebingen
- Holy ax
- Hirschberg
- Hofgeismar
- Kelheim
- Naumburg (Saale)
- Sternberg
- Templin
- Zeesen
Postal protection within the SS
In March 1942, the postal security was first subordinated to the General SS and was now officially designated as SS-Postschutz .
The direct subordination of postal protection made it equal to the other "fighting organizations" of the NSDAP. In fact, it was now considered a subdivision of the SS.
Since May 1, 1942, the SS-Postschutz was subordinate to the Waffen-SS and Gottlob Berger was the military director of the Postschutz. He was now responsible for training and arming the members of the postal security service. Its officers and NCOs were now on an equal footing with those of the Waffen SS and the postal security service began to wear SS-like badges and ranks.
Postal Security Ranks
- Oberführer
- District Leader
- Section Leader
- Head of Department
- Department head
- Train chief
- Platoon leader
- Group leader
- Squad leader
- Squad leader
- Rottenführer
- Mail policeman
Military operations of the SS postal security
Since May 1942, so-called "Fernkraftpost" units were set up by the postal security service, which (mainly) provided the omnibuses in the east. The "Fernkraftpost" units were officially called "Fronthilfe der Deutsche Reichspost" and were later also referred to as "SS-Kraftfahrstaffel". Two departments of the "Fronthilfe" were assigned directly to two SS divisions in 1944 and were subordinate to the RFSS command staff .
In the same year, various "SS security battalions of the German Reichspost" were formed from the personnel of the "Fronthilfe", which were deployed in so-called "gang operations" in the "Upper Carniola", "Southern Styria" (both former Yugoslavia ) and in "Belarus" ( Belarus ) were used. This means that members of the postal security service were also directly involved in the oppression and extermination policies of the National Socialists.
In the last days of the war (April 12, 1945) members of an SS security battalion based in the Rhineland blew up numerous systems and the directional antenna of the Reichsender Langenberg . The entire broadcasting operations in the region were shut down.
Former relatives testified after the end of the war at the trials in Nuremberg that the postal security was only deployed internally in the Reich and was only partially deployed at the front. However, this contradicts the subordination of the postal protection to both the SS headquarters and the SS headquarters and the participation of the SS security battalions in war crimes of the Waffen SS. At the Nuremberg Trials, the postal protection service was classified as part of the SS as a criminal organization .
The successor organization to postal security was the operational security service of the Deutsche Bundespost after 1949 .
See also
- Uniforms of the Waffen-SS # The uniforms of the postal security
- German field post in World War II
- By German field post
literature
- Wolfgang Lotz, Gerd R. Ueberschär : The German Reichspost 1933-1945. A political administrative story. Volume 1: Wolfgang Lotz: 1933-1939. Nicolai, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-87584-915-9 , pp. 143-147.
- Thank God Berger. In: Dermot Bradley (ed.): Germany's generals and admirals. Part 5: Andreas Schulz, Günter Wegmann: The generals of the Waffen SS and the police. The military careers of the generals, as well as the doctors, veterinarians, intendants, judges and ministerial officials with the rank of general. (1933-1945). Volume 1: Abraham - Gutenberger. Biblio-Verlag, Bissendorf 2003, ISBN 3-7648-2373-9 , p. 91.
- Michael Schweizer: Postal protection and postal air protection in the Third Reich and in the occupied territories. In collaboration with Wilbert Manders. Morgana Edition, Berlin-Schönefeld 2014, ISBN 978-3-943844-67-2 .