Schutzmannschafts-Battalion 57

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The Schutzmannschafts-Bataillon 57 (Schuma 57) was a military association of the Schutzmannschaft , which was set up in 1942 by the German occupiers in Belarus, mainly made up of Ukrainians and Belarusians . Former members of the German Reserve Police Battalion 3 provided the leaders and subordinates of the unit. The commander of the 1st  company of this unit, Hans Siegling , had recruited and trained the Schuma 57 himself. The Schuma 57 was used to fight partisans in Belarus until the German withdrawal in the summer of 1944 and took part in several extermination campaigns against the civilian population, in which thousands of men, women and children were murdered.

Lineup

The Schutzmannschaftsbataillon 57 (Schuma 57) was built up from the beginning of 1942 by Hans Siegling, the commander of the 1st company of the Reserve Police Battalion 3, from Ukrainians and Belarusians for the partisan fight. For training, Siegling also called on subordinates and crew ranks of his company, which at that time was assigned to Einsatzgruppe B and actively participated in the extermination of the Jews . In the late summer of 1942, the 1st Company transferred to Schuma 57, with the exception of a small subordinate unit. The German police officers were built into the new unit as regular and subordinate personnel. In December 1942, the association received the designation Schutzmannschafts-Bataillon 57 and was subordinate to the Higher SS and Police Leader Curt von Gottberg in Minsk .

The battalion was stationed in Horodyska, 40 km north of Baranowicze . It consisted of 80 Germans and 300 to 400 Ukrainians, Russians and Belarusians. In addition to two companies, the unit had a cavalry division and an armored reconnaissance platoon made up of Russian captured tanks. In addition to the officers and members of the battalion staff also were platoon leader and - group leaders and their deputies, the tank commanders and MG -Protect German. A total of 156 German members of the Schuma 57 are known.

Calls

Until the end of June 1944, the Schuma 57 was used in conjunction with other associations to fight partisans . These ventures were directed primarily against the civilian population. The members of the Shuma 57 repeatedly executed civilians, including residents of entire villages. According to the historian Stefan Klemp , these undertakings were “nothing more than the extermination of the local civilian population”, ie murder.

One of the most brutal of these actions by the von Gottberg combat group was the so-called "Hornung" operation. From February 8 to 26, 1943 , 12,897 people were killed in the Lenin - Hansewicze - Sluzk area , 3,300 of them Jews who had previously been expelled from the Sluzk ghetto . In addition to the Schuma 57, the SS special battalion Dirlewanger , the police battalion 307 and the SS police regiment 2 , the police news company 112 and the police tank company 12 took part. In this operation, which was planned from the outset as an extermination campaign, the villages in the area were destroyed, the cattle stolen, all residents shot and the "pacified" area left behind as no man's land. For example, on February 16, 1943, the Schuma 57 reported that it had shot 600 "gang suspects" in Kopaczewicze (Kopazewitschi) alone and on February 17, in Petenice and Milkowicze, around 320 "gang suspects". Numerous women and children were among the “gang suspects”. But unarmed people were also counted under “enemy dead”. The own losses in the course of the entire operation, in which there were occasional skirmishes with partisans, amounted to 29 Germans and 27 foreign aid workers.

Other activities in which the Schuma 57 took part were the “Cottbus” and “Hermann” companies. At least 9,776 people were killed at the “Cottbus” company. Another 2,000–3,000 were killed when the Germans drove them to minefields for “demining” . There may even have been over 20,000 victims in this venture. During the "Hermann" operation, 4,280 people were killed and 20,954 were deported as workers. A participation of the Shuma 57 in mass shootings of Jews has not been proven, with the exception of three cases with a total of 42 Jewish victims.

Succession formation

When the Germans withdrew from Belarus in the summer of 1944, the auxiliaries were gathered in East Prussia and in the Generalgouvernement . Here Siegling formed the units of the "Siegling" Schutzmannschafts Brigade , which on July 31, 1944 was transformed into the 30th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (Russian No. 2) by order of Himmler .

Prosecution

After the Second World War , German members of the Schuma 57 were accused of participating in eight mass shootings by the central office in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia for dealing with Nazi mass crimes in Dortmund. In the course of the investigation, there were indications of involvement in 35 other executions. In the final note of the proceedings by the Dortmund Central Office on March 1, 1977, 70 mass shootings were finally mentioned. Most of the proceedings ended with suspension, one with acquittal. Some cases have been separated and transferred to other prosecutors. A battalion member is not known to have been convicted.

See also

literature

  • Wolfgang Curilla: The German Ordnungspolizei and the Holocaust in the Baltic States and Belarus, 1941-1944. F. Schöningh, Paderborn 2006, ISBN 3506717871 .
  • Stefan Klemp: "Not determined". Police Battalions and the Post War Justice: A Handbook. 2nd Edition. Klartext Verlag, Essen 2011, ISBN 9783837506631 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfgang Curilla: The German Ordnungspolizei and the Holocaust in the Baltic States and in Belarus, 1941-1944. F. Schöningh, Paderborn 2006, ISBN 3506717871 , pp. 404-406
  2. ↑ a b c Stefan Klemp: "Not determined". Police Battalions and the Post War Justice: A Handbook. 2nd Edition. Klartext Verlag, Essen 2011, ISBN 9783837506631 , p. 46.
  3. ^ A b Christian Gerlach: Calculated murders. The German economic and extermination policy in Belarus 1941 to 1944. 1st edition. Hamburger Edition , Hamburg 1999, ISBN 9783930908547 , pp. 944-947.
  4. ↑ Klemp, "Not Determined" , p. 48.
  5. ^ Christian Gerlach: Calculated murders. The German economic and extermination policy in Belarus 1941 to 1944. 1st edition. Hamburger Edition, Hamburg 1999, ISBN 9783930908547 , pp. 907-909.
  6. ^ Christian Gerlach: Calculated murders. The German economic and extermination policy in Belarus 1941 to 1944. 1st edition. Hamburger Edition, Hamburg 1999, ISBN 9783930908547 , pp. 949f.
  7. ↑ Klemp, "Not Determined" , p. 90; Christian Gerlach: Calculated murders. The German economic and extermination policy in Belarus 1941 to 1944. 1st edition. Hamburger Edition, Hamburg 1999, ISBN 9783930908547 , pp. 901f.
  8. ↑ a b Curilla, Ordnungspolizei , p. 407.
  9. ^ Leonid Rein: The kings and the pawns. Collaboration in Byelorussia during World War II. Berghahn Books, New York 2011, ISBN 9780857450432 , p. 367.
  10. ↑ Klemp, "Not Determined" , p. 91.