Self-protection police

The self-protection police ( acronym : SSP ) was an auxiliary force made up of French volunteers in occupied France in 1943 and 1944 .

In the spring of 1943, the Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF) in Paris, SS-Obergruppenführer Karl Oberg, commissioned the Head of Office VI of the Security Service (SD) in Paris , SS Standard Leader Hermann Bickler , to set up an auxiliary force for the fight against the French Resistance Movements. The members of the force should be French who were willing and able to infiltrate and also fight the Maquis and networks of the Resistance . As a rule, they were young people from the collaboration movements who were referred to Bickler by their political organizations without them first being aware of their future tasks. Bickler personally assessed all candidates for their suitability. In Taverny , Département Val-d'Oise , he confiscated three châteaus (in the sense of manor ) from Jewish property : Château de Vaucelles , Château du Haut-Tertre and Château Jaeger .

There, the candidates were trained in sabotage methods , broadcast and radio interference techniques and interrogation practices. During their 2 to 3 week training, they received pay and family support from the German occupation authorities. Around 5,000 young men are said to have attended these training courses. After the Taverny training center was initially under the command of officers from the French militia and the LVF , these were replaced by German SS and police officers from January 1944. At the end of their training, the men received a German gun license, an automatic pistol and papers that guaranteed them support from German military and police units in France at all times.

The course participants returned to their previous location following their training. They could only be called up in Paris on the express orders of the Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF) . The course participants with the best results and favorable personal assessments received the offer to stay as " permanents " in Taverny. About 50 men are said to have achieved this status, although not all of them were of French origin. Between April and May 1944 three commandos of these permanents were sent to Dijon , Toulouse and Rennes . In July 1944, at least in Brittany, commandos of the self-protection police were involved in raids with the aim of tracking down local resistance fighters.

After the liberation of France by Allied troops , some of these men joined the Brandenburg division , others the SS “Charlemagne” division . However, many also managed to submerge themselves in civil life. The few known former members of the self-protection police have only rarely commented on their training and activities, so that overall only sparse information is available about the troops.

Web links

• Château de Vaucelles (last checked on October 30, 2010)
• Château du Haut-Tertre (last checked on October 30, 2010)

literature

• Robert Forbes: For Europe: The French Volunteers of the Waffen-SS . Helion & Co, Solihull 2006. pp. 156-157 . ISBN 978-1874622680 .
• Pierre-Philippe Lambert & Gérard Le Marec: Les Français sous le casque allemand . Grancher, Paris 2009. ISBN 978-2-7339-1098-6 , pp. 203-208.
• Francoise Morvan: Miliciens contre maquisards. Inquiry on an episode of the Resistance in Center-Bretagne . Editions OUEST-FRANCE, Rennes 2010. ISBN 978-2-7373-5063-4 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ On the French website Topic-Topos. Les Archives de la Vie will be the Château de Vaucelles ( Memento des Originals of November 29, 2010 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. in Taverny as a training center for the French militia and as an SS school for the training of anti-terrorist commandos and the Château du Haut Tertre ( Memento of the original of September 30, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. referred to as the seat of the " permanents du Selbstschutz " in the years 1943–1944. See also Émile Brami: Celine . Je ne suis pas assez méchant pour me donner en example . Paris, Écriture 2003. ISBN 978-2909240534 . In it about Bickler, a friend of Céline: "Alsacien séparatiste, colonel SS, chef d'un des nombreux services de renseignement allemand pendant la guerre, directeur d'un center d'espionnage et de torture dit" école de Taverny-Vaucelles "" ( »Alsatian separatist, Colonel of the SS, head of one of the numerous German intelligence services during the war and an espionage and torture center called the“ School of Taverny-Vaucelles ”« ).  
2. ↑ Francoise Morvan: Miliciens contre maquisards , pp 215-223
3. ↑ The unit is, however, mentioned in the confidential communication n ° 186/44 from Karl Oberg to the SS-Standartenführer Helmut Bone and the SS-Brigadführer and commander of the police in France Paul Scheer with their tasks. On April 15, 1944, the commander-in-chief of the German occupation forces named the self-protection police as an independent unit alongside the French militias. (See Pierre-Philippe Lambert & Gérard Le Marec: Les Français sous le casque allemand . Grancher, Paris 2009. ISBN 978-2-7339-1098-6 , pp. 205–206.)
4. ↑ The self-protection police is neither in Hans Umbreit: The military commander in France 1940 - 1944 (pp. 107–117: Sipo-SD in Paris ). Verlag Hans Boldt, Winsen / Luhe 1968 still in Bernd Kasten: "Gute Franzosen". The French police and the German occupying forces in occupied France 1940-1944 . Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1993. ISBN 379955937-X or Ahlrich Meyer : The German occupation in France 1940-1944: Combating resistance and persecution of Jews . Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2000. ISBN 978-3534149667 listed by name.