Security troops

The security troops of the German army were responsible for securing the rear of the army during the Second World War . Members of the security forces were often involved in serious war crimes in the context of the fight against partisans and the Holocaust .

history

The security troops were first set up as infantry divisions in early 1941 before the German attack on the Soviet Union . The units were partly built up by renaming the existing divisions of the third wave ( Landwehr divisions). Their task was to secure the rear army area and were subordinate to the commander of the rear army area . At the beginning / middle of 1942, the Landesschützen battalions were assigned to the security troops, renamed to security battalions and later mostly incorporated into security divisions.

Security troops were composed as a large unit:

Composition of the troops

Members of the security forces usually consisted of:

Soldiers from the reserve of front regiments
Soldiers from Landwehr units, which consisted of men who were considered too old (older than 35 years) and poorly trained ( white cohorts ) to join a front-line regiment.
Police officers of the Secret Field Police
Police officers of the Ordnungspolizei
from prisoners of war , mostly Soviet prisoners of war, who were members of ethnic minorities such as Georgians , Ukrainians , Tatars and Azerbaijanis .

Security divisions of the army

The Army had the following security divisions:

These army's security divisions are not to be confused with those of the navy . The naval security associations consisted of demining , outpost and similar flotillas .

Security Brigades of the Army

The following security brigades existed:

literature

Omer Bartov : Hitler's Army: Soldiers, Nazis, and War in the Third Reich , OUP, 1992. ISBN 978-0-19-507903-6
Christian Gerlach : Calculated Morde , 2000. ISBN 978-3-930908-63-9
Ben Shepherd: War in the Wild East: The German Army and Soviet Partisans , Harvard University Press, 2004. ISBN 978-0-674-01296-7