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80-576: The division was formed in October 1939, when thousands of members of the Ordnungspolizei (Orpo) were drafted to fill the ranks of the new SS division. These men were not enrolled in the SS and remained policemen, retaining their Orpo rank structure and insignia. They did not have to meet the racial and physical requirements imposed for the SS. Himmler's purpose in forming the division was to get around

160-509: A Generalleutnant in the Police who was also an SS member would be referred to as SS Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Polizei . In 1942, SS membership became mandatory for police generals, with SS collar insignia (overlaid on police green backing) worn by all police officers ranked Generalmajor and above. The distinction between the police and the SS had virtually disappeared by 1943 with

240-486: A Greek Resistance attack upon the unit. A total of 214 men, women and children were killed in Distomo, a small village near Delphi. According to survivors, SS men "bayoneted babies in their cribs, stabbed pregnant women, and beheaded the village priest." Elements of this division committed atrocities in the mountains of central Greece ("Ρούμελη") during May and June 1944 that resulted in the destruction of Sperchiada and

320-524: A war of aggression , or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements, or assurances. Because the definition of a state of "war" may be debated, the term "war crime" itself has seen different usage under different systems of international and military law. It has some degree of application outside of what some may consider being a state of "war", but in areas where conflicts persist enough to constitute social instability. The legalities of war have sometimes been accused of containing favoritism toward

400-523: A duty to prevent" criminal behaviour by a military force. Despite having argued that he had obeyed superior orders , von Hagenbach was convicted, condemned to death , and beheaded. The Hague Conventions were international treaties negotiated at the First and Second Peace Conferences at The Hague , Netherlands, in 1899 and 1907, respectively, and were, along with the Geneva Conventions, among

480-658: A legal basis and framework for the conduct of war under international law. Every single member state of the United Nations has currently ratified the conventions, which are universally accepted as customary international law , applicable to every situation of armed conflict in the world. The Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions adopted in 1977 containing the most pertinent, detailed and comprehensive protections of international humanitarian law for persons and objects in modern warfare are still not ratified by several states continuously engaged in armed conflicts, namely

560-480: A military objective are governed under principles such as of proportionality and military necessity and can be permissible. Military necessity "permits the destruction of life of ... persons whose destruction is incidentally unavoidable by the armed conflicts of the war; ... it does not permit the killing of innocent inhabitants for purposes of revenge or the satisfaction of a lust to kill. The destruction of property to be lawful must be imperatively demanded by

640-622: A military situation, so as not to lose police personnel to the general draft of the Wehrmacht or to the full SS divisions of the regular Waffen-SS . Very late in the war several Orpo SS -Police regiments were transferred to the Waffen-SS to form the 35th SS -Police Grenadier Division . Cossack Orpo units were rolled into the XV SS Cossack Cavalry Corps with other units to nominally form 2nd Cossack Division. By

720-474: A plan or policy or as part of a large-scale commission of such crimes". To date, the present and former heads of state and heads of government that have been charged with war crimes include: War crimes are serious violations of the rules of customary and treaty law concerning international humanitarian law , criminal offenses for which there is individual responsibility. Colloquial definitions of war crime include violations of established protections of

800-595: A result, even ordinary criminals were consigned to concentration camps to remove them from the German racial community ( Volksgemeinschaft ) and ultimately exterminate them. The Order Police played a central role in carrying out the Holocaust . By "both career professionals and reservists, in both battalion formations and precinct service" ( Einzeldienst ) through providing men for the tasks involved. The German Order Police had grown to 244,500 men by mid-1940. The Orpo

880-434: A separate chain of command directly to Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler . The battalions were used for various auxiliary duties, including the so-called anti-partisan operations , support of combat troops, and construction of defence works (i.e. Atlantic Wall ). Some of them were focused on traditional security roles as an occupying force, while others were directly involved in actions designed to inflict terror and in

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960-584: A very strong Soviet advance pierced 6 kilometres deep behind the German lines north of the village of Szucsi , allowing 2nd Ukrainian to enter Cserhát mountain range by 15 December. Facing extreme casualties on the Bátonyterenye line, much of the division withdrawn to the then Slovak-Hungarian border at Čebovce ; arriving between 27–28 December, with the highest casualties withdrawing to Banská Bystrica . Only 450 men and 3 heavy guns were available at Čebovce, which facing three Soviet rifle divisions became

1040-529: Is a legitimate ruse of war , though fighting in combat or assassinating individuals behind enemy lines while so disguised is not, as it constitutes unlawful perfidy . Attacking enemy troops while they are being deployed by way of a parachute is not a war crime. Protocol I, Article 42 of the Geneva Conventions explicitly forbids attacking parachutists who eject from disabled aircraft and surrendering parachutists once landed. Article 30 of

1120-419: Is called scorched earth policy for the military purpose of denying the use of ground for the enemy. The German troops retreating from Finnish Lapland believed Finland would be occupied by Soviet troops and destroyed many settlements while retreating to Norway under the command of Rendulic. He overestimated the perceived risk but argued that Hague IV authorized the destruction because it was necessary to war. He

1200-472: Is part of the command structure who orders any attempt to committing mass killings including genocide or ethnic cleansing , the granting of no quarter despite surrender, the conscription of children in the military and flouting the legal distinctions of proportionality and military necessity . The formal concept of war crimes emerged from the codification of the customary international law that applied to warfare between sovereign states , such as

1280-569: Is unlawful. For aerial strikes, pilots generally have to rely on information supplied by external sources (headquarters, ground troops) that a specific position is in fact a military target. In the case of former Yugoslavia , NATO pilots hit a civilian object (the Chinese embassy in Belgrade ) that was of no military significance, but the pilots had no idea of determining it aside from their orders. The committee ruled that "the aircrew involved in

1360-595: The Einsatzgruppen , became an integral part of the Final Solution in the two years following the attack on the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, Operation Barbarossa . The first mass-murder of 3,000 Jews by Police Battalion 309 occurred in occupied Białystok on 12 July 1941. Police battalions were part of the first and second wave of murders in 1941–42 in the territories of Poland annexed by

1440-576: The Sicherheitspolizei ( SiPo or security police), which had been established in June 1936. The Orpo assumed duties of regular uniformed law enforcement while the SiPo consisted of the secret state police ( Geheime Staatspolizei or Gestapo ) and criminal investigation police ( Kriminalpolizei or Kripo). The Kriminalpolizei was a corps of professional detectives involved in fighting crime and

1520-681: The Catholic and the Jewish populations as part of those "resettlement actions". After hostilities had ceased, the battalions – such as Reserve Police Battalion 101  – took up the role of security forces , patrolling the perimeters of the Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland (the internal ghetto security issues were managed by the SS , SD , and the Criminal Police, in conjunction with

1600-650: The Holocaust and were responsible for widespread crimes against humanity and genocide targeting the civilian population. Heinrich Himmler , head of the SS , was named Chief of German Police in the Interior Ministry on 17 June 1936 after Hitler announced a decree to "unify the control of police duties in the Reich". Traditionally, law enforcement in Germany had been a state and local matter. In this role, Himmler

1680-939: The Lieber Code (1863) of the Union Army in the American Civil War and the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 for international war. In the aftermath of the Second World War, the war-crime trials of the leaders of the Axis powers established the Nuremberg principles of law, such as that international criminal law defines what is a war crime. In 1949, the Geneva Conventions legally defined new war crimes and established that states could exercise universal jurisdiction over war criminals. In

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1760-880: The Nuremberg Trials and Tokyo Trials have been convened. Recent examples are the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda , which were established by the UN Security Council acting under Chapter VIII of the UN Charter . Under the Nuremberg Principles , war crimes are different from crimes against peace . Crimes against peace include planning, preparing, initiating, or waging

1840-609: The Ordnungspolizei . The primary combat arm of the Ordnungspolizei was the SS Polizei Division of the Waffen-SS . The division was formed in October 1939, when thousands of members of the Orpo were drafted and placed together with artillery and signals units transferred from the army. The division consisted of four police regiments composed of Orpo personnel and was typically used to rotate police members into

1920-535: The SS and, for those who did so, a special police insignia known as the SS Membership Runes for Order Police was worn on the breast pocket of the police uniform. In 1940, standard practice in the German Police was to grant equivalent SS rank to all police generals. Police generals who were members of the SS were referred to simultaneously by both rank titles – for instance,

2000-534: The Siege of Leningrad in 1941. The first 17 battalion formations (from 1943 renamed SS-Polizei-Bataillone ) were deployed by Orpo in September 1939 along with the Wehrmacht army in the invasion of Poland . The battalions guarded Polish prisoners of war behind the German lines, and carried out expulsion of Poles from Reichsgaue under the banner of Lebensraum . They also committed atrocities against both

2080-645: The U.N. Security Council adopted Resolution 1820 , which noted that "rape and other forms of sexual violence can constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity or a constitutive act with respect to genocide"; see also wartime sexual violence . In 2016, the International Criminal Court convicted someone of sexual violence for the first time; specifically, they added rape to a war crimes conviction of Congo Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo . War crimes also included deliberate attacks on citizens and property of neutral states , such as

2160-478: The Waffen-SS ). In 1942, the majority of the police battalions were re-consolidated into thirty SS and Police Regiments . These formations were intended for garrison security duty, anti-partisan functions, and to support Waffen-SS units on the Eastern Front . Notably, the regular military police of the Wehrmacht ( Feldgendarmerie , Feldjägerkorps , and Geheime Feldpolizei ) were separate from

2240-587: The laws of war , but also include failures to adhere to norms of procedure and rules of battle, such as attacking those displaying a peaceful flag of truce , or using that same flag as a ruse to mount an attack on enemy troops. The use of chemical and biological weapons in warfare are also prohibited by numerous chemical arms control agreements and the Biological Weapons Convention . Wearing enemy uniforms or civilian clothes to infiltrate enemy lines for espionage or sabotage missions

2320-450: The prisoner-of-war camps . War crime A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war , torture , taking hostages , unnecessarily destroying civilian property , deception by perfidy , wartime sexual violence , pillaging , and for any individual that

2400-726: The special police authorities not subordinate to the Hauptamt Ordnungspolizei or the Reichssicherheitshauptamt : Between 1939 and 1945, the Ordnungspolizei maintained military formations, trained and outfitted by the main police offices within Germany. Specific duties varied widely from unit to unit and from one year to another. Generally, the Order Police were not directly involved in frontline combat, except for Ardennes in May 1940, and

2480-761: The "Lieber Code." A small number of German military personnel of the First World War were tried in 1921 by the German Supreme Court for alleged war crimes. The modern concept of war crime was further developed under the auspices of the Nuremberg trials based on the definition in the London Charter that was published on August 8, 1945 (see Nuremberg principles ). Along with war crimes the charter also defined crimes against peace and crimes against humanity , which are often committed during wars and in concert with war crimes. Also known as

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2560-698: The 1907 Hague Convention IV – The Laws and Customs of War on Land explicitly forbids belligerents to punish enemy spies without previous trial . The rule of war, also known as the Law of Armed Conflict , permits belligerents to engage in combat. A war crime occurs when superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering is inflicted upon an enemy. War crimes also include such acts as mistreatment of prisoners of war or civilians . War crimes are sometimes part of instances of mass murder and genocide though these crimes are more broadly covered under international humanitarian law described as crimes against humanity . In 2008,

2640-593: The Battalions and local Order Police units helped to transport Jews from the ghettos in both Poland and the USSR (and elsewhere in occupied Europe ) to the concentration and extermination camps, as well as operations to hunt down and murder Jews outside the ghettos. The Order Police were one of the two primary sources from which the Einsatzgruppen drew personnel in accordance with manpower needs (the other being

2720-695: The Blitz as well as the indiscriminate attacks on Allied cities with V-1 flying bombs and V-2 rockets , nor the Japanese for the aerial attacks on crowded Chinese cities. Controversy arose when the Allies re-designated German POWs (under the protection of the 1929 Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War ) as Disarmed Enemy Forces (allegedly unprotected by the 1929 Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War), many of which were then used for forced labor such as clearing minefields . By December 1945, six months after

2800-883: The Field (Lieber Code) was written by Franz Lieber , a German lawyer , political philosopher , and veteran of the Napoleonic Wars . Lincoln made the Code military law for all wartime conduct of the Union Army . It defined command responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity as well as stated the military responsibilities of the Union soldier fighting the Confederate States of America . The Geneva Conventions are four related treaties adopted and continuously expanded from 1864 to 1949 that represent

2880-482: The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor . As the attack on Pearl Harbor happened while the U.S. and Japan were at peace and without a just cause for self-defense, the attack was declared by the Tokyo Trials to go beyond justification of military necessity and therefore constituted a war crime. War crimes are significant in international humanitarian law because it is an area where international tribunals such as

2960-586: The Jewish ghetto administration ). Each battalion consisted of approximately 500 men armed with light infantry weapons. In the east, each company also had a heavy machine-gun detachment. Administratively, the Police Battalions remained under the Chief of Police Kurt Daluege , but operationally they were under the authority of regional SS and Police Leaders ( SS- und Polizeiführer ), who reported up

3040-566: The Luga bridgehead the division lost over 2,000 soldiers including the commander, Arthur Mülverstadt . After a series of failed attacks in swampy and wooded terrain, the division, along with army formations, fought its way into the northern part of Luga, encircling and destroying the Soviet defenders. In January 1942, the division was moved to the Volkhov River sector, and on 24 February it

3120-481: The Order Police, cooperated in transforming the police force of the Weimar Republic into militarised formations ready to serve the regime's aims of conquest and racial annihilation. Police troops were first formed into battalion-sized formations for the invasion of Poland , where they were deployed for security and policing purposes, also taking part in executions and mass deportations. During World War II ,

3200-744: The Red Army and was shipped across the Hela Peninsula to Swinemünde . After a brief rest, what remained of the division fought its way across the Elbe river, in order to surrender to the Americans near Wittenberge - Lenzen . Ordnungspolizei The Ordnungspolizei ( Orpo , German: [ˈɔʁdnʊŋspoliˌtsaɪ] , meaning "Order Police") were the uniformed police force in Nazi Germany from 1936 to 1945. The Orpo organisation

3280-579: The Soviet Union and also during the killing operations within the 1939 borders of the USSR, whether as part of Order Police regiments, or as separate units reporting directly to the local SS and Police Leaders. They included the Reserve Police Battalion 101 from Hamburg, Battalion 133 of the Nürnberg Order Police, Police Battalions 45 , 309 from Koln, and 316 from Bottrop - Oberhausen . Their murder operations bore

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3360-755: The Tisza, 4th SS was ordered to cover the Soviet's movements against the west bank and hold Szolnok , which fell to the Soviets at the start of the Budapest Offensive on 4 November. Committing to a fighting retreat north, 4th SS pulled to the west of Jászberény on 12 November, only for the city to fall on 14 November, retreating further to Hatvan ; falling to the Soviets 25 November, and 4th SS dug in north of Hatvan. They had taken heavy casualties, with only 800 men and 13 functional armoured assault guns available for defensive operations, and starting 5 December,

3440-736: The Tokyo Trial, the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal or simply as the Tribunal, it was convened on May 3, 1946, to try the leaders of the Empire of Japan for three types of crimes: "Class A" (crimes against peace), "Class B" (war crimes), and "Class C" (crimes against humanity), committed during World War II . On July 1, 2002, the International Criminal Court (ICC), a treaty-based court located in The Hague , came into being for

3520-462: The United States, Israel, India, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, and others. Accordingly, states retain different codes and values about wartime conduct. Some signatories have routinely violated the Geneva Conventions in a way that either uses the ambiguities of law or political maneuvering to sidestep the laws' formalities and principles. The first three conventions have been revised and expanded, with

3600-554: The amalgamation of SS and police into a form of "State Protection Corps" ( Staatsschutzkorps ), and used the expanded reach the police powers gave him to persecute ideological opponents and "undesirables" of the Nazi regime such as Jews, freemasons , churches, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses , and other groups defined as " asocial ". The Nazi conception of criminality was racial and biological, holding that criminal traits were hereditary, and had to be exterminated to purify German blood. As

3680-429: The attack should not be assigned any responsibility for the fact they were given the wrong target and that it is inappropriate to attempt to assign criminal responsibility for the incident to senior leaders because they were provided with wrong information by officials of another agency". The report also notes that "Much of the material submitted to the OTP consisted of reports that civilians had been killed, often inviting

3760-505: The brunt of the Holocaust by bullet on the Eastern Front. In the immediate aftermath of World War II, this latter role was obscured both by the lack of court evidence and by deliberate obfuscation, while most of the focus was on the better-known Einsatzgruppen ("Operational groups") who reported to the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA) under Reinhard Heydrich . Order Police battalions involved in direct killing operations were responsible for at least 1 million murders. Starting in 1941

3840-421: The civilian population while undertaking anti-partisan operations. In particular they were responsible for the Kleisoura massacre and the Distomo massacre ; the latter being one of the worst atrocities committed by the Waffen-SS during World War II. On June 10, 1944, for over two hours, troops of the division under the command of Fritz Lautenbach went door to door and massacred Greek civilians in retaliation for

3920-418: The conclusion to be drawn that crimes had therefore been committed. Collateral casualties to civilians and collateral damage to civilian objects can occur for a variety of reasons." The Rendulic Rule is a standard by which commanders are judged. German General Lothar Rendulic was charged for ordering extensive destruction of civilian buildings and lands while retreating from a suspected enemy attack in what

4000-444: The course of fighting. The United Nations defines war crimes as described in Article 8 of the Rome statute , the treaty that established the International Criminal Court: Under the law of armed conflict (LOAC), the death of non-combatants is not necessarily a violation; there are many things to take into account. Civilians cannot be made the object of an attack, but the death/injury of civilians while conducting an attack on

4080-464: The creation of the SS and Police Regiments, which were consolidated from earlier police security battalions. SS officers now routinely commanded police troops and police generals serving in command of military troops were granted equivalent SS rank in the Waffen-SS . In August 1944, when Himmler was appointed Chef des Ersatzheeres (Chief of the Home Army), all police generals automatically were granted Waffen-SS rank because they had authority over

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4160-447: The crossing of the Aisne river and the Ardennes Canal. The division was engaged in heavy fighting and after securing its objectives, moved to the Argonne Forest , where it came into contact with the French and fought a number of actions with their rear guard. In late June 1940, the division was pulled out of combat and transferred to the reserve of Army Group North in East Prussia . In January 1941, administrative responsibility for

4240-437: The division passed from the police to the SS-Führungshauptamt (SS operations office), the materiel and training headquarters for the Waffen-SS; its personnel however, remained policemen, not members of the SS. During the invasion of the Soviet Union ( Operation Barbarossa ), the division was initially part of the reserve within Army Group North . In August 1941, the division saw action near Luga . During heavy fighting for

4320-755: The end of the war. By 1941, the Orpo had been divided into the following offices covering every aspect of German law enforcement. The central command office known as the Ordnungspolizei Hauptamt was located in Berlin . From 1943 it was considered a full SS -Headquarters command. The Orpo main office consisted of Command Department ( Kommandoamt ), responsible for finance, personnel and medical; Administrative ( Verwaltung ) charged with pay, pensions and permits; Economic ( Wirtschaftsverwaltungsamt ); Technical Emergency Service ( Technische Nothilfe ); Fire Brigades Bureau ( Feuerwehren ); Colonial Police ( Kolonialpolizei ); and SS and Police Technical Training Academy ( Technische SS-und Polizeiakademie ). The Sonderpolizei were

4400-585: The ensuing Holocaust . While they were similar to Waffen-SS , they were not part of the thirty-eight Waffen-SS divisions, and should not be confused with them, including the national 4th SS Polizei Panzergrenadier Division . The battalions were originally numbered in series from 1 to 325, but in February 1943 were renamed and renumbered from 1 to about 37, to distinguish them from the Schutzmannschaft auxiliary battalions recruited from local population in German-occupied areas. The Order Police battalions , operating both independently and in conjunction with

4480-418: The first formal statements of the laws of war and war crimes in the nascent body of secular international law . The Lieber Code was written early in the American Civil War and President Abraham Lincoln issued as General Order 100 on April 24, 1863, just months after the military executions at Mankato, Minnesota . General Order 100, Instructions for the Government of the Armies of the United States in

4560-401: The force had the task of policing the civilian population of the occupied and colonised countries beginning in spring 1940. Orpo's activities escalated to genocide with the invasion of the Soviet Union, Operation Barbarossa . Twenty-three Order Police battalions , formed into independent regiments or attached to Wehrmacht security divisions and Einsatzgruppen , perpetrated mass-murder in

4640-407: The fourth one added in 1949: Two Additional Protocols were adopted in 1977 with the third one added in 2005, completing and updating the Geneva Conventions: Just after WWI, world governments started to try and systematically create a code for how war crimes would be defined. Their first outline of a law was " Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field" —also known as

4720-409: The late 20th century and early 21st century, international courts extrapolated and defined additional categories of war crimes applicable to a civil war . In 1474, the first trial for a war crime was that of Peter von Hagenbach , realised by an ad hoc tribunal of the Holy Roman Empire , for his command responsibility for the actions of his soldiers, because "he, as a knight, was deemed to have

4800-406: The legal question of whether the expected incidental harm is excessive may be very subjective. For this reason, States have chosen to apply a "clearly excessive" standard for determining whether a criminal violation has occurred. When there is no justification for military action, such as civilians being made the object of attack, a proportionality analysis is unnecessary to conclude that the attack

4880-430: The massacre of 28 civilians in Ipati . The division later participated in Operation Kreuzotter (5–31 August 1944), an attempt to eradicate Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS) bases from the same mountains. The operation was a military failure, but resulted in the killing of 170 civilians and the partial or complete destruction of dozens of villages and cities. The division was moved to Serbia in September 1944, and

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4960-489: The necessities of war." For example, conducting an operation on an ammunition depot or a terrorist training camp would not be prohibited because a farmer is plowing a field in the area; the farmer is not the object of attack and the operations would adhere to proportionality and military necessity. On the other hand, an extraordinary military advantage would be necessary to justify an operation posing risks of collateral death or injury to thousands of civilians. In "grayer" cases

5040-407: The northern pincer that would meet the IV Panzer Army coming from the south and envelop the 1st Ukrainian Front before destroying it. Steiner explained to General Gotthard Heinrici that he did not have the divisions to perform this action and the troops lacked the heavy weapons needed, so the attack did not take place as Hitler had planned. Moved to Danzig , the SS- Polizei Division was encircled by

5120-438: The numbers. The Kampfgruppe was disbanded in May 1943, when the division became operational. The division was sent to Greece where it engaged in Nazi security warfare in the northern part of the country. The division remained in Greece until August 1944 before being recalled to face the advancing Red Army at Belgrade . It again suffered heavy losses. While in Greece, the division committed war crimes and atrocities against

5200-479: The prosecution of war crimes committed on or after that date. Several nations, most notably the United States, China, Russia, and Israel, have criticized the court. The United States still participates as an observer. Article 12 of the Rome Statute provides jurisdiction over the citizens of non-contracting states if they are accused of committing crimes in the territory of one of the state parties. The ICC only has jurisdiction over these crimes when they are "part of

5280-401: The recruitment caps the Wehrmacht had succeeded in placing on the SS, it also provided a means for his policemen to satisfy their military obligation and avoid army conscription. The first commander was Generalleutnant der Polizei (Major-General) Karl Pfeffer-Wildenbruch , a career police commander who had been a general staff officer during World War I; simultaneous with his appointment he

5360-436: The scene of heavy fighting; where the village changed hands many times. After the loss of the village highlands on 31 December, the division was withdrawn to Slovakia, and eventually back to Germany, with any remaining forces fighting with 1st Panzer Army . The depleted division was moved to a front line north in Pomerania. Hitler assigned it to Army Detachment Steiner for the relief of Berlin. They were supposed to be part of

5440-422: The start of the Second World War in 1939, the SS had effectively gained complete operational control over the German Police, although outwardly the SS and Police still functioned as separate entities. The Ordnungspolizei maintained its own system of insignia and Orpo ranks as well as distinctive police uniforms. Under an SS directive known as the "Rank Parity Decree", policemen were highly encouraged to join

5520-414: The task of the Gestapo was combating espionage and political dissent . On 27 September 1939, the SS security service, the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) and the SiPo were folded into the Reich Security Main Office ( Reichssicherheitshauptamt or RSHA). The RSHA symbolised the close connection between the SS (a party organisation) and the police (a state organisation). In broad terms, Himmler pursued

5600-417: The war had ended, it was estimated by French authorities that 2,000 German prisoners were still being killed or maimed each month in mine-clearing accidents. The wording of the 1949 Third Geneva Convention was intentionally altered from that of the 1929 convention so that soldiers who "fall into the power" following surrender or mass capitulation of an enemy are now protected as well as those taken prisoner in

5680-438: The winners (" Victor's justice "), as some controversies have not been ruled as war crimes. Some examples include the Allies ' destruction of Axis cities during World War II , such as the firebombing of Dresden , the Operation Meetinghouse raid on Tokyo (the most destructive single bombing raid in history), and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki . In regard to the strategic bombing during World War II , there

5760-526: Was absorbed into the Nazi monopoly on power after regional police jurisdiction was removed in favour of the central Nazi government (" Reich -ification", Verreichlichung , of the police). The Orpo was controlled nominally by the Interior Ministry , but its executive functions rested with the leadership of the SS until the end of World War II . Owing to their green uniforms, Orpo were also referred to as Grüne Polizei (green police). The force

5840-663: Was also commissioned as an SS- Gruppenführer . The division was equipped largely with captured Czech materiel and underwent military training in the Black Forest combined with periods on internal security duties in Poland. The division, at this time an infantry formation with horse-drawn transport, was held in reserve with Army Group C in the Rhineland during the Battle of France until 9 June when it first saw combat during

5920-435: Was first established as a centralised organisation uniting the municipal, city, and rural uniformed police that had been organised on a state-by-state basis. The Ordnungspolizei encompassed virtually all of Nazi Germany's law-enforcement and emergency response organisations, including fire brigades , coast guard , and civil defence . In the prewar period, Heinrich Himmler , head of the SS , and Kurt Daluege , chief of

6000-513: Was forced to retreat to a new defensive line at Kolpino where it was successful in holding the Red Army , despite suffering heavy casualties. It was at this point that units of the division were transferred to the west to retrain and upgrade to a Panzergrenadier division; leaving a small Kampfgruppe (battlegroup) in the east and a Dutch Volunteer Legion, the Niederland , to make up

6080-457: Was no international treaty or instrument protecting a civilian population specifically from attack by aircraft, therefore the aerial attacks on civilians were not officially war crimes. The Allies at the trials in Nuremberg and Tokyo never prosecuted the Germans, including Luftwaffe commander-in-chief Hermann Göring , for the bombing raids on Warsaw , Rotterdam , and British cities during

6160-404: Was nominally subordinate to Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick . However, the decree effectively subordinated the police to the SS . Himmler gained authority as all of Germany's uniformed law enforcement agencies were amalgamated into the new Ordnungspolizei , whose main office became populated by officers of the SS . The police were divided into the Ordnungspolizei (Orpo or order police) and

6240-594: Was stationed outside of Belgrade to defend the Danube on the Belgrade-Timisoara-Arad line against Soviet advances in Transylvania. After the capture of Debrecen by the 2nd Ukrainian Front, the division was forced to withdraw to Senta and Sannicolau Mare on 6 October 1944, and eventually to behind the Tisza at Szeged and blew the bridges on 9 October. After Soviet successes on the east bank of

6320-455: Was transferred to the Waffen-SS ; its personnel changing their police insignia to that of the SS. The formation was involved in heavy fighting between January and March which resulted in the destruction of the Soviet 2nd Shock Army during the Battle of Lyuban . The remainder of the year was spent on the Leningrad front. In February 1943, the division saw action south of Lake Ladoga and

6400-540: Was under the overall control of Reichsführer-SS Himmler as Chief of the German Police in the Ministry of the Interior. It was initially commanded by SS- Oberstgruppenführer und Generaloberst der Polizei Kurt Daluege . In May 1943, Daluege had a massive heart attack and was removed from duty. He was replaced by SS- Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS und der Polizei Alfred Wünnenberg , who served until

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