Hitler's Police Battalions: Enforcing Racial War in the East

Modern War Studies

by Edward B. Westermann

When the German Wehrmacht swarmed across Eastern Europe, an elite corps followed close at its heels. Along with the SS and Gestapo, the Ordnungspolizei, or Uniformed Police, played a central role in Nazi genocide that until now has been generally neglected by historians of the war.

Beginning with the invasion of Poland, the Uniformed Police were charged with following the army to curb resistance, pacify the countryside, patrol Jewish ghettos, and generally maintain order in the conquered territories. Edward Westermann examines how this force emerged as a primary instrument of annihilation, responsible for the murder of hundreds of thousands of the Third Reich's political and racial enemies. In Hitler's Police Battalions he reveals how the institutional mindset of these "ordinary policemen" allowed them to commit atrocities without a second thought.

To uncover the story of how the German national police were fashioned into a corps of political soldiers, Westermann reveals initiatives pursued before the war by Heinrich Himmler and Kurt Daluege to create a culture within the existing police forces that fostered anti-Semitism and anti-Communism as institutional norms. Challenging prevailing interpretations of German culture, Westermann draws on extensive archival research—including the testimony of former policemen—to illuminate this transformation and the callous organizational culture that emerged.

Purged of dissidents, indoctrinated to idolize Hitler, and trained in military combat, these police battalions-often numbering several hundred men-repeatedly conducted actions against Jews, Slavs, gypsies, asocials, and other groups on their own initiative, even when they had the choice not to. In addition to documenting these atrocities, Westermann examines cooperation between the Ordnungspolizei and the SS and Gestapo, and the close relationship between police and Wehrmacht in the conduct of the anti-partisan campaign of annihilation.

Throughout, Westermann stresses the importance of ideological indoctrination and organizational initiatives within specific groups. It was the organizational culture of the Uniformed Police, he maintains, and not German culture in general that led these men to commit genocide. Hitler's Police Battalions provides the most complete and comprehensive study to date of this neglected branch of Himmler's SS and Police empire and adds a new dimension to our understanding of the Holocaust and the war on the Eastern front.

Genres: History, World War II, Holocaust, Nonfiction

346 pages, Hardcover

First published May 27, 2005

About the author

Edward Westermann received his PhD from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 2000. He was a Fulbright Fellow at the Free University of Berlin, a German Academic Exchange Service fellow on three occasions, as well as a fellow at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. He has published three books and numerous articles and book chapters on topics dealing with military history, the Holocaust, and air power history. He is also a retired US Air Force Colonel with 25 years of service.

Reviews

[Brett C · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very thorough, well-researched, and detailed account of the Police Battalions. These militaristic policemen were a vital role in the Third Reich's eastward expansion. This book starts with their history and moves into the recruitment, indoctrination of SS/Nazi ideology, training, Active Duty vs. Reservist policemen, lethality, and their role in enforcing racial policy in the occupied territories. Something I found very important was the mentioning of the Einsatzgruppen and there battalions march into Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Belarus, Ukraine, and the Caucasus region. Also in the book are some "police actions" committed by various Police Battalions to include the famous PB 101.

Further reading on this subject include "Masters of Death" by Richard Rhodes and "Ordinary Men" by Christopher R. Browning.

[FellowBibliophile KvK · Rating 4 out of 5]

Detailed analysis of the Uniformed Police deployed in the East.

However, Colonel Westermann overlooked the pension system, something that, as David Simon points out in Homicide: A Year On The Killing Streets is central in understanding the motives of police. Police serving in Poland were entitled to hardship pay (whereas NYPD MOS who serve at Fort Apache make the exact same as Queens Marines of their rank and time on the job.) Uniformed Police pay was pensionable from the 27th birthday of the MOS until retirement, and could go as high as 75% (in the NYPD, the standard pension after 22 years of service in 50%; only those who are injured beyond the point of returning to the Job being allowed to receive 3/4).

[Alex Mchugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

An in-depth look at the participation of police forces in the Holocaust and the war in the east. I found it somewhat repetitive, though informative. The author spends a lot of time talking about examples that are very similar in a way that I know is popular in history texts. As a non-historian this was a little off-putting to me. I also wasn't really moved by the books claims either. Perhaps its a side-effect of my own political leanings, but I wasn't surprised at all that the police quickly became militarized during and leading up to Nazi takeover and that policemen took part in all kinds of atrocities. Still, the author does a good job of explaining the extent of that participation and especially at nailing down the formal systems that allowed this to occur and connected the police to the regime.

[Nick]

Stopped after chapter 3. I'd like to come back to this one day when the study of Nazism is not sullied by the memory of school.