Blue Police
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![A "Blue policeman" of General Government in uniform](../../../../images/shared/thumb/c/cd/Blue_Policeman.jpg/300px-Blue_Policeman.jpg)
The Blue Police, more correctly translated as The Navy-Blue Police (Polish: Granatowa policja) was the popular name of the collaborationist police in the German occupied area of Poland known as General Government during the Second World War. The official name of the organization was Polish Police of the General Government (German: Polnische Polizei im Generalgouvernement, Polish: Policja Polska Generalnego Gubernatorstwa).
It was created by Nazi-Germany as an auxiliary paramilitary police force in order to keep law and order in the General Government part of occupied Poland. Similar police organizations existed in all of the occupied countries (see Hilfspolizei). Initially used to deal with purely criminal activities, the Blue Police was later used to also prevent smuggling, and to police the Jewish population in the ghettos. It was officially disbanded by the Polish Committee of National Liberation on August 27, 1944.[1][2]
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[edit] Organization
In October 1939, General Governor Hans Frank ordered the mobilization of the pre-war Polish police into the service of the Germans. The policemen were to report for duty or face the death penalty.[3]
According to the German plan, the police force was to consist of approximately 12,000 officers, but the actual number of its cadre was much lower.[4][5] However, some sources put the numbers as high as 14,300.[6] The Encyclopedia of the Holocaust reports its manpower as 8,700 in February 1940 and states that it reached its peak in 1943 with 16,000 members.[7] The Blue Police consisted primarily of Poles and Ukrainians from the eastern parts of the General Government.[8]
The Blue Police had no autonomy, and all of its high ranking officers came from the ranks of the German police (Kriminalpolizei). It served in the capacity of an auxiliary force, along with the police forces guarding seats of administration (Schutzpolizei), Railway Police (Bahnschutz), Forest Police (Forstschutz) and Border Police (Grenzschutz).[9] Blue Police was subordinate to German Ordnungspolizei.[10]
From the German perspective, the primary role of the Blue Police was to maintain law and order on the territories of occupied Poland, as to free the German police for other duties. As Heinrich Himmler stated in his order from May 5, 1940: "providing general police service in the General Government is the role of the Polish police. German police will intervene only if it is required by the German interests and will monitor the Polish police."[10]
As the force was primarily a continuation of the pre-war Polish police force, it also relied largely on pre-war regulations and laws, a situation that was accepted as a provisional necessity both by the Nazis and by the legitimate Polish authorities.[8] While the Polish Underground State had its own police force and judiciary (see National Security Corps and Directorate of Civil Resistance), it was unable to provide basic police services for the entire population of the former Second Polish Republic in the conditions of German occupation.
[edit] Historic assessment
The role of the Blue Police in its collaboration and resistance towards the Nazis is difficult to assess as a whole, and is often a matter of dispute.[11]
A significant part of the police personnel belonged to the Polish underground resistance organization Armia Krajowa[12], mostly in the counter-intelligence of the Home Army and the National Security Corps[13] Blue Police followed German orders reluctantly[14][11] and that the officers had little choice but to obey their orders or face death.[8] The Blue Police often disobeyed German orders or even acted against them[11], and some of its officers were ultimately awarded the Righteous Among the Nations award[15] (for example, Wacław Nowiński[16]).
On the other hand the police did take part in street roundups [6] as well as in numerous killings of Jews.[11]
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
[edit] Notes and references
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- In-line:
- ^ (English) Abraham J. Edelheit; Hershel Edelheit (1991). A World in Turmoil: An Integrated Chronology of the Holocaust and World War II. Greenwood Press, 311. ISBN 0313282188.
- ^ (Polish) Burda, Andrzej (1976). Polskie prawo państwowe. Warsaw: Państwowe Ẇydawnictwa Naukowe, 127.
- ^ (Polish) Hempel, Adam (1987). Policja granatowa w okupacyjnym systemie administracyjnym Generalnego Gubernatorstwa: 1939-1945. Warsaw: Instytut Wydawniczy Związków Zawodowych, 83.
- ^ (Polish) Wroński, Tadeusz (1974). Kronika okupowanego Krakowa. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 235-240.
- ^ (English) Paczkowski, Andrzej; Jane Cave (transl.) (2003). The Spring Will Be Ours: Poland and the Poles from Occupation to Freedom. Penn State Press, 54. ISBN 0-271-02308-2.
- ^ a b (English) Ringelblum, Emanuel (1992). in Joseph Kermish: Polish-Jewish Relations During the Second World War. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 133. ISBN 0810109638.
- ^ Encyclopedia of the Holocaust entry on the Blue Police, Macmillan Publishing Company, New York NY, 1990. ISBN 0028645278.
- ^ a b c (Polish) Hempel, Adam (1990). Pogrobowcy klęski: rzecz o policji "granatowej" w Generalnym Gubernatorstwie 1939-1945. Warsaw: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 435. ISBN 8301092912.
- ^ (Polish) Daszkiewicz, Andrzej. Ruch oporu w regionie Beskidu Niskiego: 1939-1944. Warsaw: Wydawnictwa MON, 9-10.
- ^ a b (Polish) POLACY W ORGANACH POLICYJNYCH NIEMIEC HITLEROWSKICH onthe pages of Wyższa Szkoła Policji w Szczecinie. 14.05.2007.
- ^ a b c d (English) Piotrowski, Tadeusz (1997). Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide.... McFarland & Company, 108-110. ISBN 0-7864-0371-3. See also review
- ^ Paczkowski (op.cit., p.60) cites 10% of policemen and 20% of officers
- ^ (Polish) "Policja Polska Generalnego Gubernatorstwa". Encyklopedia Internetowa PWN. (2005). Warsaw: Państwowe Wydawnictwa Naukowe.
- ^ (English) Gunnar S. Paulsson (2004). "The Demography of Jews in Hiding in Warsaw", The Holocaust: Critical Concepts in Historical Studies. London: Routledge, 118. ISBN 0415275091.
- ^ (Polish) IAR (corporate author). "Sprawiedliwy Wśród Narodów Świata 2005", Forum Żydzi - Chrześcijanie - Muzułmanie, Fundacja Kultury Chrześcijańskiej Znak, 2005-07-24. Retrieved on 2007-02-20. (Polish)
- ^ Polish rescuer Waclaw Nowinski