Geheime Feldpolizei

Geheime Feldpolizei
Unit name	Geheime Feldpolizei
Dates	1939–1945
Country	Nazi Germany
Branch	Wehrmacht
Type	Military police, security police
Role	Counterintelligence, security, anti-partisan operations
Garrison	Berlin
Notable commanders	Heinrich Himmler, Wilhelm Keitel, Erwin von Witzleben
Battles	Invasion of Poland (1939), Battle of France, Operation Barbarossa, Battle of Stalingrad

Geheime Feldpolizei The Geheime Feldpolizei was the secret field police force of Nazi Germany active during World War II. It operated alongside the Abwehr, Sicherheitsdienst, Gestapo, and the regular military police of the Wehrmacht, conducting counterintelligence, security, and anti-partisan actions across occupied territories. The organization became entwined with institutions such as the Reichssicherheitshauptamt, OKW, and regional commands tied to campaigns like Fall Gelb and Operation Barbarossa.

History and formation

The origins trace to prewar German military police reforms after the Treaty of Versailles and the expansion of the Reichswehr into the Wehrmacht under Adolf Hitler and Werner von Blomberg. Early iterations interacted with the Gestapo, Kriminalpolizei, and the Abwehr during the Invasion of Poland (1939) and the Phoney War. Under the influence of figures such as Heinrich Himmler, Wilhelm Keitel, and Walther von Brauchitsch, it formalized into a unit tasked with rear-area security during campaigns including Fall Gelb, Operation Barbarossa, and later defensive actions around Kursk and Stalingrad.

Organization and structure

Administratively, the unit sat between the Heer command and the Reichssicherheitshauptamt, creating friction with the Gestapo and Kripo. Its chain of command involved liaison with field armies of Heeresgruppe Nord, Heeresgruppe Mitte, and Heeresgruppe Süd. Regional bureaux mirrored the occupational administration of areas such as Poland, France, Norway, Netherlands, and the Soviet Union, coordinating with local commands like the Militärverwaltung in Frankreich and the General Government. Leadership posts were filled by officers who had served in Feldgendarmerie and sometimes transferred from the SS or Abwehr.

Roles and operations

Primary activities included counterintelligence, censorship, identification of resistance networks, and security of supply lines during operations like Case Blue and Barbarossa. They conducted investigations tied to sabotage attributed to groups linked to Polish Home Army, French Resistance, Yugoslav Partisans, and Soviet partisans. The unit also secured POW transit points, guarded military railheads used in the Battle of France and later in retreats from Normandy and the Eastern Front, and worked on enforcing occupation policies in coordination with authorities such as the General Government administration and the Reichskommissariat Ukraine.

Collaboration and jurisdictions

The force operated in close collaboration and competition with the Gestapo, Sicherheitsdienst, Ordnungspolizei, and Kriminalpolizei, leading to overlapping jurisdictions in places like Warsaw, Paris, Lviv, Brest-Litovsk, and Bergen. It liaised with military staffs of OKW and OKH and with occupation hierarchies such as the Reichskommissariat Ostland and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Cooperation extended to special units including the Einsatzgruppen, while disputes arose with agencies like the Abwehr over espionage cases and with civil administrators over policing prerogatives.

Methods and tactics

Tactics included interrogation, surveillance, clandestine arrests, informant networks, checkpoints, and raids aimed at disrupting cells associated with the French Resistance, Partisans (Yugoslavia), and Soviet partisans. They employed identification controls at river crossings, rail junctions, and urban quarters such as Warsaw Ghetto perimeters and occupied sectors of Paris and Amsterdam. For anti-partisan warfare, methods mirrored those used by Einsatzgruppen and SS-Totenkopfverbände in punitive sweeps and reprisals, often coordinated with regular formations during operations like the suppression of uprisings linked to Warsaw Uprising and partisan outbreaks after Stalingrad.

War crimes and postwar accountability

Numerous operations involved practices later judged as war crimes and crimes against humanity, particularly in occupied Poland, the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, and Greece. Actions tied to reprisals, deportations, and collaboration with Einsatzgruppen and SS units brought individuals to the attention of postwar tribunals such as the Nuremberg Trials and national courts in Poland, Yugoslavia, and France. Some members were tried in proceedings alongside officials from the Reichssicherheitshauptamt, Gestapo, and SS, while others escaped immediate prosecution and were pursued in later decades by inquiries in the Federal Republic of Germany, Israel, and international commissions examining Holocaust-era crimes.

Category:Police of Nazi Germany