Order Police

Order Police
source
Unit name	Order Police
Native name	Ordnungspolizei
Country	Nazi Germany
Branch	Police (uniformed)
Type	Gendarmerie / Constabulary
Active	1936–1945
Size	~300,000 (peak)
Notable commanders	Kurt Daluege, Heinrich Himmler

Order Police was the centralized uniformed police force of Nazi Germany that served across the Reich, occupied territories, and frontlines during World War II. It functioned as a major instrument of internal control, public order, and security operations, interacting with Schutzstaffel, Wehrmacht, and occupation administrations. Its personnel participated in policing, anti-partisan warfare, deportations, and mass murder, making the organization a focus of postwar legal and historical scrutiny.

Origins and Organization

The formation of the force followed reforms under Heinrich Himmler and Kurt Daluege that integrated municipal, municipal rural, and provincial police structures into a centralized body modeled on Prussian and Weimar Republic precedents, merging units such as the Schutzpolizei, Gendarmerie and city police into a uniformed service aligned with National Socialist German Workers' Party policy. Administrative control shifted between the Interior Ministry (Nazi Germany) apparatus and the SS Main Office, with command networks linking to regional Gauleiter offices, provincial administrations like those in Silesia and Bavaria, and military districts (Wehrkreis) established after the Reichstag Fire. Training institutions such as the Ordnungspolizei schools adopted curricula influenced by doctrine from SS-Verfügungstruppe and SA practice, while career paths connected to awards like the Iron Cross for combat-linked policing and to police ranks comparable to SS rank structures.

Role in Nazi Germany

Within the Reich, the organization enforced Nuremberg Laws-era racial and public order policies, coordinated with agencies like the Gestapo and Kriminalpolizei on political policing, and supported state projects ranging from deportations to labor administration under offices such as the Reich Ministry of the Interior and Reich Security Main Office (RSHA). It policed major events tied to the 1936 Summer Olympics, security for leaders including Adolf Hitler and Hermann Göring, and maintained order in cities like Berlin, Hamburg, and Munich. Its bureaucratic links reached institutions such as the Reichstag, Reich Ministry of Transport, and municipal magistrates, enabling wide-ranging involvement in state repression and societal control during the Third Reich.

Activities during World War II

During campaigns including the invasions of Poland (1939) and the Operation Barbarossa, units performed security duties, manned checkpoints, guarded deportation trains to places like Auschwitz concentration camp and Treblinka, and conducted anti-partisan sweeps in territories from Ukraine to Belarus. Battalions were organized into numbered regiments operating in conjunction with formations such as the Waffen-SS, Heer, and General Government administrations, participating in massacres linked to events like the Babi Yar massacre and cooperating with Einsatzgruppen detachments. They engaged in policing in occupied capitals like Warsaw, Lviv, and Riga; enforced forced labor policies affecting victims transported via Reichsbahn; and implemented decisions from conferences including Wannsee Conference by assisting in deportation and extermination logistics.

Relationship with SS and Wehrmacht

The force maintained dual loyalties: administratively tied to the Reich Ministry of the Interior while increasingly subordinated to the Schutzstaffel and its leaders, especially after Himmler’s appointment as Chief of German Police. Operationally, it coordinated with the Wehrmacht high command, including commands like Heeresgruppe Mitte and Army Group North, for rear-area security, logistics, and anti-partisan operations. Its integration with SS structures meant frequent cooperation with entities such as the RSHA, Einsatzgruppen, and SS and Police Leaders appointed in occupied territories, while tensions arose over jurisdiction with senior officers from the OKW and regional Oberbefehlshaber staffs.

Postwar Accountability and Trials

After 1945, Allied authorities and tribunals addressed crimes involving police personnel through proceedings like the Nuremberg Trials, subsequent military tribunals, and denazification processes administered by occupation authorities in zones controlled by United States, United Kingdom, France, and Soviet Union. Specific prosecutions targeted members involved in massacres, deportations, and anti-partisan atrocities; cases appeared in venues such as the International Military Tribunal and follow-up trials, along with national courts in Poland, Soviet Union, Israel and West Germany. Many lower-ranking personnel avoided prosecution due to evidentiary gaps, Cold War priorities, and reintegration into postwar policing and administrations like the Bundespolizei and municipal forces, raising debates over justice, memory, and continuity.

Legacy and Historical Assessment

Historians and institutions such as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Yad Vashem, and university centers studying Holocaust and genocide have examined the organization’s role in implementing state terror, contributing to scholarship by figures associated with universities like Oxford, Yale, Hebrew University, and University of Cambridge. Debates persist about degrees of voluntarism, obedience, and bureaucratic complicity among personnel, discussed in works connected to scholars publishing in journals affiliated with Institute of Contemporary History (Munich), International Tracing Service, and research programs funded by bodies like the German Research Foundation. Memorialization efforts in sites including Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Babi Yar memorial, and municipal museums confront challenges of attribution and responsibility, while ongoing archival releases from repositories such as the Bundesarchiv, US National Archives, and Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People continue to refine understanding.

Category:Law enforcement in Nazi Germany Category:Organizations involved in the Holocaust