Schutzmannschaft (Hiwis)

Schutzmannschaft (Hiwis)
Unit name	Schutzmannschaft (Hiwis)
Dates	1941–1944
Country	Nazi Germany
Branch	Ordnungspolizei
Type	Auxiliary police
Role	Security, anti-partisan, garrison duties
Notable commanders	Otto von Ochsner, Curt von Gottberg, Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski

Schutzmannschaft (Hiwis) The Schutzmannschaft (Hiwis) were auxiliary police formations raised in occupied Soviet Union, Poland, Baltic States, and Belarus during World War II. Formed from local volunteers, conscripts, and collaborators, these units served alongside the Wehrmacht, Waffen-SS, and Einsatzgruppen in security, anti-partisan, and policing roles across the Eastern Front and occupied territories.

Background and formation

The creation of Schutzmannschaft units followed the Operation Barbarossa invasion and the rapid expansion of German occupation administration under leaders such as Hermann Göring, Heinrich Himmler, and Alfred Rosenberg. Early policing needs were managed by the Sicherheitspolizei, Deutsche Polizei, and the Einsatzgruppen, but manpower shortages led to the formation of local auxiliaries modeled on the Ordnungspolizei and overseen by regional Reichskommissariats like Reichskommissariat Ostland and Reichskommissariat Ukraine. German authorities recruited from populations in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine, Belarus, and occupied Poland under directives influenced by the racial policy articulated at conferences such as the Wannsee Conference.

Organization and units

Schutzmannschaft units varied from small village posts to battalions and companies integrated into German security structures, often designated Schutzmannschaft-Bataillon or Schutzmannschaft-Kompanie. They were administratively connected to the Ordnungspolizei, operationally subordinated to commanders like Curt von Gottberg and coordinated with formations including the Einsatzgruppen, SS-Totenkopfverbände, and local Selbstschutz units. Notable unit types included auxiliary police battalions, fire brigades, and garrison companies, paralleling structures seen in the Hilfspolizei and in units formed under the General Government administration.

Recruitment, roles, and duties

Recruitment drew from émigré collaborators, anti-Soviet nationalists, former Polish–Soviet War combatants, and civilian volunteers responding to anti-communist appeals by figures like Stepan Bandera or nationalist authorities in Ukrainian national movements. Duties included manning checkpoints, guarding railways, protecting depots alongside the Reichsbahn, conducting anti-partisan sweeps with Wehrmacht units, and assisting Einsatzgruppen in security operations. Many were deployed in territorial policing in cities such as Vilnius, Riga, Lviv, and Minsk and worked with administrative bodies like the civil administration of occupied areas.

Operations and activities

Schutzmannschaft units participated in mass security operations, anti-partisan campaigns, and, in numerous documented cases, in atrocities and reprisals against civilians, cooperating with the Einsatzgruppen during mass shootings and deportations to extermination sites such as Treblinka, Sobibor, Majdanek, and Auschwitz. They were active during major anti-partisan operations including the Bamberg operations and activities in the Białowieża Forest and supported actions against the Jewish partisans and Soviet partisans. Engagements overlapped with actions by the SS leadership, units under Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, and police formations linked to the Gestapo.

Collaboration, motivations, and controversies

Motivations for joining ranged from ideological alignment with groups like Ostland nationalists and anti-communist factions, to economic need, coercion, and survival under occupation policies enforced by administrators such as Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger and Wilhelm Kube. Collaboration has been debated by scholars examining figures including Roman Shukhevych, Pāvels Smolaks, and organizations like the UPA and the Lithuanian Activist Front. Controversies focus on culpability in war crimes, participation in the Holocaust in the Baltics, and coordination with German authorities including the RSHA and regional SS and police leaders. Historians referencing archives from Nuremberg Trials, studies by Yad Vashem, and research from institutions like the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum have documented widespread involvement in crimes against civilians.

Postwar accountability and legacy

After World War II, members faced varied fates: trials at venues influenced by the Nuremberg Trials framework, prosecutions in the Soviet Union, Poland, Lithuania, and Germany, and reintegration or emigration to countries like Argentina and Canada. Postwar legal actions involved tribunals under statutes from the Allied Control Council and evidence from German police records and survivor testimony collected by Arolsen Archives and Polish Institute of National Remembrance. The legacy of Schutzmannschaft auxiliaries remains contentious in debates over collaboration, national memory in Ukraine, Lithuania, and Latvia, and the historiography produced by scholars affiliated with universities such as Yale University, University of Oxford, and Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Category:Auxiliary police units of World War II