Holocaust ques.?

Question

What were the german police also called?

Answer 1

Nazi Germany was a hodgepodge of overlapping agencies and bureacracies. Depending on the region, power of the local Gueleiter or SS bureacrat, the 'police' duties fell on the Ordnungspolizei (regular police), Gestapo (secret police), Totenkopfverbände (Nazi concentration camps), SD (intelligence service), and certain units of the Waffen-SS (combat units..most notably the Einsantzgruppen).

In theory, an SS and Police Leader had authority to command and commandeer any SS unit available in a particular region; however, in practice SS units answered to their immediate chain of command or forceful 'personality' who happened to be in the area. One example toward the end of the war, A. Eichmann was able to commandeer trains bound with munitions to the front to be used to transport Hungarian Jews to Auchswitz. Police Battalions and SD Regiments were used to police the Polish Ghettos.

Leaders such as Himmler, Heydrich and even Goering were more into establishing fiefdoms, rather that well-oiled police chain of commands or dileneated spheres of influence. In his book, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, William Shirer stated that it was the intent of the Fuhrer to have rival 'fiefdoms' fighting among themselves which gave him greater power as the dictator.

Answer 2

The SS had no 'police' role- they were purely a political and military force. They provided guards for the concentration camps, in large part because they were the most 'Nazi-fied' organisation fed totally on Nazi eugenic myths about Aryan superiority.

The Gestapo were the secret police, who carried out investigations and made arrests, inevitably often political in nature. If you were a resistance fighter or hiding Jews or similar, is was the Gestapo that you feared.

Additionally, there were also regular police who did 'normal' police work.

Answer 3

The SS was established in 1925 as a personal guard unit for Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. Under the leadership of Heinrich Himmler between 1929 and 1945, the SS grew from a small paramilitary formation to become one of the largest and most powerful organizations in Nazi Germany. The Nazis regarded the SS as an elite unit, the party's "Praetorian Guard," with all SS personnel selected on the principles of racial purity and unconditional loyalty to the Nazi Party.

In contrast to the black-uniformed Allgemeine-SS, the political wing of the SS, the military wing, the Waffen-SS evolved into a second German army within the Wehrmacht, operating in tandem with the regular German army, the Heer. The Waffen-SS gained a reputation as extraordinary soldiers, but also for notorious brutality against civilians and prisoners of war. Its units helped wipe out resistance by Polish Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and slaughtered a number of U.S. prisoners of war near the Belgian town of Malmedy during the Battle of the Bulge in 1944.

The SS was distinguished from the German military, Nazi party, and German state officials by its own SS rank structure, SS unit insignia, and SS uniforms. SS uniforms were designed and made by Hugo Boss, a large and famous manufacturer of men's clothing that is still in business today

Answer 4

Geheime Staatspolizei: The Secret State Police, also known as the Gestapo

Answer 5

I totally agree that german police were not SS.
cause SS was totally like security guards provided for top Politicians, they even served for detective purpose.

Answer 6

Gestapo

Answer 7

Gestapo

Answer 8

The SS.