SS and police leader: Difference between revisions

After the March 1938 ''Anschluss'' when Austria was absorbed into the German Reich, two new ''Wehrkreise'' and corresponding HSSPF were established there as well. Likewise, after the October 1939 conquest of [[Second Polish Republic|Poland]], two additional ''Wehrkreise'' and corresponding HSSPF were created for those Polish areas that were directly incorporated into the Reich.{{sfn|Yerger|1997|pp=36-37, 39-40}}

 

 

Finally, in the autumn of 1943, Himmler created two ''Höchster SS- und Polizeiführer'' (Supreme SS and Police Leader, HöSSPF) posts with jurisdiction over very large territories; these were ''Italien'' (1943–1945) and ''Ukraine'' (1943–1944), each of which had both HSSPF and SSPF reporting to them.{{sfn|Yerger|1997|pp=23-25}}

 

== Operations ==

 

 

In 1944 and 1945, many HSSPF were promoted to their corresponding general's rank in the [[Waffen-SS]] by Himmler. This was apparently an attempt to provide potential protection for them, by giving them [[combatant]] status under the [[Hague Conventions (1907)|Hague Convention]] rules of warfare.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/08-05-46.asp| title = Nuremberg Trial Proceedings Volume 20 day 195| publisher = Avalon Project, Yale Law School| access-date = 2009-01-03}}</ref>

The SS and Police Leaders were the overseeing authority of the [[Jews|Jewish]] [[Nazi ghettos|ghettos]] in Poland and directly coordinated deportations to Nazi [[extermination camps]]. They had direct command over [[Order Police battalions]] and SD regiments that were assigned to guard the ghettos. The HSSPF regularly provided SS and police guards and other support personnel for the transports to the death camps, and also negotiated with the agencies and ministries of the Reich for rolling stock, supplies and provisions, rail schedules, and an array of other requirements necessary to keep the roundups and the death trains moving efficiently. And, in the satellite and client states, the HSSPF negotiated directly with the [[puppet state|puppet]] or [[Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy|collaborationist]] governments to hand over their Jews for deportation to the East. Finally, the HSSPF were also directly involved in the construction and operation of the extermination camps.<ref>[https://www.museumoftolerance.com/education/archives-and-reference-library/online-resources/simon-wiesenthal-center-annual-volume-6/annual-6-chapter-10.html On the Historiography of the SS] in [https://www.museumoftolerance.com/ Museum of Tolerance] Retrieved 14 February 2022.</ref> Following the end of the war, many SS and Police Leaders, particularly those who had served in Poland and the Soviet Union, either committed [[suicide]] or were charged with [[war crime]]s and [[crimes against humanity]].{{sfn|Yerger|1997|p=23}}

 

 

The tables below provide as complete an accounting of the SS and police commands and their leaders as is known. They list the permanent appointees, but omit any substitutes who temporarily acted in that capacity when the incumbent was on leave or on another assignment.

| ''Warthe'' || XXI || [[Reichsgau Wartheland]] || [[Poznań|Posen]] || [[Wilhelm Koppe]]<br/>[[Theodor Berkelmann]]<br/>[[Heinz Reinefarth]]<br/>[[Willy Schmelcher]] || October 1939 – November 1943<br/>November 1943 – December 1943<br/>January 1944 – December 1944<br/>December 1944 – May 1945

|}

 

{| class="wikitable"

| ''Slowakei'' || [[Slovak Republic (1939–1945)]] || [[Pressburg]] || [[Gottlob Berger]]<br/>[[Hermann Höfle]] || August 1944 – September 1944<br/ >September 1944 – May 1945

|-

|}

 

{| class="wikitable"