Belarusian Auxiliary Police

Belarusian Auxiliary Police

Inspection of Belarusian Auxiliary Police by Radasłaŭ Astroŭski
Active from July 1941
Allegiance Nazi Germany
Role Auxiliary police
Engagements Anti-partisan operations
The Holocaust in Belarus

The Belarusian Auxiliary Police (Belarusian: Беларуская дапаможная паліцыя, Biełaruskaja dapamožnaja palicyja; German: Weißruthenische Schutzmannschaften, or Hilfspolizei) was established in July 1941. Staffed by local inhabitants, it had similar functions to those of the German Ordnungspolizei (OrPo) in occupied territories. The activities of the formation were supervised by defense police departments, local commandants' offices, and garrison commandants. The units consisted of one police officer for every 100 rural inhabitants and one police officer for every 300 urban inhabitants. The OD was in charge of guard duty, and included both stationary and mobile posts plus groups of orderlies. It was subordinate to the defense police leadership.[1]

See also: Belarusian Central Rada and the Belarusian Home Defence (BKA) led by members of the Belarusian Auxiliary Police from 1944

Activities

Belarusian Auxiliary Police participated in civilian massacres across villages on the territory of modern-day Belarus; dubbed the anti-partisan actions.[1][2]

Belarusian Auxiliary Police in Mogilew, March 1943.

The German police battalions as well as Einsatzgruppen carried out the first wave of killings. The pacification actions were conducted using experienced Belarusian auxiliary guards in roundups (as in Homel, Mozyrz, Kalinkowicze, Korma). The Belarusian police took on a secondary role in the first stage of the killings. The ghettoised Jews were controlled and brutalized before mass executions (as in Dobrusz, Czeczersk, Żytkowicze).[3] After a while the auxiliary police, being locals, not only led the Jews out of the ghettos to places of massacres but also took active part in the shooting actions.[4] Such tactic was successful (without much exertion of force) in places where the destruction of the Jews was carried out in early September, and throughout October and November 1941. In winter 1942, a different tactic was used - the killing raids in Żłobin, Petryków, Streszyn, Czeczersk.[3] The role of the Belarusian police in the killings became particularly noticeable during the second wave of the ghetto liquidation actions,[5] starting in February–March 1942.[6] However, little is known about the specifics of those atrocities committed by the Auxiliary Police in the vast number of small communities both across the territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union and in the Soviet Belarus because the Belarusian police involvement in the Holocaust is not acknowledged publicly in the country. Article 28 in the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus, under the "Procedures Governing Access to Documents Containing Information Relating to the Secret Life of Private Citizens" (added in July 1996) denies access to information about Belarusians who served with the Nazis.[7] "The official memorial narrative allows only a pro-Soviet version of the resistance to the German invaders."[8][9]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Eugeniusz Mironowicz (2014). "Okupacja niemiecka na Białorusi" [German occupation of Belarus]. History of Belarus, mid 18th century until the 20th century (Historia Białorusi od połowy XVIII do XX w.) (in Polish and Belarusian). Związek Białoruski w RP, Katedra Kultury Białoruskiej Uniwersytetu w Białymstoku (Internet Archive). Idea sojuszu niemiecko-białoruskiego (German-Belarusian Alliance). Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
  2. ↑ The Nazi Occupation in Belarus (empty page, archived by Wayback)
  3. 1 2 Dr. Leonid Smilovitsky (September 2005). Fran Bock, ed. "Ghettos in the Gomel Region: Commonalities and Unique Features, 1941-42". Letter from Ilya Goberman in Kiriat Yam (Israel), September 17, 2000. Belarus SIG, Online Newsletter No. 11/2005. Note 16: Archive of the author; Note 17: M. Dean, Collaboration in the Holocaust.
  4. ↑ Dean, Martin (2000). Collaboration in the Holocaust. Crimes of the Local Police in Belorussia and Ukraine, 1941-1944. New York: St. Martin's Press (in association with USHMM). pp. 77–8. ISBN 1403963711. Retrieved June 2016. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  5. ↑ Andrea Simon (2002). Bashert: A Granddaughter's Holocaust Quest. Univ. Press of Mississippi. p. 228. ISBN 1578064813.
  6. ↑ Alexey Litvin (Алексей Лiтвiн), Participation of the local police in the extermination of Jews (Участие местной полиции в уничтожении евреев, в акциях против партизан и местного населения.); (in) Местная вспомогательная полиция на территории Беларуси, июль 1941 — июль 1944 гг. (The auxiliary police in Belarus, July 1941 - July 1944).
  7. ↑ Meredith M. Meehan (2010). "Auxiliary Police Units in the Occupied Soviet Union, 1941-43: A Case Study of the Holocaust in Gomel, Belarus" (PDF). United States Naval Academy: 44 – via PDF file, direct download 2.13 MB.
  8. ↑ Alexandra Goujon (28 August 2008). "Memorial Narratives of WWII Partisans and Genocide in Belarus". France: University of Bourgogne: 4 – via DOC file, direct download.
  9. ↑ John-Paul Himka & Joanna Beata Michlic. "Bringing the Dark Past to Light. The Reception of the Holocaust in Postcommunist Europe" (PDF). University of Nebraska Press: 16. ISBN 0803246471.
  10. ↑ Shoah in Belarus at 2014 Geni.com
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/10/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.