A Cossack Polizei unit in the Balkans?

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Ivan Ž.
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A Cossack Polizei unit in the Balkans?

#1

Post by Ivan Ž. » 31 Mar 2017, 13:06

Dear everyone,

Apparently, there was a Cossack Polizei unit fighting in the Balkans (judging by an original photo caption), does anyone have any info on such a unit? The pictured men seem to be wearing ordinary Orpo uniforms.

Thanks very much in advance,
Ivan

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Re: A Cossack Polizei unit in the Balkans?

#2

Post by djehuty » 31 Mar 2017, 23:31

I know of a unit in the Balkans named Russische Sicherheitskörper, formed by 11.197 men in 5 Regiments. I don't know if they were polizei ones.
The commanders were
Major General V. Morozov
Colonel B. Merdshanow
General B. Gontarev
Colonel A. Eingolz
Colonel N. Popow-Kokulin

Regards


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Re: A Cossack Polizei unit in the Balkans?

#3

Post by Ivan Ž. » 31 Mar 2017, 23:39

Thank you for the reply, djehuty. The name of the unit you were thinking of was Russisches Schutzkorps (it was not a police unit).

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Ivan

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Re: A Cossack Polizei unit in the Balkans?

#4

Post by Semenov » 01 Apr 2017, 20:03

Hi, Ivan!

Please - posted you photo :milsmile:

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Re: A Cossack Polizei unit in the Balkans?

#5

Post by Ivan Ž. » 02 Apr 2017, 10:28

By all means :) The photo can be found in several archives. Here's an Ullstein Bild copy (via Getty Images). The original PK caption was the following: "Cossacks are fighting in the ranks of the German police against Bolshevik gangs in the Balkans. After the forest has been combed, a number of prisoners are brought in by the police riders." The photographer was SS-Kriegsberichter Stanek, whose (known) photos usually show policemen or Cossacks in the Balkans (Yugoslavia).
00083710.jpg
Ivan

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Re: A Cossack Polizei unit in the Balkans?

#6

Post by Ivan Ž. » 02 Apr 2017, 15:42

Another photo from the Balkans by SS-KB Stanek: http://bandenkampf.blogspot.rs/2015/10/bk0079.html

Ivan

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Re: A Cossack Polizei unit in the Balkans?

#7

Post by Semenov » 04 Apr 2017, 00:13

Ivan Ž. wrote:By all means :) The photo can be found in several archives. Here's an Ullstein Bild copy (via Getty Images). The original PK caption was the following: "Cossacks are fighting in the ranks of the German police against Bolshevik gangs in the Balkans. After the forest has been combed, a number of prisoners are brought in by the police riders." The photographer was SS-Kriegsberichter Stanek, whose (known) photos usually show policemen or Cossacks in the Balkans (Yugoslavia).

00083710.jpg

Ivan
on my opnion its Wehrmacht ordinary unit - not cossacks, not polizei

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Re: A Cossack Polizei unit in the Balkans?

#8

Post by Ivan Ž. » 04 Apr 2017, 01:21

Thank you for the reply, dear Semenov, but the PK caption is hardly wrong. SS-KB Stanek did indeed take shots of the Cossacks and the police and his photo captions were matching too. For this photo, as previously mentioned, he wrote that they are Cossacks in the ranks of the German police. There was no reason for a German war correspondent to suddenly start lying about the unit he took a photo of. Note also that there are no similar photos from Yugoslavia, of cavalrymen hunting the guerillas, at least known to me (except for a couple of those taken by Stanek); so it's quite a unique photo of likely a unique unit.

Cheers,
Ivan

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Re: A Cossack Polizei unit in the Balkans?

#9

Post by Semenov » 04 Apr 2017, 10:04

Ivan Ž. wrote:Thank you for the reply, dear Semenov, but the PK caption is hardly wrong. SS-KB Stanek did indeed take shots of the Cossacks and the police and his photo captions were matching too. For this photo, as previously mentioned, he wrote that they are Cossacks in the ranks of the German police. There was no reason for a German war correspondent to suddenly start lying about the unit he took a photo of. Note also that there are no similar photos from Yugoslavia, of cavalrymen hunting the guerillas, at least known to me (except for another one of the same mounted policemen, with their backs turned); so it's quite a unique photo of likely a unique unit.

Cheers,
Ivan
They didn't wears police arm aegles or any cossacks insignies

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Re: A Cossack Polizei unit in the Balkans?

#10

Post by Ivan Ž. » 04 Apr 2017, 10:22

But that is really impossible to claim by looking at this photo! Police sleeve eagles are often barely visible even in the close up portraits, let alone in the distant shots like this one. One can see no insignia here whatsoever, not just the Cossack or police ones. Take a look at this police photo from Belarus, for example: 000089 (and click next/previous). Can you really see the sleeve eagles?

Again, Stanek was not making a unit up, war correspondents did not do things like that.

Is it known whether the German Police in Croatia (Njemačko redarstvo u Hrvatskoj), which was a German-Croatian force, perhaps accepted other nationalities in their ranks as well?

Ivan

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Re: A Cossack Polizei unit in the Balkans?

#11

Post by Ivan Ž. » 13 Jul 2019, 13:59

Note: earlier I added a wrong caption to the photo (I've removed it to avoid confusion). There are two very similar photos actually, but their captions differ (one of them is longer). Here are both photos and their original captions:

"Cossacks are fighting in the ranks of the German police against Bolshevik gangs in the Balkans. After the forest has been combed, a number of prisoners are brought in by the police riders."
00095283.jpg
00095283.jpg (190.66 KiB) Viewed 1924 times
"Captured bandits are brought in by a mounted police patrol in the Balkans."
00083710.jpg
00083710.jpg (144.29 KiB) Viewed 1924 times
(Photo sources: SZ-Photo / Ullstein Bild, via Getty Images)

Cheers,
Ivan

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Re: A Cossack Polizei unit in the Balkans?

#12

Post by Ivan Ž. » 14 Jul 2019, 13:16

This might be the unit in question (a quote from "Nemačka obaveštajna služba" vol. III):
In November 1944, a Wehrmacht's Cossack squadron commanded by Cavalry Captain von Schidlovsky arrived in the Ljutomer area, retreating from the Yugoslav territory. The squadron was subordinated to the Order Police, within the BdO Alpenland. The Cossack squadron carried out numerous field actions against the OF and the Partisans, arresting, interrogating and organising its own intelligence service...
The photographer (Stanek) was indeed stationed in Slovenia and photographed members of the Order Police and Cossacks. The only mismatching detail currently is the date; Stanek dated his (Cossack) photos September 1944, while the book claims the unit arrived there in November.

Does anyone have info on this unit and Captain von Schidlovsky? According to the book, he was KIA (that's all that's written about him). Partisan documents do mention various Cossacks arriving in Slovenia in September, but whether they were subordinated to the police, I don't know.

Cheers,
Ivan

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Re: A Cossack Polizei unit in the Balkans?

#13

Post by K.Kocjancic » 15 Aug 2019, 16:00

Ivan Ž. wrote:
14 Jul 2019, 13:16
This might be the unit in question (a quote from "Nemačka obaveštajna služba" vol. III):
In November 1944, a Wehrmacht's Cossack squadron commanded by Cavalry Captain von Schidlovsky arrived in the Ljutomer area, retreating from the Yugoslav territory. The squadron was subordinated to the Order Police, within the BdO Alpenland. The Cossack squadron carried out numerous field actions against the OF and the Partisans, arresting, interrogating and organising its own intelligence service...
The photographer (Stanek) was indeed stationed in Slovenia and photographed members of the Order Police and Cossacks. The only mismatching detail currently is the date; Stanek dated his (Cossack) photos September 1944, while the book claims the unit arrived there in November.

Does anyone have info on this unit and Captain von Schidlovsky? According to the book, he was KIA (that's all that's written about him). Partisan documents do mention various Cossacks arriving in Slovenia in September, but whether they were subordinated to the police, I don't know.

Cheers,
Ivan
I think that you're looking for "Polizeireiterabteilung Serbien". The core was of Russian White Guardsmen, but the majority of the personnel were Serbian. In Slovenia, the unit was active in Untersteiermark.

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Re: A Cossack Polizei unit in the Balkans?

#14

Post by Ivan Ž. » 15 Aug 2019, 17:31

Excellent, Klemen! Thank you very much.

I believe we got it now: the Cossack Polizei unit photographed by Stanek was, apparently, the 3. Schwadron, Polizei-Reiter-Abteilung Serbien. (The date, September 1944, also matches now.)

From: https://www.dlib.si/stream/URN:NBN:SI:d ... c0cd76/PDF
Okupator je osvobodilno gibanje v vzhodnem predelu Slovenskih goric močno prizadejal, ko je jeseni 1944 poslal v območje Ljutomera in Radgone Kozake. Pripadali so III. eskadronu policijskega jahalnega srbskega oddelka (Polizei Reiterabteilung Serbien). Poveljevala sta jim kapetan Shlidowski in poročnik Friemermann. Enote so razporedili po okrožju: V Ljutomeru, žrebčarni na Moti, Bučkovcih, Vidmu ob Ščavnici in v Gornji Radgoni. Septembra 1944 jih je prispelo skupaj 346.
Also, from: http://www.lipovec.me/lipovci.htm
Kmalu so se kozaki vrnili na konjih iz Ljutomera. Sedaj jih je bilo čez dvajset.
...
Izvedeli smo, da so kozaki pripadali nemškemu odredu Polizeireiterabteilung - Serbien 3. Skvadron. Komandant odreda je bil Haupman Šidrovski. Pozneje je padel pri Žaleku v Logarovcih v borbi s partizanom Jurešom. Akcijo na Lipovčevi domačiji je vodil njegov namestnik Friemermann.
Do you perhaps know what was the correct spelling of the captain's name? There's von Schidlovsky, Šidrovski (Schidrovsky) and Shlidowski.

Cheers,
Ivan
Last edited by Ivan Ž. on 15 Aug 2019, 19:50, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: A Cossack Polizei unit in the Balkans?

#15

Post by K.Kocjancic » 15 Aug 2019, 19:44

Ivan Ž. wrote:
15 Aug 2019, 17:31
Excellent, Klemen! Thank you very much.

I believe we got it now: the Cossack Polizei unit photographed by Stanek was, apparently, the 3. Schwadron, Polizei-Reiter-Abteilung Serbien. (The date, September 1944, also matches now.)

From: https://www.dlib.si/stream/URN:NBN:SI:d ... c0cd76/PDF
Okupator je osvobodilno gibanje v vzhodnem predelu Slovenskih goric močno prizadejal, ko je jeseni 1944 poslal v območje Ljutomera in Radgone Kozake. Pripadali so III. eskadronu policijskega jahalnega srbskega oddelka (Polizei Reiterabteilung Serbien). Poveljevala sta jim kapetan Shlidowski in poročnik Friemermann. Enote so razporedili po okrožju: V Ljutomeru, žrebčarni na Moti, Bučkovcih, Vidmu ob Ščavnici in v Gornji Radgoni. Septembra 1944 jih je prispelo skupaj 346.
Also, from: http://www.lipovec.me/lipovci.htm
Kmalu so se kozaki vrnili na konjih iz Ljutomera. Sedaj jih je bilo čez dvajset.
...
Izvedeli smo, da so kozaki pripadali nemškemu odredu Polizeireiterabteilung - Serbien 3. Skvadron. Komandant odreda je bil Haupman Šidrovski. Pozneje je padel pri Žaleku v Logarovcih v borbi s partizanom Jurešom. Akcijo na Lipovčevi domačiji je vodil njegov namestnik Friemermann.
Do you perhaps know what was the correct spelling of the captain's name? There's von Schidlovsky, Šidrovski (Schidrovsky) and Shlidowski.

Cheers,
Ivan
I think that I have KUZOP files on (at least) one Squadron, plus several other partisan documents on them. I'll try to find it. Basically, Kuzop for Štajerska got personnel list for them and then wrote indictments for all the men on the list. Later, they realized that they "charged" people that were killed before and had to dismiss all the indictments. Very strange affair.

Do you perhaps have/know any Serbian/Serbo-Croat source on it, especially before Slovenia?

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