Krakov ghetto liquidation, which units?

[Orpoman]

Hello Orlov and other interested people

How is that meant?
The names of the police officers from Res.-Pol.-Batl. 74 are known. Their personnel files also exist.

The first battalion commander was Hauptmann der Schutzpolizei Fritz Schulze from Polizeiverwaltung Augsburg. From November 1940 to June 1943 was Major der Schutzpolizei Kurt Jampert (delegate from Polizeiverwaltung Munich to Augsburg) battalion commander.

Jampert.jpg (28.12 KiB) Viewed 869 times

Hauptmann der Schutzpolizei Reinhard Wachtarz from Polizeiverwaltung Munich, born 21.01.13 in Hindenburg, Kreis Oberschlesien.
From March 1941 to June 1943 company commander in the Reserve-Police-Battalion 74.

There are also other names, more accurate data and photos from the Krakow period of the battalion.

best regards
Daniel

[Orlov]

Super Orpoman!
Thanks for names - Currila was blocked by German DSGVO (or earlier Datenschutzrecht), relating to the names of persons testifying in war crimes investigations - the defendants are usually the highest ranking, and other officer, non-commissioned officer or private subject to this reservation. Hence Curilla gave numerous initials - I am also forced to do so, in order to retain the right to continue using the German archives - I signed the appropriate commitment.
And to think that only 5 or 6 Polizei-Battailonen were described since selective book about RPB 101.
Bestreg Orlov

[Orpoman]

Hello Orlow

You're welcome.

I know what you mean. But the German law also has some gaps.

For example, there is no right of personality when participating in war crimes. German police officers are also omitted because they were active as public figures. Furthermore, their personal data were published in Reichsranglisten(R.R.L.), which are freely accessible today. You understand what I mean?

My experience so far is that some archives and their staff are not fully aware of the laws. You also have to differentiate from state to state. There are small but subtle differences.

regards
Daniel

[Orlov]

Thank you for your comments, Orpoman.
You are absolutely right about the differentiation of legal solutions - I only signed the relevant declarations on data anonymization in the Bundeasarchiv Berlin and BA-MA. These differences are difficult to detect for people living outside Germany.
I began to understand the intricacies of German law partially after reading Philipp Marti's excellent monograph "Fall Reinefarth". And I understood more when I found out about the "kalte Amnesty" mechanism.
But nothing is heard about supplementing the fragmentary monograph on RPB 101 by historians from Hamburg, or about the activities of PB 74 by historians from Augsburg. Just like no one in Cracow is working on the activities of Pol.Rgt. Krakau.
I heard there is a PhD on Gend.Btl. I (mot.) - I wonder if this dissertation will be limited to Endlosung.
Bestreg Orlov

[Orpoman]

Hello Orlov,

the history of the German OrPo (SchuPo and Gendarmerie) is a highly complex topic that only a few students dare to tackle. To this day, all too often we only see constant repetition. Again and again police battalion 101, participation in the Shoah etc. As you correctly pointed out, there are so many other formations about which new findings could be published or researched. An objection on my part: How much longer are we going to harp on Browning's thesis of "normal men"? I'm saying it's going to be boring. How about the question why did normal men become perpetrators or rather, who led them there.The groups did not lead themselves (keywort: Wachtarz, Jampert etc.).

I'm sure you mean the work of Marius Seydel on the I./Gend.-Batl. mot.?

best regards
Daniel

[gebhk]

How about the question why did normal men become perpetrators or rather, who led them there.

While writing about the 1939 Polish campaign, AB Rossino spends some time addressing this question in his 2003 book "Hitler strikes Poland; blitzkrieg ideaology and atrocity" (University Press of Kansas). Well worth reading if you are interested in these querstions - he very much discounts the ideas of men 'brutalised by war' (it had only just started) and that only Nazi 'standardbearers' eg SS, OrPo, etc were responsible. Broadly his thesis seems to be that the state gave the Germans permission to behave like savages and encouraged them to do so, so they did. I would suggest that the Stanford Prison Experiment answers the rest (I know not everyone accepts its general conclusions - having seen the behaviour of a bunch of film extras dressed as riot police and involved in a riot scene - in a movie for goodness' sake! - I believe them entirely). The ordinary men thesis stands up well to these analysis - but you are quite right that it is the dominant societal norms that govern to what extent that part of most men's bahaviour is allowed free reign.

Seen from another perspective, although ultimately leading us to much the same place, a perspicacious comment from a friend who lived in rural Germany as a young girl before the war who said (and very sternly) that it was: "Silly, just plain silly. All those grown men dressing up in boy's uniforms, parading around, shouting and behaving like self-important schoolyard bullies". And just how savage kids without proper supervision rapidly become, is no great secret....

[Orlov]

[...] police battalion 101, [...] I'm sure you mean the work of Marius Seydel on the I./Gend.-Batl. mot.? [...]

You're right Orpoman -
Browning surfaced on this topic, but he was first exploring the issue of PB's crimes.
He presented journalistic theses, though less intense than Goldhagen.
As I wrote, Browning's book is selective - hardly anyone describes occupations in German-occupied territories in their entirety - of course I never question the uniqueness of the Shoah crimes - but Browning's or Curilla's failure to mention (in the three volumes so far) other victims is astonishingly flawed.
I went through the whole complex of "Bandenbekämpfung" issues in occupied Belarus - terrible brutality and cruelty (excellently shown in the Soviet feature - although in non-Sovietic aesthetics - "Go and See" by Elem Klimov). Of course, this took place practically after the end of the local Shoah - I only dealt a little with Endlösung in Sluzk. But practically no one from Western historians describes the tragedy of the inhabitants of Belarusian villages - the problem is confronting German documents with Belarusian ones, especially since they don't entry to TsA KGB RB - important sources to postwar investigations regarding local collaboration.
So we are waiting for Seidel's dissertation - I hope he will research Polish post-war investigations and confronted them with German and Austrian documents I'm dreaming again, I wish someone in Universität Augsburg would come up with the idea of writing a PhD about PB 74 warcrimes against Jews and Poles.

While writing about the 1939 Polish campaign, AB Rossino spends some time addressing this question in his 2003 book "Hitler strikes Poland; blitzkrieg ideaology and atrocity" (University Press of Kansas). [...] The ordinary men thesis stands up well to these analysis - but you are quite right that it is the dominant societal norms that govern to what extent that part of most men's bahaviour is allowed free reign. [..]

Rossino is an excellent historian and the quoted monograph is an example of how to describe brutalization in World War II.
However, I was more impressed by the numerous investigations in the 1960s and 1970s regarding the aforementioned brutalization of actions at the beginning of Fall Barbarossa - I had the impression that the German and Austrian soldiers of Inf.Div., Sich.Div. and Waffen-SS and Orpo units in June and July 1941 launched an unprecedented hunt for everyone (in alphabetical order) of Belarusians, Jews, Poles, Soviet prisoners of war and Ukrainians - they shot at everything that moved, like on a safari. Crossing the boundaries of humanity and tasting blood allowed for further extremization of military and police activities.
PS: At the same time, we should remember about the beginnings of this actual barbarism - that is Fall Weiß and the first fruits of "Bandenbekämpfung" in Distrikt Radom in GG, as described by Henning Pieper in "Fegelein's Horsemen and Genocidal Warfare: The SS Cavalry Brigade in the Soviet Union" (2015).

[Orlov]

New edition:
Ryszard Kotarba, Żydzi Krakowa w dobie zagłady (ZAL/KL Plaszow) [The Jews of Krakow in the time of extermination (ZAL/KL Plaszow)], Kraków–Warszawa 2022, pp. 827, ISBN 978-83-8229-600-6
This documentation basis for this volume are the collections in the archives of the Institute of National Remembrance and the Jewish Historical Institute, as well as the National Archives in Krakow, the Museum of Krakow, or electronic copies of reports from the Yad Vashem Institute of Remembrance of Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes. Unfortunately, as usual in Polish publications, there are no German documents from Berlin and Ludwigsburg.