- German name
- Ordnungspolizei
- Abbreviation
- Orpo
- From
- Centralized under SS authority in 1936
- Role
- Police, deportation and killing
From policing to occupation violence
After Heinrich Himmler became Chief of German Police in 1936, the Order Police was centralized under Nazi and SS authority. Uniformed units deployed in occupied Poland and later behind German armies in the Soviet Union.
Mass shootings
Order Police battalions participated in shootings alongside Einsatzgruppen and Higher SS and Police Leader staffs. Police Battalions 45 and 303 contributed personnel at Babyn Yar.
Deportations and ghettos
Victims frequently encountered uniformed policemen during house searches, assembly, transport guarding and ghetto liquidation. Holocaust implementation did not depend only on specialized SS killing units.
Police Battalion 101
Reserve Police Battalion 101 is one of the best-documented examples of Order Police participation in shootings and deportations in occupied Poland. Its record illustrates important patterns, but the Order Police included many units whose actions differed by place, time and assignment.
Responsibility and refusal
Postwar claims sometimes suggested that refusal to shoot automatically meant execution. Research has documented cases of reassignment or nonparticipation without execution, complicating a simple “no choice” explanation.
Postwar justice
Some commanders and members were prosecuted, but broad institutional involvement received uneven legal attention. Police orders, battalion records and trial judgments remain important evidence.
Sources
This page draws on the institutional sources listed below.