SS Police Regiment Bozen | |
---|---|
SS-Polizeiregiment "Bozen" | |
Active | 1943 | –1945
Country | Nazi Germany |
Branch | Ordnungspolizei |
Type | Police regiment |
Role | Gendarmerie |
Size | est. 2000 (Fall 1943) |
Garrison/HQ | Gries-San Quirino, the Palazzo del Viminale |
Polizeiregiment "Südtirol" (Police Regiment "South Tyrol"),[1] later Bozen,[2] and finally SS-Polizeiregiment "Bozen",[3] was a military unit of the German Ordnungspolizei ("Order Police") recruited in the largely ethnic-German Alto Adige region in north-east Italy in late 1943, during the de facto German annexation of the region. The ranks were ethnically German Italian draftees while officers and NCOs were Germans.
The regiment's first and second battalions were active in Istria and Belluno respectively, while the third battalion was a reserve unit stationed in Rome. All three surrendered to Allied or partisan forces in the last days of the war. On 23 March 1944 the 11th company of its 3rd battalion was the target of the Via Rasella attack in Rome, that led to the bloody German retaliation known as the Ardeatine massacre.