Sonderdienst

Sonderdienst
Leaders of General Government during inspection of Sonderdienst battalions: from right, Generalgouverneur Hans Frank, Higher SS and Police Leader GG Herbert Becker and secretary of state Ernst Boepple
Active6 May 1940 — 1945
CountryOccupied Poland
AllegianceNazi Germany Nazi Germany, the SS
TypeParamilitary police reserve

Sonderdienst (German: Special Services) were mostly non-German Nazi paramilitary formations created in the occupied General Government during the occupation of Poland in World War II. They were based on similar SS formations called Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz operating in the Warthegau district of German-annexed western Poland in 1939.[1]

Sonderdienst were founded on 6 May 1940 by Gauleiter Hans Frank who was stationed in occupied Kraków.[1] Initially, they were made up of ethnic German Volksdeutsche who lived in Poland before the attack and joined the invading force thereafter. After Operation Barbarossa began in 1941, they also included Soviet prisoners of war who volunteered for special training, such as the Trawniki men (German: Trawnikimänner) deployed at all major killing sites of the "Final Solution". Many of those men did not know German and required translation by their native commanders.[2][3]: 366  The Abteilung Sonderdienst (Department of Special Services) was subordinate to Oberkommando der Wehrmacht sabotage division under Colonel Erwin von Lahousen (1 September 1939 – July 1943), and Colonel Wessel Freytag von Loringhoven (July 1943 - June 1944).[4]

  1. ^ a b The Erwin and Riva Baker Memorial Collection (2001). Yad Vashem Studies. Wallstein Verlag. pp. 57–58. ISSN 0084-3296.
  2. ^ Browning, Christopher R. (1998) [1992]. "Arrival in Poland" (PDF). Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland. Penguin Books. pp. 51, 98, 109, 124. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 October 2013. Retrieved May 1, 2013.
  3. ^ Black, Peter R. (1 September 2006). "Police Auxiliaries for Operation Reinhard". In Bankir, David (ed.). Secret Intelligence and the Holocaust: Collected Essays from the Colloquium at the City University of New York. Enigma Books. pp. 331–348. ISBN 978-1-929631-60-5. Retrieved 20 January 2024.
  4. ^ Andreas Altenburger (2012). "Abteilung Abwehr II Sonderdienst". Amt Ausland / Abwehr (A. Ausl./Abw.) (in German). Lexikon der Wehrmacht – Amt Ausland / Abwehr. Retrieved 18 May 2014.