User:Chetsford/Ppolice
The Uniformed Protectorate Police (Czech:Uniformované protektorátní policie), or Protectorate Police, was the uniformed police service of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. It was established in 1942 by organizing the Government Police (Vládní policie) and the Gendarmerie (Četnictvo) under a single command structure.
At various points during the German occupation of the Czech lands, German authorities expressed frustration with non-cooperation by the Protectorate Police, including a few instances of their covert coordination with anti-occupation resistance movements. Several examples of confrontation between pre-consolidation Czech police and German occupation authorities over the treatment of Jews are also recorded. At the same time, Protectorate Police exhibited a level of zeal in enforcement of discriminatory laws against communists and Roma that surprised even the Germans. Protectorate Police fought on the side of the Czech resistance during the Prague Uprising and ultimately arrested State President Emil Hácha.
Uniformed Protectorate Police
Gendarmerie
As part of the consolidation, the Gendarmerie's rapid deployment forces – previously known as the emergency units – were combined with traffic control platoons into several barracked, alert companies suitable for response to sudden civil disturbances or other serious exigencies. These principally consisted of three companies in Prague and three companies in Brno, all of which were armed with pistols and rifles.
In June 1942, Gendarmerie companies were used by German forces to establish a security perimeter around the village of Lidice prior to the Lidice massacre.
Order Police
Municipal Police
Prior to 1942, the Municipal Police – which could be voluntarily established by cities and towns to provide local control of law enforcement – were largely unaffected by institutional changes.[1][a] In 1942, the Municipal Police were renamed the Municipal Executive Police and came under the joint control of the mayors of the municipalities in which they were established, as well as the Ministry of the Interior.[1] In addition, cities with a population of 10,000 or more were required, for the first time, to establish a Municipal Executive Police.[1]
In 1944, the Municipal Executive Police was fully consolidated into the Protectorate Police.[1]
Nonuninformed Protectorate Police
On March 11, 1940, the Ministry of the Interior prescribed new badges for the Nonuninformed Protectorate Police. These were circular devices that bore, in both Czech and German, the words "Government Police". Above the arms was imprinted the unique serial number of the badge.
.png)
History
Background
Prior to the occupation, Czechoslovak uniformed law enforcement services included the Government Police, the Municipal Police, and the paramilitary Gendarmerie. The first formal contact between German officials and police commanders of the rump Czech state occurred on March 15, 1939 when Otto Rasch met with police executives at Náměstí Republiky, Prague. Rasch requested that Czech police assist German authorities in identifying and detaining suspected communists, a duty which the Czech police accomplished with what was, to Rasch, surprising efficiency and zeal.[2] At the March 15 meeting, Rasch also directed the dissolution of the State Security service, though its political policing and counterintelligence responsibilities were eventually replaced by a newly created Department B, which consisted of 152 personnel and reported directly to local Gestapo officials.
During the early period of the Protectorate, police operations continued in much the same way as before the occupation, occasionally leading to run-ins with German personnel. In July 1939, for instance, after an episode in which the windows of several Jewish businesses in Moravská Ostrava were smashed by off-duty SS personnel, Czech police arrested the perpetrators. Schupo officers created a distraction that ultimately allowed the detainees to escape custody. Additional police operations during the summer of 1939 to intervene in attacks against Jews by Germans, German-speaking Czechs, and members of the Vlajka created tension which culminated in an arrangement by which crimes against Jewish establishments were to be reported directly to the Schupo and not investigated by Czech police.[3] Additional arrangements required Schupo to handle murder and sabotage investigations, as well as any investigations in which a German citizen was the victim or perpetrator.
Czech police initially took a restrained approach to public demonstrations in opposition to the occupation. As these events became larger and more raucous, however, police became increasingly assertive in public order operations, culminating in a clamp-down on demonstrations that occurred in Prague during the 1939 Wenceslas Day celebrations.[3] The move came after the Protector informed President Hacha that Czech police needed to act more aggressively in controlling public disorder or the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler would assume responsibility for policing.
Formation
By early 1940, the initially restrained nature of the occupation had given way to more aggressive measures and the internal autonomy of the Protectorate government began to erode.[3] On July 1, 1942, the Protector ordered the consolidation of the Order Police and the Gendarmerie into a single organization, the Uniformed Protectorate Police under the Ministry of the Interior.[4] Municipal Police, renamed the Municipal Executive Police, continued in cities with populations more than 10,000; they operated under the authority of their respective mayors and were responsible for preventative policing.
In November 1942 ranks and pay rates between the Government Police and Gendarmerie were standardized. Plans for standardization of uniforms were never accomplished.
Recruitment
New personnel were not recruited into the police until Autumn of 1942 when a call was put out for Czech men aged 18 to 29 to apply. More than 1,000 applicants were ultimately hired and tasked to undergo eight months of training. However, this training was cut short when – in the spring of 1943 – trainees were moved to Hamburg, Münster, and Düsseldorf to reinforce German police in those cities. There, they were largely responsible for guarding from looters neighborhoods destroyed in Allied air raids, as well as assisting in search and rescue work. A large number of the Czech police trainees were decorated with the Reichsluftschutzbund's Air Defense Badge for their service in Germany.
Enforcement of racial laws
Prior to the occupation, Czechoslovak police enforced Act No. 117/1927, which required "wandering gypsies" to avoid certain tourist areas and to register with local authorities.[5] Enforcement was stepped-up in the period prior to the occupation, due to the large number of Roma migrants relocating to Czechoslovakia after the promulgation of more onerous discriminatory legislation in Germany.[5] Following the occupation, Czech police continued enforcement of Act No. 117/1927.[5]
In July 1942, after consolidation of the uniformed security forces into the Uniformed Protectorate Police, a new law was enacted by the Protectorate government "to combat the Gypsy malevolence”. Under the revised statute, the police undertook a census of Roma residing in the Protectorate. Roma engaged in full-time employment were cautioned against adopting a nomadic lifestyle, while those who lacked full-time employment were detained in the Protectorate government's Lety concentration camp.[6][7]
In 1943, the Uniformed Police and Criminal Police assisted in the mass deportation of Roma from the Protectorate to the Auschwitz concentration camp in the General Government (Poland).[8]
Resistance within the police
Throughout the occupation, some German officials expressed frustration that, particularly within the Gendarmerie, personnel were slow or lax in enforcement of certain matters, including responding to reports of sabotage and enforcing blackout restrictions. There were also cases of disruptive excessive enforcement. For instance, Gendarmes who located Allied propaganda leaflets were supposed to send samples to their immediate superiors, however, had a tendency to proactively report them to a wide range of authorities – including those who had nothing at all to do with the matter – thereby aiding their distribution.
In Prague and Plzeň, contingency resistance cells were established by some within the police. While these cells didn't take any active measures against the occupation, they drew-up plans to secure critical infrastructure should an uprising occur.
In the summer of 1942, Karel Knÿz – a gendarme who had assisted a resistance radio operator in avoiding arrest – committed suicide to avoid arrest by the Gestapo after his activities were discovered. The following January, seven police in Ostrava were arrested by the Gestapo after their involvement with a resistance movement was revealed. Also in 1943, Frantisek Famfulik, the commander of the gendarmerie station in Proseč was executed after his involvement in resistance activity was uncovered.[9]
Prague Uprising
On the morning of May 5, 1945, Protectorate Police assisted staff of Czech Radio to infiltrate the Czech Radio broadcasting center on Vinohradská Street. A firefight between police and German forces charged with guarding the building ensued. At 12:33 p.m., Czech Radio broadcast an appeal for assistance, marking the start of the Prague Uprising:
"Calling all Czechs. Come to our help at once ... The SS are murdering Czech people here ... We are calling on the Czech police, Czech gendarmes and the government's military forces to help Czech Radio."
Reinforcements from the 1st Battalion of the Protectorate's Army arrived sometime before 1:00 p.m., entering the building's top floors through adjacent structures. Jaroslav Záruba, leading the Government Army troops, took command of the combined force of Protectorate Army, Protectorate Police, and partisans, eventually driving German troops from the building and securing their surrender.
On May 13, on orders of Václav Nosek – serving as Interior Minister in the transitional Košice Government Program – Uniformed Protectorate Police entered the grounds of the presidential residence of Lány Castle and arrested State President Hacha.[10][11]
Legacy
In 2015, at Prague's Olšany Cemetery, a monument to Uniformed Protection Police and pre-consolidation Czech police personnel who died as a result of their participation in resistance actions during the occupation was established.
See also
Notes
- ^ In the contemporary Czech Republic, Municipal Police augment - but do not replace - national police inside the municipal jurisdiction by providing limited preventative patrol services. in pre-war Czechoslovakia, Municipal Police could, depending on the size of the municipality, undertake comprehensive law enforcement duties.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e Urban, Jaroslav (March 1, 2020). "Městská policie pod hákovým křížem". Pražský strážník (in Czech). Retrieved February 17, 2024.
- ^ Sládek, Oldřich (1986). Zločinná role gestapa: nacistická bezpečnostní policie v českých zemích 1938–1945 (in Czech).
- ^ a b c Mrňka, Jaromir (July 2023). "Konfliktní hranice: české země a kolektivní násilí v krizovém roce 1938 a během počátečního období nacistické vlády". Dějiny – teorie – kritika (in Czech). doi:10.14712/24645370.3057. Retrieved February 14, 2024.
- ^ "Generalkommandant der uniformierten Protektoratspolizei". ehri-project.eu. European Holocaust Research Infrastructure. Retrieved February 15, 2024.
- ^ a b c Hegburg, Krista (2013). Aftermath: Accounting for the Holocaust in the Czech Republic (PhD thesis). Columbia University.
- ^ Naegele, Jolyon (July 9, 1999). "Slovakia: President Suggests Cooperation With Czechs To Solve Roma Question". Radio Free Europe. Retrieved February 14, 2024.
- ^ "Minister of Culture leads Lety commemoration". Czech Radio. August 1, 2014. Retrieved February 14, 2024.
- ^ "Deportations to Auschwitz". holocaust.cz. Terezín Initiative Institute.
- ^ Kinterová, Jitka. "FAMFULÍK Josef – Na sloupu veřejného osvětlení, Famfulíkova 1140/19, Praha 8 – Kobylisy". Memorial plaques in Prague. Retrieved February 15, 2024.
- ^ "Emil Hacha". hrad.cz. President of the Czech Republic. Retrieved February 17, 2024.
- ^ Demetz, Peter (2008). Prague in Danger: The Years of German Occupation, 1939–45. Macmillan. p. 13. ISBN 0374281262.