SS Polizei BN 26 Document for review

[edlanc]

I beieve that this document is from the time of the ghetto atrocities in poland, but I am not sure of what it is about. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.

[drmessimer]

It deals with the promotion of Helmut Strehlitz from the rank of Wachmeister of the Schutzpolizei Reserve to Oberwachmeister of the Schutzpolizei Reserve. The first letter, dated 24 August 1943, is from the lieutenant who commands Strehlitz's police company to the Police Regiment 25. The lieutenant says that Strehlitz has been a Wachmeister since 20 April 1941, cites his age and his good performance in his present position, and that he has already been 11-months in the East where he has proven himself well. He asks that Strehlitz be promoted to Oberwachmeister in the Schutzpolizei Reserve. The second letter, dated 29 August 1943, is the action taken to promote Strehlitz to Oberwachmeister in the Schutzpolizie Reserve.
I don't see any connection to the SS in these letters. I think that the SS Police units were the Ordnugspolizei rather than the Schutzpolizei. It looks to me that Strehlitz was a city policeman who was essentially drafted into Army.
The Shutzpolizei referred to in both letters were, and still are, the uniformed police in Germany, in which a Wachmeister and Oberwachmeister were, and still are, a patrolman's a sergeant's rank. During WW2 there was also the Ordnugspolizei that were SS police, I don't know what the Ordnugspolizei rank structure was, but I imagine it was about the same as for the Schutzpolizei.
In regard to the role played by former civilian police officers in the Army during WW2, You might be interested in Christopher R. Browning, Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101, and the Final Solution in Poland, New York: Harper Collins, 1992. Dwight

[edlanc]

Thank you for the translation and the clarification.

[drmessimer]

Edlanc: My initial response to your post was incomplete and to a degree, incorrect. I was focused on translating the text and failed to recognize that the unit was actually SS Police Regiment 26. When I saw my mistake, I checked my copy of Tessin, Georg & Kannapin, Norbert. Waffen-SS under Ordnungspolizei im Kriegseinsatz 1939–1945: Ein Überlick anhand der Feldpostübersicht, Osnabrück, Germany: Biblio Verlag, 2000. This is what I found.
The SS Police Regiment 26 was formed on 16 February 1941 with three Police Battalions, 256, 302 and 312. The Battalion numbers were changed in July 1942 to 1, 2, and, 3. The entry is unclear, but it seems that the regiment was in North Norway until it arrived in Soviet Byelorussia in May 1943. I do not know what it did there, but apparently it was used as infantry in 1944, because it was "destroyed" in July 1944 during the Red Army’s Operation Bagration (23 June-29 August 1944), and disbanded in November 1944.
Helmut Strehlitz was in the 2nd Batallion. I must admit to being confused by the use of the regular police ranks rather than those used by the SS-Ordnungspolitzei, and the repeated references to the Reserve Police in the documents, both of which would mean that the battalion members were recruited from the regular German police. Dwight

[edlanc]

Thank you for the update and taking the time to research this document.
Best Regards,
-Ed

[BlackCat1982]

In addition I have that the Politzei Rgt 26 was in the Hungarian border area at Stanislau from 26 July to the 11 August 1943. Between the 1-8 August it took part in Operation Weichsel III in Wohlhynia, from the 16-29 August liquidating the ghettos in Bialystok and Glebokie resulting in the deportation of about 10000 Jews to Treblinka.