| Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo) | |
 SiPo officers inMarseille duringWorld War II | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 26 June 1936 |
| Preceding agency | |
| Dissolved | 22 September 1939 |
| Superseding agency |
|
| Type | security police and criminal police combined |
| Jurisdiction |  GermanyOccupied Europe |
| Headquarters | Prinz-Albrecht-Straße,Berlin |
| Employees | 245,000 (1940)[1] |
| Ministers responsible |
|
| Agency executive |
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TheSicherheitspolizei often abbreviated asSiPo, is a German term meaning "security police". In theNazi era, it referred to the state political and criminal investigationsecurity agencies. It was made up by the combined forces of theGestapo (secret state police) and theKriminalpolizei (criminal police; Kripo) between 1936 and 1939. As a formal agency, the SiPo was incorporated into theReich Security Main Office (RSHA) in 1939, but the term continued to be used informally until the end ofWorld War II in Europe.
The term originated in August 1919 when theReichswehr set up theSicherheitswehr as a militarised police force to take action during times of riots or strikes. Owing to limitations in army numbers, it was renamed theSicherheitspolizei to avoid attention. They wore a green uniform, and were sometimes called the "Green Police". It was a military body, recruiting largely from theFreikorps, with NCOs and officers from the oldImperial German Army.[2]
When the Nazis came to national power in 1933, Germany, as a federal state, had myriad local and centralized police agencies, which often were un-coordinated and had overlapping jurisdictions.Heinrich Himmler andReinhard Heydrich's plan was to fully absorb all the police and security apparatus into the structure of theSchutzstaffel (SS).[3] To this end, Himmler took command first of theGestapo (itself developed from thePrussian Secret Police). Then on 17 June 1936 all police forces throughout Germany were united, followingAdolf Hitler's appointment of Himmler asChef der Deutschen Polizei (Chief of German Police).[4] As such he was nominally subordinate to Interior MinisterWilhelm Frick, but in practice Himmler answered only to Hitler.[5]
Himmler immediately reorganised the police, with the state agencies statutorily divided into two groups: theOrdnungspolizei (Order Police; Orpo), consisting of both the national uniformed police and the municipal police, and theSicherheitspolizei (Security Police; SiPo), consisting of the Kripo and Gestapo.[5] Heydrich was appointed chief of the SiPo and was already head of the partySicherheitsdienst (Security Service; SD) and the Gestapo.[6][7] The two police branches were commonly known as the Orpo and SiPo (Kripo and Gestapo combined), respectively.[5]
The idea was to fully identify and integrate the party agency (SD) with the state agency (SiPo).[8] Most of the SiPo members were encouraged or volunteered to become members of the SS and many held a rank in both organisations. Nevertheless, in practice there was jurisdictional overlap and operational conflict between the SD and Gestapo.[9] The Kripo kept a level of independence since its structure was longer-established.[10] Himmler founded theHauptamt Sicherheitspolizei in order to create a centralized main office under Heydrich's overall command of the SiPo.[9]
TheEinsatzgruppen were formed under the direction of Heydrich and operated by the SS under the SiPo and SD.[11][12] TheEinsatzgruppen had its origins in the ad hocEinsatzkommando formed by Heydrich to secure government buildings and documents following theAnschluss inAustria in March 1938.[13] Originally part of the SiPo, two units ofEinsatzgruppen were stationed in theSudetenland in October 1938. When military action turned out not to be necessary because of theMunich Agreement, theEinsatzgruppen were assigned to confiscate government papers and police documents. They also secured government buildings, questioned senior civil servants, and arrested as many as 10,000 Czech communists and German citizens.[14]
In September 1939, with the founding of theReich Security Main Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt; RSHA), theSicherheitspolizei as a functioning state agency ceased to exist as the department was merged into the RSHA.[15] Further, the RSHA obtained overall command of theEinsatzgruppen units from that time forward. Members of theEinsatzgruppen units at this point were drawn from the SS, the SD and the police.[16] They were used during theinvasion of Poland to forcefully de-politicise the Polish people and murder members of groups most clearly identified with Polish national identity: the intelligentsia, members of the clergy, teachers, and members of the nobility.[16] When the units were re-formed prior to theinvasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the men of theEinsatzgruppen were recruited from the SD, Gestapo, Kripo, Orpo andWaffen-SS.[17] These mobiledeath squads were active in the implementation of theFinal Solution in the territories overrun by the Nazi forces.[18]
