Figure 1.--Józef and Wiktoria Ulma lived in Markowa, southeastern Poland. Józef was born in 1900 and Wiktoria in 1912. They married in 1935, and eked out a living on a small farm they owned. During World War II their farm was located in the General Government--the area of occupied Poland the Germans did not annex. Despite the dangers, they helped several Jews to escape from the NAZIs. The family almost made in through the War, but In 1944 they were denounced by a member of the Blue Police (March 24, 1944). Only 3 months later the Red Army launched Operation Bagration liberating much of Poland (June 22). The parents were arrested and summarily executed along with their six children: Stanislawa (born in 1936), Barbara (1937), Wladyslaw (1938), Franciszek (1940), Antoni (1941) and Maria (1942). Wiktoria was 8 months pregnant and it seems that she gave birth at the last minute. The kiling was done by the German gendarmerie (part of the Order Police -- OrPo). Volksdeutsche were involved in the killing operation. The parens were shot first and after a brief discussion it was decided to shoot the children as well. In 1995 Józef and Wiktoria Ulma were bestowed the title of Righteous Among the Nations. On September 10, 2023, in their hometown of Markowa the Catholic Church beatified the whole family, parents and children. Here four of the children are playing in the field. Notice how flat the land is. Three of them are wearing only shirts, probably a reflecion of war time conditions. Click on the image for another family photograph taken a few years earlier picturing the family gathering for the baptism of one of their children. The evil involved in shooting these precious children is beyond human compehenion.

Governing a country require manpower, especially a country you have invaded and where the people hate you. Using you manpower for police functions takes away from the military you want to form when your national policy is to invade many other countries. Germany's general policy wast to use the existing administrative structure and police force. This is what they would do in Western Europe. Poland was different. Hitler hated Poland. He saw it as an illegitimate state because a substantial part of the territory had been part of the German Empire with German ethnic populations. He especially hated the Polish Corridor separating East Prussia from the rest of Germany. As a result, after invading the Germans and Soviets invaded Poland (September 1939), the country was erased from the map. The area of western Poland occupied by the Germans was either annexed or made part of what the Germans called the General Government--a term used by the Germans during World War I. Unlike German occupation policies in Western Europe, the Polish state was not only completely gutted, but many officials were arrested and murdered in concentration camps. Many were actually murdered before they got to the camps as part of A-B Aktion. This included some police officers, especially officers of any rank. But it left the Germans with the problem of how to maintain order without using much German manpower. The answer was the Blue Police, so named because of their navy blue uniforms. The NAVY blue color was chosen to distinguish them from the German Order Police with green uniforms. Americans are used to blue for police uniforms. The Germans as the NAZIs centralized law enforcement under SS control became used to green as the primary color for the police. The Blue Police (Granatowa policja). The literal meaning was the 'navy-blue police'. This would be the police functioning in the General Government. The official name was Polnische Polizei im Generalgouvernement (Polish Police of the General Government, Policja Polska Generalnego Gubernatorstwa).

Manpower

Governing a country require manpower, especially a country you have invaded and where the people hate you. Using you manpower for police functions takes away from the military you want to form when your national policy is to invade many other countries. Germany's general policy wast to use the existing administrative structure and police force. This is what they would do in Western Europe. Germany was the second largest Country in Europe, exceed by only the Soviet Union. Manpower began to become as the NAZI empire grew. And then then Hitler took on the Soviet Union and the United States the manpower problem became unmanageable.

Animus toward the Poles

Poland was different among the countries Hitler targeted. This was the case in the 19th century lomg before Hitler and the NAZIs entered he picture. Hitler hated Poland with a passion. He saw it as an illegitimate state because a substantial part of the territory had been carved out of the German Empire with German ethnic populations. He especially hated the Polish Corridor separating East Prussia from the rest of Germany. As a result, after invading the Germans and Soviets invaded Poland (September 1939), the country was erased from the map. The area of western Poland occupied by the Germans was either annexed or made part of what the Germans called the General Government--a term used by the Germans during World War I. Added to that was the NAZI racial view of he Polish people. The NAZIs not only removed Poland from the map, but they were determined to annihilate the Polish people. This process began with the Jewish Holocaust. The same did not occur with the Poles only because it disrupted the war effort. But he Poles were among the people o to be annihilated as part of Generalplan Ost/a>. It was, however, delayed until the Germans won the War.

Occupation Policy

Unlike German occupation policies in Western Europe, the Polish state was not only completely gutted, but many officials were arrested and murdered in concentration camps. Many were actually murdered before they got to the camps as part of A-B Aktion. This included some police officers, especially officers of any rank. But it left the Germans with the problem of how to maintain order without using much German manpower. We are not sure whether this problem occurred to the Germans before or after the Germans invaded. They did have the experience in Czechoslovakia which they had cadenced (March 1939).

Terminology

German Police

As part of the invading German Army there were a range of police formations that entered Poland (September 1939). By this time, Himmler had succeeded in througly NAZIfying all police units. This included the Order Police (OrPo) the pre-War standard police force he had assgned to SS man Kurt Daluege.

Military police: There were 21 battalions of German police, Some 8,000 German policemen were drafted into the Army to reinforce these units. We do not have much information on the actions and performance of these units. Military police in most armies are primarily concerned with enforcing military discipline, including the behavior of the soldiers toward civilians. This aspect of the military police flew out the window with the NAZIs. Not all of the military police and German officers got that message There were arrests and prosecutions for officers and and troops committing war crimes. Hitler pardoned all involved. So in subsequent military operations there were very few actions taken by the military police against German soldiers committing war crimes.
Einsatzgruppen: The Germans during the September 1939 German invasion of Poland employed special action squads of SS and police (the Einsatzgruppen--EG). The EG were deployed in Austria (March 1938), the Sudetenland (October 1938), and Czechoslovakia (March 1939), but were not ordered to kill large numbers of Austrians and Czechs. Poland was to be different. This was not a job to be given to the Wehrmacht. Hitler informed his commanders just before the invasion, "things would be done of which German generals would not approve." Field Marshal Fedor von Bock reported that the Führer ... "did not therefore wish to burden the army with the necessary liquidations, but would have them carried out by the SS." The EG were mobile formations formed from the SiPo (Security Police) and the SD (Security Service Police). The new SS security operation was named the RHSA (Reich Central Security Office) and placed under the control of Reinhard Heydrich. Eqach EG unit had 400 to 600 men. A EG was assigned to each of the five German armies invading Poland. A sixth EG was unleashed on Poznan, a border province Hitler wanted to incorporate into the Reich as quickly as possible. Their instructions were to follow front line troops and arrest or kill anyone resisting the Germans or who they considered capable of doing so in the future. This was based on a person's position and social status. The EG units had carefully prepared lists made up of important persons in towns and villages all over Poland. These individuals were confined in rustic reception centers. Most were shots after only a few days. The focus was on intellectuals not Jews in particular. One EG commander, SS General Udo von Woyrch, on his own initiative took the initiative to seek out Jews to kill. Ethnic German self-defense units soon joined the EG in these actions, but were less coldly efficient. Tens of thousands of Polish civilians were murdered in this process.
Kriminalpolizei: The Kriminalpolizei (KriPo) was part of the Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo) that Himmler created as part of his work to centralize the German law enforcement system. (The other part was the Gestapo. As Warsaw fell to the Germans. Himmler sent in KriPo forces from Berlin to task over control of the Polish police (October 6). 【Grabowski, p. 25. 】
Ordnungspolizei: The Ordnungspolizei (OrPo) or Order Police were the regular German police force, commonly refereed to as the Green Police because of their green uniforms. Once the General Government was put in place by the Germans, some 5,000 OrPo men were deployed. 【Grabowski, p. 26.】 The OrPo was deployed in two separate formations. One was the Protection Police (Schutzpolizei, Schupo) which operated in the cities. Two was the Gemeindepolizei (GemPo,; municipal protection police) The basic operating formations of the OrPo varied from small gendarmerie detachments of fewer than 10 men to 500-man police battalions.: The Gendarmerie or rural police (GemPO) peated in small communities, rural districts, and lightly populated mountainous areas. Sonderdienst: Grerman authorities in the General Government organized Special Service units (Sonderdienst) (May 1940). This was 2,500-man paramilitary formation recruited from the Volksdeutsche. They were very useful to the Germans because many spoke Polish. Many had hostile attitudes toward the Poles. 【Grabowski, p. 26.】

Creation

The Blue Police were officially created 2 months after the invasion (October 30, 1939). Is at this time that the German occupation authorities began conscripting Poland's prewar police officers. General Government Higher SS and Police Leader Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger mobilized of the pre-War Polish police into German service. 【Grabowski, p. 28.】 This was not a voluntary humiliation. The Polish policemen had to appear for duty or face severe consequences. 【Hempel, p. 83.] And in German occupied Poland here the Poles soon learned the Germans were not to be trifled with. There were few minor consequences. Arrest and confinement in a concentration camp you were unlikely to survive was commonplace and actual execution were possible. They were vetted by the Germans. Most senior officers were rejected. We suspect that some of those not accepted were arrested, but we can not yet confirm that. One historian explains, " The Germans were also looking for officers who had been in conflict with the law before the war, e.g. policemen dismissed from service for disciplinary reasons. Sometimes also those who had retired. At some point they also opened up to volunteers - people who had no police experience before the war. The Germans needed tools to control the large areas that came under their rule." 【Institute] The Germans were finding it difficult to restore order under wartime conditions. The fact that few Germans spoke Polish hampered their work.

Oganization

Local units were organized under German officers. 【Getter】 It was formed as an auxiliary formation created to establish public safety and order in the General Government. The initial idea was to deal with non-poltiical criminality. This was soon expanded to address smuggling, which became a major part of economy in occupied Poland. Governor General Hans Frank endorse the Blue Police (December 17, 1939). One historian explains the Blue Police, "The Blue Police was created as the lowest link in the structure of the German Ordnungspolizei (Order Police) in the General Governorate. It was part of it. From the beginning, it was conceived as a German tool, recruited from Poles and partly from Ukrainians, for the execution of occupation laws. It was also meant to be freely used by the “racially” higher German gendarmerie formations and their counterparts, the Schutzpolizei, or Schupo, in several major General Governorate cities." 【Institute】 Some 10,000 men were inducted and formed the Blue Police (January 1940) This included 1,173 men described as criminals. 【Grabowski 2020, p. 28.】 Apparently the Germans were happy if not preferred to accept former policemen with criminal records, probably because these were unlikely to be patriotic individuals. The Blue Police overseen by OrPo, the ordinary German police. 【Grabowski 2020, p. 28-30.】 An exception was the Polish Criminal Police (Polnische Kriminalpolizei) was organized as a separate service and not part of the Blue Police. It was overseen by the German Kripo which was part of the German Security Police. 【Grabowski, p. 42-43.】 The Blue Police did not have a Polish commander. It was commanded by OrPo Major Hans Köchlner. 【Hempel, p. 42.】 Köchlner was see as an expert on the Polish police because he spoke Polish and served an internship with them before the War (1997). He was assisted by a Pole, Lt. Col. Roman Sztaba who served as a liaison. Sztaba who spoke German was the police commandant of the Wołyń voivodeship before the War.

Status

The Blue Police had very lowstys wihin the NAZI hierarchy. A historian explains, "... the actual commanders of the blue policemen were the local German Schupo and gendarmerie commanders. The district commanders were reduced to the role of those who, under German regulations, were to provide the organizational and economic facilities to carry out German orders. Commanders of the local gendarmerie, on the other hand, were explicitly referred to as the 'Polnische Polizei Fuhrer' in German documents. The [German] gendarmes had to be saluted even by formally senior [Polish] blue officers. At the higher levels of command in the OrPo, only the functions of 'Polish liaison officers' were created. They had no formal power. They were like assistants and Polish-speaking advisors to the German officers. " 【Institute】

Collaboation

The role of the Blue Police in its collaboration and resistance towards the Germans is difficult for modern historians to assess. Historians differ. One historian citing Resistance sources estimates that 90 percent of the Blue Police were patriotic and associated with the Home Army resistance. 【Hempel】 Other estimates are as low as 50 percent. It is unclear if the Germans understood this. They must have realized that many were patriotic Poles, but whether they understood such a high level, we do not know.

The Holocaust

Scholars also disagree about the role of the Blue Police in the Holocaust. A fair description of the role of the Blue Police in the holocaust, i this summary, "It was as the Germans intended. During the liquidation of ghettos, the blue policemen were most often assigned auxiliary tasks. They took part in setting up cordons around villages, escorting, guarding. As part of these duties, the Germans expected them to be ready to stop and shoot those Jews who were trying to escape." 【Institute】 Given general Polish attitudes toward Jews, it seems likely the men would have mirrored general Polish attitudes. As far as we can tell, the Blue Police for the mot part did not conduct killing operations, but they seem to have been used in roundups. 【Cherry and Orla-Bukowska】 Policing inside the Warsaw Ghetto was done by the Jewish Ghetto Police. The perimeter was policed by the SS. There are many eye witness accounts. A Polish-Jewish historian who has chronicled of the Warsaw Ghetto reports Polish policemen, which must have been Blue Police, extorting and beating Jews in the Ghetto. 【Ringelblum】 The Germans must have used the Blue Police in roundups. 【Nowotarska】 And there were collaborators that freely assisted the Germans. Such as the Blue Policeman unidentified the Ulma family that was aiding Jews (figure 1). There are also more positive reports. One report describes members of the Blue Police refusing to execute 110 Jews in Gęsiówka prison in Warsaw (June 3, 19420. The Germans, however forced them to watch, some of them wept. 【Piotrowski, p. 109.】

Dissolved

The Blue Police were dissolved and disbanded by the Polish Committee of National Liberation as large areas of Poland were liberated and German occupation was collapsing (August 15, 1944). 【 Dekret No. 2 】 The Blue Police troops were not labeled collaborators in mass. Some were allow to join the Polish police after the War--the Milicja Obywatelska (Citizens' Militia). Others were prosecuted for collaboration.

Sources

Cherry, Robert and Annamaria Orla-Bukowska. Rethinking Poles and Jews: Troubled Past, Brighter Future (Rowman & Littlefield, 2007)

Getter, Marek Getter (1996). "Policja Polska w Generalnym Gubernatorstwie 1939-1945" (Polish Police in the General Government 1939-1945) in Przegląd Policyjny Number 1-2. Wydawnictwo Wyższej Szkoły Policji w Szczytnie.

Grabowski, Jan (2020). Na posterunku. Udział polskiej policji granatowej i kryminalnej w zagładzie Żydów (On Duty: Participation of Blue and Criminal Police in the Destruction of the Jews]. (Wołowiec: Wydawnictwo Czarne" 2020).

Hempel, Adam. (1987). Policja granatowa w okupacyjnym systemie administracyjnym Generalnego Gubernatorstwa: 1939-1945 (Warsaw: Instytut Wydawniczy Związków Zawodowych, 1987).

Nowotarska, Róża. Tryptyk wojenny (in Polish). (Oficyna Poetów i Malarzy, 1974).

Piotrowski, Tadeusz. Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide (McFarland & Company: 1997).

Ringelblum, Emanuel in Joseph Kermish (ed.). Polish-Jewish Relations During the Second World War (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1992).

Dekret No. 2. Release date (August 15, 1944). Polskiego Komitetu Wyzwolenia Narodowego z dnia 15 sierpnia 1944 r. o rozwiązaniu policji państwowej (tak zwanej granatowej policji).

Institute of National Remembrance. "The Blue Police and the dramatic reality of World War II" (October 24. 2024).

Created: 1:40 AM 3/26/2025
Last updated: 1:40 AM 3/26/2025