"The German Police"
¡Extracts from handbook "Die Deutsche Polizei" 1943] - '
B. Use of weapons on command
1. Every policeman is compelled to make use of his weapon if a superior officer, in compliance with his duty, orders him to do so.
2. In such a case, the superior officer alone bears the responsibility.
Use of weapons on the part of the police in the case of fugitive PWs
3. Fugitive Russian prisoners of war shall be fired upon without previous challenge.
4. Under no circumstances will warning shots be fired.
* * * * * * *
To a: According to paragraph 1 of the law mentioned * * *
the following become as of 1 April 1937 immediate Reichs officials [unmittelbare Reichsbeamte] :
1. Officials occupying TO positions [Planstellen] in the agency "Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of German Police in the Reichs Ministry of the Interior".
2. The officials of the Security Police [Secret State Police— Gestapo], and Criminal Police, however not the Police administrative officials working with the state police administrations for the criminal police.
3. The officials of the Protective Police [Schutzpolizei] and the Gendarmerie [Landjaegerei] and the police medical and police veterinary officials, police vocational school teachers and technical officials working with these organizations.
The personal salaries and welfare expenses of these officials and the operational expenses of the whole state police will be borne from 1 April 1937 on by the Reich, the same for the salaries, etc. of all employees and workers working at police agencies, who likewise on 1 April 1937 enter the Reichs service (paragraph 1(2) and paragraph 2). Hence from the fiscal year 1937 on there will be made up a Reichs budget for the police.
To b: For all police officials uniform official titles are introduced through the law cited * * * along with equal pay ; only a few
exceptions (retaining of some former official designations for the present incumbents) are permitted in the implementative regulations (transition lists).
To c: Through the German police official law [24 June 1937, RGB1 I, 653] the same legal situation is created for all process servers without differentiation. Hence in Germany there is no
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longer a Prussian or a Bavarian process served, but now only a German process server, who is everywhere subject to the same legal regulations, wears the same uniform, and has the same official designation of rank.
The laws cited [relating to police officials] are valid since 1 October 1938 also for the former Austrian federal executive police, which including the police administrative officials by the decree of 27 October 1938 (RGB1. I, p. 1633) is at the same time taken over into the Reichs budget and thereby brought into the Reichs service. .
More detailed regulations on this matter are to be found in the implementative regulations of 15 May 1939 [RGB1. I, p. 945]. According to these the valid functional police law in the former state of Austria is not affected.
To d: According to paragraph 1 of the law [28 March 1940, RGB1.1, p. 613] the police administrative officials of upper middle and simple civil service rank are transferred onto the Reichs budget. The officials of the higher police administrative service of a federal state can with the consent of the latter be transferred onto the Reichs budget.
[Pp. 81-82]
III. Security Police [Sicherheitspolizei]
At the head of the Security Police is the chief of the security police and of the Security Service [SD]. Provisionally the Reichs-fuehrer SS and Chief of the German Police in the Reichs Ministry of the Interior has taken over leadership personally. He unites in his person the direction of the security police and of the "Security Service of the Reichsfuehrer SS".
The security police is composed of the secret state police (including frontier police) and criminal police which in the central instance together with the central offices of the security service are united in the Chief Office for Reichs Security [RSHA],
Thereby the governmental security police and the party's SS intelligence activity complement each other in the unified central agency both organizationally and in leadership.
With the Chief Office for Reichs Security rest the elaboration of all organizational, personnel, economic, and technical affairs of the security police and security service; besides this however, the central agencies of the state police and criminal executives and the central direction of the security service information nets are also included.
1285—PS
In the field of functional legislation the Chief Office for Reichs Security, insofar as its interests are touched upon, either controls the framing of the law or has a part therein.
The chief office for Reich security is composed at present of 7 offices, to these several special institutes are attached.
The following serve to train the members of the security police and the security service:
1. The leaders' school of the security police in Berlin-Charlottenburg.
2. The elementary school of the security police in Fuerstenberg/ Mecklenburg.
The establishment of special sport and technical schools is planned.
The criminal-technical institute [KTI] is available for all chemical and physical experiments and research to the whole security police.
The chief of the security police and of the security service is president of the international criminal-police commission. Through this personal union an especially close exchange of findings and methods of the German criminal police with other nations which are also connected with the IKpK is assured.
IV. Higher SS and Police Leaders
Higher SS and police leaders are installed for the area of every military district [Wehrkreis] as well as in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, in the General Government, in Norway, the Netherlands and in parts of the occupied area of the Soviet Union, who are in their areas the representatives of the Reichsfuehrer SS and chief of the German police in regard to all duties for which the Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of German Police is responsible.
Inspectors of the order and security police are subordinate to the higher SS and police leaders.
[P. 83]
Inspectors (Commanders) of the Security Police and Security Service
Inspectors of the Security Police and Security Service—without prejudice to their subordination to the higher SS and police leaders—are installed in the field of responsibility of the security police in corresponding manner for the exercise of inspectoral authority.
Outside of territory strictly a part of the Reich, commanders of the security police and security service are appointed whose duty it is to lead the security police forces employed there.
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Extracts from a police handbook (or periodical), on the use of weapons by policemen, and the organization of the security police
Authors
Date: 1943
Literal Title: B. Use of weapons on command
Total Pages: 4
Language of Text: English
Source of Text: Nazi conspiracy and aggression (Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality. Washington, D.C. : U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946.)
Evidence Code: PS-1285
HLSL Item No.: 451578
Notes:This document was apparently not entered as evidence in the trial.