Psa 11:3 If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
Scriptures and convention in all centuries have admonished us to obey Civil Authorities. Christian Scripture (Romans 13) even warns us that the powers of government and authority are ordained of God and to step out from under authority is walk waywardly. When Civil Authority, though is severely misused and abused, to the point of being destructive in a society; even the New Testament warns that we are to obey God and not man.1 The Torah is replete with examples such as Mordecai, when obedience to Civil Authority would mean disobeying God; in these difficult circumstances we then as now make difficult choices.
In the Shoah, the Police presented European Society with these very difficult dilemmas. They were not the Nazi Party, but there were very many who were Party Members.A few Policemen were benevolent and sereptitiously helped in rescue efforts by looking the other way, failing to investigate diligently, or aiding more directly, especially in facilitating emigration. The nature of Police stations in Germany and subsequently the occupied Countries became one of an arm of the Third Reich; just as there was an attempt to politicize the Wehrmacht and create them not just as a German Armed Forces, but as a Nazi Armed Forces, so there was the attempt to bring Police Departments in the Reich under philosophical control as well.
The Police, The Nazis and The SD
Even very early in 1923 when
Hitler and the Nazis attempted a coup in Munich, and took over the meeting
which came to be known as the Beer-hall Putsch the
Nazis knew the importance of control local police forces. A local police
force may not carry with it the national flavor or power of other law
enforcement agencies, but to gain access to and control over a community,
a local police force is essential. A professional police force that abides
by the law, not only keeps order in a community, but would be a threat and
hindrance to a political takeover. ON the other hand, a police force that
is corrupt or mercenary, or controlled by special interests can be easily
bought or swayed. In the case of the Nazis, the takeover was not difficult
for the following reasons:
Reasons for the Ease of Nazi Takeover of Police Departments
who had joined
with the Nazis for the overthrow of the Weimar Republic. While the Putsch
of '23 failed, and Hitler and others were jailed, within 11 years, the
Nazi Party control of the Police was firmly in place. Within a year of
Hitler taking the highest office of the land, Heydrich was appointed by
Himmler over intelligence, and in 1934 the State Secret Police, the
Gestapo was formed by Heydrich to keep intelligence information not only
on enemies but on Party members as well. While the 'SD' or Security arm of
the SS and the Gestapo were not technically the same, they shared offices
and heads, the SD acting as an arm of the Gestapo.3 This agency
started a form of treachery which would eventually tear the Nazi Party
apart well into the war. Local Police under the watchful eye of the Nazis
(membership in the Party became required) enforced the racial laws and
1935 Nuremberg laws stringently. By 1936, Heydrich took control of the
border and criminal police 2 which gave the Nazis power
over emigration, and criminal activity. Criminal activity grew in
definition to include not only traditional crimes of murder, theft, fraud,
vice, etc, but also to actions against the State. Just as in communism
children were trained that the State was supreme and that even a
rebellious parent must be turned in. Heydrich was later given permission
to use concentration camps for interment of prisoners. These "Lagers"
began to see political prisoners, traditional criminals, Soviet POWS, and
over time Jews, Resistance members, those the Reich considered
"Genetically Inferior and others.
Roles of Police in the Shoah
Police as Agents of Deportation Evacuation
Police in Occupied territories were often the first agents in Deportation efforts: the SS through channels of government would arrange for vehicles, trains, trucks, schedules and materials for deportation, but the Police were often the first in aktions and round-ups in communities, backed up by Reich Military action. In Hungary, the Gendarmie were appointed to this task, including escorting 10,000 Jews on a Death March from Budapest to Vienna.2,4Police were also often the agents of emigration: One could not emigrate to another country without first obtaining Police clearance which included 'racial' criteria, background and history, employment etc. For the Jew, this was essentially the death of an emigration application: Jews in Germany during WWII were never seen as moral, they were barred from most jobs and normal activities, and they certainly failed any racial qualifications. While in the mid and late 30s many were able to flee the Nazi Regime, as the time wore on, almost no Jew could qualify for emigration along traditional lines. In some Nazi occupied territories, heavy and oppressive taxes had to be paid to leave the country, and the exchange rate for money was different for Jews than Aryans: A small number of wealthier Jews were allowed to leave, but most of their monies and goods had to stay behind. As Himmler and Heydrich increased in power along with the Reich, the Police also increased in power.
The First Aktions
The very first aktions against the Jews in Europe5 were carried out almost entirely by local police under Nazi planning and supervision. While declared an unplanned outcry of the German people, the brutality of Krystallnacht was in large part carried out by local police in response to what they were told was an 'emigration' issue. Jewish businesses were destroyed, bombed and ruined, families were rounded up and shot without trial, synagogues were torched and Torahs burned and treated in an abominable manner. Many Jewish people were randomly put to death that 'Crystal Night' in retaliation for for the death of a middle-line Nazi official they had nothing to do with. (See Krystallnacht ) The 'aktion' was so co-ordinated and so neatly emanated out of local police departments, it cannot have been without careful planning. In a detailed account of one of the first instances, the progression of normal civilized police officers and adult male volunteers into brutal assailants went quickly. In the beginning, many of the aktions were voluntary: after the plan of aggression was detailed, the choice was given as to whether it was within the capabilities, emotional or physical of those present. Police often enlisted locals to engage in Anti-Semitic killings and pogroms: this would carry through to the Einsatzgruppen or mass-killing Aktions.While the Nazi officials oversaw the aktions, local police coordinated efforts: early aktions were so anathema to normal European lifestyle, that even Anti-Semites had difficulty with entering towns and killing innocents for no reason. Alcohol was often handed out freely to numb conscience and feeling and aid police and locals in committing the abominable crimes of the holocaust.
By the end of the war, the Nazis had designed and implemented a
fortress of control over their populace: Hitler's word as fuhrer had the
force of law, the SS, SD/Gestapo had utter control over intelligence and
were trying to take over the Abwehr or Intelligence branch of the
Military, and the local and regional law enforcement agencies were under
complete
control of the Nazi Party. Only toward the end did some intelligence and
law officers begin to realize that Hitler was not moving Germany in a
positive way, but instead towards its destruction. While there was a major
attempt to assasinate Hitler from those in the Abwehr and his High Command
such as Canaris and Stauffenberg, and other smaller attempts, they failed
and the structure of enforcement of Nazi "policy" as law held till the
very end of the war.6