German Forces

Review of Order Police, Minsk, 1941.

Bundesarchiv.

Obergruppenfuhrer Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski arrives for a review of Ordnungspolizei Special Police Batallions, Minsk, 1941. Von dem Bach-Zelewski was, perhaps, the most "impressive" individual killers of the SS murder machine as Higher SS and Police Leader, Einsatzgruppe commander and chief of anti-partisan operations, depending on how one counts the hundreds of thousands of corpses. Since the Nazi police apparatus was not supplied with a large dedicated force of mass executioners to effect murder outside the camp system, the Einsatzgruppen and other "Special Action" operations were heavily dependent on the use of ORPO Special Police Battalions and Special Reserve Police Battalions for manpower in the conduct of their operations. Von dem Bach-Zelewski was a member of the Prussian-Kashubian community of East Prussia. While Kashubians were, arguably Slavic in origin, they were one of those nations substantially assimilated to the German as far back as the Middle Ages, and were effectively regarded as "German" or "German-orientated" by the Nazis, unless proved otherwise. Von dem Bach himself served with the Prussian/German Imperial Army through WW1, earning the Iron Cross, First Class in the process. One curious point - I have seen a reference suggesting that one of Erich's fellow Kashubians is no less than Angela Merkel ... JR.