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Selbstschutz (German: Self-protection) was a paramilitary organisation created out of ethnic Germans. Selbstschutz was formed both after World War I in territories inhabited by Germans and Poles and at the beginning of World War II in Poland and Czechoslovakia by Germans that possessed the citizenship of those countries. The organisation is known for its widespread involvement in atrocities.

Post World War I

In Silesia Selbstschutz militia engaged in attacks against Polish activists and newspapers and harassed the local Polish population. In 1921 its organised units fought against the Polish nationalist movement in the Third Silesian Uprising that was aimed at abolishing German rule over Upper Silesia.

World War II

Selbstschutz was reintroduced during the late 1930s in Poland and Czechoslovakia. Selbstschutz activists terrorised the Czech population in the Sudetenland..

In the interwar period German minority organisations in Poland such as Jungdeutsche Partei, Deutsche Vereinigung, Deutscher Volksbund, Deutscher Volksverband actively cooperated with Nazi Germany, through espionage, sabotage, provocations and political indoctrination. They maintained close contact and were directed by NSDAP, Auslandsorganisation, Gestapo, SD and Abwehr. Kampania Wrześniowa 1939 estimated that 25% of the German minority in Poland were members of these organisations.

In October 1938 SD agents were already organising Selbstschutz in Poland. Ethnic Germans with Polish citizenship were trained in the Third Reich in sabotage operations and guerilla tactics.

Even before the war Selbstschutz activists from Poland helped to organise lists of Poles targeted for execution in Operation Tannenberg. With the Polish September Campaign Selbstschutz units engaged in hostility towards the Polish population and military, and performed sabotage operations helping the German advance against the Polish state. In mid-September the chaotic and autonomous activities of this organisation were coordinated by SS officers. Gustav Berger was placed in charge of the organisation and district commanders in occupied zones made by the German army were put in place — West Prussia, Upper Silesia and Warthegau.

While the SS leadership was limited to overseeing the operations, local units remained under the control of ethnic Germans who had proved their commitment at the beginning of the war.

Selbstschutz also organised concentration camps for Poles. Occasionally they were founded on places where Wehrmacht or German police units established camps. There were 19 such camps in the following places: Bydgoszcz (Bromberg), Brodnica (Strasburg), Chełmno (Kulm), Dorposz Szlachecki, Kamień Krajeński, Karolewo, Lipno (Lippe), Łobżenica, Nakło (Nakel), Nowy Wiec (near Skarszew), Nowe (over Vistula), Piastoszyn, Płutowo, Sępolno, Krajeńskie, Solec Kujawski (Schulitz), Tuchola (Tuchel), Wąbrzeźno (Briesen), Wolental (near Skórcza), Wyrzysk (Wirsitz). Poles imprisoned in those camps (consisting of men, women and youth) in the majority were murdered in cruel ways. Polish intelligentsia, nationalists, Catholic priests, Jews, Roma, and even Catholic Germans, ethnic Germans married to Poles, and everybody who had been denounced by at least two Volksdeutsche, were gathered in camps either for execution or deportation. Additionally the organisation worked together with Einsatzgruppen.

Polish historians estimated that the majority of somewhere around 50,000 Poles killed during the early days of German occupation were victims of Selbstschutz. By 5 October 1939 in West Prussia alone Selbstschutz under the command of Ludolf von Alvensleben reached 17,667 men and had already executed 4,247 Poles, while Alvensleben complained to Selbstschutz officers that too few Poles had been shot. (German officers had reported that only a fraction of Poles had been "destroyed" in the region with the total number of those executed in West Prussia during this action being about 20,000). One Selbstschutz commander, Wilhelm Richardt, said in Karolewo (Karlhof) camp that he did not want to build big camps for Poles and feed them, and that it was an honor for Poles to fertilize the German soil with their corpses. There was little opposition or lack of enthusiasm for activities of Selbstschutz among those involved in the action. There was even a case where a Selbstschutz commander was relieved after he failed to account all the Poles that were required, and it was found that he executed "only" 300 Poles.

The total number of Selbstschutz members in Poland is estimated at 82,000.

The organisation was ordered to be dissolved on 26 November 1939, yet this process continued until the spring of 1940. Among the reasons for this order were cases of heavy corruption, disorderly behaviour and conflicts with other organisations as well as excessive use of force.

The existence of a large paramilitary organisation of ethnic Germans with Polish citizenship that helped in the German war against Poland and engaged in widespread massacres of Poles served as one of the reasons for the expulsion of Germans after the war.

Quotes

"People executed by shooting were finished by blows from shovels, or by beating with rifles, sometimes they were even buried alive. Mothers were forced to place their children in mass graves where they were shot together afterwards. Before executions women and girls were raped.(...) evoked horror even in Germans, including some soldiers who were terrified at what they saw in the camps." — A short description of Selbstschutz operations from Polish State Museum of Stutthof

See also

• Operation Tannenberg
• World War II atrocities in Poland
• Fifth column

External links

• Template:De icon Selbstschutz, Deutsche und Polen
• Template:Pl icon Selbstschutz entry in Polish PWN encyclopedia
• Template:Pl icon Hitler's preparations for aggression and extermination against Poles in Pomorze, Gdańsk and Free City of Gdańsk from Polish State Museum of Stutthof.

Sources

• "The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939-March 1942" Christopher R Browning. University of Nebraska Press
• "Germany and Eastern Europe: Cultural Identities and Cultural Differences by Keith Bullivant, Geoffrey Giles, Walter Pap

• Military history of Germany during World War II
• World War II crimes in Poland
• History of Poland (1918–1939)