Blue Police

The Blue Police (Granatowa policja, Navy-blue police), was the police during the Second World War in the General Government, semicolonial entity on a territory of German-occupied Poland. Its official German name was Polnische Polizei im Generalgouvernement (Polish Police of the General Government; Policja Polska Generalnego Gubernatorstwa). The Blue Police officially came into being on when Germany drafted Poland's prewar state police officers (Policja Państwowa), organizing local units with German leadership. It was an auxiliary institution tasked with protecting public safety and order in the General Government. The Blue Police, initially employed purely to deal with ordinary criminality, was later also used to counter smuggling, which was an essential element of German-occupied Poland's underground economy. The organization was officially dissolved and declared disbanded by the Polish Committee of National Liberation on 27 August 1944. After a review process, a number of its former members joined the new national policing structure, the Milicja Obywatelska (Citizens' Militia). Others were prosecuted after 1949 under Stalinism. Along with the German army, a large number of police entered Poland in September 1939: 21 battalions of German police, 8,000 policemen conscripted directly into the army to strengthen the military police, as well as Einsatzgruppen. On October 4, Criminal Police (Kriminalpolizei; Kripo) forces from Berlin arrived in Warsaw with the task of taking control of the Polish police. In early November 1939, the Einsatzgruppen operating in Poland were transformed into the Security Police Command (Kommandeur der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD; KdS) and the Order Police Command (Kommandeur der Ordnungspolizei; KdO). After the establishment of the General Government, less than 5,000 Order Police (Ordnungspolizei; Orpo) were deployed on its territory. The Orpo was divided into the Protection Police (Schutzpolizei; Schupo) which stationed in cities, and the Gendarmerie (formed in summer 1940) stationing in villages and towns with a population of less than 5,000.