The Forest Protection Command (german: Forstschutzkommando), later the Forest Protection Corps (German: ), was an armed and uniformed paramilitary force created by the
General Government which was responsible for defending forests in
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
from sabotage and for patrolling forests to prevent their use by the
Polish resistance.
It was formed in 1939 and largely composed of ethnic German residents of Poland.
War Crimes
In July 1941, the FSK took control of the
Bialowieza Forest. The civilian population was evacuated, farms and villages were burned to the ground, and two small Jewish communities were annihilated. Together with
Police Battalion 322 the ''Forstschutzkommando-Abteilung Bialowies'' entered the villages in the forest, forced the inhabitants to leave within 30 minutes and burned down the houses and other buildings. Seven thousand people were deported and 34 villages destroyed. Jewish women and children were taken to the ghetto of
Kobryn
Kobryn ( be, Кобрын; russian: Кобрин; pl, Kobryń; lt, Kobrynas; uk, Кобринь, Kobryn'; yi, קאָברין) is a city in the Brest Region of Belarus and the center of the Kobryn District. The city is located in the southwest ...
while 584 men and boys were killed outright.
[Mohnhaupt, Jan Wolf (2022). ''Animals under the Swaztika.'' University of Wisconsin Press, p. 105.]
Rank insignia
See also
*
Blue Police
References
Forest protection service
Government agencies established in 1939
Environment and heritage law enforcement agencies
Police of Nazi Germany
Police units of Nazi Germany
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