The 13th SS Police Regiment () was initially named the 13th Police Regiment (''Polizei-Regiment 13'') when it was formed in 1942 by the redesignation of
Police Regiment Centre
The Police Regiment Centre (''Polizei-Regiment Mitte'') was a formation of the Order Police (uniformed police) during the Nazi era. During Operation Barbarossa, it was subordinated to the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) and deployed in German-occupied ...
(''Polizei-Regiment Mitte'') for security duties on the
Eastern Front. It was redesignated as an
SS unit in early 1943.
Formation and organization
The regiment was formed in July 1942 in western
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
from Police Regiment Centre.
[Arico, pp. 84, 265, 387; Tessin & Kanapin, p. 620] All of the police regiments were redesignated as SS police units on 24 February 1943. The regiment was reinforced by an artillery
battery in 1943–1944.
[
]
Activities
The 13th SS Police Regiment participated in Operation Zauberflöte in April 1943 in Minsk, Belarus
Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administrative centre of Minsk region ...
(''Reichskommissariat Ostland
The (RKO; ) was an Administrative division, administrative entity of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories of Nazi Germany from 1941 to 1945. It served as the German Civil authority, civilian occupation regime in Lithuania, La ...
''). This was an operation intended to cordon off the city so that it could be searched for "bandits, Bolshevik terror and saboteur troops, operatives and helpers" under the overall leadership of Gerret Korsemann
Gerret Korsemann (8 June 1895 – 16 July 1958) was a German SS-''Gruppenführer'' and ''Generalleutnant'' of Police. During the Second World War he served as a police official in the General Government and as an SS and Police Leader in the occupi ...
, the Higher SS and Police Leader
The title of SS and Police Leader (') designated a senior Nazi Party official who commanded various components of the SS and the German uniformed police ('' Ordnungspolizei''), before and during World War II in the German Reich proper and in the ...
for Central Russia.[Blood, pp. 184–86] It continued to operate in Belarus
Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...
and western Russia on anti-partisan
Partisan(s) or The Partisan(s) may refer to:
Military
* Partisan (military), paramilitary forces engaged behind the front line
** Francs-tireurs et partisans, communist-led French anti-fascist resistance against Nazi Germany during WWII
** Ital ...
duties through April 1944; it had been transferred to Slovenia
Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...
by August.[
]
Notes
References
* Arico, Massimo. ''Ordnungspolizei: Encyclopedia of the German Police Battalions'', Stockholm: Leandoer and Ekholm (2010).
*Blood, Phillip W. ''Hitler's Bandit Hunters: The SS and the Nazi Occupation of Europe'', Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books (2006).
*Tessin, Georg & Kannapin, Norbert. ''Waffen-SS under Ordnungspolizei im Kriegseinsatz 1939–1945: Ein Überlick anhand der Feldpostübersicht'', Osnabrück, Germany: Biblio Verlag (2000).
{{SS Police Regts
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