The 23rd SS Police Regiment (german: SS-Polizei-Regiment 23) was initially named Police Regiment Kraków (''Polizei-Regiment Krakau'') when it was formed in late 1939 after the German
invasion of Poland from existing
Order Police (''Ordnungspolizei'') units for security duties there. It was redesignated as the 23rd Police Regiment in mid-1942 before it received the
SS title in early 1943.
Formation and organization
Police Regiment Kraków was formed on 4 November 1939. Under its control were three
battalions from Police Group 1 (''Polizeigruppe 1'') as well as Police Battalions (''Polizei-Batallion'')
5 and
106 106 may refer to:
*106 (number), the number
*AD 106, a year in the 2nd century AD
*106 BC, a year in the 2nd century BC
*106 (emergency telephone number), an Australian emergency number
*106 (MBTA bus), a route of the Massachusetts Bay Transportatio ...
. By April 1940 the regiment had only two battalions under command as they rotated in and out, but its strength had increased to three battalions by June and then to four battalions by October.
The invasion of the Soviet Union,
Operation Barbarossa, in June 1941 created a need for rear-area security units in
Army Group Rear Area
Army Group Rear Area Command () was an area of military jurisdiction behind each of the three Wehrmacht army groups from 1941, the German invasion of the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa, through 1944 when the pre-war territories of the Soviet ...
s and Police Regiment Kraków provided some of these. They were partially replaced by worn-out units returning from the occupied Soviet Union. When the regiment was redesignated on 9 July 1942 as the 23rd Police Regiment, its I Battalion came from
Police Battalion 307
The Police Battalion 307 (''Polizeibattalion 307'') was a formation of the Order Police (uniformed police) during the Nazi era. During Operation Barbarossa, it was subordinated to the SS and deployed in German-occupied areas, specifically the Army ...
, while II and III Battalions were formed from independent police
companies scattered throughout occupied Poland, although their headquarters companies were not formed until 23 January 1943. In early 1943, I Battalion was redesignated as III Battalion of the
24th SS Police Regiment and was replaced by a newly formed unit. All of the police regiments were redesignated as SS police units on 24 February. The III Battalion helped suppress the
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of April–May 1943. II Battalion was disbanded in November 1944 and the rest of the regiment followed in March 1945.
[Arico, p. 411; Tessin & Kanapin, pp. 557, 625]
Notes
References
* Arico, Massimo. ''Ordnungspolizei: Encyclopedia of the German Police Battalions'', Stockholm: Leandoer and Ekholm (2010).
*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
#