The 25th SS Police Regiment () was initially named Police Regiment Lublin (''Polizei-Regiment Lublin'') when it was formed in late 1939 after the

German invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...

from existing

Order Police The ''Ordnungspolizei'' (''Orpo'', , meaning "Order Police") were the uniformed police force in Nazi Germany from 1936 to 1945. The Orpo was absorbed into the Nazi monopoly of power after regional police jurisdiction was removed in favour of t ...

(''Ordnungspolizei'') units for security duties there. It was redesignated as the 25th Police Regiment in mid-1942 before it received the SS title in early 1943.

Formation and organization

Police Regiment Lublin was formed on 4 November 1939. Under its control were two

battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of up to one thousand soldiers. A battalion is commanded by a lieutenant colonel and subdivided into several Company (military unit), companies, each typically commanded by a Major (rank), ...

s from Police Group 1 (''Polizeigruppe 1'') as well as Police Battalion 102 (''Polizei-Batallion 102''). One of its early commanders was

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 chief of the Order Police in Lublin District from March 1940 through January 1941. The regiment maintained a strength of three battalions until July 1941, although the individual battalions were frequently rotated in and out. The invasion of Russia in June 1941 created a need for rear-area security units on the Eastern Front and Police Regiment Lublin provided some of these. They were partially replaced by worn-out units returning from Russia. When the regiment was redesignated on 9 July 1942 as the 25th Police Regiment, Police Battalion 65, Police Battalion 67, and

Reserve Police Battalion 101 Reserve Police Battalion 101 () was a Nazi German paramilitary formation of the uniformed police force known as the ''Ordnungspolizei'' (Order Police, ''Orpo''), the organization formed by the Nazi unification of the civilian police forces in th ...

were redesignated as the regiment's first through third

s, respectively. All of the police regiments were redesignated as SS police units on 24 February 1943. Together with the 22nd SS Police Regiment and other security forces, the regiment participated in Operation Harvest Festival (''Aktion Erntefest'') on 3–4 November, the massacre of 42,000 Jews imprisoned in the Majdanek extermination camp and several of its sub-camps. During this time it was commanded by SS-''

Gruppenführer __NOTOC__ ''Gruppenführer'' (, ) was an early paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party (NSDAP), first created in 1925 as a senior rank of the SA. Since then, the term ''Gruppenführer'' is also used for leaders of groups/teams of the police, fire d ...

und Generalleutnant der Polizei''

Jakob Sporrenberg Jakob Sporrenberg (16 September 1902 – 6 December 1952) was a German Nazi Party politician and member of the SS. He rose to the rank of SS-''Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Polizei'' and held several major commands. During the Second Wo ...

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 o ...

(''SS- und Polizeiführer'') Lublin.Blood, pp. 223–224

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'', Dulles, Virginia: 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 #