The Police and the Holocaust
Very few people know that on 13 July 1942, German policemen executed some 1,500 Jews in a forest near the Polish town of Józefów, Biłgoraj County, and that German law enforcement officers were directly responsible for murdering at least 600,000 Jews throughout Europe.
Even now, almost eighty years since the end of the Second World War, the role of the police in the Holocaust remains unknown to most. While the horrors of Auschwitz-Birkenau have become a symbol of the Holocaust worldwide, few people know that half of the 6 million Jewish victims were shot dead outside the camps. In this ‘Holocaust by bullets’, police officers from Germany and Austria were amongst the main actors. Every tenth Holocaust victim was shot dead by a police officer of the German Reich.
These officers were also essential for implementing the deportations and guarding the Jewish ghettos across Nazi-occupied Europe. The policemen on location were acting as agents of the state’s executive power. Their deeds have largely avoided legal prosecution. With this project, we’re highlighting the biographies of the involved police officers and their choices on the job.
With the ‘Police and the Holocaust’ project, we’re inviting participants to come join us in looking at events like the massacre in Józefów. We’ll visit the historical sites of planning and execution together, and discuss how and under what conditions these police officers became perpetrators. The ‘Police and the Holocaust’ project offers twenty-five law enforcement officers from Germany and Austria a face-to-face look at the history of their profession during the Nazi period. The participants will discuss the importance of remembering this history, both for society and for today’s police work.
We will start with workshops on the sites of planning and implementation in Germany and Austria, and consider the role of the police in persecuting the Jews of those countries. After that is a trip to what is now Poland, visiting various Holocaust sites that exemplify the crimes committed by the uniformed police.
Three other project modules are geared towards the multipliers and decision makers who shape policy and training in Germany’s and Austria’s police forces. At gatherings in Germany and Austria, we will present this project to policymakers and police representatives to discuss the approach and the results with them.
This will culminate in an international conference in September 2025 to network police training specialists with memorial site representatives from across Europe and to open a discussion on the relevance of the Holocaust for today’s police officers.
The project is financed with funding from the EU Commission.
If you’d like to know more, please do contact us: e.tthcwehs@rbikoar.nladzreaatm
Individuals interested in participating can apply here. The deadline for applications from Austria is postponed until 15th of September 2024.
