History
The first Higher SS and Police Leaders were appointed in 1937 from the existing SS-Oberabschnitt Führers (leaders of the main districts). The purpose of the Higher SS and Police Leader was to be a direct command authority for every SS and police unit in a given geographical region with such authority answering only to Heinrich Himmler and Adolf Hitler.
Inside the 'Reich', the person at the HSSPF post was usually the same person who was the SS-Oberabschnitt Führer for that region. Outside the Reich, there was no Oberabschnitt, so the HSSPF existed on their own. However, they had something the Reich HSSPFs did not - Several "SS and Polizei Führer" (SSPF) posts underneath them to aide them in their deeds.
There were also two "Höchste SS und Polizeiführer" posts (Supreme SS and Police Leader). They were named "Italien" (1943–1945) and "Ukraine" (1943–1944), and had various HSSPF and SSPF under them.
SS and Police Leaders directly commanded a headquarters staff with representatives from almost every branch of the SS. This typically included the Ordnungspolizei (regular police), Gestapo (secret police), Totenkopfverbände (Nazi concentration camps), SD (intelligence service), and certain units of the Waffen-SS (combat units). In theory, an SS and Police Leader had authority to command and commandeer any SS unit available in a particular region; however, in practice SS units answered to their immediate chain of command and would only be requisitioned by the SS and Police Leader in the event of an emergency.
"The Higher SS and Police Leaders or HSSPF and their subordinate SS and Police Leaders (SSPF) were the most powerful (and feared) SS posts created by Himmler"-Mark Yerger, Allgemeine-SS
Read more about this topic: SS And Police Leader
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