War Crimes
One of the more notorious functions of the SS and Police Leaders was to serve as the Commanding SS General for any Einsatzgruppen (mostly death squads) that were activated in the SS and Police Leader’s area. Such duties typically involved ordering the deaths of tens of thousands of persons and, following the close of World War II, nearly every SS and Police Leader, who had served in Poland and the Soviet Union, was charged with war crimes. A large number of the SS and Police Leaders, who had been involved with such crimes, committed suicide before capture.
SS and Police Leaders were also the overseeing authority of the Jewish Ghettos in Poland and, as such, directly coordinated deportations to extermination camps with the administrative help of the RSHA. The SS and Police Leaders were also afforded direct command over Police Battalions and SD Regiments that were assigned to keep order in the ghettos.
Read more about this topic: SS And Police Leader
Famous quotes containing the words war and/or crimes:
“Those wars are unjust which are undertaken without provocation. For only a war waged for revenge or defense can be just.”
—Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 B.C.)
“We might make a public moan in the newspapers about the decay of conscience, but in private conversation, no matter what crimes a man may have committed or how cynically he may have debased his talent or his friends, variations on the answer “Yes, but I did it for the money” satisfy all but the most tiresome objections.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)