The 1st SS Police Regiment was a security and police formation which was formed in 1943 from existing SS garrison and police forces in the vicinity of Berlin. The creation of the regiment was the first in a series of consolidations of SS and police battalions which were reclassified from several hundred formations to what would eventually become approximately thirty major SS security commands.
The bulk of the manpower for the 1st SS Police Regiment came from the Polizei Abschnitt Mitte which was the main police command for northern and central Germany. The 1st SS Police Regiment was further subordinated to the Oberabschnitt Spree which was the divisional command of the Allgemeine-SS in the Berlin capitol area. Operationally, the regiment was directly under the command of the SS and Police Leader of the region.
The 1st SS Police Regiment was mainly used as a training and reserve formation. In early 1945, its membership was folded into regular combat units, many of which fought in the Battle of Berlin. The regiment was a paper command by April of 1945 and ceased to exist upon the surrender of Germany one month later.
References[]
- Yerger, Mark C. Allgemeine-SS: The Commands, Units, and Leaders of the General SS, Schiffer Publishing (1997). ISBN 0-7643-0145-4
- Massimo, Aricco Ordnungspolizei: Encyclopedia of the German Police Battalions, Leandoer and Ekholm (September 2010). ISBN 9185657980
- Campbell, Stephen SS-Polizei: Memories of Poland, Turtle Press (2009), ISBN 978-0615151090
The original article can be found at 1st SS Police Regiment and the edit history here.