Back فولكسدويتشر زيلبستشوتس Arabic Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz German فولکسدویچه زلبستشوتز Persian Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz French Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz Italian 민족독일인 자위단 Korean Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz NB Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz Polish Народная немецкая самооборона Russian Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz Swedish
| Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz | |
|---|---|
 Selbstschutz leaders in Bydgoszcz at the time of the Bydgoszcz massacres of both Jewish and non-Jewish Poles (from left to right): SS-Standartenführer Ludolf Jakob von Alvensleben SS-Obersturmbannführer Erich Spaarmann, SS-Obersturmbannführer Hans Kölzow, and SS-Sturmbannführer Christian Schnug | |
| Country | Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Soviet Union |
| Allegiance | Nazi Germany, the SS |
| Type | Paramilitary police reserve |
The Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz was an ethnic-German self-protection militia,[1] a paramilitary organization comprising ethnic Germans (Volksdeutsche) mobilized from among the German minority in Poland.
The Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz operated before, and during the opening stages of, World War II in the western half of Poland[2] and were responsible for, and took part in, massacres of Poles, along with SS Einsatzgruppen.
The Selbstschutz numbered some 100,000 members, who formed the greater part of the German minority "fit for action".[3]
- ^ Richard J. Evans, The Third Reich at War: 1939–1945 (Penguin, 2009).
- ^ Christian Jansen, Arno Weckbecker: Der "Volksdeutsche Selbstschutz" in Polen 1939/40. München: R. Oldenbourg, 1992. ISBN 3-486-64564-1
- ^ Peter Longerich, Heinrich Himmler: A Life, Oxford University Press, 2012, p. 429.