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ordnungspolizei and ss badges
Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 5:13 pm
by andy d
Can anyone give me a bit of background as to the wearing of the sigrunes whilst members of the ORPO.
If an individual was in the ORPO, how would this fit into their membership of the SS(or indeed vice versa).
Was it a secondment type of system to the ORPO, or was it a case of using people as and when they were required?
Re: ordnungspolizei and ss badges
Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 5:15 pm
by Crazy Feldgendarme
Cue Dave Page (Feldjager), he will i am sure give you all the info you need mate.
Re: ordnungspolizei and ss badges
Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 5:56 pm
by Feldjager
An anology is that membership of the SS, for the police, was like being in a private members club, and they were entitled to wear the runes on their OrPo uniform. There was a specific membership system for the police, but I can't remember the details off the top of my head. It also gets more confusing as the police fell under the control of Himmler and he had some weird ideas about who could wear what! They basically started introducing SS items as early as 1938 and were still doing it in April 1945.
Re: ordnungspolizei and ss badges
Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 6:06 pm
by andy d
cheers Dave,
boy do you know a load of info!!!
Re: ordnungspolizei and ss badges
Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 6:14 pm
by Feldjager
andy d wrote:cheers Dave,
boy do you know a load of info!!!
I need to get out more.
Re: ordnungspolizei and ss badges
Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 6:24 pm
by Crazy Feldgendarme
Extract from German Police Vol 1
31 Dec 1937: 1,268, or 0.6%, of the 208,364 members of the SS were professional policemen by the end of 1937.
18 Jan 1938: the close relationship between the police and SS was further reinforced by a decree of the RFSSuChdDtPol. headed " Assimilation of police officers and men in the SS," which was one of many that established rules by which those members of the police who were not yet members of the SS could be accepted to it. All uniformed officers and men of the ORPO (including members of the full time fire brigades) who satisfied the general requirements might be accepted on application to the general SS (Allgemeine-SS) provided that: a) they had been members of the NSDAP or one of its organizations (SA, NSKK,HJ) prior to 30 January 1933: b) they had been patron members (Ordernde Mitglieder) prior to 30 janusry 1933) Himmler sought to SS-ify" the police in this way, but it was technically not correct that Orpo officials were forced to join the SS.
4 March 1938: RFSSuChdDtPol. Circular which referred to the decree of 18 Jan 1938 as a further step in the gradual merger of the SS and police and stated that members of the Orpo who also belonged to the SA, NSKK or Hj were expected to transfer to the SS.
if you want full details suggest you buy.
Uniforms, Organization and History of the
German Police Volume 1 by John R Angola and Hugh Page Taylor.
ISBN 0-912138-97-1
R James Bender Publishing
http://www.worldwartwobooks.com/product ... 5352e67a63