# Lithuanian Auxiliary Police

The Lithuanian Auxiliary Police was a Schutzmannschaft formation formed during the German occupation of Lithuania between 1941 and 1944, with the first battalions originating from the most reliable freedom fighters, disbanded following the 1941 anti-Soviet Lithuanian June Uprising in 1941. Lithuanian activists hoped that these units would be the basis of a reestablished Lithuanian Army commanded by the Lithuanian Provisional Government. Instead, they were put under the orders of the SS- und Polizeiführer in Lithuania.
Lithuanian auxiliary policemen were divided into four types. The first three were: regular law enforcement policemen, firefighting policemen, and auxiliary units grouped into platoons that assisted the local police when needed. The last were Lithuanian Schutzmannschaft battalions, closed formations organized into battalions, companies, platoons and groups.
The battalions were charged with internal security duties and engaged in anti-partisan operations in the Wehrmacht's rear areas, e.g. Ukraine, Belarus, Poland and Northwest Russia. Some battalions took part in the Holocaust, most notably the 12th and the 13th battalions, which started as the Lithuanian TDA Battalions. These two battalions were responsible for an estimated 78,000 Jewish deaths in Lithuania and Belarus. While the battalions were often deployed outside Lithuania, they generally did not participate in combat. In total, 26 battalions were formed and approximately 20,000 men served in them. In July to September 1944, the remaining units were combined into two Lithuanian Volunteer Infantry Regiments

## Terminology

The units are known under a number of names. German documents referred to them as Ordnungsdienst (order service), Selbstschutz (self-defense), and Hilfspolizei (auxiliary police). From September 1941, they became known as Schutzmannschaft-Bataillonen (abbreviated Schuma). In Lithuanian, the police battalions were known as savisaugos batalionai (self-defense battalions), apsaugos dalys (security units), Lietuvos apsaugos dalys (LAD, security units of Lithuania).

## Sources and historiography

Lithuanian Police Battalions are controversial and poorly researched. The main obstacle is the lack of reliable and objective data. During the war, journal Karys published frequent stories about the battalions, but to protect military secrets the articles were heavily censored to remove names, dates, and locations. During the Soviet period, when Soviet propaganda exploited tales of war crimes and actively persecuted former members of the battalions, objective research was impossible. Several members of the battalions managed to escape to the West and publish memoirs, but they gloss over the controversial aspects of the battalions and often deny Lithuanian involvement in the Holocaust. Foreign researchers were hampered by lack of archival data.
When Lithuania declared independence, the archives became accessible to scholars. However, the documents are scattered in various archives in Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Germany and Russia. In addition, recordkeeping was poor, particularly towards the end of the war. The units were subject to frequent reorganizations and restructurings; sometimes the units were themselves confused about their names or numbers. In the post-war years, the KGB produced interrogation protocols of former members of the battalions, but these are not considered reliable, as confessions were often obtained through torture or fabricated outright. Nevertheless, Lithuanian scholars, primarily Arūnas Bubnys, have published several articles analyzing the structure and activities of individual battalions.

## Background

In June 1940, Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union. The Soviets introduced harsh sovietization policies, including nationalization of larger enterprises, landholdings, and real estate. Opponents of communism and the new regime were persecuted: an estimated 6,600 were imprisoned as "enemies of the people" and another 17,600 deported to Siberia. The Lithuanian Army was reorganized into the 29th Rifle Corps (179th Rifle and 184th Rifle Divisions) of the Red Army. More than 500 Lithuanian officers retired and 87 were imprisoned.
The Lithuanian Activist Front was formed in Berlin by Kazys Škirpa, former Lithuanian envoy to Germany. Its goal was to organize an anti-Soviet uprising in the event of a German-Soviet war. When Nazi Germany invaded Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, some Lithuanians greeted the Germans as liberators from the repressive Soviet rule. Many spontaneously joined the anti-Soviet June Uprising. The Provisional Government of Lithuania declared independence and Lithuanians began to form their own military and police units in hopes of recreating the Lithuanian Army. The territory of Lithuania was invaded by and divided between two German Army Groups:Army Group North took over western and northern Lithuania, and Army Group Centre took over most of the Vilnius Region. Therefore, developments in Kaunas and Vilnius were parallel but separate. The Germans had no intention of giving the Lithuanians independence, so the provisional government was dissolved on August 5, 1941 and partisan units disarmed. On September 26, the LAF was also dissolved and Lithuania was incorporated into the German civil administration.

## Formation

In the short period when the Lithuanians hoped to rebuild the state, they reconstituted part of the pre-war police, reaching about 40% (3,000 men) of its pre-war numbers, and began to recreate the army. On July 5, however, German authorities forbade the reconstitution of the Lithuanian army, or any units other than self-defense units, which the Germans transformed into auxiliary police units. In November, all auxiliary policemen in the eastern territories, including Lithuania, were considered Schutzmannschaften.
Schutzmannschaften were divided into four types. The first was a regular police force, stationed in cities and provinces. The second type, closed formations, were organized into battalions, companies, platoons and groups. The third type was firefighting units. The fourth, auxiliary units grouped into platoons and companies, assisted regular police when needed.
The first battalion, known as the Tautinio darbo apsaugos batalionas (TDA), was formed by the Provisional Government in Kaunas on June 28. The Provisional Government was dissolved on August 5, 1941. The battalion was not dissolved and German Major Franz Lechthaler [de] took over its command. On August 7, the TDA had 703 members and Lechthaler ordered it reorganized into two battalions of auxiliary police (German: Polizeihilfsdienst bataillone; Lithuanian: Pagalbinės policijos tarnyba or PPT). During August three more battalions of PPT were formed. In October, these five battalions were renamed security battalions (Lithuanian: apsaugos batalionas). In December, the five battalions were reorganized again into battalions of Schutzmannschaft.
Lithuanians massively deserted from the Soviet 29th Rifle Corps and gathered in Vilnius. They organized Lithuanian Self-defense Units (Lithuanian: Lietuvių savisaugos dalys or LSD) in Vilnius, Pabradė, Trakai, and Varėna. On July 21, 1941, LSD was reorganized into the Vilnius Reconstruction Service (Lithuanian: Vilniaus atstatymo tarnyba or VAT) with three units (Work, Order, and Security). On August 1, VAT and its three units were reorganized into three battalions of Schutzmannschaft. Two more battalions were organized by October 1941.

## Atrocities

Some Lithuanian auxiliary police battalions took an active part in the extermination of Jewish people in Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia and Poland and committed crimes against the Polish and Belarusian populations. For example the 12th Police Battalion liquided Jews in Kaunas in October 1941 under the command of Antanas Impulevičius. Later that the TBD 12th battalion murdered the entire Jewish population of Slutsk in Belarus. The 2nd Police Battalion served as guards at the Majdanek death camp in occupied Poland. Of 26 Lithuanian Auxiliary Police battalions, 10 were directly involved in the destruction of Jewish people in Eastern Europe. According to German reports, Lithuanians committed 47,000 killings of Jews in Lithuania out of all 85,000 committed by Einsatzkommando there. They also killed 50,000 Belarusian Jews during the war. The largest crime against the non-Jewish civilian population by Lithuanian policemen was the killings of Polish people in the villages of Švenčionėliai and Švenčionys and their surroundings.

## List of Lithuanian Schutzmannschaft battalions

| BN# | Formed from | Formation began | Formed in | First commander | Holocaust | Location on 1942-08-26 | Location on 1944-03-17 | Date disbanded | Further fate |
| 1st | VAT Security Unit (former LSD) | July 14, 1941 | Vilnius | Col Lt Jonas Juknevičius | Yes | Vilnius | Vilnius | Fall 1944 | To anti-aircraft units or Germany |
| 2nd | VAT Order Unit (former LSD) | July 14, 1941 | Vilnius | Col Lt Petras Vertelis | Yes | Lublin | Adutiškis | August 1944 | To various German units |
| 3rd | VAT Work unit (former LSD) | July 14, 1941 | Vilnius | Capt Pranas Ambraziūnas | Yes | Near Minsk | Near Minsk | July 1944 | To anti-aircraft units or Dresden |
| 4th | 4th battalion of PPT | August 30, 1941 | Kaunas | Capt Viktoras Klimavičius | No | Stalino | disbanded | February 1944 | Kovel Pocket: Soviet captivity |
| 5th | 5th battalion of PPT | August 28, 1941 | Kaunas | Capt Juozas Kriščiūnas | No | Dedovichi | Švenčionėliai | December 1944 | To the 256th and 13th battalions |
| 6th | Railway Protection Battalion | July 1941 | Vilnius | Capt Vincentas Ruseckas | No | Vilnius | Vilnius | August 1944 | To anti-aircraft units or Germany |
| 7th | | | Kaunas | Capt Klimavičius Viktoras | Yes | Lityn | disbanded | January 1944 | To the 13th and 257th battalions |
| 8th | | | Kaunas | Maj Juozas Jurkūnas | No | Kirovohrad | disbanded | Nov. 20, 1943 | |
| 9th | | | Kaunas | Capt Mykolas Slyvėnas | No | Kaunas | Kaunas | July 1944 | To the 1st Lithuanian Police Regiment |
| 10th | - | August 1941 | Panevėžys | Capt Bronius Kairiūnas | Yes | Panevėžys | disbanded | January 21, 1943 | To the 14th battalion |
| 11th | 3rd battalion of PPT | August 15, 1941 | Kaunas | Capt Antanas Švilpa | Yes | Korosten | disbanded | Late 1943 | |
| 12th | 2nd battalion of PPT (former TDA) | August 9, 1941 | Kaunas | Maj Antanas Impulevičius | Extensively | Minsk | disbanded | February 1944 | To the 15th battalion |
| 13th | 1st battalion of PPT (former TDA) | June 28, 1941 | Kaunas | Maj Kazys Šimkus | Extensively | Dedovichi | Opochka | May 1945 | Courland Pocket: Soviet captivity |
| 14th | - | August 1941 | Šiauliai | Capt Stanislovas Lipčius | Yes | Šiauliai | Šiauliai | Summer 1944 | To Gdańsk and Dresden |
| 15th | VAT Hrodna battalion | July 1941 | Vilnius | Maj Albinas Levickis | No | Baranovichi | Near Minsk | July 26, 1944 | To Szczecin and Gdańsk |
| 250th | - | 1941 autumn | Kaunas | | No | Pskov | Daugavpils | | |
| 251st | - | Summer 1942 | Kaunas | | No | Kaunas | disbanded | February 1943 | To the 2nd battalion |
| 252nd | - | May 25, 1942 | Kaunas | Maj Bronius Bajerčius | Yes | Kaunas | Lublin | November 1944 | To northern Yugoslavia |
| 253rd | - | May 1943 | Kaunas | Capt Vladas Aižinas | No | n/a | Lublin | August 1944 | To aviation units and Dresden |
| 254th | - | Spring 1942 | Vilnius | Capt Povilas Bareišis | No | Vilnius | disbanded | April 1944 | To the 258th or 259th battalions |
| 255th | - | July 21, 1942 | Kaunas | | No | Kaunas | Slutsk | August 1944 | To Dresden |
| 256th | - | March 1943 | Kaunas | Capt Jonas Matulis | No | n/a | Panemunė | May 1945 | Courland Pocket: Soviet captivity |
| 257th | 4 representative police companies | October 24, 1943 | | Capt V. Miliauskas | No | n/a | Svir [lt] | October 1944 | To Gdańsk |
| 258th | Training units | April 27, 1944 | | | No | n/a | n/a | Late 1944 | To Germany near Belgian border |
| 259th | - | April 1944 | Prienai | | No | n/a | n/a | | |
| Lietuva | Lithuanians in Reichsarbeitsdienst | | Koszalin | | No | n/a | n/a | | |
| Notes: ↑ Battalion number. Numbers 301 through 310 were assigned to the Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force. ↑ Only the first commander is listed. Some of them were acting commanders, holding the post for a few weeks. ↑ Indicates whether the unit participated in the Holocaust. The conclusion is based on the research by Arūnas Bubnys. ||||||||||