page_title: Bandenbekämpfung
section_title: Bandenbekämpfung in the Second World War
hierarchical_section_title: Bandenbekämpfung / Bandenbekämpfung in the Second World War
context_page_description: In German military history, Bandenbekämpfung refers to the concept and military doctrine of countering resistance or insurrection in the rear area during wartime. Another more common understanding of Bandenbekämpfung is anti-partisan warfare. The doctrine of "bandit-fighting" provided a rationale for targeting and murdering any number of groups, from armed guerrillas to the civilian population, as "bandits" or "members of gangs". As applied by the German Empire and later by Nazi Germany, it became instrumental in the genocidal mass murders implemented by the two regimes, including the Holocaust.
context_section_description: German army policy for deterring partisan or "bandit" activities against its forces was to strike "such terror into the population that it loses all will to resist." Even before the Nazi campaign in the east had begun, Hitler had already absolved his soldiers and police from any responsibility for brutality against civilians, expecting them to kill anyone that even "looked askance" at the German forces. Much of the partisan warfare became an exercise of anti-Semitism, as military commanders like General Bechtolsheim exclaimed that whenever an act of sabotage was committed and one killed the Jews from that village, then "one can be certain that one has destroyed the perpetrators, or at least those who stood behind them." When the Wehrmacht entered Serbia in 1941, they carried out mass reprisals against partisans by executing Jews there. The commander responsible for combating partisan warfare in 1941, General Böhme, reiterated to the German forces, "that rivers of German blood" had been spilled in Serbia during the First World War and the Wehrmacht should consider any acts of violence there as "avenging these deaths."
  Before invading the Soviet Union for Operation Barbarossa, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, and Chief of the SD Reinhard Heydrich, as well as SS General Heinrich Müller briefed the Einsatzgruppen leaders of their responsibility to secure the rear areas—using the euphemism "special treatment"—against potential enemies; this included partisans and anyone deemed a threat by the Nazi functionaries.
  From September 1941 onwards through the course of World War II, the term Bandenbekämpfung supplanted Partisanenkämpfung (anti-partisan warfare) to become the guiding principle of Nazi Germany's security warfare and occupational policies; largely as a result of Himmler's insistence that for psychological reasons, bandit was somehow preferable. Himmler charged the 'Prinz Eugen' Division to expressly deal with "partisan revolts." Units like the SS Galizien—who were likewise tasked to deal with partisans—included foreign recruits overseen by experienced German "bandit" fighters well-versed in the "mass murder of unarmed civilians." Aside from the groups assigned to fight partisans, additional assistance in this task was provided by the Gestapo, the German Criminal Police, the SD, and the Waffen-SS.
  On 23 October 1942, Himmler named SS General Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski the "Commissioner for Anti-Bandit Warfare." Then Himmler transferred SS General Curt von Gottberg to Byelorussia to ensure that the Bandenbekämpfung operations were conducted on a permanent basis, a task which Gottberg carried out with fanatical ruthlessness, declaring the entire population bandits, Jews, Gypsies, spies, or bandit sympathizers. During Gottberg's first major operations, Operations Nürnberg and Hamburg, conducted between November thru December 1942, he reported 5,000 murdered Jews, another 5,000 bandits or suspects eliminated, and 30 villages burned down.
  Also in October 1942—just a couple months prior to Gottberg's exploits—Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring had ordered "anti-bandit warfare" in Army Group Rear Area Center, which was shortly followed by an OKH Directive on 11 November 1942 for "anti-bandit warfare in the East" that announced sentimental considerations as "irresponsible" and instructed the men to shoot or preferably hang bandits, including women. Misgivings from commanders within Army Group Rear that such operations were counterproductive and in poor taste since women and children were being murdered went ignored or resisted from Bach-Zelewski, who frequently "cited the special powers of the Reichsführer." Over time, the Wehrmacht acculturated to the large scale anti-bandit operations, as the enemy was not simply populated by partisan groups, but instead they too came to see the entire population as criminal and complicit in any operation against German troops. In fact, many of the commanders were unbothered by the fact that these operations fell under the jurisdiction of the SS. Historians Ben Shepherd and Juliette Pattinson no
caption: Execution of suspected partisans by German soldiers, September 1941
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