Lithuanian Auxiliary Police

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 Vilnius in July 1941 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 recover the Lithuanian state, they reconstituted part of the pre-war police, reaching about 40% (3,000 men) of its pre-war numbers, and began to rebuild 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. On July 21, 1941, LSD was reorganized into the Vilnius Reconstruction Service ( 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 ==