hucks216

As well as keeping the French Fleet out of Axis hands it was also an important action with regards to showing the watching world, noteably the USA, that Britain still had the will, and intention, to fight at a time when it would of been easy to doubt this after the setbacks in the Norwegian & French Campaigns and with the threat of an impending invasion.

Hauptmann Wenzel

Fantastic! :beer:

POLIZEI BATAILLON 303

Place of origin: Bremen-Oberneuland

Formed in: Bremen, from the Polizei-Ausbildungs-Bataillon "Bremen"

Activation date: November 1940

Battalion Commander: Maj. Heinrich Hannibal

Disbanding/reorganization date: reorganized in July 1942 – it become II/Pol.-Rgt. 10

Involvement in Crimes:

1) Verified participations

Stara Kostantinova area (*)

Mop-ups, executions – 26-30 July 1941 – 814 victims – Jews, soviet soldiers

Chudniv

Slaughter – beginning of September 1941 – about 100 victims – Jews

Zhitomir

Slaughter – 18/19 September 1941 – about 3.145 victims – Jews

Babi Yar

Slaughter – 29/30 September 1941 – 33.771 victims – Jews

Miropol and Zolotonosha

Slaughters – October/November 1941 – about 1.000 victims – Jews

Unspecified places

28 executions at least – Summer/Autumn 1941 – 2.583 victims – Jews

Unspecified place

Slaughter – Autumn 1941 – about 1.000÷1.500 victims – Jews

2) Alleged participation

Baranovka, Dubrovka and Izyaslav

Slaughters – 25 August 1941 – 1.342 victims – Jews

Unspecified place, between Rovno and Zhitomir

Slaughter – 27 August 1941 – 549¸ 914 victims – Jews

Unspecified place, between Rovno and Zhitomir

Slaughter – 28 August 1941 – 369 victims – Jews

Unspecified place, between Rovno and Zhitomir

Slaughter – 1 September 1941 – 88 victims – Jews

Schepetowka

Slaughter – 2 September 1941 – 45 victims – Jews

Khazhin

Slaughter – 4 September 1941 – 4.144 victims – Jews

Unspecified place, between Rovno and Zhitomir

Slaughter – 6 September 1941 – 144 victims – Jews

Unspecified place, between Rovno and Zhitomir

Slaughter – 11 September 1941 – 1.548 victims – Jews

Unspecified place, between Rovno and Zhitomir

Slaughter – 12 September 1941 – 1.255 victims – Jews

(*) Not directly involved

Source: http://www.ordnungspolizei.org/index...mid=55&lang=en

Einsatz slip image 5...

Einsatz slip image 4...

Einsatz slip image 3...

Feldpost Numbers:

38101B - 1./Pol.Btl 303

36524 - Stab/Pol.Rgt Sud

41265 - Wasserschutzpolizei Asowsches Meer

I have been able to identify some of the signatures that relate to Polizei Btl 303 & Polizei Rgt Sud either on the Einsatz slips or in the Dienstpass:

1st Kompanie Pol.Btl 303 – Kompaniefuhrer:

Oberleutnant Oswald Altendorf

Hauptmann d. Schupo Walter Lindeck

Polizei Rgt Sud:

Hauptmann d.Sch Hermann Berentsen

Two of the separate slips of paper show that Karrasch participated in 'Cleaning' operations in Kiev between 23/09/1941 & 15/10/1941 thereby proving that he was with Polizei Btl 303 during the Aktion at Babi Yar although it is impossible to know whether he was one of the 'Packers', shooters or whether he took part in some other related task. Karrasch's performance with Pol.Btl 303 was assessed as 'Very Good'. He was awarded the Eastern Front Medal.

After Babi Yar, the unit continued to murder Jews in numerous towns and villages including Vinnitsa, Poltava & Dnepropetrovsk. By the end of January 1942 they were executing Jews in the region around Kharkov.

In August 1942 Karrasch finally left Polizei Btl 303 and in November was posted to the Wasserschutzpolizei training school at Stettin. After completing his training he was assigned to a variety of Wassershutzpolizei units, first in Russia and then at various locations around the Adriatic, including Trieste conducting anti-partisan operations. It is very possible that he was involved in further Holocaust related activities as his unit came under the overall command of HSSPF Trieste Odilo Globocnik who transferred a number of those involved in Aktion Reinhard to the region with him. What happened to him after May 1944 is not revealed by the Dienstpass and if he survived the war why he would keep such an incriminating piece of documentation is anyone's guess..

The following is taken from Masters Of Death: The SS Einsatzgruppen by Richard Rhodes (ISBN: 1-903985-56-0) (Pages 174-178):

Jeckeln had planned the Babi Yar Aktion along the same basic lines as the Kamenets-Podolsky massacre. When the first Jews approached the Jewish cemetery on the morning of 29th September 1941, Sonderkommando 4a, two commandos of Polizei Rgt Sud [Polizei Btl’s 45 & 303] and Ukrainian militia were waiting for them.

Testimony from a truck driver (name of Hoefer):

“Once undressed, the Jews were led into Babi Yar. Two or three narrow entrances led to this ravine through which the Jews were channelled. When they reached the bottom of the ravine they were seized by members of the Schutzpolizei [the Polizei Btl’s] and made to lie down on top of Jews who had already been shot. This all happened very quickly. The corpses were literally in layers. A police marksman came along and shot each Jew in the neck with a submachine gun at the spot where he was lying….There was a ‘packer’ at either entrance to the ravine. These ‘packers’ were Schutzpolizisten whose job it was to lay the victim on top of the other corpses so that al the marksman had to do as he passed was fire a shot.”

An Einsatzgruppen report on 2nd October 1941 summarized the Babi Yar Aktion brazenly, not even bothering to justify it as retaliation [for the recent explosions in Kiev after German forces had occupied the city]:

Sonderkommando 4a in collaboration with the group staff and two commandos of Police Regiment South on 29th & 30th September 1941 executed 33,771 Jews in Kiev.

Erich Karrasch was an NCO in Polizei Btl 303 which he had joined on 9th September 1940 at a time when it was stationed in the Generalgouvernement. Two days after the start of Operation Barbarossa Polizei Btl 303 was sent to Russia as part of Polizei Regiment Sud (the other two battalion's in this regiment were Pol.Btls. 45 & 314). Polizei Regiment Sud was assigned to Einsatzgruppen C and participated in the numerous Aktions against the Jewish populations of the newly conquered lands.

Reports show:

25 August: Pol.Rgt Sud shot 1,324 Jews

27 August: Pol.Rgt Sud shot 1,463 Jews

...and so on through the remainder of August & September including shooting 3,145 Jews at Zhitomir on 19th September. However it was on the dates of 29 & 30th September that Pol.Rgt Sud firmly placed its name in the history of the Holocaust with the massacre of over 33,000 Jews at Babi Yar.

And now another one of my favourite acquisitions of the year although it is connected with the darker side of WW 2 history.

It is a Polizei Dienstpass to a member of Polizei Btl 303 which as part of Polizei Rgt Sud participated in the Jewish massacre at Babi Yar, and as the dates & Einsatz slips show, this man was there at the time although in what capacity he participated is not known as far as I am aware.

Very nice and interesting group!

His Inury

contusio cerebri (bruising of the brain tissue) durch Verschüttung

He received a traumatic brain injury caused by him being buried in a cave-in.

Thank you for translating that. His luck might not of been so good after all!

And finally - of the 15 or so photos that came with the group this is my personal favourite and is a rare photo of Teifke wearing an assault gun type wrapper with his GD & Sturmboot Pionier insignia...

Photo 3 - Teifke in a more formal pose taken sometime between March & August 1942 seeing as he is not yet wearing his Infantry Assault Badge...

Photo 2 - a good image of Teifke wearing the Sturmboot Pionier insignia on his upper left arm...

Photo 1 - Guenter Teifke is the soldier sitting on the left of the image (as you look at it)...

Teifke's insignia...

And the wound tag that saw Guenter Teifke evacuated away from the fighting in the East and escape Russian captivity, or death, in the final battles in East Prussia.

Unfortunately I have not been able to positively identify the signature of the Company Cdr on the Eastern Front Medal citation.

The Infantry Assault Badge In Bronze citation is signed by Oberst Kohler. He would be killed in action in December 1942 during the bitter and heavy fighting in the Luchesa Valley while commanding a GD Kampfgruppe.

Next up we have his Wound Badge In Black citation signed by Oberstleutnant Foellmer of GD's Replacement Btl organisation. He was originally the commanding officer of Infantry Ers.Btl 99 (mot.) in 1940 that acted as a replacement unit for GD before & during the French Campaign in 1940 and was eventually absorbed into Grossdeutschland.

This is a more recent addition to the collection then the Pz.Rgt GD Officers citation grouping and one of my favourite acquisitions of the year. The grouping consists of 4 citations, a wound tag, insignia and a handful of photos for a soldier who served as a Sturmboot Pionier in Infantry Rgt Grossdeutschland and stayed with that unit all through its various reorganisations, eventually being evacuated from the East in April 1945 as a member of Pz.Pi.Btl GD due to injury.

I was thrilled to get this set as the EK II citation bears the very rarely seen signature of Grossdeutschland's first official commander - Oberst/Generalmajor Wilhelm-Hunald von Stockhausen.

It certainly has that 'been there' look to it. Lovely item.

And the EK I citation bearing the seemingly obligatory GD signature of Generalleutnant Walter Hoernlein.

Major Fischer's Soldbuch, Driving Instructors Licenses and post-war papers reside in another collection and the owner has kindly shared the scans of them with me (as I have done likewise with these citations) and from the Soldbuch it shows that after leaving GD Major Fischer went on to serve with GD's replacement organisation at Cottbus and also with Technische-Lehrgruppe Panzer-Lehrgaenge 'Tiger'.