Blue Police

The Blue Police
Polnische Polizei im Generalgouvernement
Police street check in Kraków overseen by German Ordnungspolizei
Active	October 30, 1939 – August 27, 1944
Country	General Government territory of Nazi Germany
Role	Auxiliary police
Commanders
Colonel of the Regiment	Major Hans Köchlner (until 1942)
Notable commanders	Aleksander Reszczyński (AK)

The Blue Police, more correctly translated as The Navy-Blue Police (Polish: Granatowa policja) was the popular name of the Polish police during the Second World War in the German occupied area of the Second Polish Republic named as the General Government. The official title of the organization was the Polnische Polizei im Generalgouvernement (Polish Police of the General Government, or in Polish: Policja Polska Generalnego Gubernatorstwa).

It was formed by Nazi Germany officially on October 30, 1939 by reinstating Polish state police (Policja Państwowa) existing before the invasion of Poland, with German instead of Polish leadership. It was an auxiliary organization purposed to keep law and order in the General Government territory. Similar police organizations existed in all German occupied countries based on professional local police force. Initially used to deal with purely criminal activities, property crimes and common banditry in occupied Poland, which greatly increased after the invasion; the Blue Police was later used also to prevent smuggling, which was an essential element of underground economy under Nazism.

The organization was officially dissolved and declared disbanded by the Polish Committee of National Liberation on August 27, 1944. After a review process, a number of its former members joined the new national policing structure, the Milicja Obywatelska (Citizens' Militia). Others were persecuted after 1949 under Stalinism.

In October 1939, General Governor Hans Frank ordered the mobilization of the pre-war Polish police into the service of the Germans. The policemen were to report for duty or face the death penalty. Formally, the Polnische Polizei (PP) was subordinate to regular German Ordnungspolizei (Orpo). The same prewar facilities were used all across occupied Poland with exactly the same organizational structure; under Major Hans Köchlner (he was trained in Poland in 1937). They wore the same uniforms, but without national insignia. In spring 1940, the Ukrainian Police was split off from the Polish Police. The department existed already before 1939. The German chief of Ordnungspolizei (KdO, as well as its entire leadership) assumed dual role, in charge of both. After the attack on the USSR known as Operation Barbarossa, all newly acquired territories in Distrikt Galizien were put under the Ukrainian control with headquarters in Chełm Lubelski. Notably, the District of Galicia created on August 1, 1941 (Document No. 1997-PS of July 17, 1941 by Adolf Hitler) – although considered by some to be part of the occupied Ukraine – was a separate administrative unit from the actual Reichskommissariat Ukraine created on September 1 of the same year. They were not connected with each other politically.