SS and Police Leader

The title of SS and police leader (German: SS- und Polizeiführer) was used to designate a senior Nazi official who commanded large units of the SS, Gestapo and the regular German police prior to and during World War II.

Three levels of subordination were established for bearers of this title:

The first Higher SS and Police Leaders were appointed in 1937 from the existing SS-Oberabschnitt Führer (leaders of the main districts). The purpose of the Higher SS and Police Leader was to be a direct command authority for every SS and police unit in a given geographical region with such authority answering only to Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler and Adolf Hitler. They were to act as the highest liaison under Himmler and "unifier" for command of the SS and police in a region.

Inside the Reich the man named as HSSPF was usually also SS-Oberabschnitt Führer for that region. Outside the Reich there was no Oberabschnitt, so the HSSPF existed on their own. However, they had something the Reich HSSPFs did not - several SS- und Polizeiführer (SSPF) reporting to them.

There were also two Höchster SS- und Polizeiführer (Supreme SS and Police Leader) posts. These were "Italien" (1943–1945) and "Ukraine" (1943–1944), both of which had various HSSPF and SSPF reporting to them.

The SS and police leaders directly commanded a headquarters staff with representatives from almost every branch of the SS and the uniformed police. This typically included the Ordnungspolizei (Orpo; regular police), Gestapo (secret police), Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV; Nazi concentration camps), SD (intelligence service), and certain units of the Waffen-SS (combat units). Most of these SS and Police Leader's normally held the rank of SS-Gruppenführer or above and answered directly to Himmler in all matters pertaining to the SS within their area of responsibility. Their role was to be part of the SS control mechanism within the state policing the German population and overseeing the activities of the SS men within each respective district. The men in these positions could bypass the main chain of command of the administrative offices in their district for the SS, SD, SiPo, SS-TV and Orpo under the "guise of an emergency situation" thereby gaining direct operational control of these groups.

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