Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz

Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz
Selbstschutz leaders in Bydgoszcz at the time of the Bydgoszcz massacres of Poles and Polish Jews (from left to right): SS-Standartenführer Ludolf Jakob von Alvensleben SS-Obersturmbannführer Erich Spaarmann, SS-Obersturmbannführer Hans Kölzow, and SS-Sturmbannführer Christian Schnug
Country	Occupied Poland, Czechoslovakia and Soviet Union
Allegiance	Nazi Germany, the SS
Type	Paramilitary police reserve

Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz (German: ethnic self-defense or self-protection), also known as the Selbstschutz battalions, were a paramilitary organisation consisting of ethnic German Volksdeutsche mobilized from among the German minority in Poland. Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz operated before and during the opening stages of World War II in the western half of the Second Polish Republic.

Throughout the interwar period the Selbstschutz battalions were deployed by the German intelligence not only in newly reborn Poland but also in Czechoslovakia. Armed with weapons and ammunition smuggled from Germany, they fought on the German side of the Polish/German conflict already in 1921. Both Selbstschutz and Freikorps mercenaries were sent to fight Polish partisans in the Third Silesian Uprising for political control of Upper Silesia. The Selbstschutz fifth column worked to indoctrinate ethnic Germans locally, while preparations were under way elsewhere, especially in the late 1930s. The Selbstschutz commandos committed acts of terrorism in the summer of 1938 against the Czech administration of the Sudetenland. In the interwar period, the German minority organizations in Poland included Jungdeutsche Partei (Young German party), Deutsche Vereinigung (United German), Deutscher Volksbund (German peoples Union) and Deutscher Volksverband (German peoples United). All of them actively cooperated with Nazi Germany in anti-Polish espionage, sabotage, provocations, and political indoctrination. They maintained close contact with and were directed by the NSDAP (Nazi Party), Auslandsorganisation (Foreign Affairs Organization), Gestapo (Secret Police), SD (Security Service) and Abwehr (Defense). It is estimated that 25% of the German minority in Poland were members of these organisations.