Free City of Danzig Police
The League of Nations allowed for the Free City of Danzig to maintain a regular police force of several hundred men, which was bolstered by a poorly trained and ill-equipped citizens' militia with approximately 3,000 members.
[5] Arguments over the administration and authority of this branch led to much tension between the Free City's Senate and the Polish government.
The Danzig Senate asserted it had the responsibility of upholding the law and could not surrender its executive powers to an external force.
Poland argued its economic rights in the city could not be guaranteed if Danzig had the power to arbitrarily interfere with Polish shipping.
Poland protested to the city's High Commissioner, but ultimately the League of Nations dismissed their complaint.
In June 1934 Poland and Nazi Germany reached an agreement by which the Harbour Board would directly employ 12 Poles and 12 Danzigers to protect the port, under charge of the chief pilot.
On 19 August 1919, the Sicherheitspolizei, or security police (called Sipo for short) was formed to protect the city's citizens and maintain order.
[3] In 1921, Danzig's government reformed the entire institution and established the Schutzpolizei, or protection police (Schupo for short).
Firm action would have to be taken to make the new regime a reality There could no longer be any room in Danzig for parties or for members of the Socialist, Centre or German-National groups.
He was ready to agree, however, that purely economic organisations should be allowed to remain in existence.This was in conjunction with a subsequent dissolution and ban on professional unions within the state constabulary.
The papers' editors appealed to the League of Nations High Commissioner of Danzig, Helmer Rosting, to step in.
On 5 November, Froböss, citing a possible danger to the state, took the editor-in-chief of the Landeszeitung and an editor from the Volksstimme into "protective custody," predicting their papers would continue to criticize the decisions of the government.
[7] After investigating the matter himself, Commissioner Rosting forwarded the appeals to the Secretary General of the League of Nations, where they were ultimately dismissed.
In 1939, the police granted a permit for the transfer of historical artifacts from the city to the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in the United States.
They helped to facilitate emigration from the Free City to Poland as a peaceful and orderly means of getting rid of the Jews.
Shortly thereafter Danzig police, under the command of Polezeioberst Willi Bethke, launched an attack on the city's Polish Post Office.
