[2] The Ordnungspolizei encompassed virtually all of Nazi Germany's law-enforcement and emergency response organisations, including fire brigades, coast guard, and civil defence.

Himmler and Kurt Daluege, chief of the Orpo, worked to transform the police force into militarised formations ready to serve the regime's aims of conquest and racial annihilation.

[5] In 1941, the Orpo's activities escalated to genocide after the Order Police battalions formed into independent regiments or were attached to Wehrmacht security divisions and Einsatzgruppen.

Almost immediately after the Nazis seized power, they instituted measures to gain political control of German police and to use them against their perceived enemies.

[7] Although nominally subordinate to Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick, Himmler could participate in meetings of the Reich Cabinet – when and if police agendas were discussed.

As a result, even ordinary criminals were consigned to concentration camps to remove them from the German racial community (Volksgemeinschaft) and ultimately exterminate them.

[18][b] Most of the battalions of the Order Police troops in the east were deployed for the expulsion and extermination of the Jewish population, since parts were assigned to the SS Einsatzgruppen.

Order police played an executive role in the Holocaust by providing men for the tasks involved, "both career professionals and reservists, in both battalion formations and precinct service" (Einzeldienst).

[20] Before the Nazi siezure of power, there was already a penchant for nationalistic beliefs and militarism among police officers in Germany, since most of its members consisted of men who had fought in World War I.

"[23] By 1935, there was an increased national political curricula and intensive ideological training by the "Comradeship of the German Police" (Kameradschaftsbund der deutschen Polizei).

[24] Monthly national political lectures were instituted, and all police officers were encouraged to attend courses in state and party training facilities.

[24] Historian Edward B. Westermann writes that the "transformation of the police into political soldiers and instruments of genocide occurred in large part due to the efforts of Heinrich Himmler and Kurt Daluege to create an organizational culture within the Ordnungspolizei that married a "martial attitude" with Nazi racial ideology.

[31] In preparation for the war of aggression and conquest, a replacement police force was set up as early as 1937 to take over patrol and guard duties.

"[41][d] Despite the seeming independence of other functional policing and public safety organizations, they were still part of the Nazi state, which was monitored and controlled by the SS and its subordinated agencies, such as the Gestapo.

[53] The battalions were used for various auxiliary duties, including the so-called anti-partisan operations, support of combat troops, and construction of defence works (i.e. the Atlantic Wall).

[54] Some of them were focused on traditional security roles as an occupying force, while others were directly involved in actions designed to inflict terror and in the ensuing Holocaust.

[59] In the immediate aftermath of World War II, this latter role was obscured both by the lack of court evidence and by deliberate obfuscation, while most of the focus was on the better-known Einsatzgruppen ("Operational groups") who reported to the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA) under Reinhard Heydrich.

[67] In 1940, the SS Polizei Division was stationed along the Maginot Line to provide passive defense and in preparation for the Nazi invasion of France.

[70] Nonetheless, the SS Polizei Division was taken out of front-line fighting and placed in reserve near Bar le Duc, but not before they had suffered some 704 casualties in two engagements.

[72] These units were created to carry out "special tasks" behind the Russian front, and each SS-Police regiment was assigned two armored car and antitank platoons with this "police army" subordinated to HSSPF leaders under Himmler's authority.

[74] During periods of intense fighting and crisis, these SS-Police units were thrown into the front lines, but normally were used for anti-partisan activities or the mass execution of political prisoners and Jews.

Days after the massacre at Distomo, a Red Cross team from Athens "found bodies dangling from the trees that lined the road into the village.