[1] The Ukrainian Auxiliary Police was created by Heinrich Himmler in mid-August 1941 and put under the control of German Ordnungspolizei within General Government.

The first comprised mobile police units most often called Schutzmannschaft,[1] or Schuma, organized on the battalion level and which engaged in the murder of Jews and in security warfare in most areas of Ukraine.

[8] In the newly formed Reichskommissariat Ukraine the auxiliary police forces were generally named Schutzmannschaft,[9][10] and amounted to more than 35,000 men throughout all of the occupied territories, with 5000 in Galicia.

Professor Wendy Lower from Towson University wrote that although Ukrainians greatly outnumbered other non-Germans in the auxiliary police, only the ethnically German Volksdeutsche from Ukraine were given the leadership roles.

[15] According to Andrew Gregorovich, the ethnic composition of Auxiliary Police reflected the demographics of the land and included not only Ukrainians but also Russians from among the Soviet POWs, Poles drafted from the local population, and German Volksdeutsche of all nationalities.

On the contrary, the OUN had no influence on the Ukrainian criminal police (Sicherheitsschutzmannschaft), which consisted of former Soviet jurists, communists, militsioners, and Volksdeutsche.

Despite ideological differences, the personnel of these two police institutions cooperated in the arrests of Jews, communists, and other "political enemies" of the German authorities.

[25] The auxiliary police registered the Jews, conducted raids and guarded ghettos, loaded convoys to execution sites and cordoned them off.

Some Ukrainian Hilfspolizei who harbored a pathological hatred for Poles and Jews – resulting in acts of mass murder – remained formally and legally Polish from the time before the invasion until much later.

Iwan Maslij), was recognized in Rakłowice near Wrocław by Polish survivors of massacres committed by Ukrainische Hilfspolizei in the towns of Szczepiatyn, Dyniska, Tarnoszyn, Niemstów, and Korczów.

[26][27] On 13 November 1942, members of the Ukrainische Hilfspolizei robbed and executed 32 Poles and 1 Jew in the village of Obórki (pl), located in prewar Wołyń Voivodeship.

[28][29] In Lviv, in late February and March 1944, the Ukrainische Hilfspolizei arrested a number of young men of Polish nationality.

When they failed, Kedyw began an action called "Nieszpory" (Vespers) where 11 policemen were shot in retaliation and the murders of young Poles in Lviv stopped.

[30] For many who joined the police force, enlistment served as an opportunity to receive military training and direct access to weapons.

The number of trained and armed policemen who in spring 1943 joined the ranks of the future Ukrainian Insurgent Army were estimated to be 10,000.

The black uniforms of the former Allgemeine-SS including their characteristic field caps were simply stripped of German insignia and given to Schutzmannschaft to use with the new patches.