History
The police battalions were created by taking regular police officers and putting them into military units. They were sent into lands that the German military had captured. Their job was to keep order in these new areas according to the rules of the government. Many of these units became involved in very bad actions against people living in the occupied lands. They followed orders to control the local populations and support the war effort. They were not always on the front lines of big battles like the army. Instead, they focused on control and security tasks behind the lines. Because of this, they were often present in towns and cities. Their actions were a direct part of how the war was run in those occupied regions. These groups were not the same as the regular military, but they worked for the same leaders. By the end of the war, most were no longer in existence because the forces that controlled them had been defeated.
