| abstract | - Schutzmannschaft (abbr. Schuma) as well as Hilfspolizei (abbr. Hipo) were the collaborationist auxiliary police battalions of native policemen in countries occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II. Created to fight the anti-Nazi resistance, many of them participated in massacres conducted by the German Ordnungspolizei, mostly in Eastern Europe. The term Hilfspolizei refers also to auxiliary police units such as HIPO Corps in occupied Denmark, Waffen-SS divisions, Selbstschutz, etc. The term is mostly historical; it has been also applied to some units created in 1933 by the early Nazi government (mostly from members of SA and SS) and disbanded the same year due to international protests. Within the territories seized from the Soviet Union, the Germans utilised local police auxiliaries much more freely. These volunteers were called Hilfswilligen ("those willing to help"), often abbreviated to "Hiwis". As the so-called Protective Detachments (Schutzmannschaft); they usually augmented the Order Police (Ordnungspolizei, Orpo) and Einsatzgruppen in their operations with organizational pragmatics. Eventually, they were numbered tens of thousands. The Schutzmannschaft battalions were organized by nationality at each location: Ukrainians, Belarusians, Russians, Estonians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Tatars, and Poles (failed attempt; with two volunteers, and forcible draft of 360 men in Kraków, most of whom deserted to join the AK against the massacres of Poles in Volhynia). Each battalion had an authorized strength of about 500. Everywhere, local police far outnumbered the equivalent German personnel. For example, in the Brześć Litewski area, there were 26 German gendarmerie as opposed to 308 Belorussians. In the district of Baranowicze, there were 73 German gendarmerie and 816 native auxiliaries. By 1 July 1942, eighteen-and-a-half Ukrainian Schutzmannschaft battalions had been formed, with a further three battalions set up in Belarus mainly staffed by Ukrainians. Local police units were deployed in occupied territories to Anti-partisan operations and during the Holocaust. Subsequently, as German casualties on the Eastern front mounted, many Schutzmannschaft battalions in Estonia, Latvia, Ukraine and elsewhere were joined in SS raised military divisions wearing national insignia.
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