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Selbstschutz

Selbstschutz (German for "self-protection") is the name given to different iterations of ethnic-German self-protection units formed both after World War I and in the lead-up to World War II.

Key facts

Military unit.unit_name: Selbstschutz
Military unit.image: Inspection of Selbstschutz unit in Bydgoszcz.jpg
Military unit.image_size: 370px
Military unit.caption: Inspection of unit in Bydgoszcz (in German, Bromberg), Poland. From l. to r.: Josef "Bloody" Meier, leader of in Bydgoszcz; Werner Kampe, new SS mayor of Bydgoszcz; and Ludolf von Alvensleben, leader of in Pomerania
Military unit.country: Central and Eastern Europe: Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union
Military unit.allegiance: Post-WWI (in Ukraine): Imperial Germany / Russian Volunteer ArmyWWII: Nazi Germany/the SS
Military unit.type: Militia, Paramilitary police reserve or civil defense organization

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Article

8 sections

Contents

Post-First World War Mennonite units
Silesia and Poland
World War II
Participation in war crimes
See also
Notes
References
External links

Selbstschutz (German for "self-protection") is the name given to different iterations of ethnic-German self-protection units formed both after World War I and in the lead-up to World War II.

The first incarnation of the Selbstschutz was a German paramilitary organisation formed after World War I for ethnic Germans who lived outside Germany in the territories occupied by Germany and Austria-Hungary following the conclusion of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. The purpose of these units was to protect local ethnically German communities and, indirectly, to serve German security interests in southern Ukraine. Another iteration of the Selbstschutz concept was established in Silesia and aimed at returning Polish-inhabited territories back to Germany following the proclamation of the Second Polish Republic. In 1921, units of Selbstschutz took part in the fighting against the Polish Third Silesian Uprising.