Organization
In October 1939, General Governor Hans Frank ordered the mobilization of the pre-war Polish police into the service of the Germans. The policemen were to report for duty or face the death penalty.
According to the German plan, the police force was to consist of approximately 12,000 officers, but the actual number of its cadre was much lower. However, some sources put the numbers as high as 14,300. The Encyclopedia of the Holocaust reports its manpower as 8,700 in February 1940 and states that it reached its peak in 1943 with 16,000 members. The Blue Police consisted primarily of Poles and Polish speaking Ukrainians from the eastern parts of the General Government.
The Blue Police had little autonomy, and all of its high-ranking officers came from the ranks of the German police (Kriminalpolizei). It served in the capacity of an auxiliary force, along with the police forces guarding seats of administration (Schutzpolizei), Railway Police (Bahnschutz), Forest Police (Forstschutz) and Border Police (Grenzschutz). The Blue Police was subordinate to German Ordnungspolizei.
From the German perspective, the primary role of the Blue Police was to maintain law and order on the territories of occupied Poland, as to free the German police for other duties. As Heinrich Himmler stated in his order from 5 May 1940: "providing general police service in the General Government is the role of the Polish police. German police will intervene only if it is required by the German interests and will monitor the Polish police."
As the force was primarily a continuation of the pre-war Polish police force, it also relied largely on pre-war regulations and laws, a situation that was accepted as a provisional necessity both by the Germans and by the exiled Polish government. While the Polish Underground State had its own police force and judiciary (see National Security Corps and Directorate of Civil Resistance), it was unable to provide basic police services for the entire population of the former Second Polish Republic in the conditions of German occupation.
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