The Lithuanian Security Police (LSP), also known as Saugumas (), was a local police force that operated in German-occupied Lithuania from 1941 to 1944, in collaboration with the occupational authorities. Collaborating with the Nazi Sipo (security police) and SD (intelligence agency of the SS), the unit was directly subordinate to the German Kripo (criminal police). The LSP took part in perpetrating the Holocaust in Lithuania, persecuting Polish resistance and communist underground. Background and formation When Soviet Union occupied Lithuania on 15 June 1940, the Lithuanian Ministry of Internal Affairs was liquidated and replaced by the Soviet NKVD. Many former employees of the Ministry were arrested and imprisoned as so-called enemies of the people. When Nazi Germany invaded Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, Lithuanians organized an anti-Soviet June Uprising in hopes that they could restore Lithuanian independence. Therefore, they started restoring pre-Soviet state institutions under the Provisional Government of Lithuania. On 24 June 1941, the Provisional Government recreated the pre-war Ministry of Internal Affairs with three departments – State Security, Police, and Prisons. The State Security Department headed by . The government asked all those who worked there prior to 15 June 1940 to report back for duty. Many of them were just released from Soviet prisons. After the German take-over of Lithuania, it became apparent that the Germans had no intention to grant autonomy to Lithuania. Instead, on 25 July 1941, they established a civil administration known as Generalbezirk Litauen under Generalkommissar Adrian von Renteln, and the Provisional Government was dissolved on 5 August 1941. At the same time, the police and intelligence agencies recreated during the transitional period were found useful and were incorporated into the German security system. The former State Security Department was reorganised to the Lithuanian Security Police. Organization External structure The police in German-occupied Lithuania consisted of separate German and Lithuanian units. The most important German police organizations were the SiPo (security police, ) and SD (security service, ), commanded by Karl Jäger and headquartered in Kaunas, and the public police (). The major Lithuanian police organisations were the Public Police, Lithuanian Security and Criminal Police (combined at the end of 1942 into one force), Lithuanian Auxiliary Police Battalions (Lithuanian Schutzmannschaft), Railway Police and Fire Police. Lithuanian police organizations were subordinate to their respective German counterparts. Neighboring Latvia and Estonia did not have an equivalent to LSP. The LSP was dependent on the German