'' Sonderpolizei '' was the special police authorities not subordinate to the Hauptamt Ordnungspolizei or the Reichssicherheitshauptamt : Between 1939 and 1945 , the '' Ordnungspolizei '' maintained military formations , trained and outfitted by the main police offices within Germany . Specific duties varied widely from unit to unit and from one year to another . Generally , the Order Police were not directly involved in frontline combat , except for Ardennes in May 1940 , and the Siege of Leningrad in 1941 . The first 17 battalion formations ( from 1943 renamed '' SS-Polizei-Bataillone '' ) were deployed by Orpo in September 1939 along with the Wehrmacht army in the invasion of Poland . The battalions guarded Polish prisoners of war behind the German lines , and carried out expulsion of Poles from '' Reichsgaue '' under the banner of '' Lebensraum '' . They also committed atrocities against both the Catholic and the Jewish populations as part of those " resettlement actions " . After hostilities had ceased , the battalions - such as Reserve Police Battalion 101 - took up the role of security forces , patrolling the perimeters of the Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland ( the internal ghetto security issues were managed by the SS , SD , and the Criminal Police , in conjunction with the Jewish ghetto administration )
expulsion of Poles
Expulsion of Poles by Nazi Germany
Ordnungspolizei