A Community of Violence: The SiPo/SD and Its Role in the Nazi Terror System in Generalbezirk Kiew

Abstract

This essay reconstructs the activities of the German Security Police (SiPo) and Security Service (SD) field office in Generalbezirk Kiew—the German administrative unit carved out of the Kiev and Poltava provinces in Ukraine. It sheds light on the role of the SiPo/SD in the mass murder of Soviet citizens and on the social and psychological profile of its functionaries. The latter ranged from dedicated zealots to “ordinary men,” but all fulfilled their murderous tasks. “As soon as the Germans entered Kiev,” recalls a Kiev resident, “the SD and the Security Police, known among the population simply as ‘Gestapo,’ inherited the gloomy gray building on 33 Korolenka Street ... . At the door of this building stands a sentry in thick boots. His profile and helmet are clearly imprinted on the background of a black flag with the two lightning-like letters ‘SS.’ The banner is mounted in an iron base adorned with the Soviet symbols of stars, hammer, and sickle ... . Such a combination seems incredible.” 1 Despite this odd amalgamation of Nazi and Soviet emblems, Kiev city dwellers considered the installation of the German security services on 33 Korolenka Street befitting. Not only did the “Gestapo” inherit the Soviet security police (NKVD) headquarters—the point of no return for alleged “enemies of the people” in the 1930s—but it further enhanced its own notoriety by the reign of terror that soon engulfed the Kiev region. Thousands of people passed through its torture chambers and prison cells and were sent to their deaths just outside the city. Consequently, although other German counterintelligence and police forces also operated in Kiev and its vicinity—the military intelligence and counterintelligence (Abwehr); the Secret Field Police (Geheime Feldpolizei, GFP); the Order Police (Ordnungspolizei, OP, including the Municipal Police or Schutzpolizei in urban areas and the Gendarmerie in the countryside)—the average Soviet citizen labeled them all inclusively “Gestapo,” a sinister omnipresent force overshadowing everyday life. 2 While relatively small branches, the Security Police (Sicherheitspolizei, SiPo) and the Security Service (Sicherheitsdienst, SD) in occupied Ukraine consisted of