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The ' (Secret Field Police) or GFP, not to be confused with the ''Gestapo'', was the secret military police of the German Wehrmacht until the end of the Second World War. These units were used to carry out plain-clothed security work in the field such as counter-espionage, counter-sabotage, detection of treasonable activities, counter-propaganda and the provision of assistance to the German Army in courts-martial investigations. GFP personnel, who were also classed as ''Abwehrpolizei'', operated as an executive branch of German military intelligence detecting resistance activity in Germany and occupied France. The need for a secret military police developed after the annexations of the Sudetenland in 1938 and Czechoslovakia in 1939. Although security ''einsatzgruppen'' (or security task forces) belonging to the Nazi Security Services had been used during these operations, the German High Command felt it needed a specialist intelligence agency with police functions that could operate with the military but act like a security service to arrest potential opponents and eliminate any resistance. After studying data collected in Spain, Austria and Czechoslovakia, Generaloberst Wilhelm Keitel, commander in chief of the OKW, issued the "''Dienstvorschrift für die Geheime Feldpolizei''" (Regulations for the secret police). ==Function== The GFP was created on 21 July 1939. Although officially part of the Wehrmacht, its personnel were mainly recruited from police officers who had been assigned to the armed forces. They were assigned the legal status of ''Wehrmachtsbeamte auf Kriegsdauer'' (military officials for the duration of the war) and retained the authority of other police agencies as well as the ''Sicherheitsdienst''. GFP agents could wear either civilian clothes or uniforms in the course of their duties. A GFP official was also entitled to pass through any military roadblocks or enter military buildings. They could also utilise military signals and communications equipment, commandeer military vehicles, procure military supplies and accommodation wherever necessary in execution of their duty. In occupied areas, the GFP also provided personal escort to military VIPs, assistance to state security agencies in counter espionage, interrogation of suspects, prevention of sabotage and the detection of enemy agents. In practice, GFP activity depended on the region in which it was operating. Work in occupied northern and western Europe was markedly different from operations conducted on the Eastern Front. In the Netherlands, Denmark and Norway, GFP agents were mainly confined to the secret police protection of senior Wehrmacht officers. In Belgium and France, the GFP became an executive part of the civilian police service, working alongside the military authorities to combat acts of resistance, the British Special Operations Executive and sabotage using terror tactics such as detentions, deportations and the execution of hostages. However, in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, the GFP used constantly escalating terror against partisans, Jews and arbitrary "suspects". As an anti-partisan group, it worked alongside ''einsatzgruppen'' to execute and torture captured fighters and civilians suspected of helping the Soviet resistance. With the help of collaborators, the GFP also mounted operations to systematically burn down homes and entire villages. The GFP was also responsible for summarily executing prisoners before they could be liberated by the advancing Red Army. For example, in 1943 a GFP report to SS and Police Leader William Krichbaum stated that 21,000 people had been killed "some in combat, and many shot after interrogation" on the Eastern Front. From mid-1943 onwards, the GFP was ordered to track down and capture all deserters after some ''Wehrmacht'' soldiers in France and Russia had begun joining partisan groups. By 1944, desertion rates rapidly rose following the major retreats of Operation Bagration and the Falaise pocket. The ''Geheime Feldpolizei'' arrested 3142 ''Wehrmacht'' personnel for desertion from Army Group Centre in 1944. But many troops were victims of increasingly confused rear areas where competing, often overlapping responsibilities of many military departments meant soldiers did not have the correct papers or were in the wrong locations. Convicted soldiers were either shot or sent to ''Strafbattalionne''. The GFP also investigated any claims of defeatism talk in line infantry. Another specialist unit called ''gruppe 729'' was created to interrogate all ''Wehrmacht'' soldiers who had managed to escape from Soviet captivity. The general fear was that the NKVD may have "re-educated" these former captives to spread defeatism and anti-fascist propaganda. Soldiers suspected of being Soviet spies were sent to a special GFP camp at Danzig in Poland. By 1944, the camp held 400 prisoners. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Geheime Feldpolizei」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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