Police Helmets on The World at War

[Stahlhelm]

Hello everyone,

I recently watched the entire documentary series The World at War. (It's excellent!!!) Throughtout this series, there was considerable period footage of combat police troops. I noticed that in many scenes (more often than not, it seems) where military troops were controling or policing civilians in occupied areas, these troops were wearing police helmets.

Did the polizei units and military police have a more active role or duty to police civilians in occupied areas? Or, was I just reading too much into a coincidence in the footage I saw?

I'm not sure if this is the correct section to post this question, but it is effectively a helmet question, and I know that some collectors of police helmets are likely to know the answer. It's just a small detail that I've been wondering about, since I do have a nice police helmet in my collection. It certainly makes more sense that the police units would have a more active and specific job of policing civilians. However, I thought I'd go ahead and take advantage of the opportunity to find out for sure.

Thanks in advance to anyone who may respond,

Chris

[Ken B.]

The Combat Polizei were a very big part in the infrastructure of the Final Solution.

[DougB]

They also were rear area security and pressed into combat troops when the need arose.

[Stahlhelm]

Thanks Ken, and SSTk. That's exactly what I wanted to know.

Chris