What happened to Wilhelm? The Life and Times of a Police Officer in the Balkans 1944-1945

The role of the German police in the Balkans during World War II has not received much attention from historians of the military and police. On the basis of a private archive we can reconstruct the work and life of Wilhelm Z. in the period 1944-1945. The first two sections show his career as a police officer in the Weimar Republic and the early years of the Third Reich, and in occupied France. The third section reconstructs his work as a police officer at war in the Balkans and his collaboration with SS units during battles with the Yugoslav partisans. The fourth section displays how he experienced his time in the Balkans on the basis of the letters he wrote to his wife: his absence from home, his collaboration with the locals, and his work under dangerous circumstances.