Show at the GrazMuseum

The police your friend and Hitler’s good helper

Surveillance of Jews forced to emigrate by security and order police at Graz Central Station (1939)

(Bild: Universalmuseum Joanneum/Multimediale Sammlung)

It was only a few years ago that the role of the Austrian police during the Nazi era was comprehensively reappraised. Part of this reappraisal is the interesting traveling exhibition "Hitler's Executive", which can now be seen at the GrazMuseum until March. 

Until just a few years ago, the role of the police during the Nazi era in Austria was virtually unexplored. It was only three years ago that the Ministry of the Interior commissioned the Ludwig Bolzmann Institute in Graz to carry out a comprehensive study, which now forms the basis for the exhibition "Hitler's Executive" at the GrazMuseum.

Joy, obedience or resistance?
"With the Anschluss in 1938, many police officers were faced with the question of how to deal with the new rulers," says study director Barbara Stelzl-Marx. Jewish colleagues were immediately removed from the force, as were supporters of the Dollfuß regime. At the same time, colleagues who were (illegal) supporters of Nazi ideology even before the Anschluss often stumbled up the career ladder. "Around a third of Styrian police officers joined the NSDAP - some out of conviction, others just to keep their job. It's often impossible to say exactly," says Stelzl-Marx.

Lieutenant Colonel Gernot Sattler (LPD Styria), study author Barbara Stelzl-Marx, GrazMuseum director Sibylle Dienesch and exhibition curator Martina Zerovnik at the opening of the exhibition

(Bild: Christoph Hartner)

But what tasks did police officers actually perform? On the one hand, they played a central role in enforcing and maintaining Nazi rule in Austria, in short: the police persecuted, imprisoned and killed people who the regime regarded as opponents. Around 47,000 people were imprisoned, abused and tortured in the detention center at Graz's Paulustor alone by the end of the war - a good half of them were transported on to concentration camps and other camps.

The police headquarters at Paulustor in Graz

(Bild: Andorfer Nachlass, Graz Museum)

Many police officers and gendarmes were also recalled to duty abroad, at the front or in various camps. Gustav Schwarzenegger, father of Hollywood star Arnold, was one of them. He joined the NSDAP, accompanied the invasion of Poland as a field gendarme and was later also in France and Russia before being ordered back home in 1944. "After the war, he denied his NSDAP membership and remained in the Federal Gendarmerie without any charges," explains exhibition curator Martina Zerovnik.

How to deal with incriminated gendarmes after 1945?
In general, the question of how incriminated gendarmes were dealt with after 1945 is very interesting: leading officers were arrested by the Allies, charged and sometimes even sentenced to death: "Those of lower rank were released from duty in 1945, but many returned to duty after the amnesty of 1955 at the latest," says Zerovnik.

Sergeant Gustav Schwarzenegger

(Bild: Österreichisches Staatsarchiv)

Using countless biographies and historical plaques, this exhibition not only presents the facts of the new study, but also poses important questions for today? How much room for maneuver did police officers have back then? Could they really just submit silently and carry out the crimes they were ordered to commit? Or was this a welcome justification after the war? And where are the limits of obedience? Until March 5, 2025, you can ask yourself these questions in the exhibition "Hitler's Executives.