SS-Polizei-Regiment Bozen was formed Oct 1943 in Italy as SS-Polizei-Regiment Südtirol but was soon renamed to Bozen. It was stationed in Italy until the end of the war and was used to fight the partisans.

Known war crimes

On 23 March 1944 a column from III/SS-Polizei Regiment Bozen was attacked on Via Rasella in central Rome by partisans from the Gruppi d'Azione Patriotica (GAP). 32 soldiers were killed in the bombing as well as two civilians but all the partisans involved escaped. In retaliation a total of 335 Italian hostages were killed at Fosse Ardeatine (known as the Fosse Ardeatine massacre), after the massacre the bodies were placed inside the caves that were sealed using explosives.

Order of battle

I/SS-Polizei Regiment Bozen

II/SS-Polizei Regiment Bozen

III/SS-Polizei Regiment Bozen

Polizei Ersatz Bataillon Bozen

Suspects are rounded up following the Via Rasella bombing by soldiers from SS-Polizei-Regiment Bozen and Italian soldiers

(Courtesy of Bundesarchiv/Wikimedia, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 Germany)

Suspects are rounded up following the Via Rasella bombing by soldiers from SS-Polizei-Regiment Bozen and Italian soldiers

(Courtesy of Bundesarchiv/Wikimedia, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 Germany)

Sources used

Phil Nix & George Jerome - The Uniformed Police Forces of the Third Reich 1933-1945

Charles T. O'Reilly - Forgotten Battles: Italy's War of Liberation, 1943-1945

Borden W. Painter Jr. - Mussolini's Rome: Rebuilding the Eternal City

Alessandro Portelli - The order has been carried out: History, Memory, and Meaning of a Nazi Massacre in Rome

Georg Tessin, Hans-Adolf Neufeldt & Jürgen Huck - Zur Geschichte der Ordnungspolizei 1936-1945

Michael Wedekind - Nationalsozialistische Besatzungs- und Annexionspolitik in Norditalien 1943 bis 1945

Reference material on this unit

- None known at this time -