[296] Special Services, 1942

Uniforms worn by the Special Services of the General Government in 1942. 
The Special Servies were based on similar Protection Squadron formations called Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz operating in the Warthegau district of German-annexed western Poland in 1939.
Special Services were founded on 6 May 1940 by the Governor General  of Poland who was stationed in occupied Kraków. Initially, they were made up of ethnic German Volksdeutsche who lived in Poland before the attack and joined the invading force thereafter. After Operation Barbarossa began in 1941, they also included Soviet prisoners of war who volunteered for special training, such as the Trawniki men (deployed at all major killing sites of the "Final Solution". Many of those men did not know German and required translation by their native commanders.  The Department of Special Services was subordinate to Supreme Military Leadership sabotage division under Colonel Erwin von Lahousen and Colonel Wessel Freytag von Loringhoven (July 1943 - June 1944).