New book examines Vorarlberg police under Nazi rule

A new book traces the role of Vorarlberg’s police under National Socialism, drawing on archives opened to researchers for the first time. The collection, titled “Followers, perpetrators, victims,” is described by ORF as the first study to examine the region’s police force during the period.

Across more than 250 pages, the book combines biographies with broader analyses. Editor Michael Beyrer said the initial research had uncovered a vast amount of data and that it could take years, or even decades, to complete the work.

Historian Harald Walser said one of the most disturbing findings was that people had obeyed the political system they served, and that some became murderers under the Nazi regime. After Austria’s annexation by Germany in March 1938, the police lost their independence. Officers in Vorarlberg became agents of the Nazi state, including in the implementation of its racial policies.

Police helped hand people over to be sent to concentration camps, Walser said. Many officers also joined Einsatzkommandos, or task forces, in the east. He estimated that about one in four Vorarlberg police officers served in such a unit.

Walser also described officers who used their room for manoeuvre to act humanely, including in cases involving 19-year-old men facing execution for refusing to continue fighting in what he called a senseless war.

A travelling exhibition about this period will open on November 9 at Museumswelten, a museum venue in Frastanz. Beyrer said it is intended both to inform visitors and to encourage young police officers to consider how law, personal reflection, morality and conscience should guide their actions.