Generální velitel četnictva, Praha

The Gendarmerie as armed police forces under the command of the Ministry of Defense existed in the Bohemian lands since the time of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. With the founding of Czechoslovakia 1918 the Gendarmerie was subordinated to the Ministry of the Interior and took over the main police duties in the state from local crime investigations until police air patrols against German and Hungarian spy overflights after 1933. The collection consists out of material from three different administrative organisation around the Ministry of Interior (Ministerstvo vnítra) of Czechoslovakia and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia: the General Commander of the Gendarmerie (Generální velitel četnictva) 1918-1942; the General Commander of the uniformed Protectorate Police (Generální velitel uniformované protektorátní policie) 1942-1945 and of the Criminal Headquarter Prague (Kriminální ústředna Praha). The main function of the General Commander of the Gendarmerie was the controll of the discipline of these armed forces. The finding help Nr. 801 of the National archives in Czech is online available: http://www.badatelna.eu/fond/10/ The Gendarmerie in the pre-war Czechoslovak Republic was a militarily organized security force, according to the applicable legal requirements and according to the relevant state authorities to maintain public order and security throughout the territory of Czechoslovakia. It was also responsible for the border control and sent illegal emigrants from Nazi-Germany, under them also Jews, back to Germany. After the establishment of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, the Gendarmerie became part of the occupation administration. Gendarmes were given functions such as auxiliary police, accompanying transports of Czech and Moravian Jews from different places to the Theresienstadt Ghetto and mainly serving as camp guards and in the prison service.