As I understand it, in the East the Soviet occupation forces completely dismissed the existing police, and arrested members of the Einsatzgruppen and the SS in general.^1 This was in line with the Soviet approach to denazification, which took a hard line against not only Nazis but anyone connected to the regime or associated evils (capitalism, imperialism, etc.) Indeed, even opponents of the Nazis weren't safe -- in Brandenburg, three police officers who had been members of the SPD lost their jobs due to their service under the Nazis (they were replaced by former KPD members, illustrating that despite the merging of KPD and SPD to form the SED, their rivalry was not over).^2 The purge of the police in the East was of some consequence, as denazification in the Soviet zone moved from the control of local commissions to the police and courts.

Likewise, in the West the denazification of the police followed the pattern for denazification in general: an initially strict approach in the American zone, with greater flexibility in the British and French zones, and decreasing American commitment to such a hardline approach as the years went by.

In practice, this meant that American authorities not only went after members of the German police who had been involved in the Einsatzgruppen or the SS more generally, but also career soldiers with significant frontline experience--in effect, nearly anybody with the rank of lieutenant or higher, even those who came clear about their military service. Indeed, initial American efforts were aimed at not only denazifying the police, but demilitarizing and decentralizing it. This meant important changes not only in personnel but in the command structure and administration of the police. Civilian authorities at the community level were given greater control. This effort on the part of the Americans represented in some ways a misunderstanding of German police history, as the Americans sought to undo aspects of the German police apparatus that actually long pre-dated the Nazi regime. As Ray Canoy writes, "the centrality of the SS-dominated policy system to the criminal excesses of the Nazi regime triggered a consequent thoroughness in the postwar Allied denazification of the police, and thus, at least in Bavaria's case, little or no demonstrable continuity in terms of personnel, ideological policies, and institutions in police affairs before and after May 1945."^3 Indeed, widespread dismissals cleaned the German police force, even if it also decimated morale.

In the other western zones, British and French officials tried to be more flexible in their approach, displaying greater sensitivity, perhaps, to the reality of party membership after Hitler seized power -- it simply did not mean the same thing as membership prior to 1933.

Notes:

1. Herbert Reinke, "The Reconstruction of the Police in Post-1945 Germany", in The Impact of World War II on Policing in North-west Europe, Cyrille Fijnaut, ed. (Leuven University Press, 2004), 134-136.

2. Timothy R Vogt, Denazification in Soviet-occupied Germany: Brandenburg, 1945-1948 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2000), 90.

3. Ray Canoy, The Discreet Charm of the Police State: The Landpolizei and the Transformation of Bavaria, 1945-1965 (Brill, 2007), 19-20