The Sipo-SD Academy was an SS training school established by former Einstatzgruppen SS-Brigadeführer Bruno Streckenbach designed to train students in various torture and execution methods as well as to provide continuing education to the senior command structure. The school was originally located in Zakopane but was later relocated to Rabka in July 1940 and then later to Berlin in 1945. It is estimated that over 2000 Jews from 30 neighboring villages were imprisoned, executed, and buried on the school grounds in Rabka.
Zakopane
After the Nazis had completed their initial invasion of Poland, they quickly took control of a large hotel in Zakopane known as "The Palace", which was converted into a headquarters for the Gestapo. The cellar of the hotel was used as a makeshift interrogation facility and prison for Jews accused of breaking Nazi laws.
The leadership at this time initially included Robert Philipp Weissmann, and his deputy, Richard Arno Sehmisch, but on April, 20 1940 SS-Untersturmführer Wilhelm Rosenbaum was appointed as the Police Secretary and SS-Hauptsturmführer Hans Krüger was made the commandant.
According to witnesses who later survived the war, over 300 people (mostly Jewish women and children) were murdered here. The hotel soon become known as "Death's hand Resort" by the locals.
Rabka
Upon arrival in the town of Rabka, the school initially occupied a Jewish children's sanatorium (named "Frankel's summer camp for Jewish children"). The school quickly relocated to a much larger campus at a girls' school named "Theresianeum," which had a four-story building.
Hans Kruger remained the commandant until July 1940, after which time he was recalled to Krakow. After Kruger left, SS Hauptsturmfuhrer Rudolf Voigtlander was appointed commandant for a short time, but for unknown reasons, Wilhelm Rosenbaum was appointed commandant weeks later. Rosenbaum had "Befehlshaber der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD im GG Schule des Sicherheitspolizei" displayed across the top floor of the school and a large black flag and swastika flown on the roof. The majority of the facilities were constructed using the forced labor of the Jewish workers and with building materials looted from the Jewish cemeteries in the area, most notably the one in Nowy Targ.
Students and Classes
Students for the school were recruited from across the Reich, but mainly from the Security Services, Polish Police officers, Ukrainian security collaborators, and the more established training camp of Trawniki,near Lublin. Ukrainian candidates were required to be healthy men eighteen to thirty-five years old.
The Academy was also used by the senior command officers for completion of pre-promotion and refresher courses. These courses lasted between 3 - 6 months and were taught by Nazi elites such as Hans Frank who participated in the growth of politics leading to genocide in Poland.
Jewish Workers
About 200 Jews were kept imprisoned on the school grounds at any time. The workers were used for training and construction at the school, when they had outlived their perceived usefulness, they were executed and replaced with new Jews. The local Judenrat provided the Jewish laborers for the school, among them was Paul Beck who was appointed as the liaison between the Jews and the Germans. In July 1940 when the school was moved from Zakopane to Rabka a number of the Jewish workers were selected by Rosenbaum (among them Beck) to move as well.
It is said by Jewish witnesses that Rosenbaum would remove anybody with red hair or glasses from the school grounds and send them to Belzec extermination camp by train. As the training schedule at the school ramped up, Jews were simply snatched off the streets to meet the increasing demand for new training subjects. A majority of the Jews that were abducted and imprisoned were used as live training targets to be used on the shooting range for the schools regularly scheduled "target practice" of which Rosenbaum was said to be in regular attendance.