Police Regiment South was formed in June 1941 by combining Police Battalions 45, 303, and 314 under the command of Hermann Franz, a career policeman who had previously served in the Order Police in occupied Poland.[4] The battalions were led by career police professionals, steeped in the ideology of Nazism, driven by anti-semitism and anti-Bolshevism.[5] When it crossed the German-Soviet border the regiment came under the control of Friedrich Jeckeln, the Higher SS and Police Leader (HSS-PF) for Army Group South in Ukraine.[4]