The 13th SS Police Regiment participated in Operation Zauberflöte in April 1943 in Minsk, Belarus (Reichskommissariat Ostland). This was an operation intended to cordon off the city so that it could be searched for "bandits, Bolshevik terror and saboteur troops, operatives and helpers" under the overall leadership of Gerret Korsemann [de], the Higher SS and Police Leader for Central Russia.[3] It continued to operate in Belarus and western Russia on anti-partisan duties through April 1944; it had been transferred to Slovenia by August.[2]