by Bryan8083 [Lorebrary Editor]
(Warning: this article contains political violence and genocide.)
In Star Wars Maul: The Shadow Lord, Two-Boots and Police Detective Brander Lawson remind us of the difficult relationship between the new Empire and local police forces. I began to wonder what the connection is between the Empire and another authoritarian regime: Nazi Germany. There are some interesting parallels but also differences at work here.
The transformation of the German police from a democratic institution into an instrument of Nazi repression was a multi-year process known as Nazification. Police forces in Germany were decentralized, so in order to take control of the police forces, the Nazi Party wanted to centralize control.
Let’s compare the Nazi efforts with what is going on with the show:
Legal and Structural Changes
Germany:
Following the 1933 Reichstag fire, the Reichstag Fire Decree suspended civil rights and legal protections, providing the foundation for a police state. Early decrees, such as one issued by Hermann Göring, instructed police to treat political opponents (like Communists and Social Democrats) "ruthlessly" and protected officers from punishment for killing these “enemies.”
Star Wars:
Stormtroopers and Inquisitors can take people away, torture, and kill them, and the local police can do little about it. It has to be an individual action and in secret, such as the moment Lawson let the Devon Izara and Eeko-Dio-Daki escape.
Also, Two Boots kicks off a set of protocols to bring in the Empire, so there are existing agreements between police departments and the Empire.
By the end of the season, the Imperial Authority is now in charge of Janix. By the end of the season, the Empire kills the police chief, and we will see whether the new one is even selected or whether the Empire might just run the police with an officer or with strong oversight.
Leadership and Personnel Shifts
Germany:
The Nazis ensured that those in power within the police were ideologically aligned with the party. As the Nazis gained control of local governments and replaced existing police chiefs with political appointments, Nazi Party loyalists, usually members of the SA, commanded the police forces in Germany.
Star Wars:
We have droids, and they can be programmed. However, Lawson, the Janix police chief, and others are wary of the Empire at this early stage of the show and are not its political appointees. By the end of the season, however, the Imperial Authority had changed the leadership.
Ideological Reorientation
Germany:
The most profound change was the shift in police culture and the definition of who the police were meant to protect. Under Nazi ideology, the police were no longer servants of a constitutional state but were the “friend and helper” of the “German people”—defined exclusively as “Aryan” Germans.
The police’s role shifted from enforcing the law to protecting the "racial community" from perceived biological and racial threats. This meant targeting political opponents, "asocials," professional criminals, and Jews.
Also, events like “The Day of the German Police” used parades and charity drives to improve the public's perception of the police and cement their connection to the Nazi state.
By 1938, these transformations were complete enough that police actively participated in state-sanctioned violence, such as Kristallnacht, where they arrested approximately 30,000 Jewish men for transport to concentration camps. This radicalization eventually led the police to become direct perpetrators of mass murder during World War II.
Star Wars:
The police do not round up Jedi, although they can alert the Empire if they see force-sensitive individuals. However, in this show, the police serve the entire community, so Janix has not reached the level Germany experienced…yet! With the Imperial Authority now in charge, we will have to see how the police work with the Empire. It is too early to say.
Size
It is a problem here in the Star Wars universe. For Hitler, it took three years, even 6 to effectively centralize the police, and that is a smaller country.
The Empire is so large that even if the emperor and the governors who want this (Empirification) policy were to agree, it would take decades. We only see the governors taking direct control of things in Star Wars: A New Hope (19 years from now). So, it will take a long time.
The scary part is that many German police forces just worked with the Nazis. Despite the purges, the Nazis did not replace the entire force; they needed the expertise and knowledge of existing officers. Most German police officers kept their jobs and adjusted quickly to the new regime.
Will local police forces on planets work with the Empire? Is it easier with programmed droids to benefit the Empire? It is certainly possible, and in other worlds, the Empire controls the police or works very closely with them (Coruscant), but we know the Empire runs out of time due to the vast scope of what it needs to control.
Source:
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/german-police-in-the-nazi-state