English source-aligned edition
Max Montua
Max Montua served as Commander of the Order Police in Warsaw, later commander of Police Regiment Centre. The profile reconstructs the person’s function in Warsaw, Białystok, Mogilev and the rear area of Army Group Centre through documented office, decisions, supervision or operational conduct. It does not assign every crime committed by an institution or region to one individual.
Confirmed findings
- From March 1940 to June 1941, he served in occupied Warsaw as Commander of the Order Police and commander of the Warsaw Police Regiment; from summer 1941 to January 1942, he commanded Police Regiment Centre in the rear area of the Eastern Front.
- On 11 July 1941, he signed a confidential order to Police Battalions 307, 316 and 322 transmitting Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski's order for the summary shooting of Jewish men aged 17–45 deemed to be looters.
- In the same document, he prescribed the logistics and concealment of executions: sites away from settlements and roads, levelling graves, prohibiting photography and spectators, concealing the locations and submitting daily reports. He also instructed commanders to manage policemen after executions through social gatherings and ideological instruction.
- He attended and spoke at the anti-partisan conference in Mogilev on 24–26 September 1941. Its programme included demonstration operations in which Jews were killed; sources confirm Montua's participation in the conference but do not support treating him as the personal perpetrator of every killing.
Place in the chain of responsibility
Montua represents the regimental-command level at which an order from a Higher SS and Police Leader was converted into instructions for execution, reporting, concealing graves and managing the reactions of the perpetrators. The order of 11 July transmitted Bach-Zelewski's directive, which arose from Himmler's hierarchy; this does not remove Montua's agency in specifying and implementing the procedure.
Key events and mechanisms
- commanding the Order Police and the Warsaw Police Regiment from March 1940 to June 1941
- taking command of Police Regiment Centre in summer 1941
- signing the confidential execution order and instructions for concealing traces on 11 July 1941
- participation in the anti-partisan conference at Mogilev on 24–26 September 1941
- suicide at Dahme in April 1945
The circle records authority, function and agency. Several profiles may describe different parts of the same persecution chain, so profile-level totals must not be added together.
Postwar accountability
He did not stand trial after the war. He died by suicide at Dahme on 20 April 1945, before the end of the war in Europe.
Limits of the evidence
The order of 11 July 1941 transmitted an instruction from a superior commander, so the profile distinguishes the directive's source from the operational instructions signed by Montua. His participation in the Mogilev conference does not prove that he personally ordered or carried out every killing during its demonstrations or the later operations of Police Regiment Centre.
Sources
The source set combines institutional, archival, trial or scholarly material from at least two independent publishers.