Editing Schutzstaffel (section)

===Anti-partisan operations===
{{further|Bandenbekämpfung}}
In response to the army's difficulties in dealing with Soviet partisans, Hitler decided in July 1942 to transfer anti-partisan operations to the police. This placed the matter under Himmler's purview.{{sfn|Blood|2006|pp=70–71}}{{sfn|Longerich|2012|p=625}} As Hitler had ordered on 8 July 1941 that all Jews were to be regarded as partisans, the term "anti-partisan operations" was used as a euphemism for the murder of Jews as well as actual combat against resistance elements.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=198}}{{sfn|Longerich|2012|pp=626, 629}} In July 1942 Himmler ordered that the term "partisan" should no longer be used; instead resisters to Nazi rule would be described as "bandits".{{sfn|Longerich|2012|p=627}}

Himmler set the SS and SD to work on developing additional anti-partisan tactics and launched a [[Propaganda in Nazi Germany|propaganda]] campaign.{{sfn|Blood|2006|pp=71–77}} Sometime in June 1943, Himmler issued the ''[[Bandenbekämpfung]]'' (bandit fighting) order, simultaneously announcing the existence of the ''Bandenkampfverbände'' (bandit fighting formations), with ''SS-Obergruppenführer'' [[Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski]] as its chief. Employing troops primarily from the SS police and ''Waffen-SS'', the ''Bandenkampfverbände'' had four principal operational components: propaganda, centralised control and coordination of security operations, training of troops, and battle operations.{{sfn|Blood|2006|p=121}} Once the ''Wehrmacht'' had secured territorial objectives, the ''Bandenkampfverbände'' first secured communications facilities, roads, railways, and waterways. Thereafter, they secured rural communities and economic installations such as factories and administrative buildings. An additional priority was securing agricultural and forestry resources. The SS oversaw the collection of the harvest, which was deemed critical to strategic operations.{{sfn|Blood|2006|pp=152–154}} Any Jews in the area were rounded up and killed. Communists and people of Asiatic descent were killed presumptively under the assumption that they were Soviet agents.{{sfn|Longerich|2012|pp=628–629}}