34th SS Volunteer Grenadier Division "Landstorm Nederland"

34th SS Volunteer Grenadier Division "Landstorm Nederland"
Troop registration
active	February 10, 1945 to May 1945
Country	German Empire
Armed forces	Armed SS
Branch of service	Grenadiers
Type	division
structure	See outline
commander
Current commander	Martin Kohlroser

The 34th SS Volunteer Grenadier Division "Landstorm Nederland" was a volunteer unit of the Dutch Schutzstaffel (SS) . It was formed by order of February 10, 1945 in the Netherlands from the SS-Freiwilligen-Grenadier-Brigade with the SS-Freiwilligen-Grenadier-Regiments 83 and 84 and subordinated to the German 15th Army for combat use. As part of the XXX. Army Corps she was involved in the retreat from Eindhoven to Arnhem . On May 5, 1945 the division surrendered in the area northwest of Oosterbeek to the British 49th Infantry Division.

Origin and Creation

After the German occupation of the Netherlands in May 1940 , in cooperation with Anton Mussert , the leader of the Nationaal-Socialistische Bewegungsing (NSB), the Higher SS and Police Leader Northwest , SS-Obergruppenführer Hanns Albin Rauter , set up voluntary associations as auxiliary police, which as Landwacht Netherlands were designated. On March 11, 1943, the Landwacht was combined to form the SS Grenadier Regiment 1 "Landwacht Netherlands". The unit was to be used primarily as riot police and for national defense and was subordinate to the commander of the Waffen SS in the Netherlands , SS group leader Karl Demelhuber .

SS Landwacht Netherlands, 1944

On October 16, 1943, the 2400-strong unit was renamed “Landstorm Nederland” and the relatives were sworn in to Adolf Hitler three days later , and older volunteers were transferred to the so-called city ​​and land guard . Since the regiment - like almost all volunteer units - suffered from a chronic lack of leaders, 300 veterans of the 5th SS Panzer Division “Wiking” and the 11th SS Volunteer Panzer Grenadier Division “Nordland” became leaders in January 1944 and subordinates transferred to the regiment. On November 2, 1944, the regiment became the SS Volunteer Regiment 83 "Landstorm Nederland" (Dutch No. 3) as the first regiment of the newly formed SS Volunteer Grenadier Brigade "Landstorm Nederland" in the Apeldoorn area .

The second regiment of the brigade, the SS-Freiwilligen-Regiment 84 "Landstorm Nederland" (Dutch No. 3) , was at the same time from the SS Guard Battalion 3 Northwest and members of other Dutch SS and police units, as well as recruits of the "Jeugdstorm" , the youth organization of the NSB.

At the same time as other volunteer associations, the brigade was reclassified to a division in February 1945, but this only happened on paper. In fact, the 34th SS Volunteer Grenadier Division "Landstorm Nederland" (Dutch No. 2) had no more than brigade strength.

Combat use

Group leader Fritz von Scholz congratulates the wounded Gerardus Mooyman on the destruction of 13 enemy tanks on Lake Ladoga

After the Allied landing in Normandy and the advance to Holland, SS Grenadier Regiment 1 "Landstorm Nederland" was relocated to Belgium at the beginning of September 1944 to defend the Albert Canal , where it retreated after short, fierce battles with high losses for the regiment had to. When the British XXX. Army Corps on Arnhem ( Operation Market Garden ), a battalion of the Landstorm in the Association of Alarm Units of the 9th SS Panzer Division "Hohenstaufen" (Sperrverband Harzer) was used against the Allied troops. On September 22, 1944, the Sperrverband attacked the Polish paratrooper brigade , which wanted to break through to the enclosed British airborne troops in Arnhem, and then proceeded against the remnants of the British 1st Airborne Division in Oosterbeek.

The brigade, newly formed in November 1944, was assigned defensive positions on the Rhine and Waal . Converted to a division in February 1945, the unit offered resistance to the advancing Allies until May 5, 1945, although morale waned and numerous members deserted. In the final phase of the war there were numerous attacks on the civilian population. The survivors of the division were treated as collaborators after the war and imprisoned, some fell victim to spontaneous acts of revenge.

War crimes

Both the previous units and the 34th SS Volunteer Grenadier Division “Landstorm Nederland” were involved in the crimes of the German occupying forces. In particular, the guard battalion "Northwest" was involved in the persecution and murder of Jews and dissidents. But the members of the Landstorm Regiment did not hesitate to take part in reprisals against the civilian population, including the shooting of captured residents of the hidden village ( Verscholen Dorp ) , some of them as children. The two regiments were subordinate to the Higher SS and Police Leader Northwest until they switched to the Waffen SS , served as an instrument of repression against the Dutch population and were used to guard concentration camps . Although a large part of the members of both formations belonged to the Nederlandsche SS , many young Dutch people also volunteered to avoid forced labor in Germany.

Insinuation

• September / October 1944 (SS-Gren.Rgt. 1 "Landstorm Nederland") LXXXVIII. Army Corps
• November 1944 to February 1945 XXX. AK, 15th Army
• March to May 1945 XXX. AK, 25th Army

structure

• SS-Freiwilligen-Grenadier-Regiment 83 (Dutch No. 3) (I. and II.)
• SS-Freiwilligen-Grenadier-Regiment 84 (Dutch No. 4) (I. and II.)
• SS Artillery Regiment 34 (I. and II.)
• SS tank destroyer division 34
• SS Pioneer Company 60
• SS News Company 60
• SS administration company 60
• SS Veterinary Company 60
• SS medical company 60
• SS Field Replacement Battalion 34
• SS supply troops 60
• SS field post office 60
• SS-Feldgendarmerie-Troop 60

(No. 60 had been assigned to units of the former SS-Freiwilligen-Grenadier-Brigade Landstorm Nederland and was partially changed to 34 during the reclassification. Both numbers were in use.)

commander

• November 2, 1944 to May 8, 1945: SS-Oberführer Martin Kohlroser

See also

23rd SS Volunteer Panzer Grenadier Division "Nederland" (Dutch No. 1)

literature

• Rolf Michaelis : The Grenadier Divisions of the Waffen SS. Part 3 . Michaelis Verlag, Erlangen 1995, pp. 89–120, ISBN 3-930849-05-4 .
• Perry Pierik: From Leningrad to Berlin. Dutch Volunteers in the German Waffen-SS . Aspect, Soesterberg 2001, ISBN 90-5911-004-8 .
• Jan Viccx, Viktor Schotanius: Nederlandse vrijwilligers in Europese krijgsdienst 1940-1945 (Vol 1: de Landstorm) . Etnika, Herentals 1989, ISBN 90-72695-01-1 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Gordon Williamson: Die SS. Hitler's Instrument of Power, Kaiser, 2005, p. 246.
2. ↑ SS-FHA Tgb.Nr. 3934/44 g.Ks.