Foreign volunteers of the Waffen SS

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Foreign volunteer associations of the Waffen-SS were military units in World War II that were formed from members of foreign countries and that served in the Waffen-SS . Their soldiers came from neutral and allied countries or those that had been occupied by the German Reich .

Initially, the Waffen-SS soldiers were German volunteers , later ethnic Germans were obliged to serve in units of the Waffen-SS, sometimes under pressure. In order to stop the defeat, soldiers from the conquered areas in the east were eventually formed into new foreign combat units.

Insofar as the soldiers were citizens of Germany's opponents of the war, this service in the Waffen-SS is referred to as "military collaboration". There were different avenues of military collaboration. A total of around one million Soviet citizens served in the Wehrmacht's Eastern Legions , in the Vlasov Army and in other units . The Waffen-SS grew from 28,500 men (1939) to 910,200 men (1945). Around 200,000 were foreigners, 310,000 were ethnic Germans from Southeastern Europe. Around every fourth to fifth member of the Waffen SS was a Hungarian or Romanian German .

The SS divisions, which were formed from foreign "volunteers", had a comparatively minor military importance compared to other SS divisions because of their smaller personnel. In the first years of the war, according to the National Socialist racial ideology from the Dutch and Danes, preference was given to "Germanic" units that were at the top of the racial hierarchy. In the final phase of the war, Waffen SS troops were even formed from the Bosnian Muslim population. Some divisions of the Waffen-SS were deployed in the occupied states, in which the resistance was continued as armed struggle by the population after the military defeat, for example in Yugoslavia, Greece and France. Foreign divisions of the Waffen SS were mainly used to fight these partisans , also in the Soviet Union and Italy .

background

"Teutons" and ethnic Germans

The German leadership was able to mobilize the armies of allied states for the struggle in the east. But she also tried to integrate foreign and ethnic German volunteers into the German armed forces. Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler pursued this goal more consistently than the Wehrmacht from the start. Initially, the Waffen-SS - at that time still under the name of SS-Lieferstruppe - was only allowed to advertise to a small extent for soldiers in the German Reich. They were therefore initially recruited from members of the General SS , the SS-Totenkopfstandarten and the Ordnungs- and Schutzpolizei , who were subordinate to Himmler. The head of the SS main office and Himmler-Intimus, SS-Obergruppenführer Gottlob Berger , circumvented this difficulty by recruiting ethnic Germans abroad for the Waffen SS. Adolf Hitler also granted the SS sole responsibility for recruiting “Germanic” volunteers, meaning those of north and north-west European origin. After Denmark and Norway had been occupied, the standard "Nordland" was formed from Danish and Norwegian volunteers , and one month later the standard "Westland". Both were united in 1940 with the German regiment "Germania", as well as Finns, Swedes and a few Swiss to form the SS division "Wiking" under Felix Steiner .

“Non-Germanic” foreigners such as Walloons , French , Spaniards and Croats were initially enlisted in the Wehrmacht, not in the Waffen SS. After the " Blitzkrieg " in the West ( Western campaign ), the propaganda formula of the "European crusade against Asian Bolshevism " was used to advertise entry into the Waffen SS. In the long term, the SS Reichsführung had the creation of a "Pan-Germanic People's Army" in mind, which would form a standing army on the "defense border with Asia" even in times of peace. By the middle of 1943, however, only around 27,000 "Teutons" had been won, with every fifth volunteer having already quit their service.

The recruitment of foreigners of German origin in south-eastern Europe, so-called ethnic Germans, was more successful than the recruitment of northern European volunteers. At the end of 1941 only 6,000 ethnic Germans were serving in the Waffen SS; two years later there were over 120,000, most of them from the Kingdom of Romania , the Kingdom of Hungary , Serbia and the Independent State of Croatia .

"Non-Germanic"

After the beginning of the war against the Soviet Union , a second wave of advertising began and led to the formation of "legions", associations of roughly regimental strength. A Walloon , Flemish , French , Dutch and Croatian legion of foreign volunteers was set up. Around 43,000 foreign volunteers, including Alsatians, fought in the Wehrmacht and Waffen SS at the end of 1941. Among them were around 12,000 "non-German Teutons", mostly Dutch and Scandinavians, who had been recruited for the Waffen SS. Around two thirds of the volunteers at the end of 1941 were non-Germanic. In 1943/1944, most of the legions that were under Wehrmacht command were transferred to the Waffen SS, despite some resistance from the governments of their home countries, which were mostly very critical of the SS. The incorporation began in 1943 with the transformation of the legions into "grenadier regiments" and their transfer to the III. (Germanic) SS Panzer Corps .

In the later years of the war, the “recruited” “volunteers” from Eastern and Southeastern Europe had to fill in the “gaps” that had arisen as a result of the losses in the Waffen SS. With the "new recruits" it was no longer a matter of " Germanic " or " Aryan " appearance or ancestry; fighting ability was sufficient. The "recruitment" was presented as a "struggle against Bolshevism " or as a "crusade against Asiatic Bolshevism". The participation of "volunteers" from different peoples should give the impression of a multinational struggle.

Within the Waffen-SS there was a renaming and regrouping from the end of 1943, which led to a classification of the troops into three categories:

I. Germans "eligible for order", "SS-eligible" Germans, draft report eligible for war use-SS (Kv.-SS)
II. Germans and Teutons who are not eligible for order, "not suitable for SS", draft certificate Kv.- Army
III. Non-Germans, non-Germans, regardless of the examination report

Category I included the pure SS divisions, ie the SS divisions “Leibstandarte” , “Das Reich” and “Totenkopf” , as well as the “Wiking” division, the only division with a significant proportion of “Germanic” volunteers . For Category II included not only the predominantly ethnic German associations, the successor organizations of the "Germanic" legions, so the Division "Nordland" , the Division "Nederland" , the "Langemarck" Division and the Division "Wallonia" .

The members of units of the Waffen-SS “not capable of order” were not allowed to wear the “ Sigrunen ” of the SS, but had their own emblems.

Recruitment and Motivation

A total of 24 nationalities were represented in the Waffen-SS. Hungarian, Croatian, Russian, Italian, Latvian, Estonian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Albanian, Dutch, Belgian, French and Cossack units were set up as SS volunteer and Waffen-Grenadier divisions of the Waffen-SS. The motivation of the recruits was correspondingly diverse .

The governments of the affected countries gave their citizens appropriate permits in the hope that the services of these “volunteers” could later have a favorable effect on autonomy negotiations with the hegemonic power Germany. But Hitler made no concessions to the home countries of the SS “volunteers”.

In Eastern Europe , large sections of the population saw themselves threatened by Stalinism . The forced collectivization in the Soviet Union , the forced industrialization of the Soviet Union and the “ deculakization ” could only be enforced by force and by means of purge measures by the Soviet secret police . Severe famines such as those in Ukraine had ensued in their wake . The three Baltic countries were forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union in August 1940 and subsequently suffered massive crimes contrary to international law . Volunteers now wanted revenge and hoped that by participating in the war they would acquire the right to rule their countries themselves after a victory against the Soviet Union. Not all governments agreed to the recruitment of German agencies for volunteers for the Waffen SS, such as those of Romania and Hungary, because they needed replacements for their own armies, which suffered great losses on the Eastern Front. In the long run, however, they could not defend themselves against German pressure and had to agree to the advertising.

This motive has less validity for Western and Northern Europe , where the first recruitment was carried out as early as 1940, when the German Reich and the Soviet Union were still allies through the Hitler-Stalin Pact . The recruits from these countries were more likely to sympathize with the idea of Pan-Germanism . It should be noted, however, that the Waffen-SS can by no means (as various right-wing extremist authors claim) be seen as a champion of European unification.

Despite the designation “foreign volunteers”, numerous recruits could only be called up under pressure. When the first recruitment offices opened in the occupied territories, one had actually expected a bigger crowd. As the losses increased in the course of the war, it became increasingly difficult to make up for them. Therefore many were forcibly recruited. Some prisoners of war were forced to serve in the German armed forces. The combat value of the foreign SS soldiers was correspondingly low. Especially from the peoples of the Balkans and the Soviet Union, many deserted (e.g. the East Turkish Arms Association of the SS). In divisions from other parts of Europe, too, disappointment spread when it became clear that Hitler wanted to make the German Reich the hegemonic power in Europe and had no interest in granting the subjugated peoples sovereignty . When the advance of the Allied troops made their home countries lie far behind the front, many Waffen SS troops were much less ready for action.

Other units, however, fought reliably on the side of the Wehrmacht until the Battle of Berlin . Many foreign Waffen SS units fought extremely fanatically, especially towards the end of the war, as if the Third Reich were defeated they could face persecution and execution in their homeland. After the fighting ended, there were occasional suicides by foreign soldiers of the Waffen SS.

War crimes

Murders and war crimes also occurred among foreign volunteers . Himmler promoted the riots and sometimes enjoyed descriptions of the brutal fighting style of the Bosnian SS units, which were also used for other units that were commissioned to fight partisans (e.g. the Dutch, who later served in the "Nederland" division) , was typical.

The 29th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS "RONA" (Russian No. 1) , under the command of Bronislaw Wladislawowitsch Kaminski , was noticeable during the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising (1944) with its extremely brutal warfare. The division's soldiers looted, murdered and raped. When the Poles finally surrendered, they even specifically stipulated that Kaminski's units were not allowed to be used to guard the prisoners.

Soldiers of the 5th SS Panzer Division "Wiking" shot 600 Jews in Galicia in 1941 . The 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (Galician No. 1) was also involved in such war crimes.

The "Latvian Legion", which later became part of the 15th and 19th Waffen Grenadier Divisions of the SS (Latvian No. 1 and No. 2), was incorporated into the Latvian Penal Commands of the Security Police and Security Service (SD) of the Reichsführer SS incorporated, who previously (1941-1943) were involved in numerous operations of the extermination of the population in the territories of Latvia , Russia and Belarus .

The SS Skanderbeg division was also responsible for the deportation of several hundred Jews from Kosovo to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp .

Volunteers from allied states

Bulgaria

At the end of 1942 the Waffen SS were planning to recruit new volunteer organizations in Bulgaria . However, Hitler refused because he needed the Bulgarian armed forces in full strength on the Turkish border. The envoy Otto von Erdmannsdorff then informed SS-Obergruppenführer Karl Wolf that his plan had been rejected.

The “ Bulgarian National Exile Government ” founded in Vienna on September 16, 1944 , announced the establishment of the “ Bulgarian Liberation Corps ” under the command of Colonel Ivan Rogosarow and called on all Bulgarians in Germany, Italy, Slovakia, Hungary and Croatia to join the fight to report as volunteers against the Soviet Union. The formation of a Bulgarian military unit, which later bore the name " Waffen-Grenadier Regiment der SS (Bulgarian No. 1) ", was promoted at the Döllersheim military training area in Austria. At the end of 1944 Heinrich Himmler gave the green light for the formation of the SS Panzer Destroyer Brigade (Bulgarian number 1) , which was mostly made up of Bulgarian prisoners of war. The total number of this legion was about 700 soldiers. But without waiting for military training and being sent to the front, some of the fighters defected to the Soviet side.

Italy

From the end of September 1943, posters for the Waffen SS were also used in Italy and many fascists came forward . The 29th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (Italian No. 1) was set up, other Italians were represented alongside various other nationalities in the 24th Waffen Mountain (Karstjäger) Division of the SS and a few were also there the Eastern Front (mainly in Hungary in 1945 ). These soldiers were trained in Germany ( East Prussia and Württemberg ) and the first units were immediately used in combat at Anzio-Nettuno in 1944 , where they suffered heavy losses. The last Italian SS units fought in northern Italy until May 2, 1945 or (after the surrender of Army Group C under Supreme Commander Southwest Colonel General Heinrich Scheel (aka von Vietinghoff) on May 2) in the area until May 5 Trieste and surroundings.

Finland

The " Finnish volunteer battalion of the Waffen-SS " fought since January 1942 with 1,180 men (III. (Finnish) / SS-Inf.Rgt. Nordland) in the association of the SS division "Wiking" in the southern section of the Eastern Front. In June 1943 the Finnish soldiers were brought back and incorporated into the Finnish army with recognition of the higher ranks they had acquired in the Waffen SS . Finland was primarily concerned with regaining the part of Karelia that had been lost to the Soviet Union in the winter war of 1939/1940 and now needed the soldiers itself. Marshal Mannerheim forbade any further deployment on the side of the German Reich. Finland maintained a clear ideological distance from National Socialism and never broke off diplomatic ties with Germany's war opponent USA .

Croatia and Albania

Croatian SS volunteers of the 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS "Handschar" (Croatian No. 1)
Bosnian SS volunteers praying (November 1943), joining an SS propaganda company

In Croatia more than 25,000 live male Croatia German . Of these, more than 17,000 reported to the Waffen SS.

From 1943 Mohammed Amin al-Husseini , the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem expelled from Great Britain , was responsible for the organization and training of Bosniak army units and Waffen SS divisions. The largest was the 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS "Handschar" (Croatian No. 1) , (21,065 men), which carried out operations against communist partisans in the Balkans from February 1944. She was responsible for a number of atrocities against the civilian population. The 23rd Waffen Mountain Division of the SS "Kama" , (3,793 men), did not reach the operational strength of a division and was disbanded after five months; their relatives were distributed to other units. Other units were a Muslim SS self-defense regiment in the Serbian Rashka, ( Sandžak ) region, the Arab Freedom Corps, the Arab Brigade and the East Muslim SS Regiment.

The units from this region were used primarily against Tito's partisans, but not very successfully.

Romania

In 1942 Romania still regarded the Banat Swabians and Transylvanian Saxons, who had been recruited for the Waffen SS, as deserters . On 12./13. April 1942, during a visit by Prime Minister Ion Antonescu to Germany, a meeting with Hitler took place at Schloss Kleßheim . At the talks Antonescu declared its agreement in principle, the Germans in Romania by the Romanian military indemnify if they instead wanted to serve in the Waffen-SS. On May 12, 1943, the Waffen SS Agreement between Germany and Romania was signed in Bucharest . This legalized the recruitment process of the Waffen SS in Romania. At the end of 1943 Romania had by far the largest proportion of ethnic Germans in the Waffen SS, with 54,000 men.

Hungary

Another country that managed to attract a large number of volunteers was Hungary . There were four Hungarian Waffen SS divisions, which were mainly used on the Eastern Front in 1944/45. In January 1942, the Hungarian government approved the confiscation of initially 20,000 ethnic Germans. By May 1942, the SS recruits had succeeded in hiring almost 18,000 Hungarian Germans . On April 14, 1944, the service of Hungarian citizens in the Waffen-SS was regulated by a contract with the Hungarian puppet government of Ferenc Szálasi , which equated service in the Waffen-SS with military service in the regular Hungarian army . People Germans who were less fit for health served in SS police regiments or in concentration camp guards.

  • Hungary: 122,860, of which around 80,000 were forcibly recruited on the basis of the April 1944 agreement.

Volunteers from neutral and occupied areas

Belgium

The Flemish Legion had a combat strength of over 1,000 men at the end of 1941 and was almost completely destroyed near Krasny Bor in March 1943 . What was left of them were transferred to the SS Sturmbrigade Langemark , which was expanded in 1944 into the 27th SS Volunteer Grenadier Division "Langemarck" . The Walloon Legion was initially set up as Infantry Battalion 373 of the Wehrmacht, which fought on the Dnepr in the area of Army Group South , and was then transferred to the Wallonia Legion . The Walloons were admitted to the Waffen SS in 1943 as "Teutons", the Legion was transferred to the 5th SS Volunteer Assault Brigade "Wallonie" of the Waffen SS, which was smashed in the Cherkassy pocket. The remnants were reclassified together with Belgian forced laborers , prisoners of war and Walloons evacuated to Germany to the 28th SS Volunteer Panzer Grenadier Division "Wallonia" , whose only operational combat group was wiped out in February 1945 at Stargard .

Denmark

Swearing in of Danes for the Waffen SS with the flag “Freikorps Danmark” (1941), photo taken from the Federal Archives

The Danish volunteers were led by Christian Frederik von Schalburg as "Freikorps Danmark". The approximately 1000-strong Freikorps fought as a reinforced infantry battalion of the SS Totenkopf Division in the Kesselschlacht of Demyansk , where Schalburg fell on June 2, 1942. In May 1943 the Freikorps was disbanded.

The SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment 24 "Danmark" of the new SS Division Nordland was formed from the Danish volunteers of the disbanded Freikorps and from the Wiking Division . It was used in the fall of 1943 to fight partisans in Croatia, where it was involved in the burning of villages and in shootings. In the Courland Basin at the end of 1944, the Danes suffered heavy losses. At the end of April 1945 the remnants of the regiment were ordered to Berlin and put together in a combat group that was destroyed during the fighting in the city .

7,800 Danes served in the Wehrmacht and the Waffen SS, most of them in the "Nordland" division, of which 3,980 died. Around 2000 of them were members of the German ethnic group of North Schleswig .

France

French volunteers for the Waffen SS in Paris (October 1943), joining an SS propaganda company

The Vichy regime made possible by a law of 22 July 1943 entry of the French into the Waffen-SS. A regiment set up as a result was expanded into an assault brigade in July 1944, which suffered extraordinary losses on the front near Sanok . Himmler had the remnants of this brigade expanded to form the 33rd SS Division "Charlemagne" , which reached a strength of 8,000 men through the incorporation of French from other troops. They fought when the Wehrmacht withdrew in February 1945 in Pomerania and northern Germany.

The last defenders of Berlin's inner city and thus also of the Reich Chancellery and the headquarters of the SS in Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse were members of the French 33rd SS Division "Charlemagne" and the Scandinavian 11th SS Volunteer Panzer Grenadier Division "Nordland" who fought until the surrender of Berlin on May 2, 1945.

Liechtenstein

Around 100 volunteers from the Principality of Liechtenstein served in the Waffen SS. The best known was the functionary of the Volksdeutsche movement in Liechtenstein and entrepreneur Martin Hilti (see also Hilti (company) ).

Netherlands

Soldiers of the SS Volunteer Legion “Nederland” received awards in the Soviet Union (February 1943), photo from the Federal Archives

Around 22,000 Dutch fought in the Waffen-SS and other military formations on the side of the German Reich, for example in the Germaansche SS in Nederland (Germanic SS in the Netherlands), in units of the Wehrmacht, in the NSKK . Over 10,000 of them fell. After the Dutch had fought in national legions, as is customary in other countries, the SS Volunteer Panzer Grenadier Brigade “Nederland” was formed in 1943 from 1,700 surviving Dutch soldiers from the Eastern Front and 3,000 new recruits , which was wiped out in the second Battle of Courland . The remnants were moved to Pomerania to form the core of the 23rd SS Volunteer Panzer Grenadier Division "Nederland" formed on February 10, 1945 . Most of the members of the division were taken prisoner by the Soviets in the Halbe pocket .

Norway

Members of the “Norway” Legion in the Soviet Union (autumn 1941), photo from the Federal Archives

Vidkun Quisling's call to join the SS-Standarte Nordland was only followed by 300 Norwegians in 1941 . Together with the regiments Westland and Germania , the increased SS Regiment Nordland formed the 5th SS Panzer Division "Wiking" . In June 1941 the Den Norske Legion was formed to take part in the war against the Soviet Union. Here, too, the advertising was hardly successful, with a combat strength of 1,218 men, the Legion was deployed off Leningrad from March 1942 . In May 1943 the Norwegian Legion was also disbanded and its soldiers were transferred to the Norge Regiment of the 11th SS Volunteer Panzer Grenadier Division "Nordland" . On January 30, 1944, 3,878 Norwegians were in the Waffen-SS. The Norwegians of the Nordland Division were deployed in the Baltic countries and in Pomerania during the Wehrmacht's retreat.

Sweden

At least 400 to 500 Swedish volunteers served in the Waffen SS between 1940 and 1944. Soon after the war began, most of the young Swedes made their way illegally across the green border into the neighboring countries of Denmark and Norway , which were occupied by Hitler , and reported to the SS offices there. Many also allowed themselves to be enrolled in illegal recruiting offices of National Socialist friends' organizations in Stockholm or other hometowns. The Swedish volunteers, along with Danish, Norwegian and Dutch volunteers, were initially assigned to the SS division "Wiking" , which was set up at the end of 1940 . In spring 1943, their Panzer Grenadier Regiment "Nordland" then formed the core of a new division of the same name. The highest ranking Swedish officer was SS-Hauptsturmführer Gösta Pehrsson, who commanded the "Swedish company " of this division. However, some found other uses as well. Swedes also served in guards in labor and concentration camps or as war reporters , were members of the "Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler" and were among the few who still defended the Führerbunker in Berlin.

Serbia

The 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division "Prinz Eugen" was mainly formed from Danube Swabians resident in Serbia , whose establishment Hitler approved towards the end of 1941. By January 1944, around 22,000 ethnic Germans from Serbia and the Banat had served in the Waffen SS. The Batschka had 22,125 men by the end of 1943.

Switzerland

Around 2,000 Swiss volunteers in the Waffen SS. The highest in rank were SS-Oberführer Eugen von Elfenau (his actual Swiss rank and name was Major Johann Eugen Corrodi ), SS-Obersturmbannführer Franz Riedweg and SS-Sturmbannführer Heinrich Johann Hersche . Around 40 Swiss were promoted to officers. Also worth mentioning are the frontist chief and SS-Untersturmführer Benno Schaeppi , the Ticino SS-Unterscharführer Ignazio Antognoli and the prisoner functionary and SS-Unterscharfuhrer Eugen Wipf .

Between October 1944 and February 1945, the Swiss Johannes Pauli (1900–1969) was deputy camp leader in the Bisingen concentration camp with the rank of SS-Hauptscharführer . At the end of the war, Pauli fled to Switzerland, where he was arrested in Basel and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Volunteers from Eastern Europe in the fight against the Soviet Union

Baltic states

Initially only police units were to be formed in the Baltic states in order not to give rise to any claim to regaining independence, which was ended in 1940 by the Soviet occupation. From 1943, however , an SS division was formed in Estonia and Latvia . In Lithuania in March 1943, the attempt to call up volunteers to a Lithuanian SS legion failed; only one in five let themselves be examined. When a voluntary association was finally set up at the beginning of 1944, it had to be dissolved again in May 1944 because the Lithuanian units refused to take an oath on Hitler .

Two Latvian divisions, the 15th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (Latvian No. 1) and the 19th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (Latvian No. 2) were deployed on the northern wing of the Eastern Front. The "volunteers" had been called up under the guise of compulsory labor service and were drafted. The 15th division was broken up in July 1944, reorganized and destroyed in Pomerania. The 19th Division surrendered in the Kurland Basin and was taken prisoner by the Soviets. The total number of Latvians who fought in police, SS and Wehrmacht units is estimated at around 110,000.

An Estonian brigade was also deployed on the northern wing of the Eastern Front from October 1943. As in Latvia, the “volunteers” had been recruited using compulsory labor service. The brigade was increased to the 20th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (Estonian No. 1) in January 1944 . After operations at the front against the Red Army and punitive expeditions against Soviet partisans, it was broken up near Tartu in August 1944, and what was left was deployed in Silesia. The total number of Estonians fighting in units of the SS, police, protection teams and Wehrmacht is estimated at almost 70,000, of which around 50,000 were killed.

Soviet Union

Members of non-Russian peoples of the Soviet Union fought in the Eastern Legions , some of which belonged to the Waffen SS and some to the Wehrmacht. The 29th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS “RONA” (Russian No. 1) and the 30th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (Russian No. 2) , which were dominated by Russians , did not belong to the Eastern Legion .

Caucasian legions

Only the combat battalions of the Caucasian-Mohammedan Legion were set up with volunteers from the Soviet Union; Battalions with Ukrainians , Cossacks , Baltic peoples and ethnic Germans were set up primarily as construction battalions, for replenishment / guard duty or to fight partisans.

The first Caucasian and Turkestan battalions were set up in late 1941 / early 1942. Initially, the Caucasian-Mohammedan Legion , the Georgian Legion and the Armenian Legion belonged to it. In 1942 the Caucasian-Magomedan Legion was reorganized and the North Caucasian Legion (also Legion Mountain Caucasus) and the Azerbaijani Legion were formed from them .

These combat battalions were deployed in the Caucasus (late 1941/42, 1942/43) and later in the Crimea, the Balkans, in Italy and during the 1944 Anglo-American invasion of Normandy. The last Caucasian battalions were disbanded on May 6, 1945. The best-known and repeatedly recorded battalions among them were the Special Association Bergmann (with Georgians, North Caucasians and Azerbaijanis) and Sonderkommando Shamil.

SS Major Andreas Mayer-Mader was in command of the Eastern Legions from the end of 1941 until his shooting, and Ernst Köstring from 1944 until the end of the Second World War .

Armenian Legion of the Wehrmacht (1942–1944)

Combat battalions of the Armenian Legion

808th Infantry Battalion - Founded in Poland in July 1942, this unit consisted of 916 Armenians and 41 Germans. Even when it was first deployed in the fighting for the port city of Tuapse , the combat division proved to be unreliable from the perspective of the Wehrmacht leadership, as many Armenian legionaries had defected to the Red Army. In October 1942 the battalion was disbanded and reorganized as the road construction department.

809th Infantry Battalion - It was deployed in Poland in August 1942. In the ranks of this unit, which was part of the 128th Grenadier Regiment of the 48th Infantry Division , 916 Armenians and 45 Germans fought under the command of Hermann Becker. The first operational areas were the cities of Nalchik , Mozdok , Kuban and the Kerch peninsula in November 1942. In October 1943 the company was relocated to the Netherlands and from there to Belgium . In August 1944, the unit lost a large part of its soldiers in the course of Operation Overlord of the Allies and then fell apart.

810th Infantry Battalion - Formed in Poland in 1942.

812th Engineering Battalion - Formed February 1, 1943 in Puławy (Poland), the unit began its service in the city of Radom . On March 10, 1943, she was deployed in the Netherlands with the aim of improving the defense capabilities of the Atlantic Wall . The department had its own spiritual leader and followed the religious rituals. According to the Armenian calendar, Christian holidays were celebrated. There was even a baptism for those interested.

813th, 814th, 815th, 816th Armenian Infantry Battalions - these units performed their military service in Poland, where they were set up during 1943.

I / 125 Armenian Division - formed in February 1943 in the Ukraine, it was relocated a short time later to the Western Front in southern France for defense purposes and stationed there 30 km north of Marseille , near the small town of Aix-en-Provence .

I / 198 Armenian Division - The unit was assembled in Ukraine in September 1942 and sent to southern France on the Western Front, where a. to organize the defense of the city of Toulon .

II / 9 Armenian Division - This combat division was also formed in September 1942 in the Ukraine and relocated to the small town of Hyères near Saint-Tropez in southern France, where it was mainly used by the coast guard.

Crimean Tatars

Since 1942, Crimean Tatars in occupied Crimea were recruited by the Reichsführer SS's security service, initially for spy and security services, and then also for military use. In July 1944, a Tatar SS Mountain Brigade was formed from volunteers ( Tatar No. 1 ). A total of around 20,000 voluntary Crimean Tatars fought on the German side, significantly more than had been drafted by the Soviet army.

Turkestan 162nd Infantry Division

The Turkestan legions initially consisted of the Turkestan legions ( Uzbeks , Turkmens , Kazakhs , Karakalpaks , Kyrgyzstan ), the Volga-Tatar legion, the Volga-Finnish legion and the East Turkish legion (Udmurts, Tuva and Yakuts). They were recruited for military combat in prisoner-of-war camps and used by the Wehrmacht, especially in the West. In 1944 the Turkestan 162nd Infantry Division was formed. From 1944 until the end of the war it was led by General Ralph von Heygendorff .

Ukraine

After the Axis troops were defeated at the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943, Himmler approved the recruitment of volunteers in Galicia . Mainly men should be selected whose fathers had previously served in the land forces of Austria-Hungary . Despite the policy of repression of the German civil administration established in Ukraine, 84,000 men reported after an appeal in 1943. The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) , the armed arm of the Ukrainian national movement, pursued Ukraine's independence. The SS was therefore careful to keep Ukrainian nationalists away from the Waffen SS. That is why she only took a quarter of the volunteers and formed the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (Galician No. 1) from them . The division was fully established and trained, but on its first use at Brody got into a cauldron and was smashed. 3,000 men escaped from the boiler and formed the basis for a new line-up. A 2nd Ukrainian division was no longer fully formed towards the end of the war and was wiped out by the Red Army in Bohemia.

Cossacks

Waffen-SS Cossacks in Warsaw , during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944

In contrast to the usual foreign combat units from the members of the USSR republics, Hitler and his immediate environment were benevolent towards the idea of ​​setting up Cossack military units within the Wehrmacht. Hitler's racial theory described the Cossacks as descendants of the Goths , an East Germanic ethnic group. Thus, the Cossacks were not considered Slavs , but belonged to the Aryan race . In addition, some Cossack leaders are said to have supported Hitler in the early stages of his political career.

In early 1944, were against the Soviet Union fighting Cossack associations under Major General Helmuth von Pannwitz general of the Waffen-SS ( XV. Cossack Cavalry Corps assumed). These had appointed von Pannwitz as their "field ataman" and took part in fighting in Russia and the Balkans.

In the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944, Cossack units played a crucial role. One of these associations was given the task of taking over the staff position of the Polish resistance fighters under the command of Tadeusz Komorowski . The company subsequently arrested almost 5,000 insurgents. Many Cossack soldiers and field commanders were awarded the Iron Cross for special bravery .

Belarus

On March 9, 1945, the 30th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (Belarusian No. 1) was founded. However, this was integrated into the 38th SS Grenadier Division "Nibelungen" in April 1945 . In addition, some Belarusians were involved in the SS-Jagdverband Ost, including the so-called black cats . After the end of the war, most of the members of the Soviet Union were extradited.

India

The Free India Legion was initially a unit of the Wehrmacht and later the Waffen SS

Veterans and tradition after 1945

Despite criticism, an annual march in memory of the members of the Latvian Waffen SS division takes place in the Latvian capital Riga .

In March 2012, the Estonian parliament passed a resolution claiming that members of the 20th Waffen SS Division were freedom fighters.

Since 2010 there has been an annual march in Lviv in memory of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (Galician No. 1) , in which the Svoboda party takes part.

In May 2016, a monument in honor of Garegin Ter-Harutunan , called Nschdeh, was erected in the center of the Armenian capital Yerevan, with the disapproval of official Russia . Nschdeh, who collaborated with Germany against the Soviet Union during World War II and was also one of seven members of the Armenian National Council founded in Berlin in December 1942, is still considered a “national hero” in Armenia today. He practiced mainly propaganda activities among Armenian prisoners of war by calling on them to armed struggle against the USSR: "Whoever dies for Germany, dies for Armenia".

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Heinz Höhne: The order under the skull. The history of the SS. Original edition 1967, here Munich 2002, ISBN 3-572-01342-9 , p. 12.
  2. ↑ Horst Boog, Werner Rahn , Reinhard Stumpf, Bernd Wegner: The German Empire and the Second World War. Vol. 6: The global war: The expansion to world war and the change of initiative 1941-1943. Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-421-06233-1 , p. 837.
  3. ↑ Horst Boog, Werner Rahn, Reinhard Stumpf, Bernd Wegner: The German Empire and the Second World War. Vol. 6: The global war: The expansion to world war and the change of initiative 1941-1943. Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-421-06233-1 , p. 838.
  4. ↑ Letter of the Ges. V. Erdmannsdorff (AA) to SS-Ogruf. Wolff (Personal Staff B.FSS) v. 12/23/1942 (NG-3665)
  5. ↑ Создание болгарского освободительного корпуса: " Орган болгарского национального правительства " Родина " сообщает о создании болгарского корпуса Освобождения. Начальник корпуса полковник Рогозаров сообщает, что корпус создаётся для освобождения Болгарии » . In: Газета « За Родину » . 1944.
  6. ↑ Васил Зикуров: Военная разведка Болгарии и холодная война . София 2005, p. 31 .
  7. ↑ В. Н. Гребенников .: Народ против фашизма, 1939–1945. Исторический очерк о борьбе болгарского народа в период второй мировой войны . "Прогресс", 1986, p. 286-287 .
  8. ↑ Federal Ministry for Expellees, Refugees and War Victims (Ed.): Documentation of the expulsion of Germans from East Central Europe, vol. The fate of the Germans in Yugoslavia, Munich 1984, 74E.
  9. ↑ David Motadel : Islam and Nazi Germany's was . Harvard University Press, Cambridge 2014, ISBN 978-0-674-72460-0 ; therein the chapters Mobilizing Muslims and Islam and Politics in the Units , pp. 219–282.
  10. ↑ Kristian Ungvary: War theater of Hungary in: Karl-Heinz Frieser , Klaus Schmider , Klaus Schönherr , Gerhard Schreiber , Krisztián Ungváry , Bernd Wegner : Das Deutsche Reich and the Second World War, Volume 8, The Eastern Front 1943/44 - The War in the East and on the secondary fronts, on behalf of MGFA ed. by Karl-Heinz Frieser, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-421-06235-2 , p. 862.
  11. ↑ a b Europe under the swastika. The occupation policy of German fascism 1938–1945. Volume 8: Analyzes, Sources, Register. Hüthig Verlagsgemeinschaft, 1996, p. 165.
  12. ↑ Europe under the swastika. The occupation policy of German fascism 1938–1945. Volume 8: Analyzes, Sources, Register. Hüthig Verlagsgemeinschaft, 1996, p. 166.
  13. ^ Rolf-Dieter Müller : On the side of the Wehrmacht. Hitler's foreign helpers in the 'Crusade against Bolshevism' 1941–1945 . Munich 2007, pp. 144–148.
  14. ↑ Willi Näf: For God, Prince and Fatherland . P. 34.
  15. ↑ Perry Pierik, Van Leningrad tot Berlijn.
  16. ↑ Bundesarchiv (Ed.): Tessin, Georg : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in the Second World War 1939–1945 . Volume 4: The Landstwehr Forces 15–30, p. 20, Osnabrück 1967.
  17. ↑ Europe under the swastika. The occupation policy of German fascism 1938–1945. Volume 8: Analyzes, Sources, Register. Hüthig Verlagsgemeinschaft, 1996, p. 166.
  18. ↑ Der Spiegel 51/1999, p. 152 ff.
  19. ^ Immo Eberl, Konrad G. Gündisch, Ute Richter, Annemarie Röder, Harald Zimmermann: Die Donauschwaben. German settlement in Southeast Europe. Exhibition catalog (published by the Ministry of the Interior of Baden-Württemberg), Wiss. Management d. Exhibition Immo Eberl , Harald Zimmermann , collabor. Paul Ginder, Sigmaringen, 1987, ISBN 3-7995-4104-7 , p. 177.
  20. ↑ Sabine Bitter: «I wanted to be part of this war». Retrieved April 13, 2018 .
  21. ↑ Lukas Meyer-Marsilius: Adventurers, Fanatics and Officers . In: Tages-Anzeiger, Tages-Anzeiger . October 10, 2012, ISSN  1422-9994 ( tagesanzeiger.ch [accessed on April 13, 2018]).
  22. ^ Swiss Nazis - "My grandfather was a murderer" In: SRF from January 21, 2018
  23. ↑ http://www.hechingen4you.de:/ Bisingen concentration camp - The perpetrators
  24. ↑ a b Europe under the swastika. The occupation policy of German fascism 1938–1945. Volume 8: Analyzes, Sources, Register. Hüthig Verlagsgemeinschaft, 1996, p. 168 f.
  25. ↑ Арарат Пашаян: Армения и Армяне в период Второй Мировой Войны. May 29, 2017. Retrieved December 18, 2017 (Russian).
  26. ↑ Андреева Екатерина: Генерал Власов и Русское Освободительное Движение - Vlasov and the Russian Liberation Movement . tape 1 . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1987, ISBN 1-870128-71-0 , pp. 370 .
  27. ↑ Лавренов С. Я., Попов И. М: Крах Третьего Рейха . OOO "Фирма" Издательство ACT "", 2000, ISBN 5-237-05065-4 , p. 608 .
  28. ↑ Reinhard Wolff: Marching for the Waffen SS . taz. March 17, 2013. Retrieved August 25, 2013.
  29. ↑ "Anti-fascists are on a black list"
  30. ↑ SS Division "Galicia": Heroes' Remembrance in Ukraine ( Memento of the original from August 10, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / publikative.org
  31. ↑ Артур Папян: России « непонятно », почему в Армении установлен памятник Гарегину Нжде . In: Радио Свобода . June 10, 2016 ( azatutyun.am [accessed October 24, 2017]).
  32. ↑ Вартан Давидян: Памятник герою Армении, обвиняемому Россией в связях с нацистами, рассорилв Мос Еку. June 20, 2016, Retrieved October 24, 2017 (Russian).