Georgian uprising on Texel

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The Dutch island of Texel
Bunker of the German "Atlantic Wall" in the dunes of Texel

The Georgian uprising on Texel ( Dutch Opstand der Georgiërs ; Georgian ტექსელის აჯანყება ) from April 4 to May 20, 1945 was the revolt of Georgian members of the Wehrmacht of the Georgian Infantry Battalion 822 " Queen Tamar " , a unit of the Georgian Legion of the Eastern Legions , against the German soldiers on the Dutch island of Texel ( Noord-Holland ). The skirmish at the end of World War II is sometimes referred to as Europe's last battlefield .

Starting position

After the occupation of the Netherlands in May 1940, the island had become a central point in the German Atlantic Wall and was heavily fortified. The Georgians were soldiers from the Georgian SSR who had been captured on the Eastern Front and then fought on the side of the Wehrmacht . They were stationed in a camp on the island and, appropriately armed, served the Wehrmacht as an auxiliary force.

The riot

On the night of April 5 to 6, 1945 at 1:00 a.m., the Georgians rose up against the Germans, because they were to be transferred to the front with the German commander Klaus Breitner to fight the Allies, and took over for a short time control of the island. About 400 Germans were killed that night alone - mostly stabbed to death in their sleep. The Georgians could not take over the ship batteries in the north and south of the island. The 163rd Marine Rifle Regiment arrived for German reinforcement , began a counter-offensive with the help of tanks from the Dutch mainland and was able to take over the island again after a few weeks of tough fighting.

During the Russian War ( Russenoorlog ), as it is called on Texel, 800, according to other sources up to 2000 Wehrmacht soldiers , 565 Georgians and 120 native Dutch people were killed. The destruction was enormous, dozens of farms went up in flames. The bloodshed continued after the surrender of the Germans in Denmark and the Netherlands (May 5) and the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht (May 8). After a form of "armistice" between Germans and Georgians was reached on the island through the mediation of the Dutch resistance, the Canadian troops finally succeeded in pacifying "Europe's last battlefield" on May 20th.

After the fighting ends

Tomb at the Hoge Berg

The fallen Georgians are buried in the Hogeberg cemetery near Oudeschild on Texel. Georgians remember their fallen ancestors in an annual commemoration event at this cemetery and scatter Georgian soil on the graves.

The 228 Georgians who survived, like most Georgian soldiers, were forcibly returned to the Soviet Union in accordance with the decisions of the Yalta Conference . Many of them were sent to Soviet labor camps for years; only a few were allowed to return directly to their homeland. The last survivors were not rehabilitated until 1956 in the course of de-Stalinization .

Most of the killed German soldiers were buried in part of the general cemetery in Den Burg . In 1949 they found their final resting place in the Ysselsteyn military cemetery in Venray ( Limburg ). The members of the Allied flight squadrons are also buried in the community cemetery in Den Burg.

A permanent exhibition about the events is in the Aviation Museum at Texel Airport .

literature

  • Dick van Reeuwijk: Special message Texel: uprising of the Georgians . Het Open Boek, Den Burg / Texel 1984, ISBN 90-70202-09-3
  • The birthday of death . In: Der Spiegel . No. 20 , 1995, p. 188-190 ( online ).
  • Volker Dittrich : Operation Texel . Dittrich-Verlag, 1996 ISBN 3-920862-00-7 (first in 1990 under the title Lola Langeland. "I feel like screaming" ) .
  • JAC Bartels, W. Kalkmann: Texel, Nederlands laatste slaagveld , De Walburg Pers, Zutphen 1980 (in Dutch)
  • JAC Bartels: Muiterij aan het Marsdiep , De Bataafsche Leeuw, Amsterdam 1986 (in Dutch)
  • Imme Dros: Dag soldaat, dag mooie soldaat , Querido 1996 ISBN 978-90-214-6040-6
  • Eric Lee: The Georgian Rebellion. jungle world , 38, 19 September 2019, p. 16 ("The soldiers on both sides wore German uniforms") Also online.

Cinematic processing

  • Special message Texel: Opstand der Georgiërs , documentary by Dick van Reeuwijk, NOS , 1979, 115 min.
  • The Night of the Georgians - Memory of a Forgotten Massacre , 45-minute documentary by Volker Dittrich , SFB, 2002
  • The Dutch-Belgian-Georgian feature film De viegenierster van Kazbek ( The Aviatrix of Kazbek ) from 2010 integrates elements of the uprising into its fictional plot (script: Arthur Japin and Ineke Smits, director: Ineke Smits)
  • De Russenoorlog , documentary by Arnold van Bruggen, 2009, 60 min. (in Dutch and Georgian, with Dutch, English and German subtitles). In this film, primarily contemporary witnesses report on what happened.

Web links

Commons : Georgian Uprising on Texel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ A novel against the background of the uprising, which is largely set on Texel; Publisher information
  2. ↑ Children's book. The author experienced the events as a 10 year old child, she describes her own experience in the book; first in 1990 under the title De man in het tijgervel in Henk Barnard: De trein naar Pavlovsk en Oostvoorne . ISBN 9789061432203 , in Dutch
  3. ↑ http://www.npo.nl/sondermeldung-texel-opstand-der-georgiers/27-12-2010/WO_VPRO_040189
  4. ↑ http://www.hetopenboek.nl/htm/boeken3.htm#russenoorlog