SS Homeland Security Slovakia

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SS-Heimatschutz Slovakia (HS) was a military auxiliary unit within the Waffen-SS that was active in Slovakia during the Second World War . The tasks included protecting the German territories in Slovakia, resettling the German minority in the Reich, supporting Einsatzgruppe H and persecuting Jewish refugees and opponents of the regime.

history

From 1943 on, reports of partisan activities in Slovakia increased. In the summer of 1944, these reports of partisan activities in eastern and central Slovakia became increasingly frequent and specific. The reports also mentioned the deposition of Soviet agents by air landing to build partisan units, as well as Soviet arms deliveries. On July 25, 1944, a meeting of Slovak-German leaders took place in Bratislava . Ethnic group leader Franz Karmasin called for the establishment of a paramilitary organization in the Slovak state to protect the German settlements. On August 19, 1944, Karmasin sent a summary report to Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler , in which he stated that the situation in Slovakia was becoming critical. Karmasin also informed Himmler that the Germans in Slovakia had started building an armed homeland security (HS), an armed organization under the command of Ferdinand Klug, head of the volunteer protection team (FS), with the consent of the German embassy .

The main task of homeland security was to protect the German minority in Slovakia from possible partisan attacks. The Karmasin plan failed, however, because the Slovak uprising began earlier than expected on August 29, 1944 and, in some cases, the weapons intended for arming the Homeland Security members fell into the hands of partisans. During the uprising, there were serious war crimes against members of the German minority in areas where self-protection units had not been set up in time, such as the Glaserhau massacre . Homeland Security officers were considered inexperienced and poorly organized. At the beginning of September 1944, the training of members of the armed organization HS began, in which 8,000 male Germans in Slovakia were involved. At the time of the uprising, the homeland security units were under the command of SS-Obergruppenführer Gottlob Berger .

After the outbreak of the uprising, the armed units of the SS Homeland Security Slovakia were reinforced. In August 1944, the voluntary German protection service was integrated into the homeland security. The HS took part in military actions against the partisans who are hiding in the mountains and forests. The Sereď concentration camp was temporarily under the authority of the Homeland Security; Murder and arbitrariness were common occurrences. Together with Hlinka guardsmen , the Heimatschutz took part in an extensive raid against Jews in Bratislava on September 29, 1944. In mid-October 1944 “ethnic German men” from the homeland security and security service of the Reichsführer SS (SD) took over the management of the “Jewish collection point” in Bratislava. In the building of the "Judenzentrale", the former center of Jewish resistance in Slovakia, members of the Homeland Security interrogated, tortured and murdered in some cases Jews who had previously been arrested by the organization, sometimes on their own initiative.

In March 1945 the homeland security units were reorganized by SS-Obersturmbannführer Hans Thumser. Colonel Rudolf Pilfousek, a former officer in the Czechoslovak Army , who later took part in the war against the Soviet Union as an officer in the Slovak Army and joined the SS in 1944 as SS Standard Leader, became the commander of the SS Homeland Security in Slovakia . Pilfousek was directly subordinate to SS-Obergruppenführer Gottlob Berger . In 1945 the units of the SS Homeland Security Slovakia withdrew together with the Wehrmacht to the west from Slovakia.

literature

  • Lenka Šindelářová: Finale of the Annihilation. Einsatzgruppe H in Slovakia in 1944/1945. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2013, ISBN 3-53425-973-4 .
  • Dušan Kováč: Nemecko a nemecká menšina na Slovensku, 1871–1945. Veda, Bratislava 1991.
  • Dušan Kováč: History of Slovakia. Kalligram, Bratislava 2011.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Barbara Hutzelmann, Mariana Hausleitner , Suzanna Hazan: The persecution and murder of the European Jews by National Socialist Germany 1933–1945. Volume 13: Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria. Walter de Gruyter, 2018, ISBN 3-11049-520-1 , p. 728.
  2. ↑ Martin Zückert, Michal Schvarc, Jörg Meier: The Holocaust: New studies on the courses of events, reactions and processing. Campus Verlag, 2017, ISBN 3-59350-799-4 , p. 136.
  3. ^ The expulsion of the German population from Czechoslovakia. Documentation of the expulsion of Germans from East Central Europe, Federal Ministry for Expellees, Refugees and War Victims , Bonn 1957, ISBN 3-89350-560-1 . Section 2: The Slovak Uprising (August to October 1944) , p. 165.
  4. ↑ Political development after 1900 . In: Website of the local community Schmiedshau .
  5. ^ Alan E. Steinweis, Daniel E. Rogers: The Impact of Nazism: New Perspectives on the Third Reich and Its Legacy. Nebraska Press, 2003, ISBN 0-80324-299-9 , p. 174.
  6. ^ Barbara Hutzelmann, Mariana Hausleitner , Souzana Hazan: Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria. Walter de Gruyter, 2018, ISBN 3-11049-520-1 , p. 43.
  7. ↑ Jirmejahu Oskar Neumann : In the shadow of death. Edition Olamenu, Tel-Aviv 1956, pp. 67, 96-98. Quoted in: Daniel Siemens : Sturmabteilung: The history of the SA. Siedler Verlag, 2019, ISBN 3-64115-535-5 , p. 505.
  8. ^ The expulsion of the German population from Czechoslovakia. Documentation of the expulsion of Germans from East Central Europe, Federal Ministry for Expellees, Refugees and War Victims , Bonn 1957, ISBN 3-89350-560-1 . Section 2: The Slovak Uprising (August to October 1944) .
  9. ^ Barbara Hutzelmann, Mariana Hausleitner , Souzana Hazan: Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria. Walter de Gruyter, 2018, ISBN 3-11049-520-1 , p. 44.
  10. ^ Barbara Hutzelmann, Mariana Hausleitner , Souzana Hazan: Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria. Walter de Gruyter, 2018, ISBN 3-11049-520-1 , pp. 102, 311.
  11. ↑ Jörg Osterloh, Katharina Rauschenberger: The Holocaust: New studies on courses of events, reactions and processing. Campus Verlag, 2017, ISBN 3-59350-799-4 , p. 136.