SS Home Guard Danzig
The SS Heimwehr "Danzig" or Heimwehr Danzig was officially set up on June 20, 1939 , when the Danzig Senate under Albert Forster decided to set up its own powerful armed force. This new unit also included parts of the notorious Danzig SS guard "Eimann" .
history
The Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler supported this project because he had already suggested this step during a stay in Danzig. He sent SS-Obersturmbannführer Hans-Friedemann Goetze to Danzig. He was in command of III, which was set up in Berlin-Adlershof in October 1938. Sturmbannes of the 4th SS-Totenkopfstandard "Ostmark". The III. Sturmbann was reinforced with the "anti-tank training tower of the SS-Totenkopfstandarten" as well as around another 500 volunteers. These volunteers, who reported to the new unit called SS-Sturmbann “Goetze”, came from Danzig. Most of the Danzig SS men were members of the "Eimann" guard tower. At the beginning of August, the storm “Götze” reached the Westerplatte of Danzig, where it was hiding on German ships such as the training ship Schleswig-Holstein .
On August 30, 1939, the Polish government declared mobilization and in the early morning of September 1, 1939, German troops attacked from the territory of the Reich from Poland, while the 1550 strong Home Guard began the battle for the Polish post office in Danzig - an event to which Günter Grass dedicates a chapter of his novel The Tin Drum .
The SS Heimwehr was also involved in the attack on the Danzig Westerplatte and then served as a coast guard in Danzig. On September 29, 1939, parts of the Heimwehr were relocated to Dachau. On September 30, 1939, with the dissolution of the Danzig Home Guard, they were incorporated into the newly established SS Totenkopf Division under Theodor Eicke . After the conquest of Poland, former members of the Home Guard associations were involved in war crimes against the Polish civilian population in West Prussia .
Structure of the SS Home Guard Danzig
- commander
- SS-Obersturmbannführer Hans-Friedemann Goetze
- Battle Rules
- Military staff (SS-Obersturmbannführer Hans-Friedemann Goetze; 3rd / 4th skull standard)
- I. Rifle Company (SS-Hauptsturmführer Karl Thier; 2nd skull standard)
- II. Rifle Company (SS-Obersturmführer Willy Bredemeier; 2nd skull standard)
- III. Rifle company (SS-Hauptsturmführer Georg Braun; 2nd skull standard)
- IV. Rifle Company (SS-Hauptsturmführer Erich Urbanietz; 3rd skull standard)
- V. Schützenkompanie (SS-Hauptsturmführer Otto Baier, 6th SS standard of the General SS)
- 13th Grenadier Company (SS-Hauptsturmführer Walter Schulz; Stammabt. 6 of the General SS)
- 14th anti-tank company (SS-Hauptsturmführer Josef Steiner; SD-Hauptamt)
- 15th anti-tank company (SS-Obersturmführer Otto Leiner; 10th standard of the General SS)
Badge of honor of the SS Heimwehr Danzig
The SS Heimwehr Danzig badge of honor was a 1939 NSDAP award that was given to more than 1,550 people.
The badge of honor reflects the regimental flag of the SS Heimwehr Danzig; a silver-edged red swastika flag with a black St. Andrew's cross and shows in the middle a swastika and the symbols of the Schutzstaffel and parts of the city coat of arms of Gdansk . The back of the badge is smooth, shows a needle soldered on and twisted at its end, as well as the manufacturer's name: STUMPFU. SON DANZIG .
The badge of honor of the SS Heimwehr Danzig counts, like the other awards of the NSDAP in the Federal Republic of Germany, as anti-constitutional propaganda means . It is prohibited to make, wear or distribute them in public.
See also
literature
- Ivan Kovtun: Дивизия СС "Мертвая голова". (SS division "Totenkopf"). Jausa-Press, Moscow 2009, ISBN 978-5-9955-0035-3 .
- Dieter Schenk : The post office of Danzig - history of a German judicial murder . Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1995, ISBN 3-498-06288-3 .
- Kurt-Gerhard Klietmann : German Awards. Volume 2: German Empire: 1871–1945 . The Order Collection, Berlin 1971.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kowtun: SS Division "Totenkopf" , p. 112.
- ^ Criminal Code: § 86a Use of symbols of unconstitutional organizations , on: dejure.org.