SS Division Totenkopf

SS-Division Totenkopf SS-Panzergrenadier-Division "Totenkopf" 3rd SS-Panzer-Division "Totenkopf"
Troop registration
active	October 16, 1939 to May 8, 1945
Country	German Empire
Armed forces	Armed SS
Type	motorized infantry division (1939) SS-Panzergrenadier-Division (1942) SS-Panzer-Division (1944)
Butcher	Western campaign German-Soviet War Battle of Demyansk Battle of Kharkov (1943) Company Citadel Donets-Mius offensive Belgorod-Kharkov operation Battle of the Dnieper Dnepr-Carpathian operation Operation Bagration Battle for Budapest Lake Balaton offensive Vienna operation
Commanders
list of	Commanders

SS-Division "Totenkopf" , also known as SS-Totenkopf-Division , was between October 16, 1939 and November 9, 1942 the name of the front unit that had its origins in the 1933/34 concentration camp guard units that had been in place since 1936 were united under the name of SS-Totenkopfverband and their task was to operate and guard the concentration camps .

Between November 9, 1942 and November 23, 1943 it was known as the SS Panzer Grenadier Division "Totenkopf" and then under the official name of the 3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf . The original division existed until the end of the German-Soviet War , in which it was almost completely destroyed.

After its reorganization, it was one of the "elite associations" of the German army and until the end of World War II it was a front division of the Waffen SS strongly influenced by National Socialism , whose fanaticism could be traced back to its first commander, Theodor Eicke . For example, the first war crime committed by the young Waffen SS (1940) was committed by members of the SS Totenkopf Division. But also in the following years this division was characterized by a particularly ruthless warfare and actively involved in several war crimes.

Mission history

The SS-Totenkopf-Division was originally set up from October 16, 1939 under the command of SS-Gruppenführer Theodor Eicke in the Dachau concentration camp , which was temporarily evacuated by prisoners for this purpose. The installation phase was completed on November 1, 1939.

The SS-Totenkopf-Division had a nominal strength of 15,000 soldiers. Almost half of them came from the three original Totenkopf standards, the others were previously with the General SS, the SS Heimwehr Danzig , the Ordnungspolizei and the newer Totenkopf units. At first there were considerable problems with the discipline of the new recruits, to which Eicke reacted with drastic penalties. Theodor Eicke attached particular importance to the ideological training of his soldiers. In doing so, Eicke built on the image of the enemy developed in the concentration camps; the “internal enemy”, the concentration camp prisoner, was replaced by the “external enemy” who, as a “Jewish-Bolshevik subhuman”, wanted to destroy the German people. The already existing elite consciousness of the SS men was supplemented by military virtues such as self-sacrifice, contempt for cowardice and privation and the glorification of war death.

After its formation, the SS Totenkopf Division was part of the OKH's reserve and was stationed in Ludwigsburg near Stuttgart in December 1939 and near Alzey from January to May 1940. The equipment of the division initially caused considerable problems, as the Wehrmacht did not show itself ready to make military equipment available in large quantities until the spring of 1940.

Western campaign and German occupation of France

During the western campaign , the division was first used at the battle of Arras and Dunkirk , where it was involved in fighting in the area Poperinge , Hondschoote and west of Dunkirk. SS-Gruppenführer Theodor Eicke focused on the concentrated use of all available soldiers, weapons and vehicles on the front line and on attacks that were carried out with fanaticism and harshness. Because of this, the division suffered heavy losses when crossing the La Bassée Canal , at Béthune and at Le Paradis .

After the end of the battle, the division was used for a few days to secure the coast near Calais and was relocated to the area around Nogent on the Seine on June 7, 1940 . After crossing the river on June 15, the division pursued retreating French units as far as the Nevers area. From Nevers she marched without a fight to Angoulême and took over from June 29 to July 8, 1940 securing the French Biscay coast between Bayonne and Arcachon . From July 15, 1940 to August 27, the division secured the demarcation line to the unoccupied part of France between Moulins and Chalon-sur-Saône . From September 1940 to June 1941 the division was part of the 7th Army and was stationed as an occupying force in what is now the Landes department .

SS-Gruppenführer Eicke used the time for ideological training, for improved equipment and for training the division. From November 1940, a focus of the training was mobile warfare in extensive and open areas and the rapid relocation of the division over greater distances.

German-Soviet War

Soldiers of the SS Division "Totenkopf" with their commander Theodor Eicke during the advance on Demyansk (September 23, 1941)

At the beginning of June 1941 the “Totenkopf” division was relocated to Marienwerder near Danzig. Soon after, she moved into a staging area near Insterburg and was assigned to Panzer Group 4 . Shortly before the German attack on the Soviet Union began, it had a strength of 17,400 soldiers. After the German attack, it crossed the German-Soviet border near Haselberg on June 24, 1941 and carried out “cleanup operations” against dispersed Soviet troops in Lithuania. At Dünaburg the division carried out a breakout operation from a bridgehead formed there by German troops over the Daugava and reached Sebesch on July 6, 1941 , where it broke through the Stalin Line on July 9 . During the fighting for the Stalin Line, Division Commander Eicke was wounded in the right foot when his command vehicle hit a land mine and flown to Berlin. During the breach of the Stalin Line, the division suffered heavy losses. From June 24, 1941 to July 11, the number of fallen, missing, or wounded soldiers had risen to around 1,700.

By July 12, 1941, the division advanced north to Utorgosch near Lake Ilmen , where it was involved in fighting until August 15. On August 16, the division was assigned to the 16th Army and moved to Dno . From there it advanced slowly into the Demyansk area by October 24, 1941 . The "Totenkopf" division was in a swampy area for which the well-motorized unit was hardly suitable. The division's condition had deteriorated considerably since June 1941.

The German offensive finally came to a standstill east of Demyansk. Together with other parts of the 16th Army, the Totenkopfdivision was included in January 1942 (→ Kesselschlacht von Demjansk ). During the battle, the division was split into two combat groups and had to bear the brunt of the fighting in the cauldron. The soldiers of the "Totenkopf" division were far better protected than those of the Wehrmacht against temperatures of up to 40 degrees below zero. Theodor Eicke had received large quantities of winter clothing from the Higher SS and Police Leader in Riga, Friedrich Jeckeln . The clothing came partly from the stocks of the SS and partly from the property of Jews who had been murdered in Riga.

The division played a key role in the Fallreep company in March and April 1942 and in the expansion of the connecting corridor that was created by October 1942. On May 5, division commander Eicke was given the command of a corps that consisted of SS and Wehrmacht units, the approximately 14,000 survivors of the six divisions from the Demyansk pocket. Eicke tried several times largely unsuccessfully with Himmler to give the SS “Totenkopf” division a break or to get substitutes and additional equipment. During the Battle of Demyansk, the SS Totenkopf Division lost around 7,000 soldiers by mid-March 1942.

Due to the loss of 80 percent of its workforce, the remainder of the division was relocated to southern France in October 1942 to refresh.

SS Panzer Grenadier Division Totenkopf

After being detached from the front, the division was renamed the SS Panzer Grenadier Division "Totenkopf" on November 9, 1942 and was reorganized in the Angoulême area. Due to the high losses in the Soviet Union, it consisted almost entirely of new soldiers who were hardly recruited from the concentration camp staff. Generous equipment was planned for the Panzergrenadier Division because the Waffen SS units were to be used in trouble spots according to Hitler and Himmler's wishes. The division filled this role of a “fire brigade” until the end of the war.

On November 10, 1942, the division took part in the " Operation Anton ", the occupation of the part of France that was not previously under the control of German troops. By December 18, the division took over the coastal protection between Béziers and Montpellier .

Because there were delays due to disagreements with the Wehrmacht leadership, especially with regard to the equipment with tanks, the transfer of the division to the Eastern Front planned for the beginning of 1943 was postponed by four weeks. During this time, the new soldiers in the division were subjected to a daily 16-hour training drill to familiarize them with their weapon systems.

From January 30, 1943, the division was assigned to the 4th Panzer Army and the division was again transported to the Soviet Union in Poltava , where, together with two other Waffen-SS associations, the divisions " Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler " and "Das Reich" participated in the third battle of Kharkov as part of the SS Panzer Corps under the command of SS-Obergruppenführer Paul Hausser . As part of this operation, the SS Panzer Grenadier Division “Totenkopf” first advanced as far as Pavlograd and then swung north towards Kharkov. During the reconquest of Kharkov, Theodor Eicke was killed on February 26, 1943 when his reconnaissance plane was shot down.

After the end of the battle, the division was used from April to June 1943 in defensive battles at Bjelgorod . During the Citadel operation , the SS Panzer Grenadier Division "Totenkopf" was subordinate to the II. SS Panzer Corps and was part of the southern attack wedge. The division was only marginally involved in the tank battle near Prokhorovka against the 5th Soviet Guards Tank Army under Pavel Aleksejewitsch Rotmistrov . After the German offensive operation was canceled, the division withdrew towards Kharkov. On July 17, 1943, she was assigned to the 6th Army and led defensive battles at Stalino until August 2, 1943 (→ Donez-Mius offensive ).

On August 8, 1943, the SS Panzer Grenadier Division “Totenkopf” was hastily relocated back to Kharkov. Together with the 2nd SS division “Das Reich”, they received the order to counterattack the city of Boguduchow against the 1st Soviet Panzer Army and the 5th Soviet Guards Panzer Army with a total of 1112 tanks, which were im During the offensive Operation Rumyantsev deeply penetrated into the area controlled by the Germans. The German counterattack began on August 12, 1943 and led to heavy fighting between the tank units. The Soviet advance in this area was repulsed by the two SS divisions. Both Soviet tank armies had only 234 operational tanks on August 13, 1943.

During the Battle of the Dnepr the division withdrew on September 24, 1943 at Poltava across the Dnieper and was involved in the defense of the western bank of the river against Soviet attacks.

3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf

Panzerkampfwagen V of the SS Panzer Division "Totenkopf" in Siedlce (July 25-29, 1944)

In October 1943, when the SS divisions were numbered, the unit was renamed the 3rd SS Panzer Division "Totenkopf" . In the winter of 1943 to 1944 the division defended the promontory at Krivoy-Rog . In the spring of 1944 she withdrew to Romania via Pervomaisk and Kishinew, where she remained until July 7, 1944.

In mid-July 1944, the division was relocated to the Bialystok area to reinforce Army Group Center and at the end of July repelled an attack by the 47th Soviet Army near the town of Siedlce (→ Operation Bagration ). At the same time she was assigned to the IV SS Panzer Corps of the 9th Army together with the 5th SS Panzer Division "Wiking" . She was involved in the tank battle near Radzymin and the defense of the German defensive front between the Bug and the Vistula. During the Warsaw Uprising it was used to secure the front in front of the Polish capital and was not involved in the brutal suppression of the uprising.

In September 1944, around 5,000 soldiers were added to the division as replacements. This reinforcement consisted of naval artillerymen and 4,316 members of the air force.

Until the end of 1944, the division defended the front section in front of the Modlin Fortress . On December 24, 1944, the 3rd SS Panzer Division "Totenkopf" was detached from the front near Warsaw and transported to Hungary. There she took part with the 6th Army in the fighting of the Budapest Operation and in the spring of 1945 in the Lake Balaton Offensive and withdrew to Vienna in April 1945 (→ Vienna Operation ). In early May 1945 the division surrendered to US troops near Linz . They had members of the Totenkopf Division disarm the guards at Mauthausen concentration camp . The members of the division were then handed over to the Red Army .

War crimes

On May 27, 1940, members of the division shot 97 British prisoners of war in Le Paradis . SS-Obersturmführer Fritz Knöchlein , chief of the 3rd company of the SS-Totenkopf-Infanterie-Regiment 2 , gave the order to shoot the soldiers with machine guns at a barn wall of a farm . Survivors were killed with a shot in the neck or a bayonet . The case was rolled up after World War II . Knöchlein was sentenced to death by a British military tribunal on October 25, 1948 and executed in Hameln prison on January 21, 1949 . (→ Le Paradis massacre ) In the story of the SS division “Totenkopf”, which was later compiled by Karl Ullrich , it is claimed that the Le Paradis massacre was the only war crime committed by members of the division. However, other examples can be found in the military historical literature available today.

The division, together with the Greater Germany Infantry Regiment , was involved in the murder of French soldiers of non-European origin from May 1940 , when they had already surrendered. Between May 19 and May 28, 1940, members of the division killed over 260 French civilians, and there were also frequent looting.

The " Commissar's Order" was consistently implemented in the SS "Totenkopf" division after the attack on the Soviet Union. Due to its combat mission, the division was not involved in the murders of the Einsatzgruppen of the Security Police and the SD . In the summer of 1942, soldiers of the "Totenkopf" division took part in the selection of Soviet prisoners of war who were then sent to Germany for forced labor.

Many war criminals in the SS were assigned to the SS division "Totenkopf" at different times. These included, for example, Friedrich Jeckeln (1940), Jürgen Stroop (1941), Ernst-Heinrich Schmauser (1940), Erich Tschimpke (division replenishment , 1939–1941) and Alfred Franke-Gricksch (Ic, enemy intelligence officer , 1939–1941).

The SS doctors Karl Genzken and Erwin Ding-Schuler were responsible for building up the medical service from the time the division was set up until April 1940. Both were then responsible for medical experiments on prisoners in the concentration camps.

structure

Replacement units

In connection with the establishment of the SS Totenkopf Division, the SS Totenkopf Infantry Replacement Battalion I was set up in Breslau as the first replacement unit on October 20, 1939 by order of the Reichsführer SS . In early December 1939 the battalion was split up. Half of the Führer, Unterführer and men each were transferred to Lichtenburg near Prettin to set up the SS Totenkopf Infantry Replacement Battalion II , and later to Weimar-Buchenwald . Subsequently, on December 16, 1939, Battalion I was transferred to Radolfzell , where it was supplemented and reorganized with reservists and volunteers. It was then relocated to Stralsund in December 1940 and to Warsaw in July 1941 . A third battalion was set up in Wroclaw from January 1940 and relocated to Brno (SS camp on Kuhberg) in January 1941 . The replacement battalions I and III were disbanded in May 1943, the replacement battalion II at the end of 1941. It was not until 1944 that a replacement unit was set up again with the SS field replacement battalion 3.

Commanders

• November 1, 1939 to July 7, 1941 SS-Gruppenführer Theodor Eicke
• 7-18 July 1941 SS-Standartenführer Matthias Kleinheisterkamp (entrusted with the leadership)
• July 18 to September 19, 1941 SS-Brigadführer and Major General of the Waffen-SS Georg Keppler (in charge of leadership)
• September 19, 1941 to February 26, 1943 SS-Obergruppenführer and General of the Waffen-SS Theodor Eicke
• February 26 to March 1943 SS-Brigadführer Max Simon (on an interim basis)
• March to April 27, 1943 SS-Gruppenführer and Lieutenant General of the Waffen-SS Hermann Prieß
• April 27 to May 15, 1943 SS-Standartenführer Heinz Lammerding
• May 15 to October 22, 1943 SS Brigade Leader Max Simon
• October 22, 1943 to February 1944 SS-Gruppenführer and Lieutenant General of the Waffen-SS Hermann Prieß
• February 1944 SS-Standartenführer Otto Baum (interim)
• February to June 20, 1944 SS-Gruppenführer and Lieutenant General of the Waffen-SS Hermann Prieß
• June 21 to July 12, 1944 SS-Standartenführer Karl Ullrich (interim)
• July 13, 1944 to May 8, 1945 SS Brigade Leader and Major General of the Waffen SS Hellmuth Becker

Well-known members of the division

• Karl-Heinz Bartsch (1923-2003), was a German agricultural scientist , university professor and politician of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany in the German Democratic Republic . In this role he was Deputy Minister of Agriculture and briefly a member of the Central Committee (ZK) of the SED and a candidate for the Politburo.
• Horst Tappert (1923–2008), German actor, best known for his role in the TV series Derrick . From March 1943 at the latest, he was an SS grenadier in the SS “Totenkopf” division.

Criminal liability for the use of the troop symbol

The use of the troop symbol of the SS Division Totenkopf "is punishable according to §86a StGB.

Others

On February 25, 1941, the existing (reinforced) SS-Totenkopf standards , which were set up between 1938/39 and 1940 as "police reinforcement ", were renamed SS standards and dissolved a little later. These were transferred to the Waffen-SS as (light) infantry regiments and since then have worn the insignia ("SS runes") customary in the Waffen-SS on their uniforms.

Only the regiments of the SS-Totenkopf-Division were allowed to use the designation SS-Totenkopf-Standarte as a traditional designation and the collar tab with the skull over crossed bones as a traditional badge.

There were political disputes over the division's veterans' meeting in North Hesse.

In 2003, the writer Uwe Timm published the story of his family and that of his older brother Karl Heinz Timm (1924–1943) with the text On the example of my brother . This had volunteered in 1942 with the Waffen SS and came to the SS division "Totenkopf". As a member of the Division's IV Panzer Pioneer Battalion, he died on October 16, 1943 in the Ukraine as a result of his severe injuries sustained in combat operations.

literature

• Christopher Ailsby: The Waffen SS on the Eastern Front. The Russian campaign 1941–1945. Tosa-Verlag, Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-85492-165-9 .
• Herbert Brunnegger: Seed in the storm. A Waffen SS soldier reports. Leopold Stocker Verlag, Graz 2000, ISBN 3-7020-0887-X .
• Karl-Heinz Frieser (Ed.): The German Reich and the Second World War. Volume 8: Karl-Heinz Frieser, Klaus Schmider , Klaus Schönherr , Gerhard Schreiber, Kristián Ungváry, Bernd Wegner: The Eastern Front 1943/44 - The War in the East and on the Secondary Fronts. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-421-06235-2 . ( [1] PDF).
• David Glantz , Jonathan M. House: The Battle of Kursk. University Press of Kansas Lawrence 2006; ISBN 0-7006-0978-4 .
• Rolf Hinze: The Eastern Front Drama 1944. The retreat fighting of the Army Group Center. Motorbuchverlag, Stuttgart 1988, ISBN 3-613-01138-7 .
• Ivan Kovtun: Дивизия СС “Мертвая голова” (SS division “Totenkopf”); Jausa-Press Moscow 2009, ISBN 978-5-9955-0035-3 .
• Chris Mann: SS-Totenkopf. The History of the Death's Head Division, 1940-1945. Spellmount, Staplehurst 2001, ISBN 1-86227-113-5 .
• Raffael Scheck : Hitler's African Victims. The Wehrmacht massacre of black French soldiers. Translated from the English by Georg Felix Harsch. Association A, Berlin et al. 2009, ISBN 978-3-935936-69-9 .
• Peter Schmitz (Ed.): The German Divisions 1939–1945. Volume 1, Biblio-Verlag Osnabrück 1993, ISBN 3-7648-2421-2 .
• Charles W. Sydnor: Soldiers of Death. The 3rd SS Division "Totenkopf" 1933–1945. 4th edition. Schöningh, Paderborn 2001, ISBN 3-506-79084-6 .
• Charles W. Sydnor: The History of the SS "Totenkopfdivision" and the Postwar Mythology of the Waffen SS. In: Contemporary European History 6, 1973, ISSN  0960-7773 , pp. 339-362.
• Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in World War II 1939–1945 , Volume 2: The land forces 1–5; 2nd edition Biblio-Verlag, Bissendorf 1973; ISBN 3-7648-0871-3 .
• Karl Ullrich: Like a Cliff in the Ocean. The History of the 3rd SS Panzer Division "Totenkopf". JJ Fedorowicz, Winnipeg 2002, ISBN 0-921991-69-X .

Web links

Commons : SS-Division Totenkopf  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature on the SS Totenkopf Division in the catalog of the German National Library
• Online finding aid from the Federal Archives for the holdings RS 3-3 3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sydnor: Soldiers of Death. Pp. 56, 258.
2. ↑ Kowtun: SS Division "Totenkopf" .. p. 122.
3. ^ Schmitz: The German Divisions 1939-1945. Volume 1, p. 245.
4. ↑ Sydnor: Soldiers of Death. P. 48.
5. ^ Schmitz: The German Divisions 1939-1945. Volume 1, pp. 245, 596-597.
6. ↑ Sydnor: Soldiers of Death. Pp. 120-142.
7. ↑ Ailsby: The Waffen SS on the Eastern Front. P. 46.
8. ^ Schmitz: The German Divisions 1939-1945. Volume 1, pp. 245, 598, 599.
9. ^ Syndor: Soldiers of destruction. P. 259.
10. ^ Syndor: Soldiers of destruction. P. 263.
11. ↑ Sydnor: Soldiers of Death. Pp. 218-222.
12. ^ Glantz, House: The Battle of Kursk. P. 280.
13. ↑ Frieser: The German Empire and the Second World War , Vol. 8, p. 196.
14. ^ Schmitz: The German Divisions 1939-1945. Volume 1, pp. 246, 600-603.
15. ↑ Hinze: Eastern Front Drama. Pp. 382-391.
16. ^ Schmitz: The German Divisions 1939-1945. Volume 1, pp. 246, 604-607.
17. ^ Ullrich: Like a Cliff in the Ocean , p. 6.
18. ↑ Sydnor: Soldiers of Death. P. 100 f.
19. ↑ Peter Lieb: "Vorsterben" . In: Clausewitz Special: The Waffen-SS . August 2017, campaign, p. 78 .
20. ↑ Sydnor: Soldiers of Death. P. 257.
21. ^ Ullrich, Like a Cliff in the Ocean , p. 7.
22. ^ Ullrich, Like a Cliff in the Ocean , p. 6.
23. ↑ Sydnor: Soldiers of Death. P. 43
24. ^ ^{A b c} Schmidt: The German divisions 1939–1945. Volume 1, pp. 247-250.
25. ↑ ^{a b} Kowtun: SS division "Totenkopf". P. 115.
26. ^ Kowtun: SS division "Totenkopf". P. 116.
27. ↑ ^{a b} Schmitz: The German divisions 1939–1945. Volume 1, p. 247.
28. ^ Ullrich: Like a Cliff in the Ocean. P. 241.
29. ↑ SPIEGEL ONLINE , accessed on May 28, 2013.
30. ↑ Right-Wing Extremism: Symbols, Signs and Prohibited Organizations (as of October 2018). (PDF) In: verfassungsschutz.de. Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, accessed on December 18, 2018 . 
31. ↑ Best will . In: Der Spiegel. April 9, 1979, pp. 67 f .; “Something like GSG 9” , Der Spiegel from March 26, 1984.