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2 unusual facts about Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts


Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts

General Leclerc was famously presented with a defiant group of 11 or 12 captured 33rd SS Charlemagne men.

After the war members of Baltic Waffen-SS Units were considered separate and distinct in purpose, ideology and activities from the German SS by the Western Allies.


10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg

German writer and Nobel laureate Günter Grass was an assistant tank gunner with the division after having been conscripted into the Waffen-SS at the age of 17 in November 1944.

1998 Riga bombing

March 16: In Riga, over 500 veterans from Latvia's Waffen-SS legion march through the center of the capital, prompting bitter condemnations from Moscow.

36th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS

When the Armia Krajowa began the Warsaw Uprising on 1 August 1944, Dirlewanger was sent into action as part of the Kampfgruppe formation led by SS-Gruppenführer Heinz Reinfarth; once again serving alongside Kaminski's militia (now named Waffen-Sturm-Brigade RONA).

4th SS Polizei Panzergrenadier Division

In January 1942, the division was moved to the Volkhov River sector, and on 24 February it was transferred to the Waffen-SS; its personnel changing their police insignia to that of the SS.

Amen.

The central character is Kurt Gerstein (Ulrich Tukur), a Waffen-SS officer employed in the SS Hygiene Institute, designing programs for the purification of water and the destruction of vermin.

Arthur Ehrhardt

Arthur Ehrhardt (21 March 1896, Mengersgereuth-Hämmern, Saxe-Meiningen - 16 May 1971) was a German Waffen-SS officer and author on warfare who became a leading figure in the post-war neo-Nazi movement.

Boves massacre

Up to 195 Italian civilians were killed and 350 houses were destroyed by artillery fire of the Waffen-SS under the command of SS-Sturmbannführer Joachim Peiper.

Canadian National Vimy Memorial

He ordered Waffen-SS troops to guard the memorial from both German and Allied armies.

Christian Frederik von Schalburg

; Smith, P. S., Under hagekors og Dannebrog : danskere i Waffen SS 1940–45, Aschehoug, 2006 (Hardcover, ISBN 978-87-11-11843-6, p.152).

; Smith, P. S., Under hagekors og Dannebrog : danskere i Waffen SS 1940–45, Aschehoug, 2006 (Hardcover, ISBN 978-87-11-11843-6, p.155-158).

; Smith, P. S., Under hagekors og Dannebrog : danskere i Waffen SS 1940–45, Aschehoug, 2006 (Hardcover, ISBN 978-87-11-11843-6, p.164).

Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken

In 1896 Loewe founded Deutsche Waffen- und Munitionsfabriken with a munitions plant in Karlsruhe (Baden), formerly Deutsche Metallpatronenfabrik Lorenz, and the weapons plant in Berlin.

Displaced persons camp

These came in addition to 115,000 Polish army veterans who had joined the Polish Resettlement Corps and 12,000 former members of the Waffen SS Ukrainian Halychyna Division.

Fighting for Freedom

Fighting for Freedom: The Ukrainian volunteer Division of the Waffen-SS is a book by Richard Landwehr on the 14th Waffen-Grenadier Division of the SS (the first Ukrainian division).

For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK

In 2009, British foreign secretary David Miliband has criticized Conservative Chairman Eric Pickles' decision to secure an alliance with TB/LNNK in the ECR group "despite the fact that its members attend commemorations for the Waffen-SS".

Fretterode

Recently a memorial to the Waffen-SS has been erected in Fretterode by someone (on his private estate) who is a member of the national executive committee of the NPD (Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands), a German fascist party.

Georg Lörner

Georg Nikolaus Lörner (Feb. 18, 1899; München - April 21, 1959; Rastatt) was an SS-Gruppenführer and Generalleutnant of the Waffen-SS, and Deputy Chief under Oswald Pohl, of the Wirtschaftsunternehmen im SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt ( Main SS Economic and Administrative Department, SS WVHA), chief of Amtsgruppe B,(Division B) of the WVHA, and deputy chief of Amtsgruppe W (Division W) of the WVHA.

Georg von Frundsberg

During World War II, the Waffen-SS's 10th Panzer Division was given the honorific title Frundsberg.

Hagen Rether

Important targets for his satires and biting ironies are, among many others, the Catholic Church, George W. Bush and well known German artists like Günter Grass, whom he criticizes for not admitting that he had actually been member of the Waffen-SS until August 2006, during which time he received a Nobel Prize for (as Rether implies) bad writing.

Halim Malkoč

Halim Malkoč (12 August 1917 – 8 February 1947) was a Bosnian Muslim Imam and SS Obersturmführer in the Waffen-SS division Handschar, was the first Muslim awarded the German Iron Cross during World War II.

Hanns Albin Rauter

After the assault on Arnhem had been fought off by the Germans, Rauter was given the command of the Maas front as a General in the Waffen-SS.

Hans Lipschis

Hans Lipschis (born November 7, 1919) is a former member of the Waffen-SS who worked at Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II.

Helmuth Raithel

Initially appointed as an SS-Obersturmbannführer (lieutenant colonel) commanding the 28th Waffen Gebirgsjäger Regiment, he oversaw the completion of his regiment's training at the Neuhammer training grounds in the Silesian region of Germany (present-day Poland) then led his regiment to fight the Yugoslav Partisans in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) in February 1944.

II SS Panzer Corps

The corps served as a skeletal formation, overseeing the reorganization and restructure of Waffen SS combat divisions in the area of Toulon, France.

Interservice rivalry

In Nazi Germany there was constant rivalry between the Wehrmacht (the combined services of the Third Reich) and the Waffen-SS since they were often in parallel order of battle situations, particularly with regard to armored divisions.

Joop Pelser

Another son, also named Jan, joined the Waffen-SS during World War II, and Pelser, his wife, and three sons all joined the Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging.

Kartini

She also read De Stille Kracht (The Hidden Force) by Louis Couperus, the works of Frederik van Eeden, Augusta de Witt, the Romantic-Feminist author Goekoop de-Jong Van Eek and an anti-war novel by Berta von Suttner, Die Waffen Nieder! (Lay Down Your Arms!).

Kg m/40 light machine gun

A small number were also manufactured in Germany by Knorr-Bremse for the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS, under the name MG35/36A, though they were mostly nicknamed "the Knorr-Bremse".

Koutetsu no Kishi

The player controls German Waffen-SS and Heer officer Fritz Kraemer; who was responsible for commanding troops in major World War II operations like Operation Barbarossa (which are included in the game).

München-Schwabing labor camp

She had a close relationship with SS chief Heinrich Himmler, and it was due to him that she was appointed welfare sister for the Waffen-SS at Dachau in 1933.

Obergruppenführer

SS-Obergruppenführer was also the standard rank for SS and Police Leaders as well as corps commanders of the Waffen-SS.

Ordnungspolizei

The primary military arm of the Ordnungspolizei was the SS Polizei Division, 4th Panzergrenadier Division of the Waffen-SS.

Peiper

Joachim Peiper (1915–1976), senior Waffen-SS officer in World War II

Peter Cundall

In 1946, Cundall was stationed in southeast Austria at Sankt Paul im Lavanttal where he was guarding captured Nazi Waffen-SS troops.

Pieter Schelte

This has created a controversy due to Pieter Schelte Heerema's service in the Waffen-SS during World War II.

Rossner

Erich Rossner, Unterscharführer, in the Waffen SS during World War II who was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross

SS-Standarte Kurt Eggers

As an Abteilung, the unit had several more war-correspondent units attached to it, enabling it to cover the actions of all the Waffen-SS formations in the field.

Stefan Jäger

Specifically, many Danube Swabians were drafted to the Waffen-SS - officially as volunteers, though it was claimed that they had in fact little choice in the matter.

Tychsen

Christian Tychsen German Waffen-SS general (2nd SS-Panzerdivision "Das Reich")

Wilhelm Keitel

His eldest son, Karl-Heinz Keitel went on to serve as a divisional commander in the Waffen-SS.

Wilhelm Miklas

Miklas for his initial refusal ended up under house arrest, protected from Nazi mistreatment by future Waffen-SS colonel Otto Skorzeny during the days of the Anschluss.

Wilhelm Schepmann

Schepmann managed to have units in the Heer (Panzerkorps Feldherrnhalle), Kriegsmarine, and Luftwaffe (Jagdgeschwader 6 Horst Wessel) given SA honour titles, and even a Waffen-SS division (18. SS Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Division Horst Wessel).

Zugführer

It should also be noted that Zugführer was a regular positional title used in both the Heer (Army) and the Waffen-SS.


see also