The SS

History 16/02/20 SS “Galicia” and others the most brutal Legionnaires of Hitler

the SS was conceived as the elite troops of the Third Reich, which was to serve the most convinced Nazis and pure-blooded Germans. Hitler created the SS as his personal loyal only to him, the army in opposition to the influential elite of the Wehrmacht.

However, due to lack of recruits, the SS was forced to begin to form the division of the Germans. First called the peoples of Germanic — Dutch, Scandinavians, Volksdeutsche — Germans who before the expansion has not lived in Germany. But then I had to create parts from almost all the peoples living on the territory of the Empire. Was Muslim, Indian, and Turkish connections.

Some of these parts fought with dignity and treated the enemy with some respect, while others committed horrible war crimes worthy of Nazi minions.

Latvians

In 1941 Latvia met the Nazi occupation quite happy. A year ago this country was occupied by the Bolsheviks, who were much more alien and hostile force than the Germans.

in 1941 was formed by a Team of Arajs squad of Latvian volunteers, who were engaged in the extermination of the Latvian and Belarusian Jews. This unit, which emerged for the most part entirely independently and consisted of volunteers who were subordinate to the security service of the Reichsfuhrer SS. At the end of the war, the detachment joined the Latvian Legion.

They were few (just over 1000 at the peak), but they were notorious anti-Semites and inspired by the Nazis. Often, this team killed Jews independently, without the instructions of the Germans, which could not like the Nazi leadership. The Nazis praised the Latvian people for the “awakening of race consciousness”.

the Nazis did not consider Latvians Aryans, so at first the initiative of creation of the Latvian SS units, which showed the government were skepvirtually. But defeats at the front, forced the Germans to go for it.

at the stage of formation of “volunteer” of the Latvian Legion had problems. This was due to the fact that all “voluntary” was the freedom of choice of occupation in the Nazi army. Therefore, recruits often ran out of parts and sometimes sabotaged the work of the Nazi leadership and even sang the Soviet songs. But those who still managed to put together a army unit, skilled Nazi psychologists turned into a fierce and loyal assassins.

the Most terrible crime of the Latvian Legion was a punitive operation “Winter magic”, held jointly with the Ukrainian and German parts einsatzkommando in the Northern and Western Byelorussia in early 1943. The purpose of this operation was to cleanse the Belarusian land from the guerrillas.

Squads of Nazis entered the village and shot all the men, arguing that “suspicion of collaboration with guerrillas”. Women and children were deported and sent to forced labor deep into the Empire, including in Latvia. Germans, Ukrainians and Latvians often burned people alive, locking them in wooden houses. “Arguments and Facts” claim that during the operation had led to the burning of hundreds of villages, 12,000 people were burned alive, and 15,000 sent to the Riga concentration camp Salaspils.

Ukrainians

in 1941, when the Nazis occupied the Ukraine and began to exterminate local Jews, they were helped by the native policemen, who were part of a system of military positions of the SS. Ukrainian policemen directly guilty in the shootings of Jews at Babi Yar dozen, and according to some of the hundreds of thousands of thousands of Jews, Gypsies, partisans and Communists. In fairness, it should be noted that with the Jews in Beebem Yar, where the Nazis and Ukrainian policemen were executed and hundreds of activists of the OUN-UPA*.

the Ukrainian SS division “Galicia”, created in 1943, fought mainly on the Western front, and against the Polish, Yugoslav, and Slovak partisans. “Galicia,” in which the Nazis imposed antiPolish sentiment, was especially brutal in the war with the Polish partisans in 1944. Then the Ukrainian the SS conducted operations similar to “Winter magic” — cleaned out the population of entire villages in areas of partisan activity. In addition, it has witnessed occasions when Ukrainians were the guards in the death camps.

Russian

the Nazis used Russian SS parts very carefully, fearing possible betrayal. And no wonder — in 1945, the ROA was brutally betrayed to the Nazis, starting with their fight. However, other Russian collaborators, on the contrary, showed great loyalty to the Nazis and zeal in a common struggle.

in 1941 In Oryol region was established Lokotskogo Republic — an experimental Russian government under the auspices of the Reich. The armed forces of the Republic was RON headed Bronislaw Kaminsky. In exchange for a certain amount of autonomy, the Nazis demanded from Kaminsky to deal with the guerrillas.

And he understood. RONA soldiers burned several villages, killed more than 10,000 people. The Nazis tried to impose a foreign SS units against compatriots is many times increased the risk of traitors.

But the case of Kaminsky against the Soviet partisans to use is not afraid, and even gave him autonomy in the rear — apparently was so confident in his faithfulness. RON found himself “Tonka-machine-gunner” — Kartalinia that ideal shot partisans. During his “career” it killed about 1,500 of his countrymen.

in 1944, the Kaminski brigade was thrown on the suppression of the Warsaw uprising. RON not only brutally suppressed it, but it was noted in the robbery and rape of ordinary poles. Their looting was in fact a crime against citizens of the Reich. Therefore, Kaminski was shot for it.

*a Prohibited organization on the territory of the Russian Federation

Alexander Artamonov

Source:
© Russian Seven

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