SS-Sonderkommando Dirlewanger
CC Special Forces Dirlewanger

SS-Obersturmbannführer Dr. Oskar Dirlewanger - SS Obersturmbannführer Doctor Oskar (also known as SS-Sonderbataillon Dirlewanger and Sonderkommando der Waffen-SS Lublin)

Action areas

Poland (General Government) - 1 September 1940 - 17 February 1942
Belarus (Anti-Partisan) - February 17, 1942 - August 5, 1944
Poland (Warsaw uprising) - 5 August 1944 - 5 September 1944
Slovakia (Slovakian uprising) - October 8, 1944 - October 30, 1944

The unit began to form on June 15, 1940 as the “Oranienburg Poacher Command” Wilddiebkommando Orienburg (Poacher s Command Oranienburg) to conduct anti-partisan actions and perform punitive functions, for which former poachers and SS disciplinary prisoners were recruited into its composition, thus recruiting , by July 1, 1940, 84 people. Later, with the start of the war in the east, military personnel from the volunteer eastern parts of the Osttruppen began to be recruited into the unit. To strengthen the initial composition, military and civilian prisoners and volunteers from predominantly political prisoners of concentration camps were used, among whom there were also former communists and anarchists, which brought the number of special forces to 300 fighters by September 1940. It should be taken into account that only persons who committed the most serious crimes fell into the ranks of the special forces, and the "SB-soldaten" servicemen who were caught on military offenses (sleep on duty, failure to follow orders, etc.) were not involved in the service in the battalion.

Oskar Dirlewanger as SS-Oberführer, 1944
Oskar Dirlewanger as an SS-Oberführer, 1944.

From the very beginning, the division was headed by Dr. Oscar Dirlewanger. Readily taking up the execution of the assigned specific tasks, he managed in a fairly short time to put together a completely combat-ready, disciplined and corresponding to his goals special team. He owed his appointment to friendly relations with Gottlob Berger (Berger), the head of the personnel department of the SS troops, who pulled Dirlewanger out of the concentration camp at the beginning of 1937 and sent him to fight in Spain, arranging him as a volunteer in the Condor Legion. When Himmler and the leadership of the SS needed in 1940 to suppress Polish resistance, Dirlewanger, who returned from Spain in 1939, was in demand in permanent military formations subordinate only to them. Thus, the SS sought to achieve complete independence from the Wehrmacht and the Rosenberg Reichskommissariat in pursuing an independent policy in the occupied territories. In the implementation of the policy of genocide, the SS used Dirlewanger, completely freed his hands in the choice of means and methods of execution, endowed him with exclusive powers. Significant combat experience of Dirlewanger and the established practice of applying beatings, cruel punishments, executions on subordinates at the slightest pretext, which Dirlewanger himself often resorted to, turned the soldiers of the special forces into obedient and successful performers.

By the time of his appointment, Oscar Dirlewanger, who had reached the age of 45, had completely sank and turned into an alcoholic, his bitterness only increased from the dissatisfaction of base aspirations. He was born on September 26, 1895 in the city of Würzburg. In his youth, he showed excellent abilities for education, and upon entering the university, not limited to philosophy, he turned with interest to economics and law. However, very soon the scientific activity, which was given to him with such ease, ceased to satisfy him. With the outbreak of the war of 1914, Oskar Dirlewanger went to the front in the infantry, where, finding himself in the atmosphere of hostilities on the front line, fighting with energy and courage, he was able to find the realization of the qualities of his character. During the war, he was wounded three times, became a holder of the Iron Cross I and II degrees and was demobilized with the rank of senior lieutenant. Not resigned to the defeat of Germany, he continued his own war in the ranks of the Volunteer Corps (Freikorps), finding a way out for his extremism and trying to find himself in an army combat situation again, taking part in battles with all kinds of leftists who tried to seize power in the country on the ruins of a collapsed empire. It was then that he met Gottlob Berger, the same member of the Volunteer Corps, who immediately managed to appreciate him. For Oskar Dirlewanger, active participation in illegal armed groups ended in imprisonment under the laws imposed by the Treaty of Versailles, where he was held for about a year from 1920 to 21. With his release from prison, now constant aggressiveness and a thirst for extremist activity led him to completely divide Nazi views, and completely undisguised contempt for the rest, made him unsociable, disgusting with his behavior from others. From his first teaching position at the Higher Commercial School in Mannheim, he was formally expelled for anti-Semitism after working for several months. The following year, 1922, he successfully defended his doctoral thesis, becoming a doctor of philosophy, and began teaching at the university. Having settled in this way, Oskar Dirlewanger tried to embark on radical activities by joining the Nazi party NSDAP in 1923, but three years later in 1926 he fell out of favor and was stripped of his membership in it. Six years later, in 1932, he manages to renew his membership in the party, this time by joining the Nazi assault squads SA (Sturmabteilung; SA). The next turn in the life of Oscar Dirlewanger was marked by the commission of sexual violence, for which he was imprisoned for two years in 1934. But apparently decomposition turned him into a complete insignificance, to all his disgusting qualities, adding undisguised pedophilic inclinations. Almost immediately after his release, he was sent to a concentration camp by a court decision in 1936 for molesting a minor under the age of 14, at the same time he was expelled from the university and banned from teaching. A serious punishment for Dirlewanger turned out to be a way to avoid him. The entire system of concentration camps was under the direct jurisdiction of the SS and its jurisdiction uncontrolled by anyone. Therefore, it was not difficult for Berger to extract Dirlewanger and send him to volunteer for a while in the Spanish Civil War. Once again on the battlefield, the warrior managed to show that he had not lost his qualities as a military officer and complete contempt for life. Fighting for two years, he received many promotions and was wounded three times. Now, having returned to Germany, in anticipation of upcoming affairs, they are registered in the Allgemeine SS organization (Allgemeine-SS) in the rank of Untersturmführer SS, which during the war began to be used as a reserve by the Waffen SS (Waffen-SS).

The Dirlewanger unit, deployed in the SS special battalion SS-Sonderbataillon Dirlewanger, began in the autumn of 1940 to carry out the assigned task - the destruction of the Polish partisan movement. The Polish people were next destined according to the plans of the Nazis after the Jews to almost complete annihilation, therefore, not only resistance, but also any disobedience of the Poles was used as a pretext for terror. Dirlewanger's unleashed fighters, having taken up the fulfillment of these goals, began to act actively and furiously, committing rapes, indiscriminate beatings, using a noose and various types of murder in relation to the local population, without making distinctions either in relation to their sex or in relation to their age. Although it was possible even in such a unit, mired in looting and corruption, to maintain a certain combat capability, it was difficult to stop the growing desertion. In no way did Oskar Dirlewanger suffer from the complete disgust of his formal head of the SS and police of the General Government, Wilhelm Krüger (Höherer SS und Polizeiführer Friedrich Wilhelm Krüger), while the SS leadership was satisfied with the results, it directly took care of his special forces.

Soldiers from the SS Special Battalion Dirlewanger execute suspected partisans.
Men of SS-Sonderbataillon Dirlewanger execute suspected partisans, November 1942.

At the beginning of 1942, the significantly strengthened special battalion of Dirlewanger was transferred to Belarus, where it came under the control of the head of the SS and police of the general district of Belarus von Gottberg Curt von Gottberg. Here it was replenished not only with German war criminals, but for the first time Eastern volunteer soldiers were introduced into the unit, distributing them in the unit according to nationality, the 1st company and the motorcycle platoon were Germans, the 2nd company Russians and the 3rd company Ukrainians. The unit was fully motorized and provided with everything necessary, motorized and attached parts. The fighting against the Belarusian partisans was notable for its particular bitterness and diversity in the use of means and methods. In addition to the usual routine of guarding bridges, communications, communication lines, setting up garrisons, it was necessary to carry out, in a constant struggle for the initiative with the partisans, more active activities, in addition to large joint punitive operations, Dirlewanger, using his own independence, carried out local punitive actions and raids. During the operations, the entire local population was considered as hostile and accomplices of the partisans, subject to either destruction or deportation to work in Germany. During the first year on Belarusian soil, Dirlewanger's soldiers were involved in a number of operations and local actions ''Maybug'', ''Nordsee'', ''Adler'', ''Karlsbad'', ''Frida'', '' Hornung'' on the territory of the Mensk and Mogilev regions. Against the backdrop of most of the failed other operations carried out by the occupiers this year, the actions of the Dirlewanger special battalion were successful. So only during the operation ‘’ Karlsbad ’’ carried out in the Orsha, Tolochinsky and Shklovsky districts, the brigade ‘’ Chekist ’’ was defeated, the battered detachments of which were forced to move to the Klichev forests, members of the brigade headquarters died during the fighting. Audacity and originality, as well as clear interaction during movement, ensured success, however, spoiled some neglect of intelligence. Often he personally led his soldiers into battle, leaving the planning of operations to his Ia officer, Obersturmbannführer Kurt Weisse. For his first successes this year, Dirlewanger was awarded on May 24 with a cross of the II degree, and on September 16 with a cross of the I degree. Like all the actions of the monster, innocent victims of the local population were accompanied, for example, in the aforementioned operation ''Carlsbad'', 1051 people were destroyed. All counterguerrilla activities in the occupied territories were led by Himmler and the SS commissioner Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, Oscar Dirlewanger was directly subordinate to him, during the execution of punitive operations he was part of the Kampfgruppe von Gottberg combat group von Gottberg. In the fall of 1942, the 118th security police battalion Schutzmannschaft bataillon under the command of the former Soviet major Shudr, consisting of Ukrainians, was attached to the special battalion, which turned it into a battle group. At the beginning of the year, the Dirlewanger special battalion was deployed in the city of Logoisk, and the 118th battalion was located 28 kilometers from Logoisk in the village of Pleschenitsy. As a result of one local action, on March 22, a company of the 118th battalion of commander Meleshko burned down the village of Khatyn with all its inhabitants. Since 1943, the severity of punitive operations with the participation of the Dirlewanger special battalion gradually shifted to the Vitebsk region. Here the partisans, by creating free partisan zones, established a direct threat to the rear of the 3rd Panzer Army.

Collarpatch of the SS-Sonderregiment Dirlewanger.

The intensification of the partisan struggle made it necessary to urgently strengthen the formations leading the war with the partisans. And they decided to deploy the Dirlewanger special battalion in 1943 to the SS special regiment SS-Sonderregiment Dirlewanger. In May, the second battalion arrived. To recruit the regiment, they used the same method, sending to replenish and staff the third battalion about five hundred military and civilian prisoners who had committed the most serious crimes, as well as Eastern volunteers who had proven themselves on the right side. Two months later, on August 20, the third battalion was formed. Despite the nature of the formation, his soldiers were allowed to have and wear their own emblem, which shows the increasing special attitude towards Oskar Dirlewanger of the SS leadership. During 1943, the soldiers of Dirlewanger entered into increasingly fierce battles with the partisans during such punitive operations as ''Jakob'', ''Magic Flute'', ''Cottbus'', ''Gunther'', ''Hermann'' , ''Heinrich'' and ''Otto''. Losses in the period from February to the end of August 1943 amounted to about 300 people. The most bloody battles with the participation of the special regiment this year broke out during the implementation of the punitive operation ''Heinrich'' against the partisans and the local population of the Rasson-Asvei partisan zone, located at the junction of the flanks of the ''North'' and ''Center'' army groups, on north of the Vitebsk region and occupying an area of ​​5,000 kilometers of liberated land. The partisan zone was located in close proximity to the front line, which threatened a breakthrough in this direction of the German defense by Soviet troops. The operation began on October 31 and initially promised a successful conclusion, when two groups of punishers managed to cut the partisan defenses in two by the end of the fifth day of fighting. Dirlewanger's special regiment was in the von Gotberg grouping, advancing from the south. But the troops of the 3rd Shock Army managed to break through the German defenses northwest of Nevel and break through to the encircled partisans on November 6th. Now Dirlewanger with his soldiers unexpectedly found himself again on the front line, along with the rest of the punishers, abandoned to stop the advancing Soviet troops. Lacking relevant experience and in the absence of heavy weapons, the Dirlewanger special regiment suffered huge losses in more than a month of fighting on the front line. By the end of the year, Dirlewanger had 259 fighters left in the ranks. At the height of the fighting on December 5, Dirlewanger was awarded the German Cross in gold for his services. Dirlewanger spent two months to restore his unit, during which several large batches of prisoners were sent to replenish it, but now they refused to include Eastern volunteers who showed cowardice and deserted during the fighting on the front line. In 1944, in the Vitebsk region, the invaders carried out the punitive operations ‘Rain’ and ‘Spring Festival’, in which Dirlewanger’s special regiment also took part. On the hands of the executioners from the Dirlewanger special unit, the blood of tens of thousands of Belarusians shot, burned, stabbed and hanged, an especially terrible fate awaited women and children, who, if the monsters had time, were tortured and raped before death.

On August 5, 1944, the regiment took part in the suppression of the uprising in Warsaw. On August 15, 1944, Dirlewanger was promoted to SS Oberführer. On September 30, 1944, he was awarded the Knight's Cross to which he was presented by Major General Rohr Generalmajor Günter Rohr, as well as a badge for being wounded in gold, since Dirlewanger received the eleventh wound in Warsaw.

After the suppression of the uprising, the regiment was reorganized into the 2nd SS Special Brigade SS-Sonderbrigade Dirlewanger, and in early October, before the suppression of the Slovak uprising, it was renamed the 2nd SS assault brigade 2.SS-Sturmbrigade Dirlewanger.

In early February 1945, the brigade took part in the battles on the Oder. On February 14, 1945, an order was received to reorganize the brigade into the 36th SS Grenadier Division 36.Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS. A day later, Dirlewanger personally led the counterattack and was wounded. He was treated in a hospital in Althausen, Bavaria. On June 1, 1945, Polish soldiers from the French occupation corps took Dirlewanger to the city prison. Dirlewanger died of beatings on the night of 4/5 June 1945.

Material prepared - Alexey Marshinsky

What happened to the officers and soldiers from the punitive battalion, then the brigade, and then the SS division Dirlewanger?

Fritz Schmedes and commander of the 72nd SS Regiment Erich Buchmann survived the war and later lived in West Germany. Another regiment commander, Ewald Ehlers, did not live to see the end of the war. According to Karl Gerber, Ehlers, who was distinguished by incredible cruelty, was hanged by his own subordinates on May 25, 1945, when his group was in the Halb cauldron.
Gerber heard the story of the execution of Ehlers while walking under escort with other SS men to the Soviet prisoner of war camp in Sagan.
It is not known how the head of the operations department, Kurt Weisse, ended his life. Shortly before the end of the war, he changed into the uniform of a corporal of the Wehrmacht and mingled with the soldiers. As a result, he ended up in British captivity, from where he made a successful escape on March 5, 1946. After that, traces of Weisse are lost, his whereabouts have never been established.

To this day, there is an opinion that a significant part of the 36th SS division was, in the words of the French researcher J. Bernage, "brutally destroyed by the Soviet troops." Of course, there were facts of the execution of SS men by Soviet soldiers, but not all of them were executed.
According to the French specialist K. Ingrao, 634 people who previously served with Dirlewanger managed to survive the Soviet prisoner of war camps and return to their homeland at different times.
However, when talking about Dirlewanger's subordinates who were in Soviet captivity, one should not forget that more than half of those 634 people who managed to return home were members of the Communist Party of Germany and the Social Democratic Party of Germany, who fell into the SS assault brigade in November 1944 G.

Fritz Schmedes.

Their fate was hard. 480 people who defected to the side of the Red Army were never released. They were placed in prisoner camp No. 176 in Focsani (Romania).
Then they were sent to the territory of the Soviet Union - to camps No. 280/2, No. 280/3, No. 280/7, No. 280/18 near Stalino (today Donetsk), where they, divided into groups, were engaged in coal mining in Makeevka , Gorlovka, Kramatorsk, Voroshilovsk, Sverdlovsk and Kadievka.
Of course, some of them died from various diseases. The process of returning home began only in 1946 and continued until the mid-1950s.

A certain part of the penalty box (groups of 10-20 people) ended up in the camps of Molotov (Perm), Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg), Ryazan, Tula and Krasnogorsk.
Another 125 people, mostly communists, worked in the Boksitogorsk camp near Tikhvin (200 km east of Leningrad). The bodies of the MTB checked every communist, someone was released earlier, someone later.
About 20 former members of the Dirlewanger formation subsequently participated in the creation of the Ministry of State Security of the GDR ("Stasi").
And some, like Alfred Neumann, a former convict of the Dublovic SS penal camp, managed to make a political career. He was a member of the Politburo of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, headed the Ministry of Logistics for several years, and was also Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers.
Subsequently, Neumann said that the communist penalists were under special supervision, until a certain point they did not have the status of prisoners of war, since for some time they were considered persons involved in punitive actions.

The fate of convicted members of the SS, the Wehrmacht, criminals and homosexuals who were captured by the Red Army was in many ways similar to the fate of the communist penitentiaries, but before they could be perceived as prisoners of war, the competent authorities worked with them, seeking to find war criminals among them.
Some of those who were lucky enough to survive, after returning to West Germany, were again taken into custody, including 11 criminals who did not serve their sentences to the end.

As for the traitors from the USSR who served in a special SS battalion, an investigation group was created in 1947 to search for them, headed by the MTB investigator for especially important cases, Major Sergei Panin.
The investigation team worked for 14 years. The result of her work was 72 volumes of the criminal case. On December 13, 1960, the KGB under the Council of Ministers of the Byelorussian SSR opened a criminal case on the facts of atrocities committed by punishers of a special SS battalion under the command of Dirlewanger in the temporarily occupied territory of Belarus.
In this case, in December 1960 - May 1961, KGB officers arrested and prosecuted former SS men A.S. Stopchenko, I.S. Pugachev, V.A. Yalynsky, F.F. Grabarovsky, I. E. Tupigu, G. A. Kirienko, V. R. Zaivy, A. E. Radkovsky, M. V. Maidanov, L. A. Sakhno, P. A. Umanets, M. A. Mironenkov and S. A. Shinkevich.
On October 13, 1961, the trial of collaborators began in Minsk. All of them were sentenced to death.

Of course, these were far from all the collaborators who served with Dirlewanger in 1942-1943. But the lives of some ended even before the mentioned process took place in Minsk.
For example, I. D. Melnichenko, who commanded the unit, after he fought in the partisan brigade named after. Chkalov, deserted at the end of the summer of 1944.
Until February 1945, Melnichenko hid in the Murmansk region, and then returned to Ukraine, where he traded in theft. From his hand, the representative of the Rokitnyansky RO NKVD Ronzhin died.
On July 11, 1945, Melnichenko confessed to the head of the Uzinsky RO NKVD. In August 1945 he was sent to the Chernihiv region, to the places where he had committed crimes.
During transportation by rail, Melnichenko escaped. On February 26, 1946, he was blocked by officers of the operational group of the Nosovsky District Department of the NKVD and shot dead during the arrest.

In 1960, the KGB summoned Pyotr Gavrilenko for interrogation as a witness. The state security officers did not yet know that he was the commander of the machine-gun squad that carried out the execution of the population in the village of Lesiny in May 1943.
Gavrilenko committed suicide - he jumped out of the window of the third floor of a hotel in Minsk, as a result of a deep emotional shock that occurred after he, together with the Chekists, visited the site of the former village.

The search for former subordinates of Dirlewanger continued further. Soviet justice also wanted to see the German penalty box in the dock.
Back in 1946, the head of the Belarusian delegation at the 1st session of the UN General Assembly handed over a list of 1200 criminals and their accomplices, including members of the special SS battalion, and demanded their extradition for punishment in accordance with Soviet laws.
But the Western powers did not extradite anyone. Subsequently, the Soviet state security agencies established that Heinrich Faiertag, Barchke, Tol, Kurt Weisse, Johann Zimmermann, Jakob Tad, Otto Laudbach, Willy Zinkad, Rene Ferderer, Alfred Zingebel, Herbert Dietz, Zemke and Weinhoefer.
The listed persons, according to Soviet documents, went to the West and were not punished.

In Germany, several trials took place, in which the crimes of the Dirlewanger battalion were considered. One of the first such trials, organized by the Central Office of Justice of the city of Ludwigsburg and the Hannover Prosecutor's Office, took place in 1960, and at it, among other things, the role of fines in the burning of the Belarusian village of Khatyn was clarified.
Insufficient documentary base did not allow bringing the perpetrators to justice. However, even later, in the 1970s, the judiciary made little progress in establishing the truth.
The Hanover prosecutor's office, which dealt with the Khatyn issue, even doubted whether it could be about the murder of the population. In September 1975, the case was transferred to the prosecutor's office of the city of Itzehoe (Schleswig-Holstein). But the search for the perpetrators of the tragedy turned out to be of little success. The testimony of Soviet witnesses did not help either. As a result, at the end of 1975, the case was closed.

Five trials against Heinz Reinefarth, commander of the SS task force and police in the Polish capital, also ended in vain.
The prosecutor's office of Flensburg tried to find out the details of the executions of civilians during the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising in August - September 1944.
Reinefart, who by that time had become a member of the Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein from the United Party of Germany, denied the participation of the SS in the crimes.
His words are known, spoken before the prosecutor, when the question touched on the activities of the Dirlewanger regiment on Volskaya Street:
"The one who on the morning of August 5, 1944 set out with 356 soldiers, by the evening of August 7, 1944, had about 40 people who fought for their lives.
The Steingauer battle group, which existed until August 7, 1944, could hardly carry out such executions. The fighting she fought in the streets was fierce and resulted in heavy casualties.
The same goes for the Mayer battle group. This group was also constrained by hostilities, so it is difficult to imagine that it was engaged in executions contrary to international law."

In view of the fact that new materials were discovered, published in the monograph of the historian from Lüneburg, Dr. Hans von Krannhals, the Flensburg prosecutor's office stopped the investigation.
Nevertheless, despite the new documents and the efforts of prosecutor Birman, who resumed the inquiry into this case, Reinefart was never brought to justice.
The former commander of the task force died quietly at his home in Westland on May 7, 1979. Almost 30 years later, in 2008, journalists from Spiegel, who prepared an article about the crimes of the special SS regiment in Warsaw, were forced to state the fact: "In Germany Until now, none of the commanders of this unit has paid for their crimes - neither officers, nor soldiers, nor those who were at one with them.

In 2008, journalists also learned that the collected materials on the formation of Dirlewanger, as prosecutor Joachim Riedl, deputy head of the Ludwigsburg Center for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes, said in an interview, were either never transferred to the prosecutor's office or were not studied, although since 1988, when a new list of people put on the international wanted list was submitted to the UN, a lot of information accumulated in the Center.
As is now known, the administration of Ludwigsburg handed over the materials to the court of Baden-Württemberg, where an investigation team was formed.
As a result of the work, it was possible to find three people who served in the regiment during the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising. On April 17, 2009, GRK prosecutor Boguslav Chervinsky said that the Polish side had requested assistance from German colleagues in bringing these three individuals to justice, since there is no statute of limitations for crimes committed in Poland. But the German judiciary did not bring any charges against any of the three former penalty boxers.

The real participants in the crimes remain at large and quietly live out their lives. This, in particular, applies to an anonymous SS veteran interviewed by the historian Rolf Michaelis.
After spending no more than two years in the Nuremberg-Langwasser POW camp, the anonymous man was released and found a job in Regensburg.
In 1952 he became a school bus driver and later a tour bus driver and traveled regularly to Austria, Italy and Switzerland. Anonymous retired in 1985. The former poacher died in 2007.
For 60 post-war years, he was not brought to justice even once, although it follows from his memoirs that he took part in many punitive actions on the territory of Poland and Belarus and killed many people.

Over the years of its existence, the SS penalty box, according to the authors' calculations, killed about 60 thousand people. This figure, we emphasize, cannot be considered final, since not all documents on this issue have been studied yet.
The history of the formation of Dirlewanger, as in a mirror, reflected the most unattractive and monstrous pictures of the Second World War. This is an example of what people who are overcome by hatred and embark on the path of total cruelty can become, people who have lost their conscience, who do not want to think and bear any responsibility.

More about the band. Punishers and perverts. 1942 - 1985: http://oper-1974.livejournal.com/255035.html

Kalistros Thielecke (matricide), he killed his mother with 17 stab wounds and ended up in prison and then in the SS Sonderkommando Dirlewanger.

Karl Iochheim, a member of the Black Front organization, was arrested in the early 30s and spent 11 years in prisons and concentration camps in Germany. Dirlewanger. Survived the war.

Documents of 2 Ukrainians from Poltava Pyotr Lavrik and Kharkiv resident Nikolai Novosiletsky, who served with Dirlewanger.

Diary of Ivan Melnichenko, deputy commander of the Ukrainian company Dirlewanger. On this page of the diary we are talking about the anti-partisan operation "Franz", in which Melnichenko commanded a company.

"December 25.42 I left Mogilev, to metro Berezino. I met the New Year well, I drank. After the New Year, there was a battle near the village of Terebolye, from my company, which commanded, Shvets was killed and Ratkovsky was wounded.
It was the most difficult battle, 20 people were wounded from the battalion. We retreated. After 3 days, Berezino station went to Chervensky district, cleared the forests to Osipovichi, the whole team plunged into Osipovichi and left ....."

Rostislav Muravyov, served as a Sturmführer in a Ukrainian company. He survived the war, lived in Kyiv and worked as a teacher at a construction college. Arrested and sentenced to CMN in 1970.

Dear German,

I just got back from surgery and found your letter dated November 16th. Yes, we must all suffer in this war; My deepest condolences to you on the death of your wife. We just have to keep living until better times.
News from Bamberg is always welcome. We have the latest news: our Dirlewanger was awarded the Knight's Cross in October there were no celebrations, the operations are too difficult, and there is no time for this.
The Slovaks are now openly allied with the Russians, and in every muddy village there is a nest of partisans. The forests and mountains in the Tatras have made the partisans a deadly danger to us.
We work with every newly arrived prisoner. Now I am in a village near Ipoliság. The Russians are very close. The reinforcements we have received are no good, and it would be better if they remained in the concentration camps.
Yesterday twelve of them went over to the Russian side, they were all old communists, it would be better if they were all hanged on the gallows. But there are still real heroes here.
Well, the enemy artillery opens fire again, and I must return. Warm regards from your brother-in-law.
Franz.

“Doctor Hertz, the team doctor, was in charge of the gas chamber and, in addition, provided medical assistance to the officers and translators. His duties also included the liquidation of Russian medical institutions and the killing of the patients contained there.
He was perhaps the most educated of all the officers of the team, subscribed books from Germany and received a patent for the invention of a black powder or black liquid, with which he smeared the lips of arrested children. Death occurred instantly in four cases out of ten - the drug required improvement ...

"Gazenvagen".

The Sonderkommando SD 10-a, being created back in Germany, was transferred to the Crimea in 1942, where it took an active part in the fight against the Crimean patriots, carrying out mass executions among the inhabitants of the Crimea.
A few days later, the team moved to Mariupol, then to the territory of the Rostov region, and later to the city of Rostov-on-Don.
Head of the Sonderkommando, Obersturmbannführer (Lieutenant Colonel) SS Christman Kurt, Dr. Personal translator Littikh Sasha.
CHRISTMAN KURT. Doctor. He was born on June 1, 1907 in Munich. Member of the NSDAP since May 1, 1933, party card No. 3203599. Personal No. SS - 103057. Obersturmbannfuehrer.
March 12, 1931 - passed the 1st legal exam.
20.4.1034 - passed the 2nd legal exam with honors.
SERVICE
21.4.1934-14.11.1937 - Main Directorate of Imperial Security. Referent for the press and Marxism.
11/15/1937-6/16/1938 - Main Directorate of Imperial Security. senior referent.
17.6.1938-1.12.1939 - Gestapo in Munich. Investigator.
12/1/1939-1942 - Gestapo of the city of Salzburg. Head of the Gestapo.
1942-1943 - Active army. CHIEF OF SS SONDERKOMANDA 10-A.
1943-1944 - Gestapo of Klafenfurt. Head of the Gestapo.
1944-1945 - Gestapo of Koblenz. Head of the Gestapo.
The USSR was wanted on the list of war criminals as the organizer of mass executions in the cities of Taganrog, Krasnodar, Yeysk, Novorossiysk, Mozyr, and also in connection with the mass extermination of prisoners.

Kurt Christman.

After the end of the war, Christman managed to escape and go to Argentina. In 1956 he returned to West Germany, where he worked as a real estate agent and was engaged in operations with land plots, houses and apartments. His brokerage office was located in a multi-storey building at the address: Munich, Stachus, Stützenstrasse 1.
In 1977, the German authorities began a trial against him, which was suspended due to the defendant's poor health.
On November 13, 1979, he was arrested by the police in Munich on charges of participating in the murder of 105 people in the Krasnodar region in 1942-43.
In 1980, during a trial that took place in Munich, it was proved that Christmann used gas trucks in Krasnodar.
At the trial, materials from another court, which took place 37 years ago in Krasnodar from July 14 to July 17, 1943, were also used as evidence. The case was then considered by the Soviet military tribunal of the North Caucasian Front.
In court, his guilt was proven in the murders in Krasnodar of arrested partisans, their accomplices (including two children), as well as civilians through "gas chambers"; arrest of about 60 partisans, their accomplices and communists in vil. Maryanskaya, and the execution of some of those arrested near the Kuban River. On December 19, 1980, a Munich court found him guilty and sentenced him to 10 years in prison.

Command of the Sonderkommando 10-a in Krasnodar. In the center e- Kurt Christman. 1942

Sonderkommando 10-a returns from a punitive operation. Belarus, Mozyr district. 1943

From the indictment in the case of Skripkin, Eskov, Sukhov and others.

"The Office of the State Security Committee under the Council of Ministers of the USSR for the Krasnodar Territory for active punitive activities and personal participation in the mass destruction of civilians arrested the former SS men of the Nazi punitive body" Sonderkommando SS 10-a ":
VEIKH Alois Karlovich, aka Alexander Khristianovich, Skripkin Valentin Mikhailovich, ESKOV Mikhail Trofimovich, SUKHOV Andrey Ustinovich, SURGULADZE Valerian Davydovich, ZHIRUKHIN Nikolai Pavlovich, BUGLAK Emelyan Andreevich, DZAMPAEV Uruzbek Tatarkanovich and PSAREV Nikolai Stepanovich.

Certificate of militiamen attached to the Sonderkommando 10-a.

They told about Skripkin in Taganrog "This is ours, Taganrog". He was well known in the city: a conspicuous figure - lanky, with sharp shoulders, deeply sunken eyes, a hoarse voice. And the surname is sticky, a little funny - Skripkin.
Before the war, he was a football player, he even had his own fans, then they said: "Skripkin - this one will score!", "Gives Skripkin!" And then, already under the Germans, they suddenly saw Skripkin on the street with a bandage of a policeman and gasped: that's how Skripkin, center forward!
Skripkin: "I arrived in Rostov in July 1942, together with Fedorov - a platoon commander. The first Russian traitor I met in the courtyard of the Sonderkommando was Psareva. Then, during the execution, we stood next to him."
From the Taganrog police, Skripkin ended up in Rostov, in the Sonderkommando. He was tempted to this by a friend - Fedorov, an artist of the cinema "Rot Front", he appointed Skripkin as his assistant (Fedorov was a platoon commander in the Sonderkommando).
With the Germans, with the Gestapo, Skripkin went all the way: he was in Rostov, in Novorossiysk, in Krasnodar, in Nikolaev, in Odessa, then in Romania, in Galati, in Katowice, in Dresden, in Alsace-Lorraine.
He shot, buried, escorted prisoners to Buchenwald, in Nikolaev he served as a guard in the Gestapo prison, and finally, guarded the Hungarians, Poles and Italians near Berlin, in the international penal camp.
For the first time in the "mass execution" Skripkin participated in Rostov - there, on August 10, 1942, the Germans pasted the "Appeal to the Jewish population of the city of Rostov" on the houses.

"Feats" of the Sonderkommando 10 in Moldova.

Fedorov's platoon was ordered to go on an operation. A German officer appeared, explained through an interpreter: to get on the buses. The interpreter was in German uniform, but without shoulder straps, the local German - "Volksdeutsche". The fact that he was a "Deutsche" made him two heads taller than all the rest of the Fedorov platoon, he belonged to the elite.
Skripkin with a rifle climbed into the back; what kind of operation, he did not yet know, he only thought: maybe the prisoners were being taken to escort or to a round-up. We drove through the whole city, to the distant outskirts.
Ten kilometers from Rostov, the cars stopped, and Fedorov commanded: "Get out!" Skripkin got out, looked around - in the distance he could see the railway, station buildings, houses.
Nearby was a deep sand pit. Near this quarry they were placed in a semicircle - the German officer commanded, the translator translated, and Skripkin then guessed what was the matter. Soon, from the direction of Rostov, the first car covered with a tarpaulin appeared. She stopped near the quarry. People with suitcases got out of the car...
In the evening, Fedorov dragged Skripkin to the warehouse, where the belongings of the dead lay. The junk was not god knows what - Skripkin was expecting more - yet they slowly, so that the Germans would not notice, each chose a double-breasted suit for himself, and Skripkin also got children's undershirts.
Arriving at the barracks, they drank - vodka was supposed to be after the "operation" - and Skripkin remembered the house, imagined how delighted his wife would be when she received a package from him, and his heart warmed up.
So murder became his profession. For three years in a row he shot, hung, pushed into gas chambers - a lanky man in leggings and a gray jacket. And since he killed, and since he already had such a service, he wanted it not for "you live great", not for nothing, but to at least make something out of this job.

Emblem of Sonderkommando 10-a, "Ten of Hearts".

The defendants are policemen from Sonderkommando 10-a.

Handwritten testimony of Eskov Mikhail Trofimovich (Excerpts)

“I saw it for the first time so close, so I lost my temper, threw the earth with a shovel, but did not see where it was flying. It seemed to the Germans that we were working slowly, they kept shouting: “Schnel, schnel!”
After the corpses were covered with earth, we sat down to rest, Dr. Hertz joked, laughed (as if it were ordinary earthwork).
As soon as Hans opened the door of the gas chamber, and the translator ordered everyone to undress, we were also given the command to come closer. Two of the pedestrians stood on both sides of the gas chamber, guarding the EXIT to the courtyard, and I and three others began to force the arrested to undress faster.
They have already understood their verdict. Some resisted, they had to be pushed by force, others could not undress - then we tore off their clothes and pushed them into the gas chamber. Many cursed us and spat in our faces. But no one asked for mercy.
Dr. Hertz at that time stood on a dais and, with a satisfied smile, enjoyed the terrible picture of destruction. Sometimes he said something to the interpreter and laughed out loud.

When all the arrested were placed in the gas chamber, Hans slammed the hermetic door, connected the hose to the body and turned on the engine. Dr. Hertz got into the cab. The engine roared, drowning out the barely audible knocks and screams of the dying, and the car drove out of the yard.
We - all six people - got into the second car, which was standing right there. The interpreter got into the cab and went for the gas chamber. The cars drove along the main street, towards the grove, into the vineyards.
Having reached the anti-tank ditch, the driver drove the gas chamber back to the ditch and opened the door. Dr. Hertz was tormented by impatience, he constantly looked into the gas chamber, and - the gas was not yet completely out - he ordered the corpses to be thrown out.
One of ours began to push the corpses to the door, two - by the legs, by the hands, at random - threw the bodies, blue and soiled with feces, into the pit. They fell on top of each other, and when they fell, they made some kind of characteristic, groaning sound, and it seemed that the earth itself groaned, accepting unfortunate victims.
In doing this terrible work, we were in a hurry, urging each other on. Doctor Hertz sometimes held us back. He carefully examined the victims. After that, we washed our hands, got into our car and went on a flight for the second batch ... "

L.V. Ginzburg "Abyss".

BIRKAMP Walter, b. 17. 12. 1901 - in Hamburg. 1942 - Active army, Eastern Front. Head of Einsatzgruppe "D", police and SS general.

BIRKAMP Walter, died in 1945 in Scharbeutz and was buried in Timmerdorferstrandt. The fact of his death is registered in the register of the dead at the Civil Status Office in Gleschendorf.
General Birkamp was in charge of Rostov, and Taganrog, and Yeysk, and Krasnodar. We also found an order that the headquarters of the 11th Army sent to General Birkamp - a request to end the "mass action" by Christmas, so as not to overshadow the holiday, "to speed up the action, we provide you with gasoline, trucks and human personnel."
Birkamp: "As documented, I assumed the position of Chief of Einsatzgruppe D in June 1942, replacing General Otto Ohlendorf in this post. Thus, by the time I arrived on the Eastern Front, the main actions in the zone of operations of my group were finished.
I affirm that I knew nothing about such crimes as the murder of the elderly and large families in Taganrog or the destruction of sick children in Yeysk (by the way, please note that in October 1942, when the Yeysk operation was carried out, I was being treated in hospital)".

The execution of some members of the Sonderkommando 10-a in 1943.

Alexey Pishenkov

"Penalty" SS. Sonderkommando Dirlewanger

Foreword

The word "Sonderkommando" in pure translation from German means "separate unit", "special unit" - this is its true meaning in the context. Quite the usual army terminology, theoretically existing in the armed forces of all German-speaking states to this day. Basically a harmless wording. But at the mention of this name, somehow by itself, most of us first of all have an association with the dark events of the Second World War. In the German army of that period, a huge number of special forces or groups of various purposes existed and were formed for various operations, and most of them also bore the name "Sonderkommando", but nevertheless, under this concept, punitive detachments, which acted with terrifying cruelty, were most strongly recorded in history. , as a rule, behind the front line in the occupied territories. The main tasks of such units were counter-guerrilla actions, suppression of the insurgent movement and intimidation of the local population, and the implementation of the then Nazi policy of genocide.

Without a doubt, the most famous and most successful armed formation in this field was the SS Sonderkommando under the command of Oskar Dirlewanger, which over time grew from the size of an army battalion into a regiment, and then into an entire SS division, named after its permanent commander. Wherever the people of Dirlewanger appeared, everywhere they left behind them horror, death and rivers of spilled blood, striking with their cruelty even experienced front-line soldiers with the strongest nerves.

It was on the basis of the actions of such formations that the SS were wholly recognized at the end of the war as a criminal organization, without division into ideological, punitive, police or purely military units.

Who were these people in military uniform and with weapons in their hands, whose deeds even today, more than half a century later, we still talk about with a shudder? What prompted them to do what they did? Were they Nazi fanatics or, conversely, victims of the regime? There is information that punitive detachments were often made up of concentration camp prisoners or captured army deserters, obliged to atone for their own crimes with blood or simply forced to do so, is this true? Is it possible to evaluate the operations they carried out from a purely military-operational point of view? What explained the phenomenal success of this unit in fulfilling its tasks? Is it even possible to consider such a formation as the Sonderkommando Dirlewanger as a military part in the full sense of this definition?

It is not surprising that, in contrast to the huge amount of archival material about the actions of various parts of the Wehrmacht and the SS throughout the Second World War, there are very few documents on the operations of punitive detachments, and almost nothing has been preserved about the Dirlewanger special unit - there was nothing special to be proud of before descendants , and the Nazis tried to destroy everything possible against the backdrop of the end of the regime. Nevertheless, thanks to truly German pedantry and immortal paper bureaucracy, in the depths of the military archives of East and West, one can still find a certain amount of both directly related to the case and indirect documentation, one way or another shedding light on this little-studied topic: reports on some operations , requirements for commissariats, departmental correspondence and documents of other military units that mention the actions of the Sonderkommando, etc. It is on these data, as well as on the extremely few existing publications, that my attempt to shed some light on this dark and little-known chapter in the history of the Second world war, as well as, to the extent possible, impartially analyze the successes and failures of the combat use of the Sonderkommando "Dirlewanger" in the performance of tactical tasks and operations in various war zones behind the front line and on the front line.

Germany - 1940. Offenders

Probably, you need to start with the fact that from the very beginnings of its existence, the Sonderkommando was already conceived as a penal formation. Now all attempts to guess for what purpose this unit was originally created would be pure speculation, but the fact that penal companies and battalions in all armies of the world and at all times were created to perform the most “dirty work”, and not to participate in parades in front of the lenses of photojournalists and cameramen - this is a naked fact that does not require confirmation. The history of the Sonderkommando "Dirlewanger" began in the same way. But the most remarkable is the fact that, unlike the great many military penal units created on the basis of regiments or divisions and, of course, subordinate to them, the decision to create this particular unit arose right at the “very top” of the Third Reich, and all the time of its existence, the Sonderkommando "Dirlewanger" was in fact directly subordinate to the central apparatus of the SS, and not to the military command in the field. From this it can already be concluded that the future use of the Sonderkommando had to be very specific.

From the testimony of SS-Obergruppenführer Gottlob Berger at the Nuremberg Tribunal:

“... The Dirlewanger brigade arose thanks to the decision of Adolf Hitler, which was made back in 1940 during the Western campaign. Once, Himmler called me to his place and said that Hitler ordered to find and gather all the people who were serving a sentence for poaching with firearms at that moment, and make them into a special military unit ... "

It was rather strange that the vegetarian Hitler, who despised hunting and, in general, what was widely known, did not like the hunters themselves, suddenly became interested in armed poachers, but Berger explains it this way:

“... Shortly before that, he received a letter from a woman whose husband was the so-called “Old Party Comrade”. This man was hunting deer illegally in the National Forests and was caught right at the scene of the crime. At that moment, the man was already in places of detention, and his wife asked the Fuhrer to give him the opportunity to make amends by distinguishing himself at the front ... This was the impetus ... "

SS-Obergruppenführer Gottlob Berger

“…according to these orders, I got in touch with the chief of the Imperial Criminal Police Nebe, and we agreed that by the end of the summer all suitable candidates would be selected and sent to the barracks in Oranienburg…”

Many materials about the history of the Third Reich are still of interest to modern society. Documentary channels show many programs about German warplanes and tanks, about huge battles that took place during the Second World War. Less thoroughly explored is the dark side of the Nazi regime and its war machine - or, to be more honest, the true essence of the war machine that the Nazis led.

Adolf Hitler often tried many unconventional approaches during the war. In March 1940, shortly before the German invasion of France, Hitler decided to form a combat squad of convicted poachers under the command of a tough combat officer. Yes, from poachers - that is, those people who were convicted of illegally hunting animals. Allegedly, Hitler believed that the habit of taking risks would give these men a great advantage in combat. As for their commander, SS leader Heinrich Himmlerum knew only one person capable of up to the task: Oskar Dirlewanger.

Who was Oscar Dirlewanger?

Oskar Dirlewanger served in the German army during World War I. Apparently, he served in good faith: Dirlewanger was twice awarded the Iron Cross and wounded six times. In certain circles, he gained notoriety when, after the surrender of Germany, he managed to withdraw his hard-pressed detachment of 600 people from Romania to Germany. After the war, he joined the Freikorps, an organization of right-wing militants whose detachments existed for some time in post-war Germany. There he made contact with the nascent Nazi Party, but his personal life was in complete disarray. A serious addiction to alcohol often ended in violent acts, as a result of which Dirlewanger had problems with the police. He was several times in concentration camps for his addiction to sex with underage girls (not only persecuted minorities were kept in the camps, but also ordinary criminals). But he managed to earn a justification in the eyes of the Nazis by taking part in the Spanish Civil War (where he was wounded three times), so after the outbreak of World War II, despite his criminal record, he was allowed to join the ranks of the Waffen SS - and just in time to lead a new squad of poachers.

Dirlewanger and his men go to war

During training, the unit was quickly named after its commander: Sonderkommando Dirlewanger. Later, after repeated replenishment, the detachment grew and received the name that still causes disgust in everyone: the Dirlewanger Brigade. This name will forever be associated with massacres, torture, rape, robbery and all the most unimaginable war crimes.

Initially, the Dirlewanger brigade was deployed in occupied Poland in August 1940, when a little less than a year had passed after the occupation of this country. Their task was to put down the petty uprisings that sometimes occurred during the Nazi occupation. However, Dirlewanger and his men used their punitive raids as an opportunity to engage in mass crime. The brigade consisted partly of criminals convicted of extortion, theft and corruption, partly of soldiers who, as a result of "temporary insanity", arbitrarily shot many civilians, and partly of freed psychopaths guilty of sexual crimes, torture and drunken brawls. At night, visitors to the barracks could easily stumble upon mountains of looted property, soldiers drunk on duty, hear the screams of women and children being raped, or prisoners being tortured just for fun.

Many, if not most, of Dirlewanger's men were arrested for their crimes. In the early years of the war, German military lawyers found themselves in a somewhat confusing situation: there were still laws against the killing of civilians, drunkenness in the line of duty, theft of private property, and many other crimes committed by Dirlewanger's people. Dirlewanger himself kept a Jewish woman as a sex slave, while sex between Germans and Jews was forbidden. The behavior of these people disgusted the German authorities - even the local SS and Gestapo were furious. In the end, the commander of the SS troops in the region threatened that if the brigade was not transferred, he would order the troops to cordon off its barracks. And the brigade was sent further east, to Belarus.

Special status of Dirlewanger

Dirlewanger's story was unusual in many ways. First of all, a criminal record should have blocked his path to the ranks of the SS, but this did not happen. In addition, as a commander, he received special permission from Heinrich Himmler to personally punish his people, up to and including execution. This was an unheard of privilege for an officer in the German army; usually the soldier had the right to punish only the court, as in any other army. In the entire multi-million Wehrmacht, only Dirlewanger had such powers, and he disposed of them in his own way: recruits - and these were convicted criminals, and sometimes even political prisoners, but not volunteers - often received severe injuries at the hands of their commander or his entourage. It was in this way that Dirlewanger preferred to show his displeasure.

But, despite his absolute power, Dirlewanger, paradoxically, was very close to his people. He had a habit of using informal language and addressing soldiers by name, which was highly unusual for a German officer. He drank with them, raped and killed with them, he acted as if he were one of them. He arranged wrestling matches with them, as he believed that he should be in much better shape than most officers of his rank. His calmness under fire and his almost uncanny closeness to his subordinates caused him to be nicknamed "Gandhi" by the unbelievably ironic name among his own people.

Blood and murder

After Poland, the Dirlewanger Brigade was sent to occupied Belarus, where it continued its anti-partisan operations. Such methods of warfare were used as the creation of barriers from women and children who were supposed to walk in front of the advancing soldiers through a minefield. Dirlewanger's soldiers could enter the village, lock all the inhabitants in the barn and set it on fire, and then shoot anyone who tried to escape. And, as always, rapes, murders, robberies and pogroms - all this was in the order of things.

The brigade earned a particularly sad glory during the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. With the approach of the Red Army, the Poles decided to take control of the capital, but Hitler ordered the uprising to be brutally crushed. The Dirlewanger brigade was to lead the operation.

The stories about her activities in Warsaw are innumerable. To take just one example, when a German officer was blocked by several Poles in a high-rise building. Later, this officer reported that when the Dirlewanger Brigade arrived, its fighters fearlessly stormed the building. He ended his report by describing how the rebels flew out of the window of the building.

Of course, they wouldn't be the Dirlewanger Brigade if they didn't commit horrific atrocities. Many years later, in the early 1960s, a former member of the gang appeared before the judges. Perhaps he had trouble sleeping. In any case, he described numerous war crimes, including one incident in which a member of the detachment, apparently drunk, raped a girl right on the street, and then pulled out his knife and cut her stomach from groin to throat, leaving her to die. In another episode, they took over the kindergarten, small children raised their little hands up to show that they were giving up. Dirlewanger ordered his men to kill them all - but in order to save ammunition, kill the children with bayonets and rifle butts. This nightmare was called the "Volskaya massacre", during which about 500 small children were killed. And this is just one of hundreds, even thousands of stories associated with this detachment.

The Warsaw Uprising was, in fact, the last episode in the life of the brigade. Shortly thereafter, Dirlewanger himself was wounded again - for the twelfth time - and this time the wound was so serious that he could not return to his brigade. By the end of the war, the brigade had grown to the size of a division, with about 7,000 men. But soon, in the spring of 1945, almost all of them were destroyed after being surrounded by Soviet troops during the Battle of the Elbe. Only a few hundred of the brigade survived the war.

As for Dirlewanger himself, he was captured alive by French soldiers. However, he died in custody shortly thereafter. Officially from natural causes, but rumors have long circulated that he was beaten to death by vengeful Polish soldiers.

Thus ended the story of one of the most brutal military formations in world history. How many people did they kill? It's hard to know. Of course, tens of thousands. The so-called "Einsatzgruppen" acted even worse, which, pursuing a policy of genocide, killed more than a million civilians in the occupied territory of the USSR. Incredibly, no member of the Dirlewanger Brigade was ever charged with war crimes, yet their reputation continues to serve as an edifying example of the true nature of the NSDAP and its leader.