SS und Polizei: Myths and Lies of Hitler's SS and Police

by J. Lee Ready

  The only continuing German advance was that of Army Group Center, now joined by the French Legion, which aimed towards Moscow, but the going was tediously slow.

  __________

  Over a three day period in November Jewish policemen in Vilnius rounded up several hundred weak Jews for ‘special treatment’. Owing to starvation rations there were many weak people here. The smaller of the two ghettoes was now emptied.

  Also this month Brigadefuehrer Franz Stahlecker, the Austrian chief of SS Einsatzgruppe A, gave orders to Sturmbannfuehrer Rudolf Batz and Sturmbannfuehrer Martin Sandberger, the latter an ex-judge, to each take their einsatzkommando and hundreds of Latvian hiwis to Riga in Latvia to begin ‘aktion’ there.

  Polizei Generalleutnant Georg Jedicke became the KdO for Latvia, commanding all German policemen, Latvian policemen and Latvian schumas in the country. Jedicke was a professional policeman and an SS reservist.

  As SS Einsatzgruppe A now had a defined territory, Himmler agreed that some of its officers could do double duty. Specifically Stahlecker was appointed BdS for Ostland and Oberfuehrer Walter Schroeder became SSPF for Latvia. Schroeder had been a Freikorps soldier, an SA officer, a member of the NSKK, a policeman of the Kripo and an SD commander.

  One of the many German private companies that had followed the army was the Jung Construction Company, and one of its managers had been put in charge of the branch at Rovno in Ukrainia. The company employed slaves of the SS Wv. Here he learned that many of the Jews in the local ghetto including his own slave workers were to be annihilated in an ‘aktion’ organized by HSSPF Friedrich Jeckeln. Graebe was under no illusions about his standing with the Nazis. He had already served time in a concentration camp for his ‘attitude’. Nonetheless he pleaded with the local SD to save his Jewish employees, and his oratory was eloquent enough to convince the SD to spare 150 men and women. But he could not save the others. The SD and Ukrainian schumas marched 21,000 Jews out of the ghetto to a grove of trees at Sosenki and shot them all.

  Graebe eventually went to the extraordinary length of establishing a phony slave labor camp at Poltava to house Jews he had rescued!

  __________

  By 6 November SS Einsatzgruppe C was commanded by Brigadefuehrer Max Thomas, a medical doctor who had recently been serving in Paris, and this day some of his men including several hundred Ukrainian hiwis descended into an orgy of bloodlust, shooting down 15,000 Jews, Gypsies and Communists.

  At Kharkov other members of SS Einsatzgruppe C placed 20,000 Jews into a disused tractor factory and each day they and their Ukrainian hiwis took out a few and shot them. These Germans claimed that they kept these Jews here because they did not have enough personnel to kill them all at once, but the real reason was undoubtedly that they were tired of roaming the dirt roads of the Ukraine, more like mud roads by now, and they wanted to take a rest. Besides, on the open road they might run into partisans and the last thing these killers wanted was to run into somebody who could shoot back!

  __________

  Ohlendorf’s SS Einsatzgruppe D entered the Crimea and immediately took on 500 Tatars as hiwis. Interestingly enough they ran into a German army formation that claimed the local Tats were Jewish in religion only and not by race. It was obvious that these German troops were trying to save some lives. The SS einsatzgruppe personnel, men such as Sturmbannfuehrer Heinz Seetzen a professional SD officer, were mostly not thinking men, so they referred the situation to the SS RuSHA, who came back with a startling decision agreeing with the army. Thus the Tats were left alone! However, an entire tribe of Moslems was butchered by SS Einsatzgruppe D, because the SS RuSHA decided they were racial Jews!

  The army encountered a partisan problem in the Crimea and ordered Ohlendorf and his men to root them out. Ohlendorf refused claiming his ‘higher’ orders took precedence and that in any case his men were unsuited to such warfare! He was of course correct in his decision, for Himmler’s orders outranked the army’s orders, and as for his men, most of them were cowards! To add insult to the army’s disgust, Himmler soon awarded Ohlendorf a medal for merit, moreover it was the military version ‘with swords’, making a mockery of those who really did risk their lives in combat!

  __________

  In November 1941 Obergruppenfuehrers Friedrich Jeckeln and Hans Pruetzman swapped jobs, the latter becoming HSSPF for the Ukraine, and the former becoming HSSPF for the Baltic Region and North Russia. Himmler gave Jeckeln specific instructions to liquidate the Riga ghetto. Jeckeln had no qualms, despite his wife and son being part Jewish. When Jeckeln arrived in Riga he made arrangements with Stahlecker, who still wore two hats - BdS for the Ostland and chief of SS Einsatzgruppe A. They would send in the SD and Gestapo to begin dragging Jews out of the ghetto in order to turn them over to SS Einsatzkommando Batz, which was now commanded by Sturmbannfuehrer Rudolph Lange. This was a good career move for Lange, who had been Stahlecker’s Gestapo chief. However, Lange would have to coordinate the move with the local KdO, Police Generalleutnant Georg Jedicke.

  Jedicke ordered the Jewish Police to tell everyone in the ghetto that they were all being resettled further east, so they had to assemble and bring their luggage with them. Jewish policemen then organized marching columns and soon everyone began to walk out of the ghetto, out of the port city and onto roads through the forest. After several hours of walking the exhausted weak ghetto Jews arrived to find Lange’s men and several hundred Latvian hiwis awaiting them next to huge pits dug in the snow, which already contained corpses - German Jews who had arrived by train hours earlier. The Riga Jews - men, women, elderly, children, babes in arms - were ordered to drop their luggage, strip off, walk across the snow and climb on top of the corpses. They obeyed with only a few murmurs. Then they were shot by several of Lange’s men. The mass of humanity began to pile up, so that the shooters had to climb onto the heaving mountain of bleeding naked bodies to finish off the wriggling wounded. The last Jews to be shot were the Jewish policemen.

  Only a handful of Riga’s Jews had escaped from the ghetto, and those due in no small measure to a few Latvian Christians who risked their lives to help them, such as Janis Lipke and his wife.

  __________

  Osttruppen units were continually being formed. In November Major Sergei Ivanov raised the Graukopf Battalion from Russians held in German prisoner of war camps. The battalion’s mission would be to hunt down Communist partisans, and they did this job willingly. It was better than starving in a German camp, and besides they had a tremendous hatred for the Soviet regime that had oppressed them for years and then treated them as cannon fodder.

  The German Army asked Oberstleutnant Helmut von Pannwitz, a Polish Volksdeutsch, to raise several companies of Cossack horse cavalry from among the prisoners of war. Pannwitz could speak Russian and was a friend of the Cossacks, and he agreed. He was very successful and soon his cavalrymen were patrolling the hundreds of miles of flat wind-swept steppe.

  Major Ivan Kononov offered to defect to the German Army and bring an entire regiment of Cossacks with him. They were accepted as the 102nd Cossack [Horse] Cavalry Regiment.

  Oddly enough Hitler had in fact yet to approve the recruitment of even one hiwi or osttruppen, but he did like the idea of raising Turkic troops from the prisoners of war, i.e. Red Army soldiers who spoke one of the many Turkic languages. For some weird reason he thought it would please the Turkish government. Turkey was neutral in the war, and Hitler wanted this country as an ally. The Turkic languages are no closer to Turkish than German is to English.

  Following this nod from Hitler, the army generals established a Turkestani Legion consisting of many different ethnic groups such as Yakuts, Azerbaijanis and Nogays, and they also created a Caucasus Moslem Legion that consisted of men from several ethnic groups including Rutuls and Chechens, plus they established a Georgian Legion and an Armenian Legion. The volunteers for these units were elated that the Germans allowed them religious freedom, something the Communists had never done.

  H
owever, the Germans never quite knew what they had here and could not converse with all of these men. In fact neither the Georgians, nor Armenians nor any of the men in the Caucasus Moslem Legion spoke a Turkic language. Some were Europeans and others were Asians, and many came from that vague territory that connects the two continents. The German generals had interpreted Hitler’s order very liberally indeed.

  Yet the idea of recruiting Moslem soldiers had merit. In summer 1941 the British had invaded and conquered Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. Legally speaking the latter two were French colonies, but taken as a whole these invasions did not ingratiate the British with many Moslems. As a result the German Army was able to raise the Arab Legion from men born all over North Africa and the Middle East. Many were working or studying in a German-occupied nation when they enlisted. There is no evidence that any of these Arabs joined the Nazis because of Hitler’s anti-Semitism. Most Arabs were not anti-Semitic. Some of them were racially Negroes. They joined to help liberate their homes from British and French oppression.

  Himmler had designs on these Moslem units, which made a mockery of his strict race regulations that supposedly kept the SS pure. He convinced Hajj Amin al Hussein the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem [senior Moslem cleric] to accept honorary SS membership.

  In addition the German Army had recruited about 3,500 Moslems, Sikhs and Hindus, who had been taken prisoner in North Africa while serving in the Indian Army [under British control]. Under the guidance of an Indian politician, Subhas Chandra Bose, the Germans formed the Indian Legion Azad Hind, also known as the 950th Infantry Regiment. Its members hoped to take part in the liberation of India from British rule, but for the moment they were kept on ice by Hitler for propaganda purposes. Himmler had his eyes on them too and wanted them for his SS. The fact that they were Asians did not seem to preclude them from becoming members of the so-called pure Aryan SS. This is further evidence that the SS regulations were a pack of lies.

  __________

  On 23 November just two days after taking Rostov the SS LAH was in for some bad news: the SS Wiking Division on their flank was counterattacked from the direction of Novoshackhinsk by divisions of the new Soviet Caucasus Front. Two days later the SS LAH was struck by the entire Soviet Thirty-seventh Army. By the 27th von Kleist and all his Germans were forced to withdraw from Rostov back to the Mius River. The SS Wiking, SS LAH, SS Finnish Infantry Battalion and Walloon Legion lost many a good soldier in this fighting retreat.

  __________

  Meantime in Army Group Center the SS Das Reich had captured the small town of Istra. It had ‘only’ taken nine days of frenzied bloodletting. The SS Deutschland and the SS Der Fuehrer Regiments of the division had lost so many men that it was reluctantly decided that each should disband one battalion. The SS Der Fuehrer commander, Obersturmbannfuehrer Otto Kumm, was known for his sense of humor, but he had little to laugh about these days.

  __________

  On the Finnish front in the far frozen north the SS Nord Battlegroup had been on the defensive against the Soviet Karelian Front since September. Sturmbannfuehrer Constantin Heldman joined the unit here as the artillery commander. Having been a sailor and a soldier in World War One, and a prisoner of war, he had worked in the export business since then, until Himmler gave him the opportunity to help form several artillery units. Himmler rewarded these men by upgrading the unit to divisional status as the SS Nord Infantry Division. If Himmler liked the unit, it is certain no one else did. It was obvious to all that these Totenkopfverbaende troops had never been correctly trained for combat. The Finns had to support the unit on more than one occasion. Although they had decorated a few exceptions, including Untersturmfuehrer Rudolf von Ribbentrop. In order to help the unit the German Army and Finnish Army withdrew the Nord’s soldiers a few at a time and put them through an accelerated program of retraining. Additionally some replacements arrived from Waffen SS schools, so that by late 1941 the Nord was at least adequate. Nonetheless now Himmler chose to withdraw the division for a rest and refit and for retraining as a mountain warfare and low temperature unit - something that should have happened before it was ever committed to battle in this war zone.

  __________

  The SS Wiking had suffered few casualties per action, but these losses had accumulated, and by December 1941 after six months of non-stop combat the division was depleted. The new SS Nordwest Regiment of Flemish, Frisian and Dutch recruits had just finished training, but it was now disbanded and its Flemish were sent to the Flanders Legion and the others were sent to the SS Wiking. This caused a good deal of resentment in the Flanders Legion. The new SS arrivals were welcomed by the SS cadre, but not by the ordinary legionnaires, who saw yet more evidence that the SS was trying to take over the unit. Likewise the new arrivals were upset that they had not been assigned to an SS formation. It made no sense to them that they had to take orders from a higher ranking legionnaire, whose rank was not good outside the unit.

  The SS Wiking Division was glad to see the arrival of the Dutch and Frisian replacements. Moreover, the fresh SS Nordost Regiment of Finns arrived to fight alongside the Wiking. It took the SS Finnish Infantry Battalion under its wing.

  The SS LAH, SS Totenkopf and SS Polizei Divisions had also lost heavily in this period. Among the dead was Eicke’s son.

  General von Mackensen of the III Panzer Corps wrote to Himmler praising the SS LAH: “This truly is an elite unit.” An officer of the old conservative school, von Mackensen must really have meant this. He had no need to shine up to Himmler.

  By early December the SS Das Reich was in rough shape, with more than fifty per cent casualties and a high sick list. It was heartbreaking for the men of SS Das Reich and the French Legion when they were ordered to shut down for the winter, because they were so close to Moscow: they had captured one station on the city’s tram line and could see the city’s factory chimneys!

  __________

  Suddenly on 6 December, 1941, at the beginning of a winter that was already literally freezing some German soldiers to death, the Red Army launched a major counteroffensive all along the line: the North West Front assaulting the rear of the Leningrad besiegers; the Kalinin Front attacking at Moscow; the West Front advancing south of Moscow; the South West Front charging forwards in the Ukraine; and the Caucasus Front making an assault down along the coast of the Black Sea. The Bryansk Front launched its onslaught from east of Bryansk a few days later.

  Only on the south coast were climatic conditions livable, and even here the sea was frozen so hard up to a half mile from shore that Soviet tanks were able to drive on it and outflank the Germans on the beach! Hitler’s generals had not taken any precautions about winter clothing and equipment, fearing that their mere suggestion to Hitler that the Germans could not defeat the Soviets before winter would anger the Fuehrer. As a result German Army troops were wearing anything they could get their hands on to keep warm, even ladies overcoats and blankets.

  Himmler on the other hand had no such qualms and he had already issued his Waffen SS with warm clothing, much of it stolen from Jews, thus enabling his soldiers to concentrate on fighting the charging Soviet hordes. However, the five Waffen SS divisions in the path of the Soviet onslaught were but a tiny percentage of the Axis armies. In the Demiansk sector Eicke’s SS Totenkopf and Walter Krueger’s SS Polizei Divisions managed to hold fast, but they did have their hands full. In the far south the SS Wiking and SS LAH held onto the Mius River line. But in the center after four days the SS Das Reich and the French Legion were begging for permission to retreat because fifteen Soviet armies were bearing down upon them! Permission was granted. Elsewhere Hitler issued the first of many ‘hold to the last bullet’ orders.

  Untersturmfuehrer Otto Skorzeny would miss the remainder of the winter campaign. Wounded in action, he was evacuated.

  Willi Bittrich would also miss it. Like so many soldiers, he was taken ill, and his command of the SS Das Reich was given to Oberfuehrer Matthias Kleinheisterkamp.

  _____
_____

  Chapter Fourteen

  THE YUGOSLAVIAN HEADACHE

  Yugoslavia had been conquered swiftly and its people had been divided into protected states and enclaves, with only Croatia retaining any sort of independence. Several resistance organizations of partisans had sprung up to fight the occupiers, but they were uncoordinated.

  However, by late 1941 a Communist rabble-rouser calling himself Tito (real name Josip Broz) had gained control of most of the partisans and he played down his Communism. He even recruited Roman Catholic and Serb Orthodox priests. Furthermore he recruited from every ethnic group in Yugoslavia including Jews, Italians and Volksdeutsch. Most of those who joined him did so because they were disgusted by the policies of the invaders and by the actions of those who collaborated with them. In the city of Belgrade alone in the first six months of German occupation the SD and Gestapo together with the local Serb police had executed 4,750 men and women, either because they suspected them of anti-German activity or because they were available. After every terrorist incident within the city, such as a sentry stabbed, a truck tire slashed, equipment smashed, a building burned or telephone lines torn down, the local police arrested innocent people at random off the street and shot them in retaliation. Theoretically this was supposed to turn the people against the partisans.

  Tito’s partisans [Titoists] waged war not just on the Italian, Hungarian, Bulgarian and German invaders, but also on the forces of the newly independent Croatia. By late 1941 Tito felt his main force was strong enough to leave his mountain fortress and launch a conventional offensive into Serbia, but the occupiers responded with three German divisions plus Serb troops, and they drove Tito into the mountains of Italian-occupied Bosnia and Montenegro, whereupon the Italians attacked Tito and drove him back into German-controlled Serbia.