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

by J. Lee Ready

  In the Crimea in late 1942 under the direction of Brigadefuehrer Ludolf von Alvensleben, the SSPF for Crimea, the SD organized six new battalions of Tatar schumas. Some of these recruits had been hiwis for SS Einsatzgruppe D.

  Still this was not enough, so a new auxiliary police force was established just to pull sentry duty on a part-time basis, known as the Hilfeswachtmannschaften [volunteer watchman squads], nicknamed ‘hiwas’. About one hundred companies of hiwas, totaling 20,000 men, were raised in Byelorussian, Ukraine and Russia. Their officers were seconded from the Orpo and SS. Oddly enough a rule was introduced that no hiwa would be allowed access to more than ninety rounds of ammunition.

  However, as a rule none of these anti-partisan forces operated within thirty miles of the front line. That area, i.e. the military rear zone, was the sole responsibility of the German Army. Army Group North had raised indigenous troops [the Einwohnerkampfverbaende and the Sicherungabteilungen] in order to protect their military rear zone. Army Group Center had done the same [calling theirs the Ordnungsdienst]. But by spring 1942 both army groups were in serious trouble and they demanded that army headquarters [OKH] send them reinforcements for anti-partisan duty, and as a result they each received an army security regiment of light infantrymen aged 36-45 and a bicycle mounted battalion of similar troops. Himmler responded to their request too, sending the 1/1st Police Regiment to Army Group North to join the 9th Police Regiment, and Oberstleutnant Hans Griep’s 2nd Police Regiment to Army Group Center to join Police Regiment Center. Currently the only police available to Army Group South was the 10th Police Regiment. The generals complained that these reinforcements, while welcomed, were wholly inadequate. Army Group Center was even forced to send von Tresckow’s six engineer battalions of Russians and Byelorussians on a partisan hunt.

  Having said this, Himmler was aware that the generals had split up their police regiments into companies and had assigned them to their army security divisions, an unfortunate dilution. In July 1942 the 11th Police Regiment began partisan hunting. Himmler intended the force to retain its regimental integrity.

  The generals ordered Oberst von Pannwitz to assemble his Cossacks into formations larger than companies so that they could participate in major battles against partisans. He soon produced two regiments, von Jungschulz and Platow, each of three battalions.

  Colonel Rodinov, a Kuban Cossack, had been captured by the Germans while serving as chief of staff of the 229th Division of Stalin’s Red Army. He soon came around to the German way of thinking, and changing his name to V. V. Gil he raised a unit of Russians and Cossacks called Druzhina. The Germans were impressed with the force and in June 1942 they sent it to the front line to serve in the Nevel sector.

  By summer 1942 the Caucasus Moslem Legion had gone into action sweeping known partisan hideouts. These Moslems were divided into the 450th Regiment and several independent battalions.

  In the Lokot Autonomous Republic partisans had assassinated the senior anti-Communist Russian, but the commander of the militia of this Russian enclave arose to the occasion. Bronislaw Kaminski not only seized the political reins, but also expanded his militia into five infantry battalions, an artillery battalion and a tank company, christening the new force the RONA - Russian National Liberation Army. He was a good organizer and knew just how far to push the Nazis and when to back off. The downside was that he was a psychopathic killer of unbridled cruelty. Kaminski and his RONA now launched a counteroffensive and drove the partisans out of his republic. In fact the Germans were so impressed they asked to borrow some RONA troops to guard installations at Bryansk.

  Whenever the SS einsatzgruppe or SD or Kripo or Gestapo required additional manpower for a day or so they turned to the German police, local police, schumas, hiwas and militias for help. To be sure there were murderers serving in these various organizations, e. g. Kaminski. Yet these personnel were not in of themselves any more prone to murder than most military personnel, and they were certainly not raised for such duty. In fact in almost all such incidents some Jews were able to escape because a few schumas, hiwis, hiwas, militiamen etc deliberately looked the other way. However, this assistance provided to the SS einsatzgruppe was never reciprocated, i.e. the latter never aided other units in fighting partisans. On several occasions ambushed Axis units, learning that SS einsatzgruppe personnel were nearby, asked them for help. The latter always replied that they could not help as it might jeopardize their mission awarded them by Himmler himself. This was true, of course, but their reluctance to become anywhere near involved in risking their lives showed them for what they were, cowardly bullies. At the end of the day a policeman was a policeman. A schuma was a soldier/policeman. A militiaman was a soldier. A Waffen SS member was a soldier. But to call a member of an SS einsatzgruppe a ‘soldier’ would be like giving the medieval executioner at the Tower of London the same status as a chivalrous knight in shining armor.

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  In central Russia between Byelorussia and the front line on 24 May 1942 the Germans launched Operation Hanover, their greatest anti-partisan operation to date, believing that surely this time they could inflict a fatal blow. They attacked with no fewer than three panzer and six infantry divisions, ably assisted by thousands of hiwis, German Police Regiment Center and the Graukopf Battalion, with air support on call. Within days they killed in battle or executed 10,500 partisans, for losses to themselves of 550 killed and 1,650 wounded, yet not all the partisans were caught.

  Under Vladimir Boiarsky the Graukopf Battalion was expanded rapidly into a new formation of 3,000. Boiarsky renamed the unit the RNNA - Russian National People’s Army. The Germans ignored this rather pretentious title, preferring to call it the Versuchs [Reconnaissance] Brigade. Tactfully the German liaison officers assigned to this brigade played down the political ambitions of these soldiers whenever talking to senior German officers.

  Next came Operation Birdsong, an attempt to destroy the partisans in the Bryansk area. The Germans attacked with one panzer and two infantry divisions and many hiwis, some of the latter working as scouting teams. In one week the attackers killed in battle or executed 1,193 partisans, arrested 498 suspected of partisan activity and forcibly evacuated 12,531 villagers from communities that had been supporting the partisans. The operation cost the Axis troops 58 killed and 130 wounded.

  At Novocherkassk Sergei Pavlov formed a unit of Don Cossacks. Himmler acknowledged them and gave them the status of schumas. By August they were patrolling on horseback along the Don River.

  In June the French Legion was ordered to Volost in Russia for an anti-partisan operation. These men were eager to kill Communists, whom they believed were followers of Satan himself, and their 3rd Battalion went into action with relish. However, they soon suffered crippling losses and found the fighting little different from front line combat. The other battalion of the legion went into action against partisans near Smolensk alongside the German 186th Security Division. These Frenchmen also found the struggle to be fierce.

  Another force brought in for anti-partisan operations around Stalino was the German Army 287th Regiment. Its third battalion was all Arab, known unofficially as the German Arab Legion. Officially it was the DAL - German Training Detachment.

  When much of the Caucasus was liberated by Axis forces in the latter half of 1942 the Caucasus Moslem Legion, Georgian Legion, Armenian Legion and Turkestani Legion were able to recruit directly from home. Those who managed a furlough astonished their families. They had left as a conscript forced to fight for atheistic Communism, but they had returned a soldier of God.

  In fact von Pannwitz went a little bit further than his orders allowed. He visited the Caucasus in late summer 1942 as that region was being occupied [or liberated if you will] and he promised the Cossacks their own liberation army if they joined the Germans.

  In the Caucasus the Germans found the Chechens and Karachais already in conflict with the Red Army, and they organized these rebels into German-sponsored militias.
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br />   Hitler shocked his generals by now agreeing that Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan should be offered some form of political autonomy. This induced more people from those regions to enlist. In fact the Azerbaijanis were siphoned off from the Caucasus Moslem Legion and given the status of an independent legion. But not all of Georgia and Armenia were ever reached by the advancing German armies.

  The Caucasus people were fortunate that the SD, Gestapo and SS Einsatzgruppe D never made too many inroads in their lands. In fact German troops helped rebuild synagogues in some places! Standartenfuehrer Karl Heinz Buerger the SSPF for North Caucasus evidently was prudent enough not to rule with an iron hand. This alcoholic schoolteacher owed his position to the fact that he had ‘fought’ alongside Himmler in the Munich Putsch.

  A newcomer to the partisan war was Brigadefuehrer Hermann Harm as SSPF for the Krivoi Rog district. He owed his promotion to the fact that he was an agriculturalist, the sort of fellow Himmler understood.

  In August 1942 Hitler lifted most of the restrictions on the raising of osttruppen as a direct response to the growing partisan menace. General Wagner was allowed to offer the head of the Kuban Cossacks, Timophey Domanov, an autonomous zone if he raised his own militia. Domanov agreed.

  This month a large truck convoy driven by Dutch members of the NSKK was ambushed by partisans, but the drivers and co-drivers jumped out of their vehicles and armed with rifles and machine guns they counterattacked and kept after the enemy until they had captured a thousand partisans. This was more like it, Hitler thought. He approved the award of twenty-five iron crosses.

  On 16 September Operation Triangle began near Bryansk. The Germans were assisted by the RONA commanded by Kaminski in person. In two weeks 2,244 partisans were killed or executed, but one large band escaped. German infantry chased them for a month.

  It had become obvious that the partisans were taking advantage of the fact that the German-occupied parts of the Soviet Union were ruled at local level only, with each Axis unit commander jealous of his own preserve. The Axis desperately needed someone who could coordinate all anti-partisan activity. Himmler jumped in here before an army general could be given the job and he named Obergruppenfuehrer Erich von dem Bach Zelewski as Reich Plenipotentiary for the Combating of Partisans. This friend of Himmler was currently available, having just recuperated from his nervous breakdown.

  Zelewski’s first operation was in November, a sweep of the Polotsk Lowlands in Byelorussia by the 12th Panzer Division. It was unsuccessful. SS liaison officers reported back to Zelewski that ordinary German soldiers were just not ruthless enough. They requested SS troops.

  In late 1942 when Himmler saw the German Army siphoning off members of the Estonian Eesti Kaitseliit militia to replenish the Estonian Legion, he stepped in and commandeered all full-time Kaitseliit members and reformed them into seven new schuma battalions, though to pacify the army he allowed these men to continue their previous duty, i.e. guarding vulnerable sites in Estonia.

  The year ended with the 69th OT Battalion being redesignated as police. They joined the 62nd OT Battalion [already hunting partisans as the 3/4th Police Regiment] and together they formed the 28th Police Regiment Todt.

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  Chapter Twenty-one

  THE ENDLESS CRUSADE

  By July 1942 the 1,755 survivors of the Netherlands Legion had been sent home for a rest and to recruit more cannon fodder.

  On 17 July 1942 the 3rd SS Totenkopf Panzergrenadier Division [but still operating as motorized infantry despite the title] and the Danish Frikorps were both slammed by a major Soviet attack near Demiansk. The German Army ordered Simon’s Totenkopf veterans to counterattack at once, but Simon flatly refused. In effect he told the army to fight its own battles. This was serious insubordination. Obviously he was at his wit’s end. Surprisingly he suffered no disciplinary action. The Soviets were stopped.

  On the 23rd the Totenkopf and Frikorps were struck by the Soviets again. They held. Following this the Danes, who had suffered 78% losses, were sent home to Denmark.

  In Germany Eicke met with Hitler more than once trying to get permission for the SS Totenkopf to leave Russia. His pleas were refused, as was his request to rejoin his men.

  On 6 August the luckless Totenkopf was once again assaulted by a major Soviet force, and fierce combat continued for a week. By the sixth day of battle Simon had thrown every cook, clerk, orderly, truck driver and staff officer into the line with a rifle. This looked like the end. Then their prayers were answered. Torrential rain suddenly fell for two days, keeping the Soviets at bay.

  On 25 August the 7,000 surviving members of the SS Totenkopf were hit yet again by a powerful Soviet thrust. One man in seven was lost on this day.

  At last Hitler alleviated the SS Totenkopf’s situation a little bit - he allowed Eicke to fly out to Demiansk and visit his men periodically to give them pep talks!

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  The 4th SS Polizei Motorized Division had shown great stamina and courage on the Russian Front. Many members were decorated for merit and heroism, including Karl Scheumers and Rudolf Seitz, both of whom earned the Knights Cross. Scheumers listed his rank as Polizei Major. Seitz gave his rank as Polizei Wachtmeister. Alfred Borchert and Richard Utgenannt received the German Cross in Gold, Borchert listing his rank as Polizei Oberst and Utgenannt as Polizei Oberleutnant. Otto Giesecke would soon be awarded two decorations. He gave his rank as Polizei Oberst. Wilhelm Dietrich would be given the Knight’s Cross and German Cross in Gold. There were still many policemen of the division who had not taken the SS oath, or if they had they looked upon it as a mere formality and continued to use their police rank. Again this destroys the myth that all SS were proud to be members. However, many of the new replacements to the division were strictly Waffen SS and had never been policemen.

  In August 1942 the 6th SS Nord Mountain Division returned to the Arctic Circle to fight a stationary defensive campaign under the command of Brigadefuehrer Kleinheisterkamp. Many of the men were green, and surely Kleinheisterkamp was glad to have at least some veterans in key positions, such as Obersturmbannfuehrer Berthold Maack. The SS Norge Ski Company of Norwegians was attached to the division, as was a Norwegian police company under Polizei Hauptmann Reidar Hoel, and by now the division also had some Danish and Swedish members. The Norwegian Hauptsturmfuehrer Gus Jonassen soon formed an elite ski patrol unit that made very deep penetrations into enemy territory. [It is believed these Norwegian skiers were part of the SS Norwegen Ski Battalion, at least for administrative purposes.]

  These soldiers soon noticed that the war correspondents seemed to shun this front, probably because it was far too cold, yet it was a necessary front. If the Germans collapsed here not only would Finland be lost, but the Soviets would be able to break through to the Swedish iron ore mines that fed Hitler’s factories, and from there on to the German submarine bases in Norway. Himmler knew how strategic this front was and he even sent Polizei Oberst Franz’s 18th Police Mountain Regiment to help man a portion of this line under the army‘s XVIII Mountain Corps. This may have pleased the army, but it did not please these Slovenian Volksdeutsch policemen who wondered what they were doing so far from home when there were Communist partisans in their own backyard.

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  During August the Norwegian Legion and Flanders Legion battled the Soviet defenders of Leningrad, and then the Flanders Legion, now commanded by Obersturmbannfuehrer Walter Schellong, was moved further along the line to Kolpino. A company of Norwegian police joined the Norwegian Legion.

  Also this month the 1st SS LAH Panzergrenadier Division returned to Russia with its new weaponry and went into defensive positions around Donets.

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  In southern Russia the German Sixth Army began an assault on the city of Stalingrad, which was defended by the Soviet South East Front [soon renamed Stalingrad Front]. Meanwhile the 5th SS Wiking Panzergrenadier Division [and attached Finnish SS Nordost Regiment] charged onwards south of
Stalingrad aiming for Rostov, and soon captured that city port from elements of the Caucasus Front. This heralded a breakthrough into the Caucasus itself, where the Soviet oilfields lay, and Stalin hastily formed new armies and brought others down from the South Front, soon renamed North Caucasus [Trans-Caucasus] Front.

  One of Wiking’s soldiers was Unterscharfuehrer J. Hendrik Feldmeijer, the famous Dutch Nazi.

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  The men of the SS Totenkopf must have been quite convinced that Hitler was trying to exterminate them, but then they suddenly received the word that they were to be pulled out of the line and sent to France to rest and refit. The men eagerly looked forward to this. The English-speaking people are accustomed to think of France as an enemy of the Nazis throughout World War II, where German troops were under constant guerilla attack, but the reality for most Germans was different, because from July 1940 onwards the Germans looked upon the French as partners. Most German soldiers in France lived a life of short military training days and long nights in the bars, often dating and marrying local mademoiselles.

  The Totenkopf had 6,400 survivors, many of whom were recuperating in hospital with wounds and/or sickness. Hitler authorized an arm shield for the Demiansk Pocket. [Equivalent to a US unit citation] The survivors wore it with pride of course, but were in grief that so many of their comrades had not lived to wear it.

  Thus, another lie. According to SS propaganda the soldiers of the Waffen SS were loyal to Himmler. However, the truth was otherwise. Few SS men had ever been loyal to that schoolmaster-looking chicken farmer Himmler, and the Waffen SS did not agree with Himmler’s opinion that they were no better than the other branches of the SS such as the guards of the SS KZL or the SD or Gestapo, who spent their time bullying the folks back home and who even interfered with Waffen SS personnel on occasion.