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

by J. Lee Ready

  Late in March the army diverted its 4th and 5th Panzer Divisions to help the 131st Infantry Division, 190th StuG Brigade and 5th SS Wiking Panzer Division to advance towards Kowel, and at last on 5 April this joint SS-army offensive reached Gille and his trapped defenders. Over the next week the situation was stabilized and only now could the SS Wiking be withdrawn for a real rest.

  However, the Soviets were now attacking somewhere everyday and one of these assaults drove the SS Totenkopf further back to the Dniestr River on the Romanian border.

  The 4th SS Polizei Motorized Division was shocked when the highly decorated Sturmbannfuehrer Wilhelm Dietrich was killed in action.

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  Come April Steiner’s corps of the 11th SS Nordland Panzergrenadier Division and 4th SS Nederland Panzergrenadier Brigade was still holding Narva. The SS Nederland currently had 6,305 personnel and 432 hiwis, having suffered 3,723 killed and wounded between 1 January and 13 April. The SS Nordland had suffered about 35% losses. Its 1st SS Danmarck Regiment had a new commander, Obersturmbannfuehrer Albrecht Kruegel, a German who had been commanding a battalion of the SS Norge Regiment.

  In order to keep a modicum of strength Steiner’s two SS units had drawn replacements from wherever, regardless of nationality. The 9th and 10th Luftwaffe Field Divisions had been disbanded, and their 1,200 survivors were divided among the corps, a third going to the SS Nederland and two thirds to the SS Nordland. Some insisted on remaining in the Luftwaffe, but most were inducted into the SS.

  Also this month the 5th SS Wallonie Sturmbrigade saw action at Raval. And near Zhitomir the 6th SS Langemarck Sturmbrigade was severely hurt by Soviet assaults, so much so that it was sent to the Czech Protectorate to recuperate. The Langemarck soldiers commented that when the Walloons needed a rest they were sent home to Belgium, but the Langemarck troops were not sent home to Belgium but to the Czech Protectorate!

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  Obviously the creation of the 14th SS Galizien Grenadier Division was an embarrassment to the Soviets, whose propaganda claimed all Ukrainians loved Stalin, and as a result they sent Communist assassins to kill anyone linked with its recruitment. In February 1944 in Lwow these assassins murdered Otto Bayer, one of the German recruiters. Members of the division gave him a military funeral.

  Realizing that a large band of Communist partisans must be operating near Lwow, and that the SD and Gestapo of SSPF Brigadefuehrer Theobald Thier would not or could not do anything about this, the division organized a task force named SS Battlegroup Beyersdorff to root them out, commanded by Obersturmbannfuehrer Friedrich Beyersdorff, and in deep snow these Ukrainians trudged and stumbled forward in the countryside until fired upon. Then the battle began. For most of these ‘Ukies’ it was their first taste of combat. One platoon was ambushed and suffered badly. But most of the partisans were sick, starving, cold and lightly armed or unarmed and were willing to give up. The Ukrainians found no glory in this type of warfare.

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  Hitler was very relieved that Italy had been saved as an Axis partner. He had lost France in effect when the largest part of the French armed forces joined the Allies in November 1942, and he had lost the Danes in August 1943. However, early in 1944 he found out that he was going to lose Hungary too, as that nation’s dictator, Miklos Horthy, was negotiating with the Allies. The Fuehrer responded at once and on 19 March 1944 his troops suddenly invaded Hungary. One of the invading units was the 16th SS Reichsfuehrer Panzergrenadier Division [minus those parts in Italy]. There is evidence that the 18th SS Horst Wessel Panzergrenadier Division, training in nearby Croatia, also sent a task force into Hungary.

  Rather than fight Hitler Horthy backed down and let the Germans have their way. Himmler took advantage of this new arrangement and sent an SS lawyer Obergruppenfuehrer Otto Winkelman to Hungary as HSSPF. He also sent Eichmann and Dannecker with the mission of organizing the deportation of the nation’s 750,000 Jews. Eichmann was concerned because he had few personnel and knew he would have to call upon the Arrow Cross, i.e. Hungary’s fascist militia, and he would also need help from the Hungarian police. He did not know what to expect when he informed them of his mission. But he need not have worried, because he received excellent cooperation, with one alteration: Horthy insisted that the Jews in the capital city of Budapest should be left alone for the time being.

  Waffen SS recruiters also arrived in Hungary and they conscripted all Volksdeutsch males aged 17-45, even those already serving in the Hungarian Army. Horthy’s protests were feeble.

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  In March 1944 the 4th SS Polizei Motorized Division was transferred to Salonika, Greece. The fear of being sent to the Eastern Front was suddenly gone, with a great sigh of relief. Now commanded by Brigadefuehrer Herbert Vahl, the division was also redesignated ‘panzergrenadier’, though its firepower did not increase all that much. However, with this reinforcement the Axis powers in Greece felt strong enough to begin a major anti-partisan operation using not only this division, but troops of the German Army, Luftwaffe infantry, German police battalions, Bulgarian infantry, Italian hiwis and kawis, the 845th Arab Battalion of the German Army, and the Greek Security Battalions made up of Greeks who admired the Nazi-style.

  The SS RSHA also got in on the act, shooting dead 21 strikers in Piraeus harbor and incarcerating 132.

  The partisan war in Greece soon became every bit as bloody as in Russia. Entire villages were burned and their populations arrested. Innocent men were shot down by the hundreds. Convoys were ambushed, barracks sniped at, sentries stabbed and equipment sabotaged. No quarter was given nor expected. In one incident partisans attacked a hospital killing eighty Axis wounded.

  The Germans were forced to bring in more troops - Caucasus Moslems, Tatars, Poles and Czechs - many of whom were assigned to the new Provisional Salonika Division.

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  By January 1944 in Yugoslavia those Italians who had opposed the Nazis had either been killed or captured or had joined Tito. The latter was wise to accept them, and he felt quite bolstered now, for his Italian recruits had brought their weapons, ammunition, artillery and armored vehicles with them.

  The 7th SS Prinz Eugen Mountain Division, now commanded by thirty-four year old Oberfuehrer Otto Kumm, was soon in action again, as was every Axis unit in Yugoslavia. In fact Himmler authorized the creation of the V SS Mountain Corps using many of the SS Prinz Eugen’s officers to make up its staff. Gruppenfuehrer Phleps would command. Himmler gave Phleps responsibility for the Sarajevo area of Bosnia and in addition to the SS Prinz Eugen he would have control of the German Army 1st Mountain, 118th Jaeger and 181st Infantry Divisions plus the Croatian Army’s 369th Division. Phleps soon began launching major sweeps of the mountains looking for partisans.

  The 13th SS Handschar Mountain Division now came back to their homeland to join the anti-partisan struggle.

  To keep the German police units in Yugoslavia up to strength they were sent replacements – Volksdeutsch from Bulgaria and Albania.

  In April Himmler formed yet another formation, the 21st SS Skanderbeg Mountain Division, named after a 15th century Albanian Christian general who betrayed his Moslem ruler. It is ironic Himmler chose this name for the division. Its members were Moslems recruited from Bosnia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Albania, many of whom had been serving in Mussolini-sponsored militias. Oberfuehrer August Schmidhuber was placed in command, and the cadre was provided by transferring some officers from the 13th SS Handschar Mountain Division. With hindsight this was not a good move, for it left the still new Handschar with insufficient management.

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  In April 1944 the 1st SS LAH Panzer Division was directed to France to rest and take in new replacements. New blood was sorely needed, for by now the division could muster no more than two or three tanks, four StuGs and 1,219 fit personnel!

  This month Dietrich’s I SS Panzer Corps with its one combat unit [12th SS HJ Panzer Division] was also transferred to France. Everyone was tal
king of the coming Anglo-American invasion of the French Atlantic coast. It might come any day now. The attitude of these German soldiers was different than that of the Allies. The British Tommies and American GIs had been told they would be liberating the French people, but by spring 1944 France had been fighting against the British for four years, against the Soviets for three years and against the Americans for two years, losing ships, planes and blood, not to mention much colonial territory, and French flak gunners were at this very moment shooting at Anglo-American bombers, while thousands of ordinary French civilians were being slaughtered by badly aimed Anglo-American bombs. Therefore, the German soldiers looked upon the French people as friends and partners. They had been told by Goebbels that they would be defending the soil of an ally when the invasion came, just as if they were defending Finland or Romania. With irony when the battle did begin both sides would be fighting for the liberation of the French people. Neither side asked the French people what they thought.

  Brigadefuehrer Fritz Witt was ordered to send more than 2,000 of his young SS HJ soldiers to Teddy Wisch’s SS LAH as replacements, but he did not complain too much, for this still left him with 20,500 men in his division, making it one of the largest in Hitler’s forces. Some of his men were veterans like Hauptsturmfuehrer Siegfried Siegel an excellent StuG and tank commander, but the majority were seventeen- and eighteen-year old conscripts.

  To be thrust into soldiering at such a young age is difficult and can be terrifying, but unlike American teenagers these German boys had been under Allied air attack since age thirteen, and had all received a modicum of military training while in the Hitler Youth [Hitler’s boy scouts], which was mandatory for all kids. Most had done uniformed government labor in the RAD, which sent boys as far afield as Russia. Some had been serving as mail carriers, hunting for addresses amid bombed out ruins. Some had served in armed hunting teams searching for downed Allied airmen and escaped prisoners of war. Others had been fighting since their fifteenth year as members of flak gun crews. Many were eager to fight the British and Americans to avenge the death of family members killed in Allied air raids.

  Witt may have had plenty of teenagers, but he was so short of officers that he was forced to make the drastic step of asking the army for the loan of some fifty officers! So much for the Fuehrer’s propaganda that the SS HJ Division was an all-volunteer force. Another lie.

  Whenever possible Witt grabbed experienced NCOs to stiffen his youngsters. One such was the veteran tank NCO Kurt Bogensperger, who had been promoted five times since joining the SS LAH. Witt had him transferred to the SS HJ. His immediate superiors sensed officer material, so in spring 1944 Bogensperger was put through a quick officer’s course and by May he was a sturmfuehrer leading a tank platoon in Rudolf von Ribbentrop’s company and still only aged nineteen.

  The transfer of personnel between the SS LAH and the SS HJ was facilitated by the fact that once in France Dietrich was given control of both divisions. Besides receiving 2,000 youngsters from Witt’s division, Wisch was gathering strength by receiving thousands of conscripts and welcoming back the ‘old hares’ returning from hospital, military schools and leave. Furthermore, Hitler sent him hundreds of Luftwaffe ground crewmen and Kriegsmarine sailors. So much for Himmler’s impeccable SS recruitment standards. More lies.

  Wisch was fortunate that like Witt he was able to acquire some experienced commanders to lead his regiments: Rudolf Sandig - a veteran combat leader, Jochen Peiper - a man of legendary exploits in the invasion of France and Greece and long service in Russia and still only twenty-nine, and Albert Frey, who had fought with the SS LAH since the invasion of Poland, who was in his thirtieth year. The proud veteran Gustav Knittel would lead Wisch’s reconnaissance battalion.

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  In March 1944 Himmler made inroads into the POW empire. Namely he managed to persuade Hitler to agree that all enemy officers and senior NCOs that had escaped from POW camps would no longer be returned to prison once recaptured but would be turned over to the Gestapo for execution. But Hitler excluded members of the US and British Commonwealth forces from the new law. In violation of Hitler’s ruling the Gestapo shot fifty recaptured British prisoners in one ‘aktion‘.

  In spring 1944 more senseless race laws were passed by Hitler, resulting in Himmler’s orders to the Gestapo to arrest all 1st degree Mischlings and all Aryans who had refused to divorce their Jewish or 1st degree Mischling spouses. The arrested victims were sentenced to serve in slave labor battalions of the OT, where they were guarded by OT Schutzkommando. Their duties varied, but included building defensive positions in the east in order to keep back the Red Army, constructing flak towers and air raid shelters in Germany, and working on the Atlantic Wall, i.e. the shore defenses of western France. Some were jailed in actual slave labor camps. Himmler publicly supported this move, but privately he felt that it was wrong if the person in question was already performing military service. He knew that some of his SS personnel were 1st degree Mischlings and that others were married to Jews or Mischlings, and he wanted to keep them. So he made some ‘exceptions’ to this law.

  The German Army also wanted to keep those of its personnel who fit into these categories. E.g. General Gotthard Heinrici not only remained at his post, but also remained in Hitler’s favor, despite having refused to divorce his 1st degree Mischling wife. Furthermore, his 2nd degree Mischling son continued to serve as a junior officer.

  It was obviously a terrible blow to those people who could not gain an exemption from this new law, terrible that is except for one small group of people, namely those who had already been sent to a concentration camp for some sort of political offence. The Gestapo were so thorough in their robot-like fulfillment of this law that they combed the concentration camps for inmates who fit these categories and organized truck and rail transports to take them to the new OT labor battalions, which was in fact a godsend for the prisoners, for as bad as the labor battalions were, they were not nearly as fatal as a sentence to a concentration camp. Moreover, many a kommandant of a slave labor camp or concentration camp took advantage of the law to rid himself of a few souls in order to alleviate overcrowding. Thus homosexuals, criminals and Gypsy Mischlings were thrown onto these transports too, though they did not fit the category of the law.

  Hitler, heavily influenced by now by his personal secretary Martin Bormann, ordered the armed forces to discharge all 2nd degree Mischlings. The German Army, Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe ignored the order. Even Himmler refused to discharge his Waffen SS soldiers who fit this category, though he did complain that the other branches of the armed forces were not obeying the decree.

  Despite the fact that he often flaunted Hitler’s decrees, Himmler was still in favor with the Fuehrer and able to extend his empire. In May 1944 he gained control of the OT labor camps [a little victory over Speer the Fuehrer’s favorite], and he placed the SS WVHA in command of them. Despite this change in ownership, some inmates of these OT camps had a relatively good life. Working hours were not too oppressive. They often times had no guards. The workers consisted of volunteers, forced labor and slaves. The latter had few rights if any, but the forced labor had many rights. Both volunteer workers and forced labor often helped guard the work sites against sabotage, carrying rifles. Forced labor workers were also paid, kept in a respectable clean uniform and had Sundays off, during which they could leave the camp for a cinema or a stroll in the park!

  In some camps and work sites the slaves were treated almost as well as forced labor. Yet, at other OT camps and work sites slaves were guarded night and day by the OT Schutzkommando or army soldiers or Luftwaffe soldiers or Werkschutz, and were treated like criminals. They were overworked, underfed and wore cast off worn out civilian clothing or even prison garb. Still other camps were guarded by the SS KZL and the inmates were treated like inhuman objects. The SS WVHA did not appear to have any homogeneity or any real say in what went on. It all depended on the managerial style of the camp kommandant!


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  Soon Himmler also gained control of all prisoner of war camps, which boded ill for these inmates. However, he could not spare any SS to guard these millions of POWS, so the Army, Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe guards remained, and when possible they ignored or watered down the latest order from Himmler.

  This spring the SS KZL opened Kulmhof extermination center again, owing to a new influx of people eligible for ‘special treatment’, many of them Greek Jews.

  In April 1944 3,800 Jewish men, women and children, who hitherto had been protected at Theresienstadt owing to their fame or usefulness, were taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau to be executed. In May 1944 Rudolf Hoess returned to Auschwitz with orders from Himmler to oversee the extermination of Hungary’s Jews. Adolf Eichmann arrived to confer with Hoess. This would warrant a massive ‘aktion’, he confessed. A week later the Hungarian Jews began to arrive by train, about 60,000 per week.

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  By May 1944 the Waffen SS was making a significant contribution to the front line effort. The 1st SS LAH Panzer, 12th SS HJ Panzer and 17th SS GvB Panzergrenadier Divisions were in northern France, where an invasion was expected any day. The 2nd SS Das Reich Panzer Division and a company of the 102nd SS Heavy Panzer Detachment were in southern France, in case an invasion came here. However, Brigadefuehrer Ostendorff, the commander of the SS GvB was worried as he still only had one third of his division with him.

  Another concern was Allied air raids in France. They were becoming impudent. Hauptsturmfuehrer Rudolf von Ribbentrop was wounded when his car was strafed on a French road by an enemy fighter in broad daylight. This was bad enough, but accidental losses were considered worse. E.g. Sturmbannfuehrer Walter Kniep the Das Reich’s StuG commander was accidentally shot!