Hitler's Bandit Hunters: The SS and the Nazi Occupation of Europe

by Philip W. Blood

  43. Wolf Keilig, Das Deutsche Heer 1939–1945: Gliederung, Einsatz, Stellenbesetzung, (Bad Nauheim, Hans-Henning Podzun, 1956), sections 140–9.

  44. Absolon, Die Wehrmacht, VI.

  45. Georg Tessin und Norbert Kannapin, Waffen-SS und Ordnungspolizei im Kriegseinsatz 1939–1945, (Osnabrück: Biblio Verlag, 2000), 527–666.

  46. The June 1943 Order.

  47. IWM, IMT-7, 8917.

  48. NARA, RG242, T175/128/2654007, SS-Befehl, 21 June 1943.

  49. “Arminius” was the young Germanic tribesman who led an army to victory over the Roman army commanded by Varus at the Battle of the Teutoburger Wald in the 9 AD.

  50. NARA, RG242, A3343-SS0-023, Bach-Zelewski.

  51. NARA, RG242, T175/128/2654007, SS-Befehl, 7 September 1943, hereafter referred to as the September order.

  52. Ibid.

  53. Ibid.

  54. Koehl, Black Corps, 157.

  55. PRO, HW16/1, MSGP 42, February 7, 1943.

  56. TVDB, 65.

  57. Wheeler, “The SS and the Administration of Nazi Occupied Eastern Europe.”

  58. PRO, WO311–359, Statements of German Generals in Italy. Wolff stated, “Hitler nor Himmler ever gave me an order, or intimated to me that the struggle against the partisans was to be used as reason or pretext for the extermination or decimation of the Italian population. They only requested in general and as a deterrent the taking of energetic measures in cases of sabotage and acts of terrorism.”

  59. NARA, BDC, A3343-SS0-010c, Karl Wolff. His full title was Höchste SS-und Polizeiführer Italien, orders dated 23 September 1943.

  60. Gitta Sereny, Into That Darkness: From Mercy Killing to Mass Murder (London: Pimlico, 1995). Thus the leading mass killers of the SS found themselves working one last time together in the Balkans and Italy.

  61. USMT-11, 6713.

  62. TVDB, 65.

  63. Ruth Bettina Birn, “Austrian Higher SS and Police Leaders and Their Participation in the Holocaust in the Balkans,” Holocaust and Genocide Studies 6, 351–72, 1991; Peter R. Black, Ernst Kaltenbrunner: Ideological Soldier of the Third Reich (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984), 178.

  64. NARA, RG242, T175/78/2596827-892, correspondence from Himmler regarding Daluege and his wife’s illness. NARA, RG 319 IRR case file K. Daluege.

  65. Hitler, Mein Kampf, 224.

  66. Albert Speer, The Slave State (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1981), 9.

  67. NCA, document 1919-PS.

  68. Jürgen Huck, “Ausweichstellen und Aktenschicksal des Hauptamtes Ordnungspolizei im 2. Weltkrieg,” in Hans-Joachim Neufeldt, Jürgen Huck, Georg Tessin, Zur Geschichte der Ordnungspolizei 1936–1945, (Koblenz, 1957), 119–27.

  69. TVDB, 62-90.

  70. NCA, document 1919-PS; Himmler’s Posen Speech, October 1943.

  71. Klemperer, The Language of the Third Reich.

  72. Gerhard Hirschfeld, Nazi Rule and Dutch Collaboration: The Netherlands under German Occupation, 1940–1945 (Oxford: Berg, 1988), 17, 211, 221–22.

  73. Goebbels, Diary, 194–318.

  74. PRO, FO 371/30899, case 4948, Embassy Berne to Foreign Office, May 13, 1942.

  75. Joseph Mackiewicz, Murder of Katyn, (London, Hollis& Carter, 1951), 158–9.

  76. NCA, document 1918-PS, Kharkov, April 1943.

  77. Thierfelder, Die Verwaltung der besetzten französischen Gebiete.

  78. Lieber General Order, section I, points 1.

  79. Ibid, section I, points 12.

  80. Ibid, section IV, partisans, armed enemies” point 81.

  81. Lieber, Guerrilla Parties, 22.

  82. Oberkommando d. Wehrmacht, Bandenbekämpfung: Merkblatt 69/2, Berlin, 6. May 1944, hereafter referred to as the 1944 regulations.

  83. BA MA, RL 21/243, office of Oberst Kollee, from the 1 January 1944, folder 20, Ic-situation report (FeldLuftGauKommando XXV Gruppe Ic), January 9–15, 1944.

  84. The 1944 regulations.

  85. BA MA, RW41, Generalkommando Rothkirch, Wehrmachtsbefehlshaber Weissruthenien, various reports, December 1943 to June 1944.

  86. NCA, document L-70, Himmler at Bad Schachen, October 14, 1943, also referred to in Bramstedt, Dictatorship and Political Police, 243.

  87. NCA, document L-70, Himmler at Bad Schachen, October 14, 1943.

  88. Lieber, General Order No. 100, section I, points 23.

  89. The 1944 Regulations, part four, section E, paragraphs 157–62.

  90. PRO, WO208-4294, Lt. Col. Scotland’s papers, Plan Kugel.

  91. Lieber, section I, points 15, 16.

  92. IWM, prisoners of war exhibition, 2004. Document referred to as the “German announcement against escapes.”

  Chapter 5: Die Bandenkampfverbände

  1. Christopher Bellamy, The Evolution of Land Warfare (London: Routledge, 1989).

  2. NARA, BDC, A3343-SS0-023, Bach-Zelewski, letter from Himmler, July 30, 1943.

  3. The 1944 regulations.

  4. NARA, IMT, October 25, 1945 and BZ-IMT-7, 8917.

  5. BZ-IMT, October and November 1945 interrogations.

  6. Martin Van Creveld, Command in War (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1985), 262.

  7. U.S. War Department, Military Intelligence Division, German Military Intelligence 1939–1945 (Washington, D.C.: University Publications of America, 1984).

  8. BA-MA, RH27-1 /98, 1st Panzer Division, general orders August 18–September 10, OKH Nr. 11058/42 Zusammenstellung von Jagdkommandos zur Bandenbekämpfung (August 13, 1942).

  9. Geoffrey P. Megargee, Inside Hitler’s High Command (Lawrence: University of Kansas, 2000), 175.

  10. Reinhard Gehlen, Der Dienst, Erinnerungen, 1942–1971 (Munich: Droemer, 1971).

  11. NARA, RG242, OKW papers, T78, roll 556, Vortragsnotiz: Abrücken jüdischkommunistischer Bandengruppen von Galizien nach Ungarn, March 16, 1944.

  12. U.S. War Department, German Military Intelligence, 13–25.

  13. Ibid, 86–8.

  14. Ibid, appendix 7.

  15. NARA, T1270, roll 23, “The Character of the German General Staff 1925 to 1945,” December 28, 1945.

  16. Ibid, report on the German General Staff by Bogislaw von Bonin, December 28, 1945.

  17. IWM, USMT-7.

  18. NARA, RG242, T175/135/2662194-390, Rundschreiben, Spionage, Sabotage und Politische Zersetzung, August 8, 1942.

  19. BZ-IMT, March 25, 1946.

  20. NCA document 3428-PS, letter from Kube to Lohse, Combating of Partisans and action against Jews in the District General of White Ruthenia, July 31, 1942.

  21. TVDB, 67.

  22. USMT-4, 39–40.

  23. NCA, documents, PS-1786, War diary of the deputy chief of armed forces operations staff, March 14, 1943.

  24. PRO, WO208-4295, Report on German atrocities in Eastern Europe, M.I.9, July 6, 1944.

  25. BZ-USMT, October 26, 1945.

  26. NARA, IMT, October 25, 1945.

  27. NARA, RG242, T175/222/2759241-272, Kriegstagebuch der Abteilung Ia/Mess.

  28. BA MA RW 41/59a/75/58/60 Wehrmachtsbefehlshaber Ukraine, document 191.

  29. BA MA, RW 41//59a/75/58/60 Wehrmachtsbefehlshaber Ukraine, documents 41 and 42.

  30. IWM, German Army Box 3, file number 35849.

  31. Heinz Krampf, FMS, D-257, Protection of the Railroad Lines Brest Litovsk–Gomel and Brest Litovsk–Kovel (1943), (n.d.).

  32. Lawrence Keppie, The Making of the Roman Army: From Republic to Empire (London: BT Batsford, 1984), 190. See also Graham Webster, The Roman Imperial Army of the First and Second Centuries AD (London: Grosvenor, 1969); Roy W. Davies, Service in the Roman Army (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1989); and J. B. Campbell, The Emperor and the Roman Army, 31 BC–AD 235 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984).

  33. Tessin et al., Waffen-SS und Ordnungspolizei, 581.

  34. Ibid., 592–3.

  35. Refer to Gerlach, Kalkulierte Morde, for more detailed examination.

  36. BA R19/281, Hans-Adolf Prützmann HSSPF-Ru
ssland-Süd. Betr. Führung in de Bandenbekämpfung - Tgb. 8/43(g) Geheimen, January 25, 1943.

  37. IWM, Karl Wolff, interrogation Nr. 4573, January 28, 1948.

  38. PRO, HW 16/98, History of the German Police W/T Network, July 1945, 1–2. HW16/93, Police Radio Network, July 18, 1942; HW 16/95, Notes on German Police W/T organization.

  39. NARA, RG238, T1270, roll 31, consolidated interrogations of police operations by U.S. 12th Army, June 4, 1945.

  40. NARA, BDC, A3345-B-170, Die Nachrichtenmittel der Ordnungspolizei, 1940; and, NARA, RG242, T175, roll 16, KSRFSS, Standorte und Nachrichtenverbindung, May 22, 1942.

  41. Ibid.

  42. Wolfgang Sawodny, Die Panzerzüge des Deutschen Reiches 1904–1945 (Freiburg: EK-Verlag, 1996).

  43. The 1944 regulations.

  44. William Green, The Warplanes of the Third Reich (London: Macdonald and Co., 1970), 165–8.

  45. BA-MA, RL10-290, Luftwaffe Flying Operations, JG 54 Kriegstagebuch, November 1942, anti-partisan operations between July 11 and August 11, 1942. The III/KG 55, September 28, 1942 to February 27, 1943, flew Heinkel HE 111 bombers and ME 108 (training aircraft), attacked partisans around Leningrad supporting ground troops.

  46. The 1944 regulations.

  47. Hans-Ulrich Rudel, Trotzdem (Oldendorf, 1981); Raymond F. Tolver and Trevor J. Constable, The Blond Knight of Germany (Blue Ridge Summit, Pa.: Aero Pub., 1985); and Adolf Galland, Die Ersten und die Letzten: Jagdflieger im Zweiten Weltkrieg (Munich: F. Schneekluth, 1953).

  48. Gerhard L. Weinberg, “Airpower in Partisan Warfare,” in John A. Armstrong (ed.), Soviet Partisans in World War II (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1964), 361–88.

  49. Trevor-Roper, Hitler’s War Directives, 197–202.

  50. G. A. Shepperd, “Ground to Air Liaison: Strategy and Tactics,” Purnell’s History of Second World War 8 (1975), 3217–20.

  51. BA-MA RL 35/1, Kriegstagebuch, Hauptmann Christ (Ia), Generalstab der Legion Condor, January 6–June 30, 1938; RL 35/ 12, German staff officers in Spain; RL35/13, Officers serving with S/88 including advisors and civilians; RL35/ 38, Kriegstagebuch General Richtofen.

  52. Johannes Buder, Die Reorganisation der preussischen Polizei 1918–1923 (Frankfurt am Main: Lang, 1986), 99–103.

  53. NARA, RG242, T175/65/2581292, Besprechung Reichsmarschall Göring, Oberst Meister, August 13, 1942.

  54. PRO, HW16/6, MSGP 37, August 11, 1942.

  55. BA NS19/3717, KSRFSS, Betr. Unterstellung und Einsatz der Fliegergruppe z. b.V. 7, September 25, 1943.

  56. BA NS19/1165, KSRFSS, Betr. Einsatz der Flugzeuge des Fliegergeschwaders z.b.V.7, May 27, 1944, Analge 2, Betr. Einsatz der Gruppe mit den zur Zeit zur Verfügung stehenden Flugzeugen.

  57. Ibid, KSRFSS, Betr. Einsatz der Flugzeuge des Fliegergeschwaders z.b.V.7, May 27, 1944, Analge 3, Betr. Standorte und Stärke der einzelnen Staffeln im Endzustand.

  58. BA NS19/1165, KSRFSS, Betr. Einsatz der Flugzeuge des Fliegergeschwaders z.b.V.7, May 27, 1944.

  59. Reitlinger, The SS, 21; Walter Schellenberg, The Schellenberg Memoirs (London: Andre Deutsch, 1956), 68–72; and Padfield, Himmler, 267.

  60. Perry Biddiscombe, “Unternehmen Zeppelin: The Deployment of SS Saboteurs and Spies in the Soviet Union, 1942–1945,” Europe-Asia Studies 52, no. 6 (2000), 1115–42.

  61. NCA document 2939-PS, affidavit Walter Schellenberg, November 17, 1945. NCA document 3838-PS, affidavit Martin Sandberger, November 19, 1945.

  62. TVDB, 62.

  63. Schellenberg, Memoirs, 309–20.

  64. Alexander Dallin and Ralph S. Mavrogordato, “Rodionov: A Case-Study in Wartime Redefection,” The American Slavic and East European Review 1 (1959), 25–33.

  65. PRO, HW16/13, file covering the reaction to the bomb plot, July 20, 1944.

  66. Hans-Peter Klausch, Antifaschisten in SS-Uniform: Schicksal und Widerstand der deutschen politischen KZ-Häftlinge, Zuchthaus-und Wehrmachtstrafgefangenen in der SS-Sonderformation Dirlewanger (Bremen: Edition Temmen, 1993); French MacLean, The Cruel Hunters: SS-Sonderkommando Dirlewanger, Hitler’s Most Notorious Anti-partisan (Atglen, Pa.: Schiffer Military History, 1998).

  67. MacLean, The Cruel Hunters, 42.

  68. Ibid.

  69. Table Talk, 682.

  70. NARA, RG242, BDC A3343-OSS-139B, Otto Skorzeny, correspondence Himmler and Bender April–June 1944.

  71. Ibid, letter, Bender to Himmler, May 13, 1944.

  72. Ibid, letter, Bender to Himmler, April 22, 1944.

  73. Ibid, letter, Bender to Himmler, May 13, 1944.

  74. Stein, Waffen-SS: Hitler’s Elite Guard at War, 291.

  75. Wegner, The Waffen SS, 3.

  76. NARA, RG242, T175/135/149539, SS-Führungshauptamt, Verzeichnis der zuständigen Ersatztruppenteile der Waffen-SS.

  77. NCA, document 1972-PS, Intermediate report on the civilian state of emergency.

  78. NARA, RG319, IRR, investigation of Wilhelm Bittrich, 1945–54.

  79. NARA, RG242, T175/9/2511009-53, various battalions’ correspondence, January–July 1944.

  80. NCA, document L-221, July 1941. Translator’s italics.

  81. PRO, HW16-100, Waffen SS decode reports, Q.18, November 13, 1943; and PRO, WO208-4359, History of the Waffen-SS division: MI.14 notes on the composition and history of the SS divisions.

  82. PRO, WO208-4359, History of the Waffen-SS division: MI.14 notes on the composition and history of the SS divisions. The reports were based upon the interrogations of captured Waffen-SS men.

  83. Tessin et al., Waffen-SS und Ordnungspolizei, 557.

  84. BA R19/103, Schnellbrief, Daluege, Betr. Zusammenfassung der Polizei bzw Res Polizei Bataillon zu Polizei Regimentern und Bestimmung neuer Heimatstandorte, July 9, 1942.

  85. PRO, HW16/6, MSGP 37, August 11, 1942.

  86. NARA, RG242, T175/3/2503430-2, Dienstbesprechung der Befehlshaber und Inspekteure der Ordnungspolizei im Januar 1943 in Berlin.

  87. Tessin et al., Waffen-SS und Ordnungspolizei, 652.

  88. BA R19/94 Rechnung Schutzpolizei, 1944.

  89. BA R19/103, Schnellbrief, Winkelmann, Betr. Neuaufstellung der SS Polizei-Regimenter 14, 15, 26 and Todt, April 6, 1943.

  90. BA R19/111, 23 November 1943, CdO, Schnellbrief, Betr. Aufstellung des Polizei-Schütz Regiments 37.

  91. BA, R19/331, Polizei Panzer Ersatz Abteilung Wien, August 23, 1944. See also Ruggenberg.

  92. NARA, RG242, T175/199/2740020-60, formation of the Police Battalion 311.

  93. Ibid, Schnellbrief: Aufstellung von Polizei-Wach-Bataillon, CdO, September 9, 1942.

  94. BA R19/91, report on manpower wastages in the Verwaltungspolizei, Sicherheitspolizei and Schutzpolizei, September 17, 1942.

  95. NARA, RG242, T175/3/2503379-416, Dienstbesprechung der Befehlshaber und Inspekteure der Ordnungspolizei im Januar 1943, in Berlin. Bericht des Chefs der Ordnungspolizei, über den Kräfte-und Kriegseinsatz der Ordnungspolizei im Kriegsjahre 1942.

  96. Tessin et al., Waffen-SS und Ordnungspolizei, 652–3.

  97. Ibid., 652–3.

  98. NARA, RG242, T175/9/2511009-53, various battalions” correspondence, January -July 1944.

  99. Michael O. Logusz, Galicia Division: The Waffen-SS 14th Grenadier Division 1943–1945 (Atglen, Pa.: Schiffer Military History, 1997), 52–6.

  100. Ibid., 56–9

  101. PRO, WO208-4359, History of the Waffen-SS division: MI.14 notes on the composition and history of the SS divisions.

  102. NARA, RG242, T175/222/2759241–9715, SS order, June 21, 1943.

  103. NCA, document 498-PS, Hitler’s Commando order, October 18, 1942.

  104. NCA, documents 503-PS Hitler’s statement on the changing nature of the war.

  105. The 1944 regulations.

  106. Bartov, Hitler’s Army, 59–105.

  107. CMH, SHAEF G2 Reports, “The Allgemeine-SS,” Annexe L Hauptamt SS Gericht, 1945.

  108. NARA, RG242, BDC, A3343-SS0-023, Bach-Zelewski, letter to Kurt Daluege, January 8, 1943; and IWM, RFSS
papers, Chef des Generalstabes des Heeres, Auszug: aus einem Bericht des Ia der 365 JD über die Kämpfe bei der 8. italienischen Armee, March 23, 1943.