Dirlewanger: Commander of the bloodiest unit in the Third Reich

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-31 08:38

The commander of the bloodiest unit of the Third Reich, SS Oberfuehrer Dirlewanger was an outstanding war criminal: his name became synonymous with atrocious violence.

Oskar Dirlewanger: maniac and patriot

The history of the main penalty box of Nazi Germany began in Lower Franconia. On the morning of September 26, 1895, the fourth child was born to the family of a wealthy sales agent from Würzburg, August Dirlewanger and Pauline Herrlinger. The newborn boy was named Oscar-Paul.

According to the stories of the future SS Oberfuehrer himself, peace and harmony reigned in the family, his father was a modest, educated and calm person. The family had Swabian roots and Oskar himself was very distinguished by the Swabian dialect.

As a child, the future bloodthirsty punisher had no behavior problems. Discipline was no stranger to him. In 1900, the family moved to Stuttgart, and five years later to the suburb of Esslingen.

Oskar Dirlewanger successfully graduated from high school, received a matriculation certificate and was ready to enter the university. But before entering a higher educational institution, Dirlewanger decided to go to serve in the Kaiser's army as a volunteer.

A year before the outbreak of the First World War, he ended up in the machine-gun company of the 123rd Grenadier King Charles Regiment. The entrant actually paid for uniforms and writing himself, served for only a year, and at the end of the service, for exceptional success, he could receive the rank of non-commissioned officer.

German machine gun crew. Source: pinterest.com

Oskar Dirlewanger quickly joined the army team and successfully mastered the basics of military service. The outbreak of the First World War adjusted his personal plans: on August 2, 1914, Dirlewanger, with the rank of non-commissioned officer of the Kaiser's army, was already on his way to the border with Belgium. Already on August 13, the unit in which Dirlewanger fought entered fierce battles near Longwy, then in Lorraine and Luxembourg, and in the fall the 123rd regiment fought in the Meuse.

On April 14, 1915, Oskar Dirlewanger was promoted to lieutenant and was appointed platoon commander, and after September 1916 he became a machine gun instructor at the headquarters of the 7th Württemberg Landwehr Division. In April 1917, he returned to the front again and took command of the 2nd machine-gun company of the 123rd regiment. During the war, he received a number of serious injuries from bayonet blows, bullets to the legs and shoulders, and from a saber to the head.

During the military campaigns of 1914-1918. received the Iron Cross of the first and second class, as well as the Württemberg gold medal "For Courage". On December 29, 1918, the battalion in which Lieutenant Oskar Dirlewanger served was demobilized. The way home was not easy: since November 1918, combat units went to Germany through Ukraine, Romania and Hungary. In this exodus of the Kaiser's army, thanks to the actions of Lieutenant Dirlewanger, 600 soldiers escaped internment in Romania.

Revolutionary German posters. Source: pinterest.com

After returning from the front, observing the transformations in German post-war society, Dirlewanger joins the freikor, and later ends up in the Reichswehr. Already in 1920, he took part in the suppression of communist uprisings in cities in southwestern Germany.

Dirlewanger even commanded an armored train: in the spring of 1921, his armored personnel took part in the liberation of the city of Sangerhausen from the gang of anarcho-communists Max Gölz. In April of the same year, he was again wounded in the head and a little later thundered into prison for two weeks for organizing an illegal ammunition depot.

Appeal to the proletarians by Max Gölz. Source: pinterest.com

In 1919, Oskar Dirlewanger entered the Higher Technical School in Mannheim. Between the battles with the communists, it was not very productive to study, but Dirlewanger was able to find for himself neo-romantic and populist ideas that brought him closer to nationalism. He was expelled from school in Mannheim for anti-Semitic agitation.

But he found himself a place at the University of Frankfurt am Main. Dirlewanger studied economics and law: in 1922 he already defended his doctoral dissertation, in which he criticized the ideas of planned management of the economy. On October 1, Oskar Dirlewanger joins the NSDAP and goes to work at the bank.

While living in Stuttgart, he met a man named Gottlob Christian Berger. This fellow countryman and brother in arms "/>

Gottlob Christian Berger. Source: pinterest.com

Nevertheless, Dirlewanger still worked in a number of companies: he was a tax consultant, an executive director, and was in charge of financial affairs. The owners of the company Cornicker in Erfurt, where he worked, were Jews. He shamelessly carried out a series of financial frauds, the funds from which went to the formation of the assault troops of the Nazi Party in the region. In 1932, he himself, in the SA, makes a number of attacks on political opponents.

The coming to power of the NSDAP on January 30, 1933 gave Dirlewanger, as a "veteran of the movement", a working position at the Heilbronn labor exchange. Over time, he became deputy director. But gradually the merits of the "old soldier" began to fade against the background of constant complaints from party colleagues and stormtroopers: he was considered a troublemaker, talker and drunkard.

After a buffet table on the occasion of his being awarded the title of honorary citizen of Sangerhausen, Dirlewanger drove drunk on a car ride around Halbronn. Having arranged two accidents, he decided to escape from the crime scene. His reputation was badly damaged by his connection with a thirteen-year-old girl from the "Union of German Girls". Dirlewanger's opponents in the party accused him of regular sexual assault against girls from the organization.

Oskar Dirlewanger lost his job, membership in the National Socialist Party, was stripped of honorary titles and doctoral degrees. He was sent to jail for 2 years.

Dirlewanger: the bloody career of the SS Oberführer in the Third Reich

Attempts to force a review of the criminal case ended in nothing: after leaving prison, Oskar Dirlewanger thundered into the Welzheim concentration camp. By submitting a complaint to Himmler, on March 10, 1937, Dirlewanger's comrade Gottlob Berger secured his release from the camp.

As an opportunity to atone for their guilt, the penalty box was sent to the Condor legion, which took part in the Spanish Civil War on the side of the Falangist forces. In November, it was decided to recall him due to accusations of political unreliability. However, the matter was settled and returned to the Condor again and stayed in Spain until May 1939.

The Condor Legion on parade. Source: pinterest.com

On April 30, 1940, he obtained a review of his case at the Stuttgart Regional Court and all charges were dropped. The NSDAP membership card and doctorate in economics were returned to Dirlewanger. On June 22, 1940, Oskar Dirlewanger was transferred to the SS.

He was entrusted with assembling a special team of those convicted of armed poaching. This is how the story of the Oranienburg poaching team began, which would later become the Dirlewanger special battalion of the SS. Initially, Dirlewanger's subordinates guarded concentration camp prisoners and took part in punitive operations against Polish partisans and underground fighters.

These penalty boxers showed unprecedented brutality in the fight against their opponent. Robbery and extortion were commonplace. During the deployment of the team in Poland, Dirlewanger received frequent complaints about his drunkenness and connections with Jewish girls. An old friend Gottlob Berger helped to escape prison.

Soldiers of the special SS battalion "Dirlewanger". Source: pinterest.com

Iron discipline reigned in the unit: Dirlewanger sought maximum obedience. Oskar Dirlewanger's "Disciplinary Regulations" presupposed severe punishments: for misconduct - from 25 blows with a stick, open disobedience - shooting.

For cowardice in battle, they were also sentenced to death. Although robberies were punished by the high command, the mood in the special battalion changed quite often: the commander turned a blind eye to such actions, then he shot the extortionists on the spot.

Soldiers of the special battalion SS "Dirlewanger" during the raid. Source: pinterest.com

In 1942 the battalion was transferred to Mogilev. In Belarus, the unit fought fiercely against partisan detachments, rampaged in peaceful settlements and "put things in order" in Jewish ghettos.

The Sonderkommando often uncovered small groups of partisans and together with them shot their accomplices - about 100 people, residents of villages and villages. On June 15, 1942, the personnel of the Sonderkommando took part in the burning of the village of Borki.

Gradually, the team was replenished from auxiliary police units, in which Russians, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Belarusians served.

The Dirlewanger unit already included a Russian company and a Ukrainian platoon. During the stay of the special battalion on the territory of Belarus, about 180 punitive operations were carried out. On March 22, 1943, Dirlewanger poachers participated in the burning of the village of Khatyn. Very often the partisans reported that they had managed to destroy the commander of the most brutal SS unit, but these were all fantasies.

After the village was burned down. Source: pinterest.com

In the battles with the Red Army, the battalion had already suffered significant losses, and a criminal of all stripes and outright "asocials" were involved in the service. But Dirlewanger tried to replenish his unit from former Wehrmacht soldiers and demoted SS men.

In 1943, SS Obersturmbannführer Dr. Oskar Dirlewanger was awarded the German Cross in Gold for military service. High awards and positions only contributed to moral decay: in Logoisk castle, the commander more than once arranged drunken orgies. The women were exchanged for 2 bottles of schnapps.

By the summer of 1944, the Dirlewanger unit had already become a regiment, and on August 12, the commander was promoted to SS Oberführer. But the offensive of the Red Army within the framework of Operation Bagration forced the punitive detachments to hastily retreat to Poland. For the special regiment of Dirlewanger, everything went more or less successfully: they retreated, but with small losses.

Dirlewanger unit decals. Source: pinterest.com

On August 4, 1944, 365 Dirlewanger fighters arrived to suppress the Warsaw Uprising. Drunken mobs of a special SS command brutally cracked down on the rebels, but at the same time suffered tangible losses. The "Wolska massacre", human shields of women and children, executions in virtually every street in Warsaw, drunkenness and brawl - the list of "merits" of the detachments of the special SS regiment "Dirlewanger" can be continued.

In September 1944, Slovakia also revolted: the enlarged special brigade of the SS "Dirlewanger" "/>

Victims of the Warsaw Uprising. Source: pinterest.com

On February 14, 1945, when the Third Reich was already fighting in agony, a special brigade was deployed to the 36th SS Waffen Grenadier Division. In the same month, Oskar Dirlewanger himself is admitted to the hospital: a minor injury aggravated his health, because old scars also made themselves felt. There was very little time left to fight. The division will defend Berlin, but will not withstand the onslaught of the Red Army.

On April 29, 1945, the remnants of Dirlewanger's division escaped from Berlin and headed for Magdeburg. There, on May 3, a decision was made to dissolve the unit.

Captured soldiers of SS units. Source: pinterest.com

Oscar Paul Dirlewanger: Death of the Punisher

In March 1945, Dirlewanger was still in Berlin. Then he drove into his father's house in Essligen and took out some of the things from there. The SS Oberführer met April in Bavaria, in Allgäu.

There he hid in a hunting estate where SS soldiers worked. But in May 1945, in the city of Alsthausen, Oskar Dirlewanger was detained by French soldiers. "Poacher" was once again in a prison cell. He did not have the proper documents with him and was identified by a Jew.

Prison guards (mostly Poles) quickly realized who they were guarding: they often carried out brutal reprisals against inmates and Dirlewanger himself. On the night of June 4-5, 1945, as part of another preventive beating, Oskar Dirlewanger was killed.

For a long time, there were many rumors that the famous commander of the penalty box was alive: he either prepared the Arabs for war with Israel, then fought in Indochina in the French legion, or was an adviser to NATO.

Sources of

• Blood P. W. Hitler's Bandit Hunters: the SS and tha Nazi Occupation of Eu rope. Washington, D. C.: Potomac Books, Inc., 2008.
• Stang K. Karrieren der Gewalt. Nationalsozialistische Täterbiographien // Dr. Oskar Dirlewanger - Protagonist der Terrorkriegsführung. - Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2004.
• Zhukov D. A., Kovtun I. I. Hunters for partisans. Dirlewanger's brigade. - M.: Veche, 2013.
• Pishenkov A. A. SS Penalties. Sonderkommando "Dirlewanger". M.: Yauza-Press, 2009. Tokarev M. Operation "Dirlewanger" / "For the glory of the Motherland", 1994. N 127 (22110), July 14.

Alexey Medved