Oskar Dirlewanger

Oskar Paul Dirlewanger
Oskar Dirlewanger as an SS-Oberführer, 1944.
Born	26 September 1895 Würzburg
Died	June 5, 1945(1945-06-05) (aged 49) Altshausen
Allegiance	German Empire (to 1918) Weimar Republic (to 1922) Third Reich (1936-1945)
Service/branch	Deutsches Heer Freikorps Condor Legion Waffen-SS
Rank	SS-Oberführer der Reserve
Commands held	SS-Sturmbrigade Dirlewanger
Battles/wars	World War I German Revolution Spanish Civil War World War II
Awards	Iron Cross 2nd Class 1914 & 1939 Iron Cross 1st Class 1914 & 1939 Württemburg Bravery Medal in Gold Spanish Campaign Medal Spanish Military Service Cross Spanish Cross in Silver German Cross in Gold Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross Close Combat Clasp (Bronze) Wound Badge in Gold Slovak War Victory Cross Order[1]

Oskar Paul Dirlewanger (26 September 1895, Würzburg – 5 June 1945, Altshausen) was a World War II officer of the SS who commanded the SS-Sturmbrigade Dirlewanger, a penal battalion composed of German criminals. Together with the German SS-Brigade Kaminski, the SS-Sturmbrigade Dirlewanger is regarded as one of the most notorious German military units due to its crimes against humanity, including mass murder of civilians in the Wola suburb during the Warsaw Uprising.

Early life

Oskar Dirlewanger was an infantry officer in World War I and won both the Iron Cross 2nd Class and the Iron Cross 1st Class. His military service was seen as exemplary^{[citation needed]} by German authorities, as he was known for his considerable bravery in battle (having been wounded six times^[2]) and always led his troops from the front^{[citation needed]}. During World War II, he was awarded a host of additional medals including the clasp to the Iron Cross 2nd Class, The Balkan Cross, and the German Cross in Gold. He was awarded the Knight's Cross in 1944.

After the end of World War I, he joined different Freikorps volunteer militias and fought in Ruhr; Saxony; and Upper Silesia. Between his militant employment, he studied at the university in Frankfurt and obtained a degree in political science in 1922.^[3] The following year, he joined the NSDAP. His party number was #1,098,716 and, later, SS #357,267.

Freikorps

He fought against a left wing general strike in 1919, and served with the Freikorps in the cities of Backnang, Kornwestheim, Esslingen, Untertürkheim (Stuttgart), Aalen, Schorndorf, and Heidenheim near Stuttgart, in the Ruhr at Dortmund and Essen in 1920 and in eastern Germany in 1920 and 1921.^[4] He served in Freikorps Epp, Freikorps Haas, Freikorps Sprösser and Freikorps Holz during this period. ^{[5] [6]} He commanded an armoured troop manned by students, set up by him under the Württemberg "Highway Watch". ^{[7] [8]} After the Kapp Putsch had been defeated, the "Ruhr Red Army"^{[clarification needed]} controlled large parts of the Ruhr area. Reichswehr-Brigade 13 under General Haas and the Sprösser Volunteers were sent against them. Workers from Daimler-Benz in Untertürkheim (Stuttgart) tried to prevent the movement by rail of these units, but Dirlewangers armoured troop intervened, thus permitting the transport of the Reichswehr units. The troop was also deployed in Dortmund, Iserlohn and Essen.

During the Reichswehr's regime of "White Terror" there was a massacre in Pelkum caused by Reichswehr-Schützen-Brigade 21 (previously known as Freikorps Epp) and Reichswehr-Schützen-Regiment 41. "Dirlewanger" armoured troop IV was also involved in this fighting. On Easter Sunday 1921 the troops moved towards Sangershausen, which had been occupied by Max Hoelz and his workers during the uprising.^{[9] [10]} An attack by Dirlewanger failed, and the workers succeeded in cutting off the troops. After the latter were reinforced during the night, the workers withdrew from the town. The troops then wreaked revenge on the remaining workers. During this operation, Dirlewanger was grazed on the head by a gunshot. After the NSDAP gained power, Dirlewanger was celebrated as a "liberator" by the Nazis, ^[11] and a square in the town was named after him and he received "honorary citizen".

Pre-War

He held various jobs, which included working at a bank, a knit-wear factory,^[3] and as a teacher.^{[citation needed]} In 1934, he was convicted of the rape of a 13-year-old BDM girl, illegal use of a government vehicle, and damaging said vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. For these crimes he was sentenced to two years imprisonment. Dirlewanger then lost his job, his doctor title and all military honors. He was also expelled from the NSDAP. Soon after his release, he was arrested again on similar charges. He was sent to the Welzheim concentration camp, as was standard practice for deviant sexual offenders in Germany at the time;^[12] but he was released and reinstated as a Colonel in the General SS Reserve following the personal intervention of his friend, and later SS-Obergruppenführer, Gottlob Berger, the head of the SS-Hauptamt (Central Command Office) and long-time personal friend of Heinrich Himmler, with the stipulation that he intended to travel to Spain to fight in the Condor Legion against the anti-Axis forces in the Spanish Civil War.^[3]

Dirlewanger served with the Condor Legion from 1936 to 1939 and was wounded three times.^{[citation needed]} Both times he was considered a model soldier and was well thought of in military circles. Following further intervention on his behalf by his patron Berger, he successfully petitioned to have his case reconsidered in light of his service in Spain.^[13] Dirlewanger was reinstated into the Nazi party, albeit with a higher party number. His doctorate was also restored by the University of Frankfurt.

World War II

At the beginning of the Second World War Dirlewanger volunteered for the Waffen-SS and received the rank of Obersturmführer. He eventually became the commander of the so-called Dirlewanger Battalion, composed originally of a small group of former poachers along with soldiers of a more conventional background. It was believed that the excellent tracking and shooting skills of the poachers could be put to constructive use in the fight against Communist partisans.^{[citation needed]}

The battalion was assigned to anti-partisan duties first in occupied Poland (General Government), where Dirlewanger had previously served as an SS-TV commandant of an SS labor camp in Dzików.

In February 1942, the battalion was reassigned for anti-partisan duties in Belarus. Dirlewanger was known to lead his soldiers into combat personally which was unusual for someone of his rank; he was wounded many times in combat.^{[citation needed]} Dirlewanger received the clasp to his Iron Cross 2nd Class on May 24, 1942, and that to his Iron Cross 1st Class on September 16, 1942, and received the German Cross in Gold on December 5, 1943, in recognition of his regiment's successes during this time (such as Operation Cottbus, the destruction of the partisan pseudo-state "Lake Pelik Autonomous Republic" and a claimed body count of 14,000 partisans). Atrocities committed by Dirlewanger included injecting strychnine into Jewish women prisoners to watch them convulse to death in front of him and his officers for entertainment.^[14]

Dirlewanger's primary patron in the SS hierarchy was Obergruppenführer Gottlob Berger, who provided Himmler with a massive political boost by numerically increasing the Waffen-SS through his position as chief of the SS-Hauptamt (English: SS Main Office). Both Berger and Himmler were enthusiastic about the incorporation into the Waffen-SS of the Kaminski Brigade, a unit made up of anti-Communists from lands that had been under Soviet rule. However, the brigade quickly proved to be almost completely militarily ineffective, and Bronislaw Kaminski was summarily and secretly executed for incompetence and theft of "German government property" (the possessions of the Warsaw Poles) after his unit's unruly performance in Warsaw in 1944, during which over 50% of the brigade deserted after uniformly ignoring their objectives in order to loot whatever they could carry.^{[citation needed]} Dirlewanger's soldiers were mostly recruited from criminals, particularly, rapists, murderers, psychopaths.

Dirlewanger's unit was employed in operations against partisans in the occupied Soviet Union. Later, Dirlewanger's unit was used in the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising. In August 1944, Dirlewanger's troops were responsible for the Wola Massacre (Warsaw Distric), in which between 40,000 and 100,000 Polish civilians and POWs were murdered. This was the largest single mass killing in Poland during World War II, outside of Nazi death camps. The atrocities included the burning homes, rape of civilians and indiscriminate killing of hospital patients. In the single biggest mass killing of the massacre around 200 children of ages 4-10 were killed by his troops. The Wola Massacre was part of the Nazi suppression of the Warsaw Uprising, as part of a campaign to crush the uprising and intimidate the local population,

Dirlewanger received his final promotion, to SS-Oberführer der Reserve, on August 15, 1944. On April 17, 1945, he was seriously injured in combat for the 12th time and sent to the rear.

Death

On June 1, 1945, French occupation forces used Polish soldiers in their service to forcibly bring him to the Altshausen jail. Dirlewanger was beaten and tortured over the next few days. He died from injuries inflicted by the Polish guards around June 5, 1945.^[15] This information was suppressed at the time, and many bogus sightings of him were made around the world, even though the French recorded that Dirlewanger was buried on June 19, 1945, leaving little doubt that he was dead.

Other rumors surfaced years later to suggest that he had escaped, including one story of Dirlewanger serving in the French Foreign Legion, and later defecting to Egypt to accept a commission in Gamal Abdel Nasser's army. These were proven false when the department of public prosecution in Ravensburg arranged the exhumation of his corpse to confirm his identity in November 1960.

See also

• 36th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS

Sources

• MacLean, French L., The Cruel Hunters: SS-Sonder-Kommando Dirlewanger, Hitler's Most Notorious Anti-Partisan Unit

External links

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