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216-680: From 1941 to 1943, 1,408 Finns volunteered for service on the Eastern Front of World War II in the Waffen-SS , in units of the SS ;Division Wiking . Most of these volunteers served as motorized infantry in the Finnish Volunteer Battalion of the Waffen-SS ( German : Finnisches Freiwilligen-Bataillon der Waffen-SS ; Finnish : Suomalainen Waffen-SS-vapaaehtoispataljoona ). The unit

432-615: A SS-Standartenfuhrer der Reserve in the Allgemeine-SS at Berger's instigation. In September 1940, Dirlewanger's unit had been deployed to the area of occupied Poland , where they established defensive positions and provided guards for a Jewish labour camp. In March 1941, Berger founded the German Guidance Office which was responsible for the recruitment of "Germanic" men for the Waffen-SS. The German Guidance Office encompassed

648-558: A regiment -strength unit of 2,000 to 2,400 men, which the Finnish government rejected in May 1941. After entering the war on Germany's side, Finland sought the transfer of the Finnish volunteers into the German Army, back to Finland, or to the SS Division Nord alongside Finnish forces. Germany denied these requests. A second round of recruiting was held from 3 to 27 July 1942 and

864-774: A "low-ranking empire builder". Kaul's series of letters to Berlin came to nothing, as the power and influence of the Allgemeine-SS had waned with the outbreak of war and the conscription of many of its members into the Wehrmacht, Waffen-SS and police. Ultimately, when Kaul threatened to arrest Berger's delegate in SS-Oberabschnitt Südwest , Himmler intervened personally in February 1940, stating that "the most unpleasant consequences" would befall Kaul if he did not throw his support behind Berger and his recruiting organisation. Kaul acquiesced, and Berger's supremacy as SS recruiting supremo

1080-560: A "post-myth research situation [which] allows for the history of the Finnish SS-men to be inspected more realistically and from more points of view". Commentators such as the president of the SS heritage association noted that the reports were not absolutely definite in their statements that the Finns themselves committed atrocities. Historian Antero Holmila interprets these types of views as stemming from

1296-535: A 2019 report by the National Archives of Finland concluded that "at least some of the cases show that Finnish volunteers did participate in carrying out atrocities against Jews and civilians". International sources say that the Finnish soldiers were likely involved in atrocities. By June 1941, when Nazi Germany launched Operation Barbarossa , the invasion of the Soviet Union (USSR), Finland had come to regard

1512-519: A Finnish company. According to docent Lars Westerlund, many Finns were motivated by the belief that Finland was on the brink of destruction: ”If we have to fight, it's best to fight to the end.” The company was disbanded in May 1945. Helmer Kalas , Claes Purjo and Mikko Laaksonen were famous members of the Finnish SS-Company. The first book written on the Finnish battalion was Sakari Lappi-Seppälä  [ fi ] 's memoir in 1945, which

1728-559: A Finnish organization that cherishes the heritage of the Finnish volunteers in the Waffen-SS. Junnila wrote in his motion, that the support would be "for the promotion of balanced historical research". The last living Finnish Waffen-SS veteran, Sakari Lahtinen, died in a nursing home in Haapamäki on October 12, 2022. He was 99 years old. Eastern Front (World War II) Asia-Pacific Mediterranean and Middle East Other campaigns Coups The Eastern Front , also known as

1944-657: A German invasion is controversial, and the claim that there was a warning that "Germany will attack on 22 June without declaration of war" has been dismissed as a "popular myth". However, some sources quoted in the articles on Soviet spies Richard Sorge and Willi Lehmann , say they had sent warnings of an attack on 20 or 22 June, which were treated as "disinformation". The Lucy spy ring in Switzerland also sent warnings, possibly deriving from Ultra codebreaking in Britain. Sweden had access to internal German communications through breaking

2160-474: A Nazi, but the conservative journal Suomalainen Suomi  [ fi ] called his claims "laudable, for it is clear that many former SS men were treated unfairly after the war". However, the liberal paper Helsingin Sanomat was more critical, and the reviewer was left disappointed. Ylioppilaslehti , a student magazine, called the memoir "full of nonsense". Historian Mauno Jokipii , in his 1968 study of

2376-481: A concentration camp. By the end of 1943, the former "national legions" had been significantly expanded. The Dutch regiment of SS-Panzergrenadierdivision Nordland was used to form an independent SS-Panzergrenadierbrigade Nederland , and a revamped Flemish contingent was assembled into the SS-Freiwilligen-Sturmbrigade Langemarck . The Wehrmacht also gave up its French volunteer regiment and

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2592-625: A dead-end. His SA peers criticised Berger's ambitious nature, outspokenness and lack of self-reflection. Beginning in July 1934, Berger worked with the SA training chief SA-Obergruppenführer Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger . Between 1933 and 1935, he was a school inspector in Esslingen am Neckar near Stuttgart , and in 1935 was a senior official in the Gau Württemberg ;– Hohenzollern Ministry of Culture. He

2808-717: A few days with the SS garrison at the city of Stralsund . The 429 men aboard the first three ships, known in post-war Finnish historiography as the "division men" as opposed to the "battalion boys" that followed them, were sent to the Heuberg Training Area and the Vienna-Schönbrunn training center for a brief training period. Afterwards they joined various units of the SS ;Division Wiking in Silesia , ahead of Operation Barbarossa. Unfamiliarity with German tactics and weapons and

3024-520: A formal note being filed by Johan Wilhelm Rangell , the Finnish prime minister , which Berger forwarded to Himmler on 9 February 1942. The battalion took leave in Ruhpolding , and on 1 June 1943 returned to Hanko, Finland , where a parade was held. On 2 June, the men celebrated at Tampere , and were given one-month's leave. Germany's original plan was for the Finns to continue their service in

3240-639: A huge scale." Sakari Lappi-Seppälä describes how Parvilahti, a "National Socialist", destroyed a chapel in Złoczów. However, there is no concrete evidence regarding the involvement of Finnish soldiers in atrocities, so it is commonly assumed, according to Parvilahti's standard narrative, that the troops saw "unpleasant excesses" of German warfare but the war was very much conventional. The Nordic Resistance Movement along with other nationalist organizations organizes an annual torch march demonstration in Helsinki in memory of

3456-648: A language barrier complicated the cohesion of the division men with the rest of SS Division Wiking. The 768 "battalion boys", meanwhile, were all sent to the Schönbrunn training center where, on 15 June they were formed into the SS-Volunteer Battalion Northeast (motorized) ( German : SS-Freiwilligen-Battalion Nordost (mot.) ), under the command of German Waffen-SS officer Hans Collani . The battalion returned to Stralsund in July and then in August

3672-603: A leadership role with the North Württemberg Einwohnerwehr militia in 1918–19. He married Maria ( née  Dambach ) in 1921. After joining the Nazi Party in 1922, he was arrested and briefly held in custody after Adolf Hitler 's Munich Beer Hall Putsch in November 1923. He trained and worked as a physical education teacher, despite his injuries, and lost interest in politics for some years, before rejoining

3888-489: A matter of months before. The resulting division was the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Galician) . After a brief period of desperate fighting in mid-1944 during the Soviet Lvov–Sandomierz Offensive , only 3,000 escaped encirclement and destruction from an original strength of 14,000. The division's combat performance was poor, and it never saw action again. In early 1944, the SS directed

4104-641: A minor. On his release from prison, Berger used his influence to ensure Dirlewanger could join the Condor Legion and fight in the Spanish Civil War . On 1 July 1938, Himmler appointed Berger as chief of the recruiting department of the SS-Hauptamt (SS Main Office, or SS-HA), which he quickly developed into a powerful tool for Himmler's ambitions. According to Berger, the German Army was initially dismissive of

4320-530: A narrative of the Finnish Waffen-SS volunteers being "elite troops". This narrative surrounds the character of General Felix Steiner , first commander of the SS-Wiking Division, who "recognized and acknowledged the combat skills of his Finnish soldiers". The focus on how elite the soldiers were has taken away from the investigation of the ideologies within the volunteers. The conventional narrative today

4536-522: A physical education teacher. In the late 1920s, he rejoined the Nazi Party and became a member of the paramilitary Sturmabteilung (SA) in 1931. He clashed with other leaders of the SA and joined the Allgemeine-SS in 1936. Initially responsible for physical education in an SS region, he was soon transferred to the staff of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler as head of the sports office. In 1938, he

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4752-582: A plan by the Luftwaffe to establish POW centres in major cities, using the POWs as human shields against air raids. Authors John Nichol and Tony Rennell observed that none of these claims have ever been independently verified, but some testimony has disputed Berger's claims. They concluded that most, if not all, of Berger's claims about his actions to assist POWs are "unbelievable", and noted that he did not raise any of these claims during his trial at Nuremberg after

4968-727: A policy advocated by the Soviet ministry of foreign affairs under Maxim Litvinov . This, as well as the reluctance of the British and French governments to sign a full-scale anti-German political and military alliance with the USSR, led to the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact between the Soviet Union and Germany in late August 1939. The separate Tripartite Pact between what became the three prime Axis Powers would not be signed until some four years after

5184-438: A problem in "its distance from the experiences of those who lived through the chaos". Holmila uses the example when Jokipii, describes the aftermath of the death of Westland regiment commander Hilmar Wäckerle and the atrocities committed (burning of a nearby village, Russians and Jews executed without trial for being accused of collaborating with the sniper who killed Weckerle), said that no Finns "were there", which goes against

5400-515: A quarter of the American Lend-Lease aid provided to other Allied countries. However, post-war negotiations to settle all the debt were never concluded, and as of date, the debt issues is still on in future American-Russian summits and talks. Prof. Dr. Albert L. Weeks concluded, "As to attempts to sum up the importance of those four-year-long shipments of Lend-Lease for the Russian victory on

5616-415: A report for the National Archives of Finland , Finnish historian Lars Westerlund found that antisemitism was not among the primary motives for the Finnish volunteers. As the goal of the Finnish government with regard to the volunteer unit was to confirm Finland's alliance with Germany and create a group of Finnish soldiers with German training rather than confirm Finnish allegiance to Germany or to Nazism,

5832-495: A secret assignment with the German Foreign Office and reported to Berger his belief that around 700 Finns would join the SS. Heinrich Himmler , head of the SS, approved expanding recruitment into Finland on 30 January, as did Adolf Hitler on 20 February. On 1 March 1941, Berger presented a request to recruit Finns for the Waffen-SS to the Finnish ambassador to Germany Toivo Mikael Kivimäki , who forwarded

6048-477: A short-term war (Blitzkrieg). According to Edward Ericson, although Germany's own resources were sufficient for the victories in the West in 1940, massive Soviet shipments obtained during a short period of Nazi–Soviet economic collaboration were critical for Germany to launch Operation Barbarossa. Germany had been assembling very large numbers of troops in eastern Poland and making repeated reconnaissance flights over

6264-582: A significant extent, as Eicke and the SS-TV continued to resist exchanges of personnel with the SS-VT. The fact that Berger was able to expand the SS combat troops so quickly was a tribute to his improvisational skills. On 1 December 1939, Himmler promoted Berger to chief of the SS-HA. To a significant extent, Berger was the "father" of the Waffen-SS (or Armed SS), a term he coined in an agreement dated 2 March 1940. He used

6480-539: Is directed against the Russians . If the West is too stupid and blind to grasp this, then I shall be compelled to come to an agreement with the Russians, beat the West and then after their defeat turn against the Soviet Union with all my forces. I need the Ukraine so that they can't starve us out, as happened in the last war. The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact signed in August 1939 was a non-aggression agreement between Germany and

6696-414: Is that the Waffen-SS soldiers were "apolitical". Many loyalist authors focus on this narrative. Until at least 2013, much of the Finnish discussion of the early months of the war had been positive, with only some references to the atrocities. Within Finnish historiography, the absence of "things which cannot be written here" – atrocities and the realities of war hinted at but not explicitly stated – supports

Finnish volunteers in the Waffen-SS - Misplaced Pages Continue

6912-565: The Generalplan Ost . The populations of occupied Central Europe and the Soviet Union were to be partially deported to West Siberia, enslaved and eventually exterminated; the conquered territories were to be colonised by German or "Germanized" settlers. In addition, the Nazis also sought to rid themselves of the large Jewish population of Central and Eastern Europe as part of their program aiming to exterminate all European Jews . Psychologically,

7128-615: The Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union and its successor states, and the German–Soviet War in modern Germany and Ukraine, was a theatre of World War II fought between the European Axis powers and Allies , including the Soviet Union (USSR) and Poland . It encompassed Central Europe , Eastern Europe , Northeast Europe ( Baltics ), and Southeast Europe ( Balkans ), and lasted from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945. Of

7344-630: The SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV) that ran the concentration camps, and combat-trained police reinforcements of the Ordnungspolizei (Order Police or Orpo). By adding these men to the LSSAH and the existing three regiments of the SS-VT, he expanded the force to the approved ceiling, including 50,000 trained replacements. The three new divisions were: the SS-Verfügungs-Division (later given

7560-577: The 25th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Hunyadi (1st Hungarian) , 26th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (2nd Hungarian) , 31st SS Volunteer Grenadier Division , and a number of smaller formations of brigade and regimental size. Several Cossack units were also transferred from the Wehrmacht. Even the Sonderkommando Dirlewanger was increased in size, taking on Russian prisoners of war to boost its numbers. In July 1942, Berger

7776-584: The Anti-Comintern Pact with Imperial Japan . Fascist Italy joined the Pact a year later. The Soviet Union negotiated treaties of mutual assistance with France and with Czechoslovakia with the aim of containing Germany's expansion. The German Anschluss of Austria in 1938 and the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia (1938–1939) demonstrated the impossibility of establishing a collective security system in Europe,

7992-681: The Arctic convoys and training Red Air Force pilots , as well as in the provision of early material and intelligence support. Among other goods, Lend-Lease supplied: Lend-Lease aid of military hardware, components and goods to the Soviet Union constituted to 20% percent of the assistance. The rest were foodstuff, nonferrous metals (e.g., copper, magnesium, nickel, zinc, lead, tin, aluminium), chemical substances, petroleum (high octane aviation gasoline) and factory machinery. The aid of production-line equipment and machinery were crucial and helped to maintain adequate levels of Soviet armament production during

8208-662: The Balkans . Hitler had always intended to renege on his pact with the Soviet Union, eventually making the decision to invade in the spring of 1941. Some historians say Stalin was fearful of war with Germany, or just did not expect Germany to start a two-front war , and was reluctant to do anything to provoke Hitler. Another viewpoint is that Stalin expected war in 1942 (the time when all his preparations would be complete) and stubbornly refused to believe it would come early. British historians Alan S. Milward and M. Medlicott show that Nazi Germany—unlike Imperial Germany—was prepared for only

8424-816: The Battle of Berlin (also known as the Berlin Offensive ), a strategic operation executed by the Red Army. The states that provided forces and other resources for the German war effort included the Axis Powers – primarily Romania, Hungary, Italy, pro-Nazi Slovakia, and Croatia. Anti-Soviet Finland, which had fought the Winter War against the Soviet Union, also joined the offensive. The Wehrmacht forces were also assisted by anti-Communist partisans in places like Western Ukraine, and

8640-562: The Finnish military . As the recruitment of volunteers for the Waffen-SS violated Finnish neutrality, recruitment was carried out discreetly and without the official involvement of the Finnish government. To form a committee to manage recruitment in Finland, Paul Dahm  [ de ] , the SS representative for recruitment in Finland, approached Lieutenant Colonel Ragnar Nordström  [ fi ] , who declined. In Nordström's stead, Esko Riekki  [ fi ] , former chief of

8856-599: The First and Second Polish armies, were armed and trained, and would eventually fight alongside the Red Army. The Free French forces also contributed to the Red Army by the formation of the GC3 ( Groupe de Chasse 3 or 3rd Fighter Group) unit to fulfil the commitment of Charles de Gaulle , leader of the Free French, who thought that it was important for French servicemen to serve on all fronts. The above figures includes all personnel in

Finnish volunteers in the Waffen-SS - Misplaced Pages Continue

9072-533: The Flemish National League . In this, Berger was exploiting Mussert and De Clerq, because he was actually working towards Hitler's idea of incorporating Flanders and Wallonia into the Reich as two Gaue , not a unified autonomous entity. At the end of April, Himmler ordered Berger to obtain 20,000 new recruits for the Waffen-SS by the end of May. With Hitler's authorisation, the recruitment quotas were lifted by

9288-535: The Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler Regiment (LSSAH). From 1938, various forms of Flecktarn camouflage were issued. The author Adrian Weale doubts Berger's account. Berger had achieved the rank of Major der Reserve in the Wehrmacht by 1938, but his initial rank upon joining the Allgemeine-SS was SS- Standartenführer , based upon his SA service. Berger played a key role in directing

9504-753: The Muslim community of Bosnia . The 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar (1st Croatian) first went into action in February 1944, and was of limited value, especially outside of its area of operations in eastern Bosnia. While it achieved successes and proved itself competent in counter-insurgency operations against the Partisans in eastern Bosnia, the division earned a reputation for brutality and savagery, not only during combat operations, but also through atrocities committed against Serb and Jewish civilians in

9720-421: The Partisan -led uprising in Yugoslavia, Hitler authorised the raising of the SS-Freiwilligen-Division Prinz Eugen . It was to be the first of the many "foreign" divisions that would dramatically change the composition of the Waffen-SS during the remainder of the war. The division was formed around an existing SS-controlled Selbstschutz (militia) drawn from ethnic Germans in the Banat , but Berger had misread

9936-433: The Red Army near Ternopil and then along the Dnieper River and then in the fighting north of Rostov-on-Don in October. These operations exhausted the division's manpower and essentially reduced it to an infantry unit. After retreating in early November, the division dug in along the Mius River . Soviet and British propaganda claimed that the division – including its Finnish contingent – had been destroyed, prompting

10152-459: The Reichsfuhrer demurred, telling Berger not to be impatient. Also in February, Berger complained to Himmler that the dispersal of "Germanic" volunteers throughout the Waffen-SS was having significant negative effects on the recruiting of replacements in the occupied countries. In March 1943, Wiking was also upgraded to a panzergrenadier division. In April, losses at Stalingrad and in Tunisia allowed Berger to recruit from foreign workers in

10368-480: The SS-Junker Schools at Bad Tölz . Sonderkommando Nord organized espionage training at Heringsdorf on the coast of Pomerania , among other places. A detachment of Finnish SS men was formed in Major Otto Skorzeny 's regiment Jagdregiment in Neustrelitz . With the help of his assistants, among others SS Obersturmführer Antti Aaltonen and Georg H. Hayen, SS-Hauptsturmführer Jouko Itälä managed to recruit enough defectors, prisoners of war and interned sailors to form

10584-532: The Simon Wiesenthal Center to request from Finnish president Sauli Niinistö an inquiry into the possible participation of the Waffen-SS volunteers in the Holocaust. In response to the request, Finnish authorities announced a committee of inquiry into the activities of the battalion. The committee's work, including that by researchers from the National Archives of Finland , concluded at the end of 2018. The resulting 2019 publication drew significant media coverage, including demands for "correction" by close relatives of

10800-538: The Spanish general election brought many communist leaders into the Popular Front government in the Second Spanish Republic , but in a matter of months a right-wing military coup initiated the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939. This conflict soon took on the characteristics of a proxy war involving the Soviet Union and left wing volunteers from different countries on the side of the predominantly socialist and communist-led Second Spanish Republic; while Nazi Germany , Fascist Italy , and Portugal's Estado Novo took

11016-441: The VI SS Army Corps (Latvian) , and all three divisions fought the Soviet Red Army in defence of their homelands during 1944, and were encircled there or destroyed in subsequent fighting elsewhere. By February 1943, Himmler's ideals of Waffen-SS racial purity had been significantly diluted. The first division to be raised by Berger's recruiters that was clearly outside the Waffen-SS racial and ethnic strictures used manpower from

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11232-487: The Volksdeutsche communities of Romania , Hungary and Yugoslavia , which together contained about 1.5 million ethnic Germans. Little could be done to further this proposal until mid-1941, by which time Yugoslavia had been overrun by the Axis , and Romania and Hungary had joined the pact. Immediately after the lightning-quick defeat of Yugoslavia in April 1941, Hausser was being pressed to accept Yugoslav Volksdeutsche into his renamed SS-Division-Reich , even before it

11448-437: The Winter War , which cost Finland 25,000 casualties and 10% of its territory. Despite receiving no aid from Germany during the Winter War, and the German invasions and occupations of Norway and Denmark in mid-1940, Finland grew closer diplomatically to Germany. Finally, by early 1941, the Finnish government expected a military conflict between Germany and the USSR, and the Finnish public expected Finland would go to war again with

11664-426: The Yugoslav Volksdeutsche under the influence of the SS, which he was able to achieve six months prior to the invasion of that country by the Axis in April 1941. Berger's recruiting work with the Flemish and Croatian communities was facilitated by his chairmanship of both the Deutsche-Flämischen Studiengruppe (German-Flemish Studies Group) and the Deutsche-Kroatischen Gesellschaft (German-Croatian Society). By

11880-433: The fifth column Sudetendeutsches Freikorps during the Sudeten Crisis in Czechoslovakia in 1938, and the organisational skills he displayed there marked him as highly suitable for the SS recruiting role. Prior to the outbreak of World War II , the SS-HA had been responsible for organising an erstwhile "civilian" political organisation, the Allgemeine-SS . After the war began, it was clear that those departments of

12096-405: The sig runes . Berger even went so far as to recommend to Himmler that Flemings no longer be treated as foreigners, but be given full citizenship rights as Germans. The idea of having "national legions" was poorly managed, with some recruits being tricked into enlisting, and many of the new recruits being badly treated by their German instructors. Once news of this reached their home territories,

12312-428: The state police , was selected to form the committee. Riekki's committee started organizing recruitment on 25 March and opened an office in Helsinki on 7 April 1941. The office was dubbed the Engineering Agency Ratas ( Oy Insinööritoimisto Ratas ), ostensibly to recruit workers for the Reichswerke Hermann Göring industrial conglomerate. Further negotiations delayed the beginning of recruiting to mid-April, as

12528-411: The "Mongol hordes", the "Asiatic flood" and the "red beast". The vast majority of German soldiers viewed the war in Nazi terms, seeing the Soviet enemy as sub-human. Hitler referred to the war in radical terms, calling it a " war of annihilation " ( German : Vernichtungskrieg ) which was both an ideological and racial war. The Nazi vision for the future of Eastern Europe was codified most clearly in

12744-731: The "Oil Pact" with Romania, by which Germany would trade arms for oil. Romania's oil production amounted to approximately 6,000,000 tons annually. This production represents 35% of the total fuel production of the Axis, including synthetic products and substitutes, and 70% of the total production of crude oil. In 1941, Germany only had 18% of the oil it had in peacetime. Romania supplied Germany and its allies with roughly 13 million barrels of oil (about 4 million per year) between 1941 and 1943. Germany's peak oil production in 1944 amounted to about 12 million barrels of oil per year. Rolf Karlbom estimated that Swedish share of Germany's total consumption of iron may have amounted to 43% during

12960-433: The Anti-Comintern Pact. The war was fought between Germany, its allies and Finland , against the Soviet Union and its allies. The conflict began on 22 June 1941 with the Operation Barbarossa offensive, when Axis forces crossed the borders described in the German–Soviet Nonaggression Pact , thereby invading the Soviet Union. The war ended on 9 May 1945, when Germany's armed forces surrendered unconditionally following

13176-436: The Army Georgy Zhukov , that ordered (as demanded by Stalin): "do not answer to any provocations" and "do not undertake any (offensive) actions without specific orders" – which meant that Soviet troops could open fire only on their soil and forbade counter-attack on German soil. The German invasion therefore caught the Soviet military and civilian leadership largely by surprise. The extent of warnings received by Stalin about

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13392-421: The Balkans. About 15–20% of total German strength were foreign troops (from allied countries or conquered territories). The German high water mark was just before the Battle of Kursk , in early July 1943: 3,403,000 German troops and 650,000 Finnish, Hungarian, Romanian and other countries' troops. For nearly two years the border was quiet while Germany conquered Denmark, Norway, France, the Low Countries , and

13608-460: The Baltic region continued into 1942, with some units being decimated in front line fighting. In May of that year, Berger decided to exploit the nationalists within the Baltic states in order to gain access to recruits for the Waffen-SS. Himmler was lukewarm on his initial proposal, but as casualties started to mount in 1942, he changed his mind, and approved the formation of a Waffen-SS Estonian Legion . Despite initial misgivings, Berger also proposed

13824-409: The Baltic states. Among the most prominent volunteer army formations was the Spanish Blue Division , sent by Spanish dictator Francisco Franco to keep his ties to the Axis intact. The Soviet Union offered support to the anti-Axis partisans in many Wehrmacht -occupied countries in Central Europe, notably those in Slovakia and Poland . In addition, the Polish Armed Forces in the East , particularly

14040-481: The Banat and Romania were combined with the SS Cavalry Brigade to form the SS-Kavallerie-Division . On 24 November 1942, the Chief of the Gestapo , Heinrich Müller advised Himmler of a proposal he had received from Berger that a Hungarian SS division could be financed by selling emigration permits to Slovak Jews . The "national legions" were attached to the Waffen-SS, and fought on the Eastern Front in 1942 and early 1943. Unable to replace their losses, most of

14256-473: The Eastern Front in World War II, the jury is still out – that is, in any definitive sense of establishing exactly how crucial this aid was." Germany's economic, scientific, research and industrial capabilities were among the most technically advanced in the world at the time. However, access to (and control of) the resources , raw materials and production capacity required to entertain long-term goals (such as European control, German territorial expansion and

14472-452: The Eastern Front of World War II constituted the largest military confrontation in history. In pursuit of its " Lebensraum " settler-colonial agenda, Nazi Germany waged a war of annihilation ( Vernichtungskrieg ) throughout Eastern Europe. Nazi military operations were characterised by vicious brutality, scorched-earth tactics , wanton destruction, mass deportations, forced starvations, wholesale terrorism, and massacres. These also included

14688-426: The Finnish SS Battalion on the Finnish independence day , which ends at the Hietaniemi cemetery where members visit the tomb of Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim and the monument to the Finnish SS Battalion . The event has been protested by antifascists, which has led to counterdemonstrators being violently assaulted by the NRM members who act as security. The demonstration attracts close to 3000 participants according to

14904-432: The Finnish and German governments to reach compromises over certain sensitive issues for the battalion such as an oath of allegiance. Eventually, the volunteers were transported to Germany and split up into two groups – one group of experienced men who went straight to the Eastern Front to join Wiking, and one group that stayed in Germany for training, later becoming the Finnish Volunteer Battalion. In late 1941 and early 1942,

15120-411: The Finnish government had certain concerns to settle with the SS. Helsinki first wanted Finnish volunteers to serve in the German Army , but eventually consented to the formation of an all-Finnish unit in the Waffen-SS . Helsinki also desired that Finnish volunteers not swear an oath of loyalty to Hitler or be deployed against any country other than the USSR and, in case Finland found itself at war with

15336-632: The Finnish government supervised recruitment. Helsinki and Riekki, seeking to diminish the influence of Finnish far-right groups in the unit and Finnish politics, recruited in all areas of Finland and carried out background checks on all applicants. Communists and members of far-right groups were excluded, and Riekki broke up attempts by far-right Finnish groups such as the Organisation of National Socialists and Front Soldier League to interfere in recruitment. Nevertheless, about two thirds of recruits came from those groups; according to Finnish historian André Swanström  [ fi ] , at least 45.1% of

15552-596: The Finnish military attaché in Berlin, Walter Emil Ferdinand Horn  [ fi ] , to assuage Finnish concerns about the division. After a month of delay brought about by heavy railroad traffic, the Volunteer Battalion began transfer to SS Division Wiking on 3–5 December 1941 and joined it along the Mius River on 8 January 1942. The battalion was first assigned to Wiking's Nordland Regiment , though it

15768-478: The Finnish volunteers Panttipataljoona: Suomalaisen SS-pataljoonan historia , claimed to apply scholarly methods to their history, but a veterans' organization of former Waffen-SS volunteers commissioned the work. Panttipataljoona is, according to scholar Antero Holmila, "an embodiment of the positivist historical tradition ". In his work, Jokipii uses a narrative order to provide a sense of coherence and totality. Holmila Antero criticizes Jokipii, saying his work has

15984-583: The Finns were at the very least aware of, and had witnessed, atrocities and war crimes. Swanström followed the article with a 2018 book Hakaristin Ritarit (Knights of the Swastika), which the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat described using the title (transl.) "The flawless image of 'normal Finnish boys' in the SS-troops is shattered in the most important military historical work of the year." Swanström's 2017 article prompted

16200-526: The Finns' enlistment was ending. 256 Finnish volunteers were killed in action or died of illness, 686 were wounded, and 14 went missing. According to the State Police Chief in Finland, Finnish officers and NCOs were being treated "like recruits" by their sometimes inexperienced German counterparts, and were angry that their commanders were German. A group of Finns on leave over Christmas even threatened to shoot their German officers. These complaints led to

16416-566: The German Army, i.e. active-duty Heer , Waffen SS , Luftwaffe ground forces, personnel of the naval coastal artillery and security units. In the spring of 1940, Germany had mobilised 5,500,000 men. By the time of the invasion of the Soviet Union, the Wehrmacht consisted of c. 3,800,000 men of the Heer, 1,680,000 of the Luftwaffe, 404,000 of the Kriegsmarine , 150,000 of the Waffen-SS, and 1,200,000 of

16632-428: The German goal that two-thirds of the recruits who left to fight for Germany should be "right wing materiel". Based on archival material that surfaced in the 2010s, historians such as Oula Silvennoinen  [ fi ] and Marko Tikka  [ fi ] , among others, have shown that Jokipii sugar coated the number of right-wing radicals. Both the SS volunteers and the board that recruited them were much more in

16848-623: The German offensive strength and cleared the way for Soviet offensives. Its setbacks caused many countries friendly with Germany to defect and join the Allies, such as Romania and Bulgaria . The Eastern Front concluded with the capture of Berlin , followed by the signing of the German Instrument of Surrender on 8 May, a day that marked the end of the Eastern Front and the War in Europe. The battles on

17064-516: The German surge to the east in 1941 marked a high point in some Germans' feeling of Ostrausch - an intoxication with the idea of colonising the East. After Germany's initial success at the Battle of Kiev in 1941, Hitler saw the Soviet Union as militarily weak and ripe for immediate conquest. In a speech at the Berlin Sportpalast on 3 October, he announced, "We have only to kick in the door and

17280-507: The Germanic Reich. This long-term goal inevitably forms part of the SS claim to be a formation of Nordic men. It cannot be stopped by artificially drawn boundaries". He was also concerned that the SS was losing its previous dominance in ideological matters, as the Wehrmacht had largely adopted the ideological maxims of the SS. This narrowing of the ideological gap between the Waffen-SS and the Army

17496-570: The Germans had invaded and occupied Denmark and Norway, opening up a source of "Nordic" or "Germanic" recruits, which Berger was quick to exploit. After the invasion of France and the Low Countries, the resulting regiment, SS-Nordland , was joined by a Dutch-Belgian-Flemish regiment, SS-Westland . At the same time as they were recruiting for these "Germanic" regiments, Berger's delegates were also focusing on gaining ethnic German volunteers from outside

17712-539: The Nazi Party in 1929, and the paramilitary Sturmabteilung (SA) in January 1931. Berger's SA career was limited by his soldierly ideas of politics and leadership, but after the Nazi seizure of power in January 1933, he was found to be very suitable to lead Schutzhaft operations, which involved the rounding up of Jews and "political undesirables". In April 1933, his clashes with younger leaders meant his SA career had met

17928-609: The Nazi armed forces. In 1945, communists Eino Pekkala and Hertta Kuusinen introduced the subject of the SS volunteers in the Finnish parliament, starting a campaign against them. From 1946 to 1948, Valpo , the Finnish State Police, arrested and released more than half of the volunteers. Many former SS volunteers were forced to resign from the army and police. Himmler had designated the 41th Waffen SS Division as Grenadier Division Kalevala in preparation for Finnish recruits for when

18144-525: The Netherlands Legion, which had a maximum strength of 2,000. In November 1941, the Netherlands Legion and Flemish Legion had completed light infantry training and were sent to join the 2nd SS Infantry Brigade on the Leningrad Front . While these troops swore a personal oath to Hitler and were subject to SS rules and regulations, they were not members of the SS, and wore national symbols in place of

18360-532: The Red Army occupies Finland. However, this never materialized, and a modest amount of Finns defected, enough to be designated a company. Some of the Waffen SS veterans defected to the Germans after the Moscow Armistice and when open war broke out between Finland and Germany. In addition to those who had served in the SS, some Finnish officers without a background in the SS also joined the new Finnish Battalion that

18576-675: The Reich, men not subject to the Wehrmacht-controlled draft. In May, more than 1,000 Romanian Volksdeutsche had been recruited, with the help of Andreas Schmidt, Berger's son-in-law and the political leader of the Romanian Volksdeutsche . Three weeks after the invasion of Belgium, Berger was appointed as the president of the German-sponsored pro-Nazi Belgian political party, DeVlag , in Flanders . Berger also worked to bring

18792-454: The Reich, over the objections of Reichsminister Albert Speer , the Minister for Armaments and War Production. By August, he had recruited 8,105 of these labourers, and 3,154 had already completed selection for the Waffen-SS. In June, Berger was promoted to SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS , and later the same month the new division, 12th SS Panzergrenadier Division Hitlerjugend

19008-479: The Reich. The result was that around 15,000 SS inductions were held up by various Wehrmacht military district headquarters. Berger became aware of Jodl's inquiry and advised Himmler that even their inquiries had underestimated his success, giving the example that the Wehrmacht believed he had exceeded the June quota for SS-Division-Totenkopf by 900 men, when in fact the true figure was 1,164. He boasted to Himmler that during

19224-468: The Replacement Army (contained 450,400 active reservists, 550,000 new recruits and 204,000 in administrative services, vigiles and or in convalescence). The Wehrmacht had a total strength of 7,234,000 men by 1941. For Operation Barbarossa, Germany mobilised 3,300,000 troops of the Heer, 150,000 of the Waffen-SS and approximately 250,000 personnel of the Luftwaffe were actively earmarked. By July 1943,

19440-676: The SS (2nd Russian) . Neither reached more than regimental size. The first division was handed over to the Russian Liberation Army of Andrey Vlasov before it saw combat, and the second saw action on the Western Front in late 1944 before being reconstituted as a " White Ruthenian " brigade in March 1945. It too saw no further action. In the period from late 1944, more Eastern European formations were hurriedly raised by Berger's recruiters or converted from existing smaller units. These included

19656-577: The SS by renewing their service agreements. However, on 27 June, Mannerheim proposed to Finnish leaders that the SS battalion be dissolved. They accepted the proposal because of changing opinions of Germany. Hitler approved it on 4 July. On 11 July 1943, the battalion celebrated at Hanko and joined the Finnish Defence Forces . Following the war, many Finnish Waffen-SS volunteers faced changes in attitudes towards Nazi Germany and consequent questions with regards to their participation in

19872-414: The SS combat troops to three divisions as well as bringing the LSSAH up to the strength of a reinforced motorised regiment. To achieve this goal before the commencement of the planned invasion of France and the Low Countries , Berger needed at least partially-trained personnel. To do this, he circumvented the recruiting primacy of the Wehrmacht by transferring men from forces already under Himmler's control,

20088-474: The SS-HA looking after the SS-Verfügungstruppe (SS dispositional troops or SS-VT) had performed poorly. During the invasion of Poland , deficiencies in organisation, equipment and training had become obvious. The SS-HA, and specifically its chief, SS- Obergruppenführer August Heissmeyer , were held responsible, and Heissmeyer soon made way for Berger. As head of recruiting, Berger had already unified

20304-524: The SS-HA to focus better on its main role of recruiting for the Waffen-SS, creating separate sections to deal with recruiting inside and outside the Reich. The section targeting recruits from outside of the Reich developed out of a briefing he received from the Chief of the SS-Führungshauptamt (SS Command Main Office, or SS-FHA) SS-Brigadeführer Hans Jüttner on Hitler's expectations of the Waffen-SS for

20520-687: The SS-volunteers, which the National Archive of Finland refused. According to the report, the Finnish soldiers were well aware of the atrocities being committed, and sometimes had traumatic responses to them, which they tried to remedy through heavy drinking. The report's author, Lars Westerlund, concludes that "at least some of the cases show that Finnish volunteers did participate in carrying out atrocities against Jews and civilians", including specifically Olavi Karpalo and Parvilahti. According to Swanström, his publication and that of Westerlund resulted in

20736-516: The Second World War took place on the Eastern Front". The Axis forces, led by Nazi Germany, began their advance into the Soviet Union under the codename Operation Barbarossa on 22 June 1941, the opening date of the Eastern Front. Initially, Soviet forces were unable to halt the Axis forces, which came close to Moscow . Despite their many attempts, the Axis failed to capture Moscow and soon focused on

20952-484: The Soviet Union attacked Finland on 30 November 1939 in what became known as the Winter War – a bitter conflict that resulted in a peace treaty on 13 March 1940, with Finland maintaining its independence but losing its eastern parts in Karelia . In June 1940 the Soviet Union occupied and illegally annexed the three Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania). The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact ostensibly provided security to

21168-521: The Soviet Union gave Germany the resources necessary to launch military operations in Eastern Europe. On 1 September 1939 Germany invaded Poland , starting World War II . On 17 September, the Soviet Union invaded Eastern Poland , and, as a result, Poland was partitioned among Germany, the Soviet Union and Lithuania. Soon after that, the Soviet Union demanded significant territorial concessions from Finland, and after Finland rejected Soviet demands,

21384-573: The Soviet Union, a sixth Waffen-SS division, SS-Division Nord was formed from four of the former "SS-Totenkopf" regiments, all of which had been re-designated "SS Infantry" regiments. These new divisions had an initial strength only two-thirds of that of the original divisions. The Polizei-Division was also renamed the SS-Polizei-Division . The expectations on Berger's recruiting network continued to increase, just as casualties began to mount in earnest. In early April 1941, Hitler had agreed to

21600-461: The Soviet Union. It contained a secret protocol aiming to return Central Europe to the pre–World War I status quo by dividing it between Germany and the Soviet Union. Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania would return to the Soviet control, while Poland and Romania would be divided. The Eastern Front was also made possible by the German–Soviet Border and Commercial Agreement in which

21816-501: The Soviets in the occupation both of the Baltics and of the north and northeastern regions of Romania (Northern Bukovina and Bessarabia , June–July 1940), although Hitler, in announcing the invasion of the Soviet Union, cited the Soviet annexations of Baltic and Romanian territory as having violated Germany's understanding of the pact. Moscow partitioned the annexed Romanian territory between

22032-532: The USSR after the fall of the British Empire or after an unacceptable ultimatum demanding German occupation of Ukraine during the German invasion of Britain. A strategic air offensive by the United States Army Air Force and Royal Air Force played a significant part in damaging German industry and tying up German air force and air defence resources, with some bombings, such as the bombing of

22248-474: The USSR alone, that Germany would repatriate its volunteers. Germany accepted these requests on 28 April, in particular changing the oath to be sworn by the Finnish recruits to not mention Hitler. Recruits were to serve in the Waffen-SS until June 1943 and would be sent to Germany for training. From March 1941, Germany desired the expansion of what became the Finnish Volunteer Battalion into

22464-521: The USSR with German assistance. In December 1940, the Schutzstaffel (SS) established the SS Division Wiking , a division -strength unit of the Waffen-SS , the SS's military wing. The division was to be composed of volunteers from Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, but into mid-1940 recruitment disappointed the SS. In November 1940, Gottlob Berger , chief of the SS Main Office , began exploring

22680-564: The Ukrainian and Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republics . Hitler had argued in his autobiography Mein Kampf (1925) for the necessity of Lebensraum ("living space"): acquiring new territory for Germans in Eastern Europe, in particular Russia. He envisaged settling Germans there, as according to Nazi ideology the Germanic people constituted the " master race ", while exterminating or deporting most of

22896-512: The United States, and the remaining one-third, with the help from other Western nations such as Great Britain and Canada. The massive transfer of equipment and skilled personnel from occupied territories helped further to boost the economic base. Without Lend-Lease aid, Soviet Union's diminished post invasion economic base would not have produced adequate supplies of weaponry, other than focus on machine tool, foodstuff and consumer goods. In

23112-526: The Waffen-SS but did not view SS ideology as a replacement for religion. He also sponsored and protected his friend Oskar Dirlewanger , whom he placed in command of the SS- Sonderkommando Dirlewanger who subsequently committed many war crimes. Berger often clashed with senior officers of the Wehrmacht and even with senior Waffen-SS officers over his recruiting methods, but he took advantage of opportunities as they presented themselves to grow

23328-738: The Waffen-SS to 38 divisions by the war's end. Berger undertook several other roles in the latter stages of the war while continuing as chief of the SS-HA. In the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories he proposed the Heuaktion operation that kidnapped and enslaved 50,000 Eastern European children. In response to the Slovak National Uprising in August 1944, Berger was appointed Military Commander in Slovakia and

23544-601: The Waffen-SS. Later that year, when an SS judge issued an arrest warrant for Dirlewanger in response to his unit's anti-partisan operations, the SS-HA chief intervened with Himmler saying, "Better to shoot two Poles too many than one too few. A savage country cannot be governed in a decent manner." Within a few weeks of the invasion of the Soviet Union, Berger's teams had begun recruiting Baltic volunteers for SS police units, forming several security battalions of Latvian and Estonian volunteers. The Wehrmacht also recruited eight Estonian battalions. This split approach to recruiting in

23760-430: The Waffen-SS. The SS-FHA wanted the Waffen-SS to be a small elite corps, but Berger and Himmler knew that Hitler needed as many divisions as possible, even if that meant some Waffen-SS formations would be of lesser quality. Jüttner's initial efforts at integrating the recruits from western Europe and Scandinavia were inadequate, with insufficient emphasis on training and appointing officers and non-commissioned officers from

23976-571: The Wallonian Legion, which became the SS-Freiwilligen-Sturmbrigade France and SS-Freiwilligen-Sturmbrigade Wallonien . By the end of the war, all of these formations had been given divisional status in the Waffen-SS, despite the fact that they never grew to more than brigade strength. In relation to these recruits, Berger cynically observed, "For every foreign-born soldier who dies, no German mother weeps". By August 1943,

24192-570: The Wehrmacht and SS, as potential Wehrmacht recruits were siphoned off to forces under Himmler's control. By a range of methods, Berger diverted manpower from the younger age groups, and also targeted areas outside the Reich that were not subject to Wehrmacht recruiting controls. Berger's evasion of Wehrmacht-imposed recruiting restrictions came to a head in June, when the Chief of the OKW Operations Staff, Generalmajor Alfred Jodl initiated an investigation of SS recruiting operations within

24408-767: The Wehrmacht numbered 6,815,000 troops. Of these, 3,900,000 were deployed in eastern Europe, 180,000 in Finland, 315,000 in Norway, 110,000 in Denmark, 1,370,000 in western Europe, 330,000 in Italy, and 610,000 in the Balkans. According to a presentation by Alfred Jodl , the Wehrmacht was up to 7,849,000 personnel in April 1944. 3,878,000 were deployed in eastern Europe, 311,000 in Norway/Denmark, 1,873,000 in western Europe, 961,000 in Italy, and 826,000 in

24624-419: The Wehrmacht still had with Hitler. On 20 April 1940, Berger was promoted to SS- Brigadeführer . According to Berger, Himmler never intended that the Waffen-SS would supplant the Army, and after the war he intended that it would be reduced to seven active and five reserve divisions. Berger created a recruiting structure throughout the Reich, mirroring that of the Army, but while the Wehrmacht, which controlled

24840-489: The Wehrmacht who were keen to learn from SS expertise in ideological indoctrination. On 13 February, following an approach from Reichsjugendführer (German Youth Leader) Artur Axmann for a Waffen-SS division to be raised from the Hitler Youth, Berger and Axmann were told the idea had been approved by Hitler and that they could commence planning. Berger implored Himmler to appoint him as the commander of this new division, but

25056-462: The Wehrmacht, allowing Berger an essentially free hand for a limited time. He did not disappoint, misleading the new recruits as to the length of their service obligation, and signing up 22,361 new troops by 29 May, many of whom were only 18 years old. To meet Himmler's target, Berger had also called up eligible members of the Allgemeine-SS and intensified efforts to recruit western Europeans. The latter initiative proved disappointing, with only 2,000 of

25272-802: The West European legions on the Eastern Front, and like the West European legions, it was decided to combine the Baltic legions into larger formations. This resulted in the Estnische SS-Freiwilligen Brigade , consisting of the Estonian Legion and elements of the 1st SS Infantry Brigade, and the Lettische SS-Freiwilligen Brigade , formed around the Latvian Legion and parts of the 2nd SS Infantry Brigade. The origins of many of

25488-600: The Wiking Division, while marching to Złoczów , went "hunting for Jews" and shot "everything and anybody that looked even the slightest bit suspicious". Historian Peter Longerich wrote: "In Zloczow at the beginning of July, under the very eyes of Sonderkommando 4b and tolerated by the city commandant, Ukrainian activists had organized a massacre of the Jewish population in which members of the SS Viking Division took part on

25704-613: The attacks on Malgobek , part of the failed German drive on the Grozny oil fields. A company of replacement Finnish volunteers arrived and were trained briefly in Germany in September 1942 and then joined the SS Division Wiking on 23 November. The company was attached to the battalion on 8 December, but on 20 December the division was detached from the Caucasus front and sent into

25920-587: The battalion completed their training and was sent to the Front. They participated in Case Blue , and were pulled back for the Battle of Stalingrad in late 1942. In April 1943, the battalion was withdrawn because of the two-year service agreement, and Finnish authorities such as Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim , Commander in Chief of the Finnish Defense Forces , proposed their agreements not be renewed. The battalion

26136-526: The beginning of World War I , and rose to the rank of Leutnant in the infantry by the time of his discharge in 1919. Wounded four times, he was awarded the Iron Cross First Class, and was considered 70 per cent disabled at the time of his discharge. During the war, all three of his brothers died, two killed in action and the other executed as a spy in the United States. Berger's combative temperament and very conservative politics fitted him for

26352-492: The beginning of 1943, nearly the entire Finnish battalion of that division asked to be released from their service obligations. In November 1942, orders were issued for the conversion of LSSAH, Das Reich and Totenkopf into panzergrenadier divisions, and the following month, Hitler ordered the formation of two more panzergrenadier divisions, the first new Waffen-SS divisions to be raised from Reich Germans since 1940. These were named Hohenstaufen and Frundsberg . From

26568-531: The border; the Soviet Union responded by assembling its divisions on its western border, although the Soviet mobilisation was slower than Germany's due to the country's less dense road network. As in the Sino-Soviet conflict on the Chinese Eastern Railway or Soviet–Japanese border conflicts , Soviet troops on the western border received a directive, signed by Marshal Semyon Timoshenko and General of

26784-400: The bulk of aluminium that was used in manufacture of Soviet aircraft, that had fallen in critically short supply. Soviet statistics show, that without these shipments of aluminium, aircraft production would have been less than one-half (or about 45,000 less) of the total 137,000 produced aircraft. Stalin noted in 1944, that two-thirds of Soviet heavy industry had been built with the help of

27000-457: The camp at Sennheim, as well as the network of recruiting offices already established throughout occupied Europe, and became a separate department of the SS-HA, with separate sections for leadership, recruiting and education, and six regional sub-sections. After the Balkan Campaign of April 1941, the LSSAH was expanded to divisional strength, and following the commencement of the invasion of

27216-575: The camps to continue as they were, with the same staff and procedures. After the war, Berger claimed that he had been reluctant to take on this new responsibility, and had told Hitler, resulting in a dressing down. He also claimed that Hitler had told him to destroy stored Red Cross supplies, stop Red Cross inspections, and block the arrival of further Red Cross supplies to the camps. Further, he asserted that Hitler had wanted more shootings of POWs and harsher punishments. According to Berger, he had quietly avoided carrying out these orders, and even countered

27432-479: The concerns of some commanders about the quality of these recruits, and their ability to be integrated into units composed mostly of Reich Germans. Recruits sent to this camp included Volksdeutsche (ethnic Germans from outside the Reich), Danes , Norwegians , Dutch and Flemings . Berger also created a network of offices throughout German-occupied Europe to ensure the welfare of the families of such recruits, influence

27648-441: The conscription of Estonian and Latvian men, and made all former Estonian Army officers and non-commissioned officers liable for service. By 1944, the Waffen-SS included the three divisions, namely; the 15th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Latvian) , the 19th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (2nd Latvian) , and the 20th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Estonian) . The two Latvian divisions were later combined into

27864-612: The creation of the SS-Freiwilligenstandarte Nordwest (SS Volunteer Regiment Northwest), with an authorised strength of 2,500 men recruited from Flanders and the Netherlands. This formation capitalised on the push for an autonomous Flemish-Dutch region within the Reich. Significant proponents of such a union were Anton Mussert of the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands and Staf De Clercq of

28080-440: The crisis in the "Germanic" project was obvious, with Berger observing that "we have come to the end of our tether in the Germanic countries". The complaints from the SS-FHA about the quality of Volksdeutsche recruits had no effect on Berger's approach. He concluded further agreements with Hungary and Romania, and imposed on the puppet regimes of the Independent State of Croatia and the Slovak State , to effectively authorise

28296-421: The crypto used in the Siemens and Halske T52 crypto machine also known as the Geheimschreiber and informed Stalin about the forthcoming invasion well ahead of June 22, but did not reveal its sources. Soviet intelligence was fooled by German disinformation, so sent false alarms to Moscow about a German invasion in April, May and the beginning of June. Soviet intelligence reported that Germany would rather invade

28512-628: The destruction of the USSR) were limited. Political demands necessitated the expansion of Germany's control of natural and human resources, industrial capacity and farmland beyond its borders (conquered territories). Germany's military production was tied to resources outside its area of control, a dynamic not found amongst the Allies. During the war, as Germany acquired new territories (either by direct annexation or by installing puppet governments in defeated countries), these new territories were forced to sell raw materials and agricultural products to German buyers at extremely low prices. Overall, France made

28728-404: The draft, was willing to allow Berger enough recruits to maintain the three divisions and the LSSAH, it did not want to see any further expansion. To get around this, Berger had to look outside the Reich. By this time, the Waffen-SS numbered just under 125,000, of whom more than 40,000 originated from post-Anschluss Austria and other areas outside the pre-1933 borders of Germany. In April 1940,

28944-408: The eastern German city of Dresden , being done to facilitate specific Soviet operational goals. In addition to Germany, hundreds of thousands of tons of bombs were dropped on their eastern allies of Romania and Hungary , primarily in an attempt to cripple Romanian oil production . British and Commonwealth forces also contributed directly to the fighting on the Eastern Front through their service in

29160-453: The economy and population of the subjugated east. The appointment took effect on 10 August 1943, and lasted until January 1945. In this role, Berger proposed a plan to kidnap and enslave 50,000 Eastern European children between the ages of 10 and 14, under the codename Heuaktion . On 14 June 1944, Rosenberg issued orders implementing Berger's idea. On 20 July 1944, the responsibility for administration of German prisoner of war (POW) camps

29376-406: The end of 1940, SS-Nordland and SS-Westland had become the basis for the formation of the fourth division, SS-Division Wiking . Casting about for another source of recruits, Berger struck upon the idea of enlisting convicted criminals, who were concentrated in the Sonderkommando Dirlewanger , commanded by Berger's friend, Dirlewanger. Dirlewanger had returned from Spain and been reinstated as

29592-479: The end of 1944. At the same time as the Balkan Muslim experiment, divisions were raised from Ukrainian, Russian and Hungarian men, demonstrating that racial exclusivity was no longer an entry requirement for the Waffen-SS. In April 1943, a recruiting campaign began among Ukrainians living in that part of General Government (Polish) territory that had been in Austrian Galicia prior to 1919. These Ukrainian nationalists had been referred to by Himmler as "sub-human" only

29808-463: The end of May 1940, Berger had filled the authorised quota of new recruits, but his recruiters kept signing up young men to create a reserve that could replace the many older Allgemeine-SS reservists in the three field divisions. To supplement this pool, Berger also continued recruiting for the SS-TV and police regiments, which were not under Wehrmacht control, and were still below the strengths approved by Hitler. This continued to create friction between

30024-414: The entire war. In addition, the USSR received wartime innovations including penicillin, radar, rocket, precision-bombing technology, the long-range navigation system Loran , and many other innovations. Of the 800,000 tons of nonferrous metals shipped, about 350,000 tons were aluminium. The shipment of aluminium not only represented double the amount of metal that Germany possessed, but also composed

30240-456: The estimated 70–85 million deaths attributed to World War II, around 30 million occurred on the Eastern Front, including 9 million children. The Eastern Front was decisive in determining the outcome in the European theatre of operations in World War II , eventually serving as the main reason for the defeat of Nazi Germany and the Axis nations. It is noted by historian Geoffrey Roberts that "More than 80 percent of all combat during

30456-522: The estimates of the police and hundreds of officers patrol Helsinki to prevent violent clashes. The march has been attended and promoted by the Finns Party , and condemned by left-wing parties, for example Green League characterized it as "obviously neo-Nazi" and expressed her disappointment in it being attended by such a large number of people. In between 2019–2022, Finns party MP and later Minister of Economic Affairs Vilhelm Junnila made four budgetary motions in order to support Veljesapu-Perinneyhdistys,

30672-419: The existing inhabitants to Siberia and using the remainder as slave labour . Hitler as early as 1917 had referred to the Russians as inferior, believing that the Bolshevik Revolution had put the Jews in power over the mass of Slavs , who were, in Hitler's opinion, incapable of ruling themselves and had thus ended up being ruled by Jewish masters. The Nazi leadership , including Heinrich Himmler , saw

30888-424: The expansion of SS recruiting rights in areas outside the Reich and the failure of the Wehrmacht to capitalise on recruiting opportunities afforded them, several of the "national legions" recruited by the Wehrmacht were eventually transferred to the Waffen-SS. Encouraged by the success he had achieved in Romania in 1940 with the help of his son-in-law, Berger had proposed to Himmler that the next recruiting sphere be

31104-404: The form of the Lend-Lease program, along with naval and air support. The joint German–Finnish operations across the northernmost Finnish–Soviet border and in the Murmansk region are considered part of the Eastern Front. In addition, the Soviet–Finnish Continuation War is generally also considered the northern flank of the Eastern Front. Germany and the Soviet Union remained unsatisfied with

31320-487: The formation of a Latvian Legion , which was approved at the end of 1942. In the meantime, the Waffen-SS had suffered over 43,000 casualties up to February 1942, particularly in the Battle of Moscow , and Berger had to replace them. Berger next turned his attention to the Hungarian Volksdeutsche . Through an agreement with the Royal Hungarian Army , his recruiters enlisted more than 16,500 ethnic German recruits from Hungary between March and May 1942. While this campaign

31536-416: The genocidal campaigns of Generalplan Ost and Hunger Plan , which aimed to the extermination and ethnic cleansing of more than a hundred million Eastern European natives. German historian Ernst Nolte called the Eastern Front "the most atrocious war of conquest, enslavement, and annihilation known to modern history", while British historian Robin Cross expressed that "In the Second World War no theatre

31752-433: The governments of Hungary and the Slovak State to transfer to the Waffen-SS all the Volksdeutsche serving in their armed forces. This amounted to another 50,000 troops. During 1944, Berger gave a speech in which he advocated a "Germanic Reich" that included all the countries that had Germanic or Nordic populations. He said, "Since the Schutzstaffel was taken over by the Reichsführer-SS in 1929, its long-term goal has been

31968-411: The hands of nationalist radicals, fascists and national socialists than Jokipii claims. According to Silvennoinen and Tikka, approximately 46 percent of the volunteers, i.e., over twice the number calculated by Jokipii, would have clearly expressed their support for fascist politics. One narrative of the Finnish Waffen-SS was that of rooting the Finnish Waffen-SS in the Jäger Movement. Publications across

32184-458: The idea of SS combat troops. He quoted the Commander-in-Chief of the Army , Generaloberst Werner von Fritsch as saying, "If the Reich Transport Minister has his militarily-trained Railway Police, why shouldn't Himmler also play at soldiers?" Berger later claimed that he had come up with the idea of SS combat troops wearing camouflage jackets from his own hunting days, and had suggested it to SS-Obergruppenführer Sepp Dietrich , commander of

32400-439: The ideas that these "things" never happened and that the Finns were not involved in atrocities. The Finnish public largely shunned the idea that Finnish volunteers would have taken part in atrocities. The topic saw renewed public attention in 2017, following the publication of Andre Swanström's article on the pastors of the Finnish SS-volunteers. The article cites several excerpts from diaries of Finnish SS-pastors and claims that

32616-439: The international communist revolution , and eventually leading to the dissolution of the Comintern (Third International) organisation in 1943. The Soviet Union started a process of militarisation with the first five-year plan that officially began in 1928, although it was only towards the end of the second five-year plan in the mid-1930s that military power became the primary focus of Soviet industrialisation. In February 1936

32832-557: The largest contribution to the German war effort. Two-thirds of all French trains in 1941 were used to carry goods to Germany. In 1943–44, French payments to Germany may have risen to as much as 55% of French GDP. Norway lost 20% of its national income in 1940 and 40% in 1943. Axis allies such as Romania and Italy , Hungary , Finland, Croatia and Bulgaria benefited from Germany's net imports. Overall, Germany imported 20% of its food and 33% of its raw materials from conquered territories and Axis allies. On 27 May 1940, Germany signed

33048-555: The last year of war, Lend-Lease data show that about 5.1 million tons of foodstuff left the United States for the Soviet Union. It is estimated that all the food supplies sent to Russia could feed a 12,000,000-man strong army a half pound of concentrated food per day, for the entire duration of the war. The total Lend-Lease aid provided during the Second World War had been estimated between $ 42–50 billion. The Soviet Union received shipments in war materials, military equipment and other supplies worth of $ 12.5 billion, about

33264-402: The latter as a threat to its independence and the former as its best and only ally against the USSR. Following the Finnish Civil War of 1918, during which the German Empire and USSR intervened to support the White and Red factions respectively, anti-communism and ethnic hatred of Russians became popular sentiments in Finland. Then, in 1939–40, the USSR attacked and defeated Finland in

33480-449: The light of the advantages Berger considered he would achieve if Jüttner's position with Himmler was weakened. One of the obvious sources for Waffen-SS manpower was the nearly 40,000 troops of the SS-TV regiments, which consisted of youths below conscription age for the Wehrmacht, as well as older Allgemeine-SS reservists. These regiments were under Himmler's control, and were deployed across German-occupied Europe as political police, but

33696-482: The limited flow of pro-German volunteers dried up. The SS-FHA failed to carry through the commitments made to the men of the "national legions" when they enlisted, and combined with mistreatment and abuse from their German cadre staff and instructors, this had a negative impact on morale and the willingness of more men to volunteer. This was something from which the "national legions" never fully recovered, despite Himmler's intervention at Berger's behest. However, due to

33912-499: The local communities to support Waffen-SS recruiting, and prepare potential recruits for indoctrination. This network and its activities was strongly resisted by the Main Welfare Office for Ethnic Germans ( German : Hauptamt Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle or VoMi) the Nazi Party arm responsible for guiding the ethnic German communities outside the Reich. Himmler, unhappy with the work of VoMi in supporting SS recruiting, did not abolish VoMi, he just authorised Berger to circumvent it. By

34128-638: The mass extermination of populations in German-occupied Europe. The Germans abducted approximately 12 million foreign people from almost twenty European countries; about two-thirds came from Central and Eastern Europe. Counting deaths and turnover, about 15 million men and women were forced labourers at one point during the war. For example, 1.5 million French soldiers were kept in POW camps in Germany as hostages and forced workers and, in 1943, 600,000 French civilians were forced to move to Germany to work in war plants. Gottlob Berger Gottlob Christian Berger (16 July 1896 – 5 January 1975)

34344-416: The men of the two SS infantry brigades was Reich German or Volksdeutsche , so these two formations were never purely Baltic. Not long after the two new volunteer brigades had been formed and committed to battle, they were upgraded to divisional status, and a third Baltic division was authorised, using the manpower of the Latvian security battalions. To man and maintain these three new divisions, Himmler ordered

34560-523: The motives of his West European recruits, but paid mere lip service to the idea that they joined the "anti-communist" cause out of idealism. Around 25,000 Dutch, 5,000 Danish and 3,900 Norwegian men served in the Waffen-SS. However, by mid-1942 onwards, the Waffen-SS faced increasing difficulties with these "Germanic" recruits, especially due to the policy of integrating them into "pan-Germanic" formations such as SS-Division Wiking . For example, Norwegian recruits began requesting their release from duty, and at

34776-399: The name Reich and then Das Reich ) commanded by the Inspector of the SS-VT, SS-Gruppenführer Paul Hausser ; the SS-Division-Totenkopf commanded by the Inspector of Concentration Camps, SS-Gruppenführer Theodor Eicke ; and the Polizei-Division , commanded by SS-Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Polizei Karl Pfeffer-Wildenbruch . This rapid transformation was theoretical to

34992-493: The narrative of Lappi-Seppälä. In its totalizing telling of the story "as it was", Holmila criticizes it as it "assumed its own innocence where the Holocaust was concerned." Holmila says that in doing so, Jokipii "shelters" the audience from the Holocaust. In Panttipataljoona , Jokipii claimed that, at most, one fifth of the Finnish SS-men would have been right-wing radicals, and that recruiters weeded out extremist applicants. As such, Finland would have purposefully been far from

35208-448: The new term to smooth over friction between the SS-VT and SS-TV, as they were combined in new formations. Berger's new-found authority for SS recruiting matters irritated the chiefs of the Allgemeine-SS districts, who had previously been responsible for this function. This came to a head when the chief of SS-Oberabschnitt Südwest , SS-Gruppenführer Kurt Kaul refused to recognise Berger's delegate in his district, referring to Berger as

35424-451: The obstacles placed in his path by the Wehrmacht, having recruited nearly 60,000 men for the Waffen-SS between mid-January and the end of June. These fresh troops were more than sufficient to replace those released when Himmler demobilised several categories of SS reservists in late July. But Himmler knew that the future of the Waffen-SS was assured; Hitler was already considering invading the Soviet Union . In August 1940, Berger reorganised

35640-489: The oil fields in the Caucasus . German forces invaded the Caucasus under the Fall Blau ("Case Blue") plan on 28 June 1942. The Soviets successfully halted further Axis advance at Stalingrad — the bloodiest battle in the war — costing the Axis powers their morale and regarded as one of the key turning points of the front. Seeing the Axis setback from Stalingrad, the Soviet Union routed its forces and regained territories at its expense. The Axis defeat at Kursk terminated

35856-408: The ongoing Battle of Stalingrad . This transfer was not affected until January 1943, when the battalion was assigned to Army Group Don and its unsuccessful attempts to relieve the German 6th Army trapped within. From 5 February to 7 February, the battalion retreated across the Don River and continued to fight in Ukraine until it was fully withdrawn from the front on 10 April as

36072-478: The outcome of World War I (1914–1918). Soviet Russia had lost substantial territory in Eastern Europe as a result of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (March 1918), where the Bolsheviks in Petrograd conceded to German demands and ceded control of Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Finland, and other areas, to the Central Powers . Subsequently, when Germany in its turn surrendered to the Allies (November 1918) and these territories became independent states under

36288-415: The period of 1933–43. It may also be likely that "Swedish ore formed the raw material of four out of every ten German guns" during the Hitler era'. The use of foreign forced labour and slavery in Germany and throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II took place on an unprecedented scale. It was a vital part of the German economic exploitation of conquered territories. It also contributed to

36504-400: The political spectrum commonly framed the story in wartime in terms of the "Jäger legacy", not just within right-wing circles, where the story originated. In 1960, Jukka Tyrkkö's memoirs were published with the subtitle "SS volunteers following in the Jägers' footsteps". The Waffen-SS was known as an elite unit, and this is mentioned in most Finnish literature on the organization. This built up

36720-417: The possibility of expanding recruitment for Nordland in Finland. Meanwhile, Finnish officers such as generals Leonard Grandell  [ fi ] and Paavo Talvela , who had served in the Imperial German Army as volunteers of the Jäger Movement , began seeking a Finnish volunteer force within the regular German armed forces . In January 1941, Swedish businessman Ola Vinberg made a visit to Helsinki on

36936-401: The public's "need to view war as a black-and-white either-or play", where the lack of a "smoking gun" is seen as a failure by the historian, and that the topic remains a "pain point in Finnish history culture". Many international perspectives take into consideration the fact that the Finnish volunteers were likely involved in atrocities. According to historian Bernd Boll  [ de ] ,

37152-448: The ranks of the new recruits. The SS-FHA had also paid scant attention to retention of ranks for former members of national armed forces, liaison with home territories, and even mail. Berger's well-researched report to Himmler on these failures was damning, and the Reichsführer-SS soon issued detailed instructions on the handling of these new recruits, from the moment they joined the Waffen-SS. Berger's criticisms of Jüttner must be seen in

37368-406: The recruiting system for the three main SS organisations, the Allgemeine-SS , SS-VT and police, and in August 1938 he negotiated a recruiting agreement between Himmler and the Reichsjugendführer (Reich Youth Leader) Baldur von Schirach which created a strong recruiting pathway for the young men of the Hitler Youth into the SS. Following the Polish campaign, Hitler approved the expansion of

37584-449: The recruits belonged to fascist groups. Reliable Finnish officers were also weeded into the volunteer unit to inform Finnish high command of activities within it. From 6 May to 5 June 1941, 1,197 Finnish recruits traveled to Germany in five ships – four from Turku to Danzig (now Gdańsk ) and one from Vaasa to Stettin (now Szczecin ) – for training and without passports. Upon arrival in Germany, each group of volunteers spent

37800-407: The request to Helsinki and to the German Foreign Office. The German Foreign Office sent Wipert von Blücher , the German ambassador in Helsinki, to obtain the Finnish government's consent on 9 March. Negotiations began 11 March and were concluded the following day with the unanimous approval the heads of the civilian Finnish government and Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim , Commander in Chief of

38016-406: The security functions they carried out were clearly within the capabilities of the Orpo. In late 1940, in order to ensure that Himmler's instructions were carried out, Berger established a special camp at Sennheim in occupied Alsace , where non-Reich German recruits could be brought up to physical standards and ideologically indoctrinated prior to Waffen-SS training. This was an attempt to address

38232-568: The security zone. Its reprisal attacks in northern and eastern Bosnia left many hundreds and possibly as many as several thousand Serb civilians dead by the spring and summer of 1944. During 1944, two more Muslim divisions were raised, the 21st Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Skanderbeg (1st Albanian) made up Kosovar Albanians , and the 23rd Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Kama (2nd Croatian) , also made up of Bosnian Muslims. Neither of these divisions were of significant combat value, and all three Muslim divisions were dissolved before

38448-408: The side of Spanish Nationalists , the military rebel group led by General Francisco Franco . It served as a useful testing ground for both the Wehrmacht and the Red Army to experiment with equipment and tactics that they would later employ on a wider scale in the Second World War. Nazi Germany, which was an anti-communist régime, formalised its ideological position on 25 November 1936 by signing

38664-408: The survivors were incorporated into SS-Panzergrenadierdivision Nordland , authorised by Hitler at the end of 1942. The three regiments of the new division were formed using survivors of the Freikorps Danemark , Legion Niederlande and Legion Norwegen , supplemented by transfers from SS-Division Wiking , new recruits from the occupied West European countries, and Reich Germans. Legion Flandern

38880-407: The terms of the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 at Versailles , Soviet Russia was in the midst of a civil war and the Allies did not recognise the Bolshevik government, so no Soviet Russian representation attended. Adolf Hitler had declared his intention to invade the Soviet Union on 11 August 1939 to Carl Jacob Burckhardt , League of Nations Commissioner, by saying: Everything I undertake

39096-566: The time that he had taken over as chief of the SS-HA, Berger had made considerable efforts to increase the amount of ideological training received by Waffen-SS personnel. In February 1943, in the wake of the German losses at Stalingrad , Berger again told Himmler that the SS needed stronger ideological training. As a result, the SS-HA issued a series of pamphlets on racial ideology, including Der Untermensch (The Sub-Human), which described certain peoples as spiritually and mentally lower than animals. Himmler and Berger also hosted representatives from

39312-446: The total coming from that source. A total of 400 Finnish combat veterans also volunteered to join the Waffen-SS in this period, and they were sent to join the SS-Division-Wiking . In June 1941, just after the commencement of Operation Barbarossa, Hitler decreed that the Waffen-SS could recruit foreigners for service on the Eastern Front . He wanted a legion to be raised from each of the occupied countries of Western Europe, but Himmler

39528-532: The unrestricted conscription of ethnic Germans in those territories. In the German-occupied territory of Serbia , the General Government (annexed Poland) and parts of the Soviet Union, ethnic Germans were conscripted into the Waffen-SS in the same arbitrary manner Reich Germans were conscripted by the Wehrmacht. By the end of 1943, a quarter of the strength of the Waffen-SS was made up of Volksdeutsche . Before either Baltic legion could complete training, these developments were overtaken by heavy casualties suffered by

39744-401: The upcoming invasion of the Soviet Union , which included the raising of a fourth division and the expansion of the LSSAH to a motorised brigade. Berger realised that the Wehrmacht quotas for the Waffen-SS would fall short of its manpower needs by at least 6,000 per year. Berger's SS-HA had a problematic relationship with the SS-FHA, which was responsible for organising, training and equipping

39960-430: The vast " Bolshevik hordes" that were pouring into Europe. Throughout the 1930s the Soviet Union underwent massive industrialisation and economic growth under the leadership of Joseph Stalin . Stalin's central tenet, " Socialism in One Country ", manifested itself as a series of nationwide centralised five-year plans from 1929 onwards. This represented an ideological shift in Soviet policy, away from its commitment to

40176-415: The volunteers were Swedish-speaking. On average, the recruits were 21 years old, and held a collective ideology of Finnish nationalism , revanchism , and a Finnish form of Lutheran revivalism . The recruits' motives included a desire for German training, which belied possible economic advancement immediately through the SS and in the future through the Finnish Army, and pro-German, anti-Russian sentiment. In

40392-437: The war against the Soviet Union as a struggle between the ideologies of Nazism and Jewish Bolshevism , ensuring territorial expansion for the Germanic Übermenschen (superhumans) - who according to Nazi ideology were the Aryan Herrenvolk ("master race") - at the expense of the Slavic Untermenschen (subhumans). Wehrmacht officers told their troops to target people who were described as "Jewish Bolshevik subhumans",

40608-410: The war, or even in his autobiography. One of the few claims that has been verified to some extent is his work to protect the Prominente , a group of high-ranking or otherwise important POWs that had been held at Colditz Castle until 13 April 1945. There were a total of 21 Prominente , including Viscount Lascelles and the Master of Elphinstone , both nephews of King George VI , and Giles Romilly ,

40824-461: The whole recruiting campaign, he had signed up 15,000 men for SS-Division-Totenkopf , when Hitler had only authorised the recruiting of 4,000 for the division in the same period. To justify his actions, Berger pointed to the fact that, just before the French surrender, Hitler had ordered the release of over-age SS reservists. In the SS-Division-Totenkopf , this meant 13,246 of the 20,000-strong formation. Berger had been remarkably successful, despite

41040-420: The whole rotten structure will come crashing down." Thus the German authorities expected another short Blitzkrieg and made no serious preparations for prolonged warfare. However, following the decisive Soviet victory at the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943 and the resulting dire German military situation, Nazi propaganda began to portray the war as a German defence of Western civilisation against destruction by

41256-545: The willingness of the local ethnic German population to volunteer for service outside their homeland. His recruiters initially struggled to attract volunteers, so coercion was applied, and ultimately, the Banat was declared to be under German sovereignty, and Himmler approved conscription on the basis of an archaic law, the Tiroler Landsturmordnung ( Tyrolean General Levy Act) of 1872. On 29 January 1942, Himmler issued an order which re-titled Dirlewanger's unit as SS-Sonderkommando Dirlewanger , and formally incorporated it into

41472-492: Was a German senior Nazi official who held the rank of SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS (lieutenant general) and was the chief of the SS Main Office responsible for Schutzstaffel (SS) recruiting during World War II . At the post-war Nuremberg trials , the Waffen-SS  – within which Berger was a senior officer – was declared to be a criminal organisation due to its major involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity. Berger

41688-558: Was also an ardent antisemite and a skilled and unscrupulous bureaucratic manipulator. Due to his organisational and recruiting skills, Berger was kept as the chief of the SS-HA throughout the war. Berger was born on 16 July 1896 at Gerstetten in the Kingdom of Württemberg , the son of saw-mill owners Johannes and Christine ( née  Moser ), and was one of eight children. He attended Volksschule (elementary school) and Realschule (junior high school) and then teacher training in Nürtingen . He volunteered for military service at

41904-568: Was appointed as Himmler's liaison officer with the Reichsminister for the Occupied Eastern Territories , Alfred Rosenberg . To bolster his position with Himmler, Rosenberg was even willing to appoint Berger as his second state secretary, but Hitler would not allow it. On 10 August 1943, Berger convinced Rosenberg to appoint him as the Chief of Political Operations in the Occupied Eastern Territories. Himmler had long wanted such responsibilities to be placed in SS hands, and this appointment meant that Berger could sabotage any resistance to SS domination of

42120-426: Was appointed as head of the recruiting office of the SS Main Office (SS-HA) and took over as chief of the SS-HA the following year. To a significant extent, Berger was the father of the Waffen-SS, as he implemented its recruiting structures and policies and later extended Waffen-SS recruiting to peoples who in no way reflected Himmler's ideas of "racial purity". He consistently advocated greater ideological training for

42336-410: Was assigned its first combat duty with the Westland Regiment on 22 January. Thereafter, the surviving division men were gradually reassigned to the battalion, which was withdrawn from the front for additional training from 14 July to 9 August. The battalion rejoined SS Division Wiking at Maykop on 13 August and subsequently, in September and October, sustained heavy casualties in

42552-466: Was being formed. The highest ranking defector was Captain Pentti Railio, who was commissioned as a SS-Hauptsturmführer. Most of those who defected either crossed the front lines to the other side, or stowed away on the last German ships that left Finland. SS-officer Lauri Törni and Lieutenant Jalo Korpela were brought to Germany by a German submarine. The Waffen-SS organized officer training for Finns who had defected to Germany or German-occupied Norway at

42768-474: Was broken up and used as replacements in a number of Waffen-SS formations. While Weale states that they were mainly motivated by anti-communism, the historian George C. Stein observes that few of the "national legion" recruits were motivated by "political or ideological idealism", but were instead motivated by such factors as a desire for adventure, better food, the prestige of the uniform, and personal circumstances. According to Stein, Berger had no illusions about

42984-429: Was convicted as a war criminal and spent six and a half years in prison. While serving in the German Army during World War I , he was wounded four times and awarded the Iron Cross First Class. Immediately after the war, he was a leader of the Einwohnerwehr militia in his native North Württemberg . He joined the Nazi Party in 1922 but lost interest in right-wing politics during the 1920s, training and working as

43200-508: Was critical of the Wiking Division and reported on German atrocities . In 1957, Niilo Lauttamus  [ fi ] published a novel about the experiences of the Finnish Waffen-SS volunteers. In it, he subscribes to the historical argument that the Finnish battalion was apolitical. Unto Parvilahti published his memoir in the mainstream press in 1958, claiming the Finnish volunteers were "not Nazis, they were heroic soldiers who simply defended their fatherland". Many accused Parvilahti of being

43416-419: Was disbanded in mid-1943 as the volunteers' two-year commitment had expired and the Finnish government was unwilling to allow more men to volunteer. In 1944-1945 a company sized unit of Finnish defectors recruited to the SS continued fighting alongside Germany. The battalion was formed following the Winter War , as Finland grew closer to Germany with recruitment beginning in 1941. Negotiations took place between

43632-479: Was finally disbanded on 11 July 1943. Within historiography, the Finnish SS volunteers have been seen within Finland as an apolitical group, often connected to the Jäger Movement and the idea that the battalion was an elite unit. Finnish historiography has not mentioned many of the atrocities committed by SS Division Wiking, and only hinted at participation in atrocities. A series of high-publicity publications since 2017, however, have changed this. For example,

43848-416: Was firmly established. Despite this success, Berger still had to negotiate with the Wehrmacht, which opposed his attempts to expand the Waffen-SS at almost every turn. In early 1940, Himmler and Berger were outmaneuvered by Generaloberst Wilhelm Keitel , Chief of Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (Wehrmacht High Command or OKW) on a number of issues around Waffen-SS recruiting, reflecting the strong influence

44064-426: Was in charge during the initial failure to suppress the revolt. The following month he was appointed one of the two chiefs of staff of the Volkssturm militia and as chief of the prisoner-of-war camps . In the final months of the war he commanded German forces in the Bavarian Alps , which included remnants of several of the Waffen-SS units he had helped recruit. He surrendered to U.S. troops near Berchtesgaden and

44280-440: Was limited to 200 men of the Finnish Army under the direction of the pro-German mathematician Rolf Nevanlinna , who replaced Riekki. 239 soldiers were recruited and signed the same agreement as the first wave of volunteers and would be returned to Finland at the same time. 1,408 Finns were recruited into the Waffen-SS and, although recruitment had initially focused on the Swedish-speaking population of Finland , only about 12% of

44496-399: Was more gruelling and destructive than the Eastern Front, and nowhere was the fighting more bitter". The two principal belligerent powers in the Eastern Front were Germany and the Soviet Union, along with their respective allies. Though they never sent ground troops to the Eastern Front, the United States and the United Kingdom both provided substantial material aid to the Soviet Union in

44712-429: Was moved to the training grounds at Gross Born (now Borne Sulinowo ), where on 13 September, it was renamed the Finnish Volunteer Battalion of the Waffen-SS ( German : Finnisches Freiwilligen-Bataillon der Waffen-SS ). The unit's training was complicated by a lack of Finnish trainers and the battalion's training being reduced in August to 10 October. The battalion's members were sworn in on 15 October, but

44928-437: Was of considerable concern to SS leaders such as Berger, as it undermined the legitimacy of the SS as the leaders of the Nazi project. The Galician approach was repeated in mid-1944 in the face of mounting casualties from Soviet offensives. Security units manned by Russians and Ukrainians were combined to form two more divisions, the 29th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Russian) and 30th Waffen Grenadier Division of

45144-566: Was officially activated. On 5 July 1943, Berger was awarded the German Cross in silver. By the end of 1942, the "Germanic" SS had been integrated into the wider Allgemeine-SS , and Berger drew up a badge to reward sporting prowess, skills highly prized among SS members. The result was the Germanic Proficiency Runes , which Himmler approved on 1 August 1943, although it is believed fewer than 200 were actually awarded. In November 1943, when German-installed Latvian authorities threatened to resign over conscription, Berger suggested they be sent to

45360-474: Was ongoing, on 20 April 1942 Berger was promoted to SS- Gruppenführer . At this point, he saw a significant difference between SS ideological leadership and the martial indoctrination conducted by the German Army. In September 1942, the SS-FHA complained bitterly about Berger's recruiters, stating that many of the recruits were medically unsuitable, had been coerced or duped into enlisting, or were in fact ethnic Hungarians. Late in 1942, more Volksdeutsche from

45576-517: Was only interested in recruiting "Germanic" people into the Waffen-SS. Himmler decided that there were large numbers of potential pro-German but nationalistic recruits available from the "Germanic" races in occupied countries, and directed Berger to explore this manpower source. As a result of Himmler's decision, the Wehrmacht was permitted to recruit Frenchmen, Spaniards and Croats, while Dutch, Flemish, Swedish, Norwegian and Danish men were Berger's domain. The "national legions" each numbered 1,000, except

45792-537: Was promptly arrested. He was tried and convicted in the Ministries Trial of the U.S. Nuremberg Military Tribunals for war crimes and was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment. His sentence was soon reduced to 10 years, and he was released after serving six and a half years. After release he advocated for the rehabilitation of the Waffen-SS and worked in several manufacturing businesses. He died in his hometown in 1975. Described as blustery, cynical, and "one of Himmler's most competent and trusted war-time lieutenants", Berger

46008-474: Was recruited into the Allgemeine-SS by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler in 1936, on Krüger's recommendation. Initially appointed to oversee sports and physical training for SS-Oberabschnitt Südwest (SS Regional Headquarters Southwest), he then moved to Himmler's personal staff as head of the sports office. Berger interceded on behalf of his World War I comrade Oskar Dirlewanger , who had been imprisoned for two years in 1935 for offences against

46224-430: Was transferred to Berger. This followed the failed attempt on Hitler's life earlier that month, when the Führer turned to his "faithful Heinrich" to head the Replacement Army , and the SS chief quickly delegated the responsibility to Berger. By September, the responsibility had been formally transferred to Himmler, but Berger did not act to integrate his new responsibilities into the SS bureaucracy. Instead, he allowed

46440-454: Was two more weeks of training and was not deemed ready for transfer to the Eastern Front until November. The division men, as part of SS Division Wiking, fought against the USSR as part of Army Group South , tasked in Operation Barbarossa with conquering Ukraine. As the division was inexperienced, it was first withheld for a week after the start of Barbarossa and was then assigned as a rearguard unit. In July, elements of it fought against

46656-419: Was withdrawn to prepare for Operation Barbarossa. On his way back to Germany from Yugoslavia, Hausser had transited through Romania and gathered another 600 ethnic German volunteers who he smuggled out of the country. Not content with this fairly minor and surreptitious recruiting effort, Berger proposed to raise a seventh Waffen-SS division from the ethnic Germans of Yugoslavia. By the end of 1941, faced with

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