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123-764: Hungarian Germans refers to the descendants of Danube Swabians who immigrated to the Carpathian Basin and surrounding regions, and who are now minorities in those areas. Many Hungarian Germans were expelled from the region between 1946 and 1948, and many now live in Germany or Austria , but also in Australia , Brazil , the United States , and Canada . However, many are still dispersed within present-day Hungary. The migration of German-speaking groups into present-day Hungary began c. approximately 1000 years ago, when knights in

246-643: A group of 120 SS men on 17 March 1933 by Sepp Dietrich to form the Sonderkommando Berlin. By November 1933 the formation had 800 men, and at a commemorative ceremony in Munich for the tenth anniversary of the failed Beer Hall Putsch the regiment swore allegiance to Adolf Hitler . The oaths pledged were "Pledging loyalty to him alone" and "Obedience unto death". The formation was given the title Leibstandarte ( transl.  Bodyguard Regiment ) Adolf Hitler (LAH). On 13 April 1934, by order of Himmler,

369-577: A large majority of the senior officers corps of the Waffen-SS were from an upper-middle-class background and would have been considered for commissioning by traditional standards. Among later Waffen-SS generals, approximately six out of ten had a "university entrance qualification (Abitur), and no less than one-fifth a university degree". Hausser became the Inspector of the SS-VT in 1936. In this role, Hausser

492-494: A plan to recruit volunteers in the conquered territories from the ethnic German and Germanic populations. At first, Hitler had doubts about recruiting foreigners, but he was persuaded by Himmler and Berger. He gave approval for a new division to be formed from foreign nationals with German officers. By June 1940, Danish and Norwegian volunteers had formed the SS Regiment Nordland , with Dutch and Flemish volunteers forming

615-470: A sharp cliff or other vertical terrain. The name may instead come from Indo-European * kwerp 'to turn', akin to Old English hweorfan 'to turn, change' (English warp ) and Greek καρπός karpós 'wrist', perhaps referring to the way the mountain range bends or veers in an L-shape. Both the plain and the basin overlap significantly with the Pannonian mixed forests ecoregion . The plain or basin

738-712: A short interruption in the summer of 1946, continued until December 1946. The refugees were first sent to the American zone of occupation in Germany. The second phase of expulsions began in August 1947. Because the U.S. Government refused to take any more refugees into its zone, the ethnic Germans were sent to the Soviet zone of occupation. About 50,000 Swabian Germans were transferred to camps in Saxony, from which they were later dispersed to other areas in

861-581: A third path. He ordered that the SS-VT form its own divisions but that the divisions would be under army command. Hitler resisted integrating the Waffen-SS into the army, as it was intended to remain the armed wing of the party and to become an elite police force once the war was won. During the invasion, numerous war crimes were committed against the Polish people. The Leibstandarte became notorious for torching villages without military justification. Members of

984-604: Is a geomorphological subsystem of the Alps-Himalaya system , specifically a sediment-filled back-arc basin which spread apart during the Miocene . The Pannonian plain is divided into two parts along the Transdanubian Mountains (Hungarian: Dunántúli-középhegység ). The northwestern part is called Western Pannonian plain (or province ) and the southeastern part Eastern Pannonian plain (or province ). They comprise

1107-682: Is a list of cities in the Pannonian Basin with a population larger than 100,000 within the city proper : 46°30′N 20°00′E  /  46.500°N 20.000°E  / 46.500; 20.000 Waffen SS The Waffen-SS ( German: [ˈvafn̩ʔɛsˌʔɛs] ; lit.   ' Armed SS ' ) was the combat branch of the Nazi Party 's paramilitary Schutzstaffel (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany , along with volunteers and conscripts from both German-occupied Europe and unoccupied lands. It

1230-505: Is also associated with Pannonian Steppe . The Danube and Tisza rivers divide the basin roughly in half. It extends roughly between Vienna in the northwest, Košice in the northeast, Zagreb in the southwest, Novi Sad in the south and Satu Mare in the east. The Danube enters the basin from its northwest through a valley that splits the Alps and the Bohemian Forest . It runs through

1353-668: Is demonstrated by the record of SS Totenkopf Standarte "Brandenburg" . It arrived in Włocławek on 22 September 1939 and embarked on a four-day "Jewish action" that included the burning of synagogues and the execution en-masse of the leaders of the Jewish community. On 29 September the Standarte travelled to Bydgoszcz to conduct an " intelligentsia action ". In October 1939, the Deutschland , Germania , and Der Führer regiments were reorganised into

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1476-758: Is diagonally bisected by the Transdanubian Mountains , separating the larger Great Hungarian Plain (including the Eastern Slovak Lowland ) from the Little Hungarian Plain . It forms a topographically discrete unit set in the European landscape, surrounded by imposing geographic boundaries—the Carpathian Mountains to north and east, the Dinaric Alps to south and southwest and the Alps to west. The plain

1599-997: Is used in Hungarian literature , while the West Slavic languages ( Czech , Polish and Slovak ), the Serbo-Croatian , German and Romanian languages use Pannonian Basin (in Hungarian the basin is known as Kárpát-medence , in Czech ; Panonská pánev , in Polish ; Panoński Basen , in Slovak ; Panónska panva , in Slovenian and Serbo-Croatian: Panonski bazen /Панонски базен, in German ; Pannonisches Becken , and in Romanian ; Câmpia Panonică or Bazinul Panonic ). The East Slavic languages , namely Ukrainian , use

1722-624: The Leibstandarte also committed atrocities in numerous towns, including the murder of 50 Polish Jews in Błonie and the massacre of 200 civilians, including children, who were machine gunned in Złoczew . Shootings also took place in Bolesławiec , Torzeniec , Goworowo , Mława , and Włocławek . Eicke's SS-TV field forces were not military. Their military capabilities were employed instead in terrorizing

1845-458: The Leibstandarte battalion was up to strength. The three SS divisions and the Leibstandarte spent the winter of 1939 and the spring of 1940 training and preparing for the coming war in the west. In May, they moved to the front, and the Leibstandarte was attached to the army's 227th Infantry Division . The Der Führer Regiment was detached from the SS-VT Division and attached to

1968-589: The Leibstandarte had taken the village of Wormhout , only ten miles from Dunkirk. After their surrender, soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment , along with some other units (including French soldiers), were taken to a barn in La Plaine au Bois near Wormhout and Esquelbecq . It was there that troops of the Leibstandarte 's 2nd Battalion committed the Wormhoudt massacre , where 81 British and French prisoners of war were murdered. By 30 May,

2091-715: The Reichswehr (the Weimar Republic's armed forces) and conservatives of the country, people whose support Hitler needed to solidify his position. When Hitler decided to act against the SA, the SS was put in charge of killing Röhm and the other high-ranking SA officers. The Night of the Long Knives occurred between 30 June and 2 July 1934, claiming up to 200 victims and murdering almost the entire SA leadership, effectively ending its power. This action

2214-651: The SS-Verfügungs-Division . The Leibstandarte remained independent and was increased in strength to a reinforced motorised regiment. Hitler authorised the creation of two new divisions: the SS Totenkopf Division , formed from militarised Standarten of the SS-Totenkopfverbände , and the Polizei Division , formed from members of the national police force. Almost overnight the force that

2337-632: The 2018 Hungarian parliamentary election , a representative of Hungary's German minority – Imre Ritter of the National Self-Government of Germans in Hungary – was elected for the first time since 1933. Carpathian Basin The Pannonian Basin or Carpathian Basin is a large sedimentary basin situated in southeast Central Europe . After the Treaty of Trianon following World War I,

2460-623: The 207th Infantry Division . The SS-VT Division minus Der Führer was concentrated near Münster awaiting the invasion of the Netherlands . The SS Totenkopf and Polizei Divisions were held in reserve. On 10 May, the Leibstandarte overcame Dutch border guards to spearhead the German advance of X Corps into the Netherlands, north of the rivers towards the Dutch Grebbe Line and subsequently

2583-650: The 6th Army was destroyed during the Battle of Stalingrad . Hitler ordered the SS Panzer Corps back to the Eastern Front for a counter-attack with the city of Kharkov as its objective. The SS Panzer Corps was in full retreat on 19 February, having been attacked by the Soviet 6th Army , when they received the order to counter-attack. Disobeying Hitler's order to "stand fast and fight to the death" , Hausser withdrew in front of

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2706-605: The American occupation zone , and later to the Soviet occupation zone . Overall, approximately 220,000 Germans were expelled from Hungary. With World War II still raging in 1945, various factions competing for immediate and postwar Hungarian political power sought to decide how to treat ethnic Germans. Opinions were divided, with the Hungarian Communist Party and its ally, the National Peasant Party , calling for

2829-656: The Austrian Empire (in 1804) and later became Austria-Hungary (in 1867). Most of the plain was located within the Hungarian part of Austria-Hungary, since all other Habsburg possessions in the plain were integrated into the Kingdom of Hungary until 1882. The autonomous Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia , which was one of the Lands of the Crown of St. Stephen , comprised the south-western portion of

2952-679: The Deutschland Regiment from being destroyed and their bridgehead lost. That same day, as the SS Totenkopf Division advanced near Merville, they encountered stubborn resistance from British Army units, which slowed their advance. The SS Totenkopf 4 Company, then committed the Le Paradis massacre , where 97 captured men of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment were machine gunned after surrendering, with survivors finished off with bayonets . Only two men survived. By 28 May,

3075-511: The Dinaric Alps together with the Danube forms a conditional northern limit of Balkan peninsula . It also enters the Danube at southern portion of the Pannonian Basin. Other rivers include Drava , Mureș , Great Morava , Drina and many others. In western portion of Pannonia is located Lake Balaton . Although rain is not plentiful, the plain is a major agricultural area. It is sometimes said that these fields of rich loamy loess soil could feed

3198-939: The Kingdom of the Lombards , the Avar Khaganate , the West Slavic state of Samo , the Bulgarian Empire, the Frankish Empire , Great Moravia , the Lower Pannonian Principality and the Kingdom of Syrmia . The Principality of Hungary established in 895 by the Magyars was centered on the plain and included almost all of it (as did the former Avar Khaganate). It was established as the Catholic Kingdom of Hungary in AD 1000, with

3321-590: The Leie River at Merville . They forced a bridgehead across the river and waited for the SS Totenkopf Division to arrive to cover their flank. What arrived first was a unit of British tanks, which penetrated their position. The SS-VT managed to hold on against the British tank force, which got to within 15 feet of commander Felix Steiner 's position. Only the arrival of the Totenkopf Panzerjäger platoon saved

3444-605: The Ottoman Empire , while the remainder to the north-west was subsumed into the holdings of the Habsburg monarchy and retitled Royal Hungary . Under Ottoman administration, the plain was reorganised into the Eyalet of Budim , the Eyalet of Egri , the Eyalet of Sigetvar and the Eyalet of Temeşvar . The Pannonian Plain was frequently a scene of conflict between the two empires. At the end of

3567-426: The Pannonian Sea , a shallow sea that reached its greatest extent during the Pliocene Epoch , when three to four kilometres of sediments were deposited. The plain was named after the Pannon named Medes. Various different peoples inhabited the plain during its history. In the first century BC, the eastern parts of the plain belonged to the Dacian state, and in the first century AD its western parts were subsumed into

3690-428: The Pripyat swamps , an operation designed to round up and exterminate Jews, partisans, and civilians in that area of the Byelorussian SSR . Fegelein split the territory to be covered into two sections divided by the Pripyat River , with the 1st Regiment taking the northern half and the 2nd Regiment the south. The regiments worked their way from east to west through their assigned territory, and filed daily reports on

3813-912: The Proto-Indo-European root *pen- , "swamp, water, wet" (cf. English fen , "marsh"; Hindi pani , "water"). The name "Carpates" is highly associated with the old Dacian tribes called " Carpes " or " Carpi " who lived in a large area from the east, northeast of the Black Sea to the Transylvanian Plain in present day Romania and Moldova. The name Carpates may ultimately be from the Proto Indo-European root *sker- / *ker- , which meant mountain, rock, or rugged (cf. Germanic root *skerp- , Old Norse harfr "harrow", Gothic skarpo , Middle Low German scharf "potsherd", and Modern High German Scherbe "shard", Old English scearp and English sharp , Lithuanian kar~pas "cut, hack, notch", Latvian cìrpt "to shear, clip"). The archaic Polish word karpa meant 'rugged irregularities, underwater obstacles/rocks, rugged roots, or trunks'. The more common word skarpa means

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3936-410: The Roman Empire . The Roman province named Pannonia was established in the area, and the city of Sirmium , today Sremska Mitrovica , Serbia , became one of the four capital cities of the Roman Empire in the 3rd century. In the Age of Migrations and the early Middle Ages , the region belonged to several realms such as the Hun Empire , the Kingdom of the Gepids , the Kingdom of the Ostrogoths ,

4059-427: The Totenkopf ", Eicke was awarded Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross on 20 May 1942. The Waffen-SS expanded further in 1943: in February the 9th SS Panzer Division Hohenstaufen and its sister division, the 10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg , were formed in France. They were followed in July by the 11th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division Nordland created from Norwegian and Danish volunteers. September saw

4182-437: The Waffen-SS divisions and brigades fared better. The Totenkopf and Polizei divisions were attached to Army Group North , with the mission to advance through the Baltic states and on to Leningrad . The Das Reich Division was with Army Group Centre and headed towards Moscow . The Leibstandarte and Wiking Divisions were with Army Group South , heading for Ukraine and the city of Kiev . The invasion of

4305-460: The Waffen-SS formations participated (including the Reich Division, which was formally renamed to Das Reich by the fall of 1941). SS Division Nord, which was in northern Finland , took part in Operation Arctic Fox with the Finnish Army and fought at the battle of Salla , where against strong Soviet forces they suffered 300 killed and 400 wounded in the first two days of the invasion. Thick forests and heavy smoke from forest fires disoriented

4428-403: The Waffen-SS had increased in size from eight divisions and some brigades to 16 divisions. By 1943 the Waffen-SS could no longer claim to be an "elite" fighting force. Recruitment and conscription based on "numerical over qualitative expansion" took place, with many of the "foreign" units being good for only rear-guard duty. On the Eastern Front, the Germans suffered a devastating defeat when

4551-421: The Waffen-SS until 1942. At the same time, the Totenkopf-Standarten , aside from the three constituting the TK-Division, lost their Death's Head designation and insignia and were reclassified SS-Infanterie- (or Kavallerie- ) Regimente . The 11th Regiment was transferred into the Reich Division to replace Germania ; the remainder were grouped into three independent brigades and a battle group in Norway. By

4674-422: The geomorphological term Pannonian Plain became more widely used for roughly the same region, referring to the lowlands in the area occupied by the Pannonian Sea during the Pliocene Epoch. The term Pannonian Plain refers to the lowland parts of the Pannonian Basin as well as those of some adjoining regions like Lower Austria , Moravia , and Silesia ( Czech Republic and Poland ). The lands adjoining

4797-404: The heavy panzer companies . The Soviet offensive of January 1942 trapped a number of German divisions in the Demyansk Pocket between February and April 1942; the 3rd SS Totenkopf Division was one of the divisions encircled by the Red Army. The Red Army liberated Demyansk on 1 March 1943 with the retreat of German troops. "For his excellence in command and the particularly fierce fighting of

4920-414: The invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Nazi propaganda claimed that the war was a "European crusade against Bolshevism " and subsequently units consisting largely or solely of foreign volunteers and conscripts were also raised. These Waffen-SS units were made up of men mainly from among the nationals of Nazi-occupied Europe. Despite relaxation of the rules, the Waffen-SS was still based on

5043-427: The 17th century the Habsburgs won decisive battles against the Ottomans , and most of the plain gradually came under Habsburg rule. Under Habsburg rule the region was eventually reorganised into the Kingdom of Hungary, the Banat of Temeswar , the Military Frontier , the Kingdom of Croatia , the Kingdom of Slavonia and Voivodeship of Serbia and Temes Banat . The Habsburg Monarchy was subsequently transformed into

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5166-401: The 2,000 that had started the campaign in June. Altogether, the Waffen-SS had suffered 43,000 casualties. While the Leibstandarte and the SS divisions were fighting in the front line, behind the lines it was a different story. The 1st SS Infantry and 2nd SS Infantry Brigades, which had been formed from surplus concentration camp guards of the SS-TV, and the SS Cavalry Brigade moved into

5289-434: The Amsterdam region. The neighbouring Der Führer Regiment advanced towards the Grebbe Line in the sector of the Grebbeberg with as a follow-up objective the city of Utrecht . The Battle of the Grebbeberg lasted three days and took a toll on Der Führer . On 11 May, the SS-VT Division crossed into the Netherlands south of the rivers and headed towards Breda . It fought a series of skirmishes before Germania advanced into

5412-413: The Balkans. Himmler approved the introduction of formal compulsory service for the Volksdeutsche in German-occupied Serbia. Another new division was formed at the same time, when the SS Cavalry Brigade was used as the cadre in the formation of the 8th SS Cavalry Division Florian Geyer . The front line divisions of the Waffen-SS that had suffered losses through the winter of 1941–1942 and during

5535-408: The British were cornered at Dunkirk , and the SS divisions continued the advance into France. The Leibstandarte reached Saint-Étienne , 250 miles south of Paris, and had advanced further into France than any other unit. By the next day, the fighting was all but over. German forces arrived in Paris unopposed on 14 June and France formally surrendered on 25 June. Hitler expressed his pleasure with

5658-413: The Dutch province of Zeeland on 14 May. The rest of the SS-VT Division joined the northern front against the forces in Antwerp . On the same day, the Leibstandarte entered Rotterdam . After the surrender of Rotterdam, the Leibstandarte left for The Hague , which they reached on 15 May, capturing 3,500 Dutch soldiers as prisoners of war . In France, the SS Totenkopf Division was involved in

5781-426: The Dutch surrender, the Leibstandarte moved south to France on 24 May. Becoming part of the XIX Panzer Corps under the command of General Heinz Guderian , they took up a position 15 miles south west of Dunkirk along the line of the Aa Canal, facing the Allied defensive line near Watten. A patrol from the SS-VT Division crossed the canal at Saint-Venant , but was destroyed by British armour. A larger force from

5904-440: The German language, including limited speech comprehension, which they found disturbing. The group met with success in the 1980s, when German gained status as a minority language , thus gaining legal standing in the Hungarian school system. The number of bilingual schools continued to rise. In 2001, 62,105 people declared themselves to be German, and 88,209 people declared an affinity with German cultural values and traditions. In

6027-688: The German war effort in World War II. This included several units of the Waffen SS and spanned combat operations in the proximity of Hungary, its possessions, and beyond. Toward the end of the Second World War, the German-speaking community in Hungary was seen as a scapegoat by the communists, and a process of ethnic cleansing was undertaken. Citing "security reasons", the advancing Red Army deported about 600,000 civilians and prisoners of war from Hungary, of whom 40,000–65,000 were Germans. A significant number of Germans, mostly members of Nazi organisations, avoiding or fearing deportation to Siberia, fled Hungary as well. Many Germans were sent to Germany, first to

6150-440: The Hungarian Government, all opposition was gradually eliminated. (In 1949, Cardinal Mindszenty was tried for treason by the Communist government and given a life sentence. In the 1956 Hungarian revolution, he was given asylum in the U.S. Embassy in Budapest, from whence he was finally allowed to go into exile in 1971.) The expulsion of ethnic Germans occurred in two phases: the first phase lasted from January to June 1946 and, after

6273-506: The Hungarian Government, class warfare took precedence over nationalism. Communist Party leader Rákosi stated that the remaining Swabians, mostly skilled workers, should be reintegrated into the Hungarian State. In October 1949, a general amnesty of all ethnic Germans was decreed. Six months later, in May 1950, the expulsions were officially ended, and all remaining Germans given Hungarian citizenship. This created another crisis among Hungary's German community, whose members could no longer leave

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6396-419: The Hungarian kingdom was more than halved by the Treaty of Trianon in 1920, as the kingdom was forced to make large cessions of its territory to neighbouring countries. In 1938, a national socialist German organization was formed, the Volksbund der Deutschen in Ungarn , under the leadership of Franz Anton Basch, becoming the most influential political organization among Hungarian Germans. In 1940, it became

6519-437: The LSSAH). Concentration camp guards had to make a one-year commitment, be between the ages of 16 and 23, and at least 1.72 metres (5 ft 8 in) tall. All recruits were required to have 20/20 eyesight , no dental fillings, and to provide a medical certificate. By 1938, the height restrictions were relaxed, up to six dental fillings were permitted, and eyeglasses for astigmatism and mild vision correction were allowed. Once

6642-423: The OKW had tried to disband had increased from 18,000 to over 100,000 men. Hitler next authorised the creation of four motorised artillery battalions in March 1940, one for each division and the Leibstandarte . The OKW was supposed to supply these new battalions with artillery, but was reluctant to hand over guns from its own arsenal. The weapons arrived only slowly and, by the time of the Battle of France , only

6765-426: The Red Army. During Field Marshal Erich von Manstein 's counteroffensive, the SS Panzer Corps, without support from the Luftwaffe or neighbouring German formations, broke through the Soviet line and advanced on Kharkov. Despite orders to encircle Kharkov from the north, the SS Panzer Corps directly attacked in the Third Battle of Kharkov on 11 March. This led to four days of house-to-house fighting before Kharkov

6888-404: The SS (1st Galician) formed from volunteers from Galicia in western Ukraine. The 15th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Latvian) was created in 1943, using compulsory military service in the Ostland . The final new division of 1943 was the 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division Reichsführer-SS , which was created using the Sturmbrigade Reichsführer SS as a cadre. By the end of the year,

7011-412: The SS Cavalry Brigade had 2 regiments with a strength of 3500 men and played a pivotal role in the transition to the wholesale extermination of the Jewish population. In the summer of 1941, Himmler assigned Hermann Fegelein to be in charge of both regiments. On 19 July 1941, Himmler assigned Fegelein's regiments to the general command of HSSPF Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski for the "systematic combing" of

7134-448: The SS Regiment Westland . The two regiments, together with Germania (transferred from the Reich Division), formed the SS Division Wiking . A sufficient number of volunteers came forward requiring the SS to open a new training camp just for foreign volunteers at Sennheim in Alsace-Lorraine . At the beginning of the new year, the Polizei Division was brought under FHA administration, although it would not be formally merged into

7257-405: The SS insisted that it had been hampered by having to fight piecemeal instead of as one formation, and was improperly equipped by the army to carry out its objectives. Himmler insisted that the SS-VT should be allowed to fight in its own formations under its own commanders, while the OKW tried to have the SS-VT disbanded altogether. Hitler was unwilling to upset either the army or Himmler, and chose

7380-416: The SS, which still maintained its racial criteria, but rather were considered to be foreign nationals serving under the command of the SS. As a general rule, an "SS Division" was made up of Germans or other Germanic peoples, while a "Division of the SS" was made up of non-Germanic volunteers and conscripts. Himmler's military formations at the outbreak of the war comprised several subgroups that would become

7503-440: The SS-VT Division then crossed the canal and formed a bridgehead at Saint-Venant; 30 miles from Dunkirk. That night the OKW ordered the advance to halt, with the British Expeditionary Force trapped. The Leibstandarte paused for the night. However, on the following day, in defiance of Hitler's orders, Dietrich ordered his 3rd Battalion to cross the canal and take the heights beyond, where British artillery observers were putting

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7626-527: The SS-VT was untested in combat. In 1938, a battalion of the Leibstandarte was chosen to accompany the army troops in occupying Austria during the Anschluss , and the three regiments of the SS-VT participated in the occupation of the Sudetenland that same year in October. In both actions no resistance was met. Recruiting ethnic Germans from other countries began in April 1940, and units consisting of non-Germanic recruits were formed beginning in 1942. Non-Germanic units were not considered to be part of

7749-457: The SS-VT would have a role in domestic as well as foreign affairs, which transformed this growing armed force into the rival that the army had feared. He decreed that service in the SS-VT qualified to fulfill military service obligations, although service in the SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV) would not. Some units of the SS-TV would, in the case of war, be used as reserves for the SS-VT, which did not have its own reserves. For all its training,

7872-435: The SS-VT. At the same time Himmler established two SS-Junker Schools (SS officer training camps) that, under the direction of former Lieutenant General Paul Hausser , prepared future SS leaders. In addition to military training, the courses aimed to instill a proper ideological worldview, with antisemitism being the main tenet. Instructors such as Matthias Kleinheisterkamp , or future war criminals, such as Franz Magill of

7995-527: The Smallholder Party, and the surviving democratic press, criticized the sweeping nature of classifying every ethnic German as a traitor. Cardinal József Mindszenty (of Swabian origin), head of the Roman Catholic Church in Hungary and fierce anti-communist, repeatedly protested the confiscation of property and expulsion of ethnic Germans. He appealed to world public opinion, strongly condemning government treatment of ethnic Germans in Hungary. These protests had no effect, and with increasing communist domination of

8118-439: The Soviet Union behind the advancing armies. At first, they fought Soviet partisans and cut off units of the Red Army in the rear of Army Group South, capturing 7,000 prisoners of war, but from mid-August 1941 until late 1942 they were assigned to the Reich Security Main Office headed by Reinhard Heydrich . The brigades were now used for rear area security and policing, and were no longer under army or Waffen-SS command. In

8241-424: The Soviet Union proceeded well at first, but the cost to the Waffen-SS was extreme: by late October, the Leibstandarte was at half strength due to enemy action and dysentery that swept through the ranks. Das Reich lost 60% of its strength and was still to take part in the Battle of Moscow . The unit was later decimated in the following Soviet offensive. The Der Führer Regiment was reduced to 35 men out of

8364-536: The Soviet counter-offensive were withdrawn to France to recover and be reformed as Panzergrenadier divisions. Due to the efforts of Himmler and Hausser, the new commander of the SS Panzer Corps , the three SS Panzergrenadier divisions Leibstandarte , Das Reich , and Totenkopf were to be formed with a full regiment of tanks rather than only a battalion. This meant that the SS Panzergrenadier divisions were full-strength Panzer divisions in all but name. They each received nine Tiger tanks , which were formed into

8487-410: The Soviet occupation zone of Germany. This was far greater than the number of Volksbund members, reinforcing the theory that the goal was the elimination of an unwanted ethnic group rather than just that of German fascists. The German population in Hungary, however, was never subject to the same brutal persecution and excesses as in Poland , Czechoslovakia or Yugoslavia . The initiative for including

8610-511: The Soviet zone. But by this time, the majority of the ethnic Germans remaining in Hungary were anxious to leave, as their living conditions had become unbearable. Ironically, in this second wave of expulsions, the most skilled and industrious German workers were removed from Hungary. This had a long-term detrimental effect on the Hungarian economy. The expulsions were completely discontinued in the autumn of 1948. In all, 239,000 Swabian Germans were forcibly deported from Hungary. About 170,000 went to

8733-435: The US zone in Germany, 54,000 to the Soviet zone, and 15,000 to Austria. It is estimated that 11,000 ethnic Germans civilians lost their lives during the expulsions. Those ethnic Germans who had opted for Hungarian nationality in the 1941 census, who selected Hungarian as their native language, and who were completely integrated into Hungarian society, were generally able to avoid deportation. By 1948, with communists dominating

8856-642: The Yugoslav capital. Fritz Klingenberg , a company commander in the Reich , led his men into Belgrade, where a small group in the vanguard accepted the surrender of the city on 13 April. A few days later the Royal Yugoslav Army surrendered. The Leibstandarte had now crossed into Greece, and on 10 April engaged the 6th Australian Division in the Battle of the Klidi Pass . For 48 hours they fought for control of

8979-582: The advance on 13 May. When the Reconnaissance Battalion under the command of Kurt Meyer came under heavy fire from the Greek Army defending the Klisura Pass , they broke through the defenders and captured 1,000 prisoners of war at the cost of only six dead and nine wounded. The next day, Meyer captured Kastoria and took another 11,000 prisoners of war. By 20 May, the Leibstandarte had cut off

9102-438: The ancient Pannonia, while Great Hungarian Plain was not part of it: In terms of modern state boundaries, the Pannonian Basin centres on the territory of Hungary , which lies entirely within the basin, but it also covers parts of southern Slovakia , southeast Poland , western-southwest Ukraine , western Romania , northern Serbia , northeast Croatia , northeast Slovenia , and eastern Austria . The term Carpathian Basin

9225-609: The autumn of 1941, they left the anti-partisan role to other units and actively took part in the Holocaust . While assisting the Einsatzgruppen , they participated in the extermination of the Jewish population of the Soviet Union, forming firing parties when required. The three brigades were responsible for the murder of tens of thousands by the end of 1941. Because it was more mobile and better able to carry out large-scale operations,

9348-587: The basis of the Waffen-SS : In August 1939, Hitler placed the Leibstandarte and the SS-VT under the operational control of the Army High Command ( OKH ). Himmler retained command of the Totenkopfstandarten for employment behind the advancing combat units in what were euphemistically called "special tasks of a police nature". In spite of the swift military victory over Poland in September 1939,

9471-465: The center of the basin escaping at southeast portion where South Carpathians transition to Dinaric Alps and Balkan Mountains . The Tisza enters the basin from northeast running downhill from the Eastern Carpathians , it continues southwest and south until joins the Danube at southern portion of the basin. Another important river of the region is Sava which running along the eastern foothills of

9594-414: The civilian population through acts that included hunting down straggling Polish soldiers, confiscating agricultural produce and livestock, and torturing and murdering large numbers of Polish political leaders, aristocrats, businessmen, priests, intellectuals, and Jews. His Totenkopfverbände troops were called on to carry out "police and security measures" in the rear areas. What these measures involved

9717-413: The civilian population, including torture , human experimentation , kidnapping of children , mass rape , child sexual abuse and mass murder . Therefore Waffen-SS members, with the exception of conscripts, who comprised about one-third of the membership, were denied many of the rights afforded to military veterans. The origins of the Waffen-SS can be traced back to the selection of

9840-596: The company of Giselle of Bavaria , the German-born wife of King Stephen I , first King of Hungary , entered the country. Furthermore, three distinct waves of ethnic German migration can be identified in Hungary before the 20th century. The first two waves of settlers arrived in the Kingdom of Hungary during the Middle Ages (more specifically during the High Middle Ages between the 11th and 13th centuries) and formed

9963-743: The core of the citizenry of a few towns in Upper Hungary (i.e. Zipser Germans , "Zipser Sachsen") and southern Transylvania (i.e. Transylvanian Saxons , "Siebenbürger Sachsen"). The third, largest wave of German-speaking immigrants arrived in Hungary as the result of a deliberate settlement policy of the Habsburg government after the Ottoman Empire was driven from Hungarian territory. Between 1711 and 1780, German-speaking settlers from Southern Germany , Austria , and Saxony emigrated to southwestern Hungary, including, Buda , Banat , and Szatmár County . This influx of immigrants helped to bring economic recovery and cultural distinction to these regions. By

10086-537: The coronation of Stephen I of Hungary . The Kingdom of Hungary by the 11th century comprised the entire Pannonian Basin, but the changing fates of this part of Europe during the Ottoman wars of the 14th to 17th centuries left the Pannonian basin divided between numerous political entities. After the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the central and eastern regions of the kingdom and the plain on which they lay were incorporated into

10209-608: The country because they were Hungarian citizens. Things began to improve for minority groups, including Hungarian Germans, under a program of economic liberalization called Goulash Communism . This movement, led by the then-General Secretary of the Hungarian Communist Party János Kádár , guaranteed certain economic and cultural rights to minority groups. In 1955, a new organization, the Association of Hungarian Germans ( German : Verband der Ungarndeutschen ),

10332-633: The different branches of the Wehrmacht to meet quotas set by the German High Command ( Oberkommando der Wehrmacht or OKW in German); the SS was given the lowest priority for recruits. Even with the difficulties presented by the quota system, Heinrich Himmler formed two new SS regiments, the SS Germania and SS Deutschland , which together with the Leibstandarte and a communications unit made up

10455-446: The end of World War I , almost two million Danube Swabians and other German-speaking peoples lived in what is now Hungary, Romania , Croatia , Slovakia , and the former Yugoslav republics . Between 1918 and 1945, several factors greatly reduced the number of German-speaking residents in the former kingdom; consequently, only thirty percent of the original German-speaking population was left after World War II . The number of Germans in

10578-427: The end of the 18th century, over one million German-speaking residents lived in the Kingdom of Hungary. At the time, a flourishing German-speaking culture existed in the kingdom, publishing German-language literary works, newspapers, and magazines. Moreover, a German-language theater operated in the kingdom's capital, Budapest . Throughout the 19th century, a strong German industrial community developed, particularly in

10701-501: The exception of Little Hungarian Plain (which is only around 15% of the territory of ancient Pannonian Transdanubia) hills and mountains dominate the landscape, so real plains are very rare on that territory. The largest plain of Ancient Roman Pannonia province is located in Slavonia in Croatia and Voivodine in modern Serbia. Julius Pokorny derived the name Pannonia from Illyrian , from

10824-551: The expulsion of all Germans, whereas the major democratic party, the Smallholder Party, favored deporting only former Volksbund and Waffen SS members. In May 1945, the Hungarian government announced that the problem was not a larger Swabian one but one of German fascists: it resolved to deport only former Waffen SS soldiers and confiscate the lands of Volksbund members. Shortly thereafter, however, it asked for authorization from Moscow to deport 200,000 to 250,000 ethnic Germans to

10947-709: The expulsion of ethnic Germans from Hungary at the August 1945 Potsdam "Big Three" conference came from the Soviet Union. Together with the Hungarian Communist Party, the USSR used the argument of collective Swabian guilt to hide their true goal of radical land reform . In the spring of 1945, Marshall Voroshilov demanded from the Hungarian government the complete expulsion of the Germans from Hungary. All those ethnic Germans who declared German as their native language were considered eligible for transfer. The government estimated

11070-450: The first in the Holocaust to wipe out entire Jewish communities. Fegelein's final operational report dated 18 September 1941, states that they killed 14,178 Jews, 1,001 partisans, 699 Red Army soldiers, with 830 prisoners taken and losses of 17 dead, 36 wounded, and 3 missing. Historian Henning Pieper estimates the actual number of Jews killed was closer to 23,700. In 1942, the Waffen-SS

11193-599: The following sections: Note: The Transylvanian Plateau and the Lučenec-Košice Depression (both parts of the Carpathians) and some other lowlands are sometimes also considered part of the Pannonian Plain in non-geomorphological or older divisions. Relatively large or distinctive areas of the plain that do not necessarily correspond to national borders include: The Pannonian Basin has its geological origins in

11316-585: The formation of the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend using volunteers from the Hitler Youth . Himmler and Berger successfully appealed to Hitler to form a Bosnian Muslim division, and the 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar (1st Croatian) , the first non-Germanic division, was formed, to fight Josip Broz Tito 's Yugoslav Partisans . This was followed by the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of

11439-416: The glass-blowing, masonry, and foundry metalworking sectors. In response, a strong Hungarian nationalist political movement rose in the second half of the century to assimilate German-speaking citizens and their economic power into Hungarian culture. The movement's objectives were advanced by a number of policies, including the forced replacement of German in ethnic German schools with Hungarian . By 1918, at

11562-509: The government were in reality under the control of the Communist Party. Thus on occasion, wealthy Swabians who had not been Volksbund members were expelled whereas working-class ethnic Germans, now Hungarian Communist Party members, were exempted, even though they had been part of the Volksbund. Voices were raised in Hungary against these arbitrary expulsions. The liberal parties, particularly

11685-694: The head of the SS. With the start of World War II, tactical control was exercised by the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW, "High Command of the Armed Forces"), with some units being subordinated to the Kommandostab Reichsführer-SS (Command Staff Reichsführer-SS ) directly under Himmler's control. Initially, in keeping with the racial policy of Nazi Germany , membership was open only to people of Germanic origin (so-called " Aryan ancestry "). The rules were partially relaxed in 1940, and after

11808-633: The heights, often engaging in hand-to-hand combat, eventually gaining control with the capture of Height 997, which opened the pass and allowed the German Army to advance into the Greek interior. This victory gained praise from the OKW: in the order of the day they were commended for their "unshakable offensive spirit" and told that "the present victory signifies for the Leibstandarte a new and imperishable page of honour in its history." The Leibstandarte continued

11931-454: The notorious SS Cavalry Brigade were of questionable competence. In 1934, Himmler set stringent requirements for recruits. They were to be German nationals who could prove their Aryan ancestry back to 1800, unmarried, and without a criminal record. A four-year commitment was required for the SS-VT and LSSAH. Recruits had to be between the ages of 17 and 23, at least 1.74 metres (5 ft 9 in) tall (1.78 metres (5 ft 10 in) for

12054-563: The number of Germans to be removed from Hungary to be 200,000 to 250,000. Certain categories of Hungarian Germans were exempted from deportation, mostly those who had been active members of democratic parties or labor unions or persecuted by the Nazis for claiming Hungarian nationality. Later, in 1947, industrial workers in critical industries, miners, indispensable craftsmen and agricultural workers were also exempted, unless they had been Volksbund or Waffen SS members. Exemption committees established by

12177-486: The number of people killed and taken prisoner. By 1 August, 1st SS Cavalry Regiment under the command of Gustav Lombard was responsible for the death of 800 people; by 6 August, this total had reached 3,000 "Jews and partisans". Throughout the following weeks, the regiment's personnel under Lombard's command murdered an estimated 11,000 Jews and more than 400 dispersed soldiers of the Red Army. Thus Fegelein's units were among

12300-486: The official representative body of Hungarian Germans and was directly controlled by Germany. The Volksbund had representatives in the Hungarian parliament until 1945. Through limited volunteer enlistment and widespread conscription, as well as the wholesale transfer of entities of the domestic armed services, many ethnic Germans ended up serving in military units raised or controlled by the Third Reich and fighting on behalf of

12423-515: The only Allied tank counterattack in the Battle of France. On 21 May, units of the 1st Army Tank Brigade , supported by the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division , took part in the Battle of Arras . The SS Totenkopf , on the southern flank of the 7th Panzer Division , was overrun, finding their standard anti-tank gun , the 3.7 cm PaK 36 , was no match for the British Matilda II tank. After

12546-543: The performance of the Leibstandarte in the Netherlands and France, telling them, "Henceforth it will be an honour for you, who bear my name, to lead every German attack." On 19 July 1940, Hitler gave a speech to the Reichstag , where he gave a summary of the western campaign and praised the German forces involved. He used the term " Waffen-SS " when describing the units of the LSSAH and SS-VT that took part. From that day forward,

12669-498: The plain proper are sometimes also called peri-Pannonian . In English language, the terms "Pannonian Basin" and "Carpathian Basin" are used synonymously. The name "Pannonian" is taken from that of Pannonia , a province of the Roman Empire . The historical province overlapped but was not coterminous with the geographical plain or basin, as only the western part of the territory (known as Transdanubia ) of modern Hungary formed part of

12792-446: The plain. With the dissolution of Austria-Hungary after World War I, the region was divided between Hungary , Romania , Czechoslovakia , Austria and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (renamed to Yugoslavia in 1929). The borders drawn in 1918 and 1919 are mostly preserved as those of the contemporary states of Austria , Czech Republic , Hungary , Poland , Slovakia , Serbia , Ukraine , Croatia , and Romania . This

12915-574: The racist ideology of Nazism , and ethnic Poles (who were viewed as subhumans ) were specifically barred from the formations. The Waffen-SS were involved in numerous atrocities. It was declared a criminal organisation by the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg in 1946, due to its involvement in the Holocaust , the Porajmos , and numerous war crimes and crimes against

13038-574: The regiment at risk. They assaulted the heights and drove the observers off. Instead of being censured for his act of defiance, Dietrich was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross . On that same day, British forces attacked Saint-Venant, forcing the SS-VT Division to retreat. On 26 May, the German advance resumed. On 27 May, the Deutschland Regiment of the SS-VT Division reached the Allied defensive line on

13161-640: The regiment became known as the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH). The Leibstandarte demonstrated their loyalty to Hitler in 1934 during the " Night of the Long Knives ", when the Nazi regime carried out a series of political murders and the purge of the Sturmabteilung (SA). Led by one of Hitler's oldest comrades, Ernst Röhm , the SA was seen as a threat by Hitler to his newly gained political power. Hitler also wanted to appease leaders of

13284-520: The regular army felt that the performance of the SS-VT left much to be desired; its units took unnecessary risks and had a higher casualty rate than the army. They also stated that the SS-VT was poorly trained and its officers unsuitable for combat command. As an example, the OKW noted that the Leibstandarte had to be rescued by an army regiment after becoming surrounded by the Poles at Pabianice . In its defence,

13407-513: The retreating Greek Army at Metsovo and accepted the surrender of the Greek Epirus-Macedonian Army. As a reward, the Leibstandarte was nominally redesignated as a full motorised division, although few additional elements had been added by the start of the Soviet campaign and the "division" remained effectively a reinforced brigade. Operation Barbarossa , the German invasion of the Soviet Union, started on 22 June 1941, and all

13530-619: The spring of 1941, the Waffen-SS consisted of the equivalent of six or seven divisions: the Reich , Totenkopf , Polizei , and Wiking Divisions and Kampfgruppe (later Division) Nord , and the Leibstandarte , 1st SS Infantry , 2nd SS Infantry , and SS Cavalry Brigades. In March 1941, a major Italian counterattack against Greek forces failed, and Germany came to the aid of its ally. Operation Marita began on 6 April 1941, with German troops invading Greece through Bulgaria and Yugoslavia in an effort to secure its southern flank. Reich

13653-785: The term Waffen-SS became the official designation for the SS combat formations. Himmler gained approval for the Waffen-SS to form its own high command, the Kommandoamt der Waffen-SS within the SS Führungshauptamt , which was created in August 1940. It received command of the SS-VT (the Leibstandarte and the Verfügungs-Division , renamed Reich ) and the armed SS-TV regiments (the Totenkopf Division together with several independent Totenkopf-Standarten ). In 1940, SS chief of staff Gottlob Berger approached Himmler with

13776-521: The terms Tysa-Danube Lowland or Middanubian Lowland ( Ukrainian : Тисо-Дунайська низовина, Середньодунайська низовина ) Pannonian basin vs Carpathian basin: On the territory of present-day Hungary the ancient Roman Pannonia province was located only on Transdanubian territories, however the Great Hungarian Plain was not part of Pannonia province. This comprises less than 29% of modern Hungary, therefore Hungarian geographers avoid

13899-423: The terms "Pannonian Basin" and especially the "Pannonian Plain" terms due to it being considered not only unhistorical but also topologically erroneous term. Because the term "Pannonian" has historically not applied to 80% of the basin's territory, Hungarian geographers and historians use the more accurate term "Carpathian Basin". The other logical problem with the Pannonian "Plain" terminology lies in topography: with

14022-414: The troops and the division's units completely fell apart. By the end of 1941, Nord had suffered severe casualties. Over the winter of 1941–42 it received replacements from the general pool of Waffen-SS recruits, who were supposedly younger and better trained than the SS men of the original formation, which had been drawn largely from Totenkopfstandarten of Nazi concentration camp guards. The rest of

14145-643: The war commenced, the physical requirements were no longer strictly enforced, and any recruit who could pass a basic medical exam was considered for service. Members of the SS could be of any religion except Judaism , but atheists were not allowed according to Himmler in 1937. Hitler expounded on the attitude he wanted during a talk in the Wolf's Lair : "I have six divisions of SS composed of men absolutely indifferent in matters of religion. It doesn't prevent them from going to their deaths with serenity in their souls." Historian Bernd Wegner found in his study of officers that

14268-513: The whole of Europe. However, there has been an increase in extreme precipitation events that cause soil erosion in recent years. Knowledge of areas affected by severe soil erosion can lead to the implementation of effective measures to reduce it. For its early settlers, the plain offered few sources of metals or stone. When archaeologists come upon objects of obsidian or chert , copper or gold, they have almost unparalleled opportunities to interpret ancient pathways of trade. The Pannonian Basin

14391-581: Was disbanded in May 1945. The Waffen-SS grew from three regiments to over 38 divisions during World War II . Combining combat and police functions, it served alongside the German Army ( Heer ), Ordnungspolizei (Order Police), and other security units. Originally, it was under the control of the SS Führungshauptamt (SS operational command office) beneath Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler ,

14514-469: Was founded. A major focus of the group was the teaching of the German language in Hungarian schools. Because of the government's previous position on German culture, very little German was taught in schools at the time, and the group's organizer feared "a mute generation" had been raised by the Hungarian school system. The group's organizers felt that the Hungarian German youth had a very poor command of

14637-576: Was further expanded and a new division was entered on the rolls in March. By the second half of 1942, an increasing number of foreigners, many of whom were not volunteers, began entering the ranks. The 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen was recruited from Volksdeutsche (ethnic Germans) drafted under threat of punishment by the local German leadership from Croatia , Serbia , Hungary , and Romania and used for anti-partisan operations in

14760-451: Was in charge of the troops' military and ideological training but did not have command authority. The decision on deployment of the troops remained in Himmler's hands. This aligned with Hitler's intentions to maintain these troops exclusively at his disposal, "neither [a part] of the army, nor of the police", according to Hitler's order of 17 August 1938. On 17 August 1938, Hitler declared that

14883-636: Was largely carried out by SS personnel (including the Leibstandarte ) and the Gestapo . In September 1934, Hitler authorised the formation of the paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party and approved the formation of the SS-Verfügungstruppe (SS-VT), a special service troop under Hitler's overall command. The SS-VT had to depend on the German Army for its supply of weapons and military training, and its local draft boards responsible for assigning conscripts to

15006-701: Was ordered to leave France and head for Romania , and the Leibstandarte was ordered to Bulgaria. The Leibstandarte , attached to the XL Panzer Corps , advanced west then south from Bulgaria into the mountains, and by 9 April had reached Prilep in Yugoslavia, 30 miles from the Greek border. Further north the Reich Division, with the XLI Panzer Corps , crossed the Romanian border and advanced on Belgrade ,

15129-626: Was recaptured by the Leibstandarte Division on 15 March. Two days later, the Germans recaptured Belgorod , creating the salient that, in July 1943, led to the Battle of Kursk . The German offensive cost the Red Army an estimated 70,000 casualties but the house-to-house fighting in Kharkov was particularly bloody for the SS Panzer Corps, which lost approximately 44% of its strength by the time operations ended in late March. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

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