During the organization's time in the Soviet Union, the unit burned women and children alive, let packs of starved dogs feed on them, and injected Jewish women with
strychnine. Transcripts of the
Nuremberg trials show Soviet prosecutors frequently questioning defendants accused of war crimes on the Eastern Front about their knowledge of the Dirlewanger Brigade.
Heinrich Himmler noted the brutality of
Dirlewanger, noting that "The tone in the regiment is, I may say, in many cases a medieval one with cudgels and such things. If anyone expresses doubts about winning the war he is likely to fall dead from the table." The deputy commander, Kurt Weisse, has been described as the soldier in
Dirlewanger that came closest to matching Dirlewanger in "brutality, cruelty, and outright sadism", and if "there was anyone in the unit who matched the classic profile of a
psychopath, it was he." Weisse was hand-picked by Dirlewanger in May 1943 for his criminality.
Poland branch in Oslo on 2 September 1943. On 1 August 1940, the unit was formally transferred to the 5. SS-Totenkopf Regiment. One month later, the unit was retitled to
Sonderkommando Dirlewanger. On 1 September 1940, they were informed that they would not be sent to any frontlines but instead assigned to guard duties in the region of
Lublin (site of a Nazi-established "Jew reservation" established under the
Nisko Plan) in the
General Government territory of
German-occupied Poland. In September 1940, the unit now with the strength of approximately 280-300 men began their move from Sachsenhausen to
Lublin, by railway, taking around 10–14 hours. Even though they received additional training, they were tasked with guarding the ghetto in Lublin, where they often abused the population. Their main task in
Stary Dzików was to supervise the Jews who were carrying out roadworks. They also carried out training in the General Government, taking on guard duty in labor camps and combating smuggling and black-market trade. They also prepared for their later operations in
Lviv where the Sonderkommando, including Dirlewanger himself, supervised the digging of a trench line near the
Bug river. After the operation's end, Dirlewanger was again ordered to combat smuggling and black-market activities. In October 1941, four soldiers from the Sonderkommando were sent to
Lutsk labor camp as sentries and one of them, SS-Oberscharführer Heinz Feiertag become the camp's first commandant. He personally fenced off the area and brought in the Jews from the ghetto to work as forced labors. The camp produced items such as: shoe polish, floor polish, soaps and brushes. A tailor's workshop was also set up in the camp. In just 2.5 months, the camp brought in a net income of 25,000 marks before the facility was taken over by the civilian administration. During a postwar proceeding, a Jewish witness who was one of the workers in the camp described Feiertag's criminal activities in the camp:"Feiertag visited the workshop several times a day. Not a day went by without him beating one of the workers. I remember exactly how once in the shoemakers’ workshop a pair of boots was made upon his order. Feiertag was very pleased with them. As proof of his delight, he commanded the foreman, the Jew Wydra, to be given 15–20 blows of the stick. Feiertag knew perfectly how to torment prisoners. There was no day that somebody did not get a thrashing. For the beatings, a stick was used on the naked body. Two SS men would carry out the beatings. They reveled in [torturing] the victim all day long. They called him [the prisoner] names, ordered him about, made him sing songs, and then they had him undress completely [and] dig himself a grave in the camp yard. The torture lasted several hours. In the end, they shot him."According to historian Matthew Cooper, "wherever the Dirlewanger unit operated, corruption and rape formed an every-day part of life and indiscriminate slaughter, beatings and
looting were rife". Even within the brutal hierarchy of the General Government, concerns were raised about the unit's conduct. (HSSPF)
Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger eventually demanded the quick removal of the unit from his territory, or he would have the men arrested. The unit's crimes continued when it returned to Poland to help suppress the
Warsaw Uprising in 1944. Crimes included the mass rape and murder of 15 Red Cross nurses and the killing of thousands of civilians. After troops entered a makeshift military hospital, they first killed the wounded with bayonets and rifle butts before gang-raping the women. The naked bleeding nurses were then taken outside, hanged by their feet and shot in their stomachs. The unit would carry out atrocities during the
Wola massacre in which more than 40,000 Polish civilians were killed in reprisal on the orders of Himmler.
Belarus The territory of the
Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (modern
Belarus) was occupied in 1941 and formed part of
Reichskommissariat Ostland. In this region,
Dirlewanger came under the command of local HSSPF
Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski.
Dirlewanger gained the reputation of "exceeding all others", even amongst the SS, in "brutality and depravity". The unit resumed its so-called anti-partisan activities (
Bandenbekämpfung). Dirlewanger's preferred method of operation was to gather civilians in a barn, set it on fire, and shoot at anyone who tried to escape; the victims of his unit numbered at least 30,000. Dirlewanger had formed a procedure to determine which village would be targeted next. He would fly a light reconnaissance plane over any village suspected of harboring partisans and if the plane were shot at, he would mark the village's location on the map. Later, he would return and lead an attack, setting the targeted village on fire and killing all its inhabitants.
1942 Not long after their arrival in Belarus, they soon found themselves in action. From 2 to 10 March 1942, the unit encountered a strong band of partisans northeast of
Osipovichi. They managed to rout the partisans and capture a large stockpile of weapons. On 12 March 1942, they were attacked once again but successfully defeated a large group of partisans near
Tscherwakow. They were later attacked by a larger group of partisans at
Klicev. Dirlewanger then initiated an operation in the forest area southwest of
Mogilev. In April, the unit fell under the command of
Police Regiment "Mitte" led by
Oberst der Schutzpolizei Leo von Braunschweig. They were tasked with clearing the area near the
Drut and
Beresina Rivers. On 2 April 1942, along with Police Battalions 32 and 307, was sent to the northern area of the road connecting Mogilev and Bobrujsk for local anti-partisan operation. They launched an assault on the villages of Selleri and Lushiza, pushing the partisans into the treacherous swampland north of Batsevichi. Dirlewanger and his men had a little success in searching for partisan activity for the first ten days of May. Eventually, two days later, they burnt the village of Sucha under a suspicion of assisting the partisans. On 24 May 1942, Dirlewanger was awarded the
Clasp to the Iron Cross 2nd Class. On 28 May 1942, Dirlewanger was notified that a Ukrainian platoon with the strength of 60 men would be reporting to Dirlewanger's
Sonderkommando. From 29 May to 31 May 1942, they conducted a local partisan sweep. They burnt two villages and shot five partisans near Raswada. This massacre was reported by
Panteleimon Ponomarenko, the Chief of Staff of the
Central Headquarters of the Partisan Movement on 17 July 1942 directly to
Stalin,
Molotov and
Beria in which he stated:During a march — and we had driven 200 km close to Smolensk — the villages were encircled. Nobody was allowed to leave or enter. The fields were searched, and the people were sent back to the village. The next morning around 6:00 AM. all these people — it was a larger village with approximately 2,500 people — children, women, the elderly were pushed into four or five barns. Then Dirlewanger appeared with 10 men, officers, etc. and said: "Shoot them all immediately." In front of the barn, he positioned four SD-men with machine pistols. The barn was opened and Dirlewanger said, "Fire freely." Then there was indiscriminate shooting into the crowd of humans with the machine pistols, without distinction whether children, women, etc. were hit. It was a most horrendous action. The magazines were taken out, new ones were inserted. Then new aiming started. After that, the barn was closed again. The SD-men removed straw from the roofs and set the barns on fire. This was the most horrible spectacle which I have ever seen in my life. The barns were burning brightly. Nobody could escape until the barns fell down. Meanwhile, Dirlewanger and his staff positioned themselves with the Russian rapid fire guns about 50 meters away from the barn. Then from the barns some lightly wounded, some heavily wounded and others who had not yet been hit stormed out, burning all over their bodies. Now these bastards shot these people who tried to escape, with Dirlewanger in front, until there was nobody left. I have witnessed this example which I have described in at least four or five other cases. Each of these villages was leveled down to the ground.At the beginning of July 1942, the
Sonderkommando took part in an operation with the Wehrmacht in the district of
Klicev. A battle occurred in the area of Wojenitschi, where they successfully destroyed a partisan group. On 9 July 1942, Dirlewanger was wounded and left the unit to fly to Berlin on 19 July 1942. He eventually was awarded the
Wound badge in Gold on 12 July 1942. As a result of the battle, Dirlewanger lost a single soldier and six others were wounded. On 22 March 1943, after receiving an alarm signal from the 1st Company of
Schutzmannschaft Battalion 118, the Battalion's 1st Company was sent to reinforce the recently ambushed Platoons of Battalion 118. Together, they made an offensive operation against the partisans that had ambushed the 1st Company's convoy. They entered and attacked
Khatyn. The partisans who had taken shelter in the village turned it into a defensive position. Due to strong resistance by the partisans, Dirlewanger's men used their mortars and heavy guns to suppress further resistance. As a result, 34 partisans were killed and the whole population of Khatyn was herded into a shed where they were burnt alive by the
Schutzmannschaft Battalion 118's men with the assistance of Dirlewanger's troops. On 30 April 1943, the 1st battery from
SS-Polizei Artillerie Abteilung "
Weissruthenien" led by
Oberleutnant der Schutzpolizei Josef Steinhauer, consisting of 58 men, was attached to the SS-Sonderbataillon Dirlewanger.
Operation Cottbus began on 20 May 1943 as part of the German effort to suppress partisan activity in the
Vitebsk region. The operation involved
Police, SS, and collaborationist units operating under the command of the
Höherer SS- und Polizeiführer (HSSPF) Russland-Mitte und Weißruthenien. Among the participating forces was
SS-Sonderbataillon Dirlewanger. On 28 May 1943, Dirlewanger and his unit took part in the operation and advanced toward a heavily fortified position at Hill 119.1, located five kilometers west of Paliksee. The operation was one of the largest anti-partisan campaigns conducted by the Germans in Belarus. At least 20,000 victims were killed, while German losses remained minimal, with fewer than 60 soldiers killed in action. Not everyone was impressed with Dirlewanger's actions. A civilian propaganda officer who toured the Operation Cottbus area reported witnessing horrific scenes—some partisans had been burned alive, and their charred remains were being eaten by roaming pigs.
Wilhelm Kube, the
Generalkommissar of Generalbezirk Weißruthenien, protested Dirlewanger's actions, raising his concerns through
Alfred Rosenberg to Himmler. In response, Gottlob Berger dismissed the accusations as nonsense, insisting that Dirlewanger's battalion was not as described. A witness reported
Dirlewanger men roasting captured partisans alive and then throwing their bodies to a herd of hungry pigs.
Oskar Dirlewanger and battalion staff at their quarters in Łohojsk (Tyszkiewicz Palace), 1943. SS-Oberscharführer'' Heinz Feiertag (second from left) can be seen wearing the
Bandenkampfabzeichen. On 10 August 1943, the expansion of the battalion to regimental size was authorized by
SS Führungshauptamt under
Hans Jüttner. However, the order faced delays due to a shortage of soldiers to fill the newly planned regiment and a lack of weapons to equip them. Lack of weapons resulted in Dirlewanger arming his troops with captured Soviet weapons. The actual expansion of the unit into a regiment did not begin until May 1944, when two battalions were formed from the original 1st company and 2nd company. The formation of a third battalion was delayed due to a shortage of men and did not occur until August 1944. Recruits were to come from criminals, eastern volunteers (
Osttruppen), and military delinquents. On 19 February 1944, permission to take volunteers from concentration camps was granted by Himmler in order to fill the battalion before it could be expanded to a regiment. Over 700 men signed up as volunteers for the battalion, and most of them arrived in June 1944. Additionally, the battalion included 300
anti-communists from Soviet territory. By 11 September 1943, the battalion reported 8 officers and 403 men including non-commissioned officers. In November 1943, the battalion went into action with
Army Group Centre to halt the Soviet advance, and suffered extreme casualties due to ineptitude. On 14 November 1943, the battalion along with two attached companies from 797th Army Security Regiment attacked elements of the Soviet forces near Kosari. This attack resulted in the death of several members including the commander of 2nd company, SS-Hauptsturmführer Rudolf Stöweno. On 17 November 1943, the battalion launched another attack alongside SS Police Regiment 24, however, a number of soldiers from the battalion fled from the fighting, resulting in the battalion putting out an order on 1 December 1943 that anyone showing cowardice in the face of the enemy would be sentenced to death. In late November, Dirlewanger was sent home to Germany in
Esslingen am Neckar to recover from his 11th wound after a recent battle, where a bullet grazed across his right arm and chest. While Dirlewanger was absent, the battalion's adjutant, SS-
Hauptsturmführer Erwin Walser, took the position of acting battalion commander, while SS-
Hauptsturmführer Kurt Weisse assumed the role of adjutant, which he held until the end of the war. Dirlewanger received the
German Cross in gold on 5 December 1943 in recognition of his earnestness. By 30 December 1943, the unit consisted of only 259 men.
1944 In January 1944, Dirlewanger came back to Belarus to take the command back and put Walser in the position of Personnel Officer. Large numbers of pardoned criminals were sent to rebuild the battalion. By late February 1944, the battalion was back to full strength. It was decided that eastern volunteers would no longer be admitted to the unit, as the Russians had proven to be particularly unreliable in combat. Until 24 April 1944, their communications relied on the attached Wehrmacht units available. This changed when a 16-man platoon was transferred to the regiment from the SS-administered
Postschutz in Berlin. None of these transferred troops had a criminal record nor were they assigned any probationary tasks. In May 1944, the SS-Sonderbataillon Dirlewanger was upgraded into a regiment size and retitled to
SS-Sonderregiment Dirlewanger. On 26 June 1944, an attachment of German
Ordnungspolizei artillerymen led by
Hauptmann der Schutzpolizei Josef Steinhauer was assigned to the regiment permanently and Steinhauer was appointed by Dirlewanger as the newly raised second battalion's commander. In March 1944,
Hauptmann der Schutzpolizei Herbert Meyer volunteered to serve in the battalion as lowly Grenadier and was assigned as the commander of the first company. Meyer had been convicted of petty theft and embezzlement in November 1942 and was sent to the Danzig-Matzkau prison. He later served as the commander of the first battalion in Warsaw in August 1944 and remained in this position until the end of the war. On 30 June 1944, the regiment reported a total strength of 17 officers and 954 men, including non-commissioned officers. This figure did not include the 769 upcoming volunteers from several concentration camps that would be sent to the
SS-Ersatzkompanie Dirlewanger stationed in Minsk. Anti-partisan operations continued until June 1944, when the Soviets launched
Operation Bagration, which was aimed at the destruction of the Army Group Centre. The unit was caught up in the retreat and began falling back to the town of
Lida. Under the Kampfgruppe von Gottberg, the unit held their position against the Soviets so that the remaining retreating Germans would have the time to fall back to safety. The regiment sustained heavy casualties during several
rearguard actions and were detached from
Kampfgruppe von Gottberg on 20 July 1944, being sent to East Prussia for reconstitution at the Arys training center in the town of
Lyck. The
Sonderregiment arrived on 21 July 1944, and reorganised the regiment after receiving replacements for their casualties. In late July 1944, Dirlewanger left the regiment and flew to Berlin to lobby Gottlob Berger for more troops and equipment. The command of the regiment was given temporarily to SS-
Hauptsturmführer Kurt Weisse. Command was returned to Dirlewanger when he flew back from Germany in August 1944.
Return to Poland in 1944. in Warsaw, August 1944. in the Wola district, August 1944. When the
Armia Krajowa began the
Warsaw Uprising on 1 August 1944, SS-Sonderregiment
Dirlewanger was sent into action under the command of SS-
Sturmbannführer Kurt Weisse. They were part of the
Kampfgruppe formation led by SS-
Gruppenführer Heinz Reinefarth; once again serving alongside Bronislav Kaminski's militia (now named
Waffen-Sturmbrigade RONA). On 3 August 1944, the regiment was instructed to form a battalion-sized
Kampfgruppen to support the suppression of the uprising. The first
Kampfgruppe was formed out of the 1st Battalion and was named
Kampfgruppe Meyer, with a strength of 356 men (excluding additional support troops). It was commanded by Herbert Meyer, who now had been fully rehabilitated. The second
Kampfgruppe was formed from the regiment's 2nd Battalion and was named
Kampfgruppe Steinhauer, led by
Hauptmann der Schupo Josef Steinhauer, with a strength of 350 men. They arrived on 7 August 1944, and both
Kampfgruppen were placed under the command of Reinefarth. On 6 August 1944,
Kampfgruppe Steinhauer arrived in Warsaw and, along with
Kampfgruppe Meyer, immediately began their attack to reach the
Brühl Palace. They eventually had advanced through Chlodna street and Elektoralna street. On the evening of 7 August 1944, after receiving orders from Himmler to return to his regiment, Dirlewanger flew back from Germany and united the two
Kampfgruppen to form
Kampfgruppe Dirlewanger. By August 7 Dirlewanger had occupied the
Saxon Gardens and had linked with other German troops on the
Kierbedzia Bridge. The next day, they reached the palace and captured the
Theatre Square. During the assault, several
hospitals were burned down, sparing
St. Stanisław Hospital for use as the regiment's headquarters. When most of its units—including headquarters, the heavy machine-gun company, heavy mortar company, and antitank gun platoon—finally arrived in Warsaw, the
Sonderregiment submitted its first combat strength report on 8 August. It recorded 881 men present for duty, including 16 officers. This was three days after
Kampfgruppe Meyer had begun fighting. After retaking the Brühl Palace and rescuing Warsaw battle commander
Generalleutnant Reiner Stahel, the regiment regrouped that evening as
Kampfgruppe Dirlewanger.
Dirlewanger, with the
Waffen-Sturm-Brigade RONA, are notorious for being the two units which committed the worst crimes during the Warsaw Uprising.
Dirlewanger had a reputation for burying women and children alive. A witness reported "drunken soldiers practicing
Caesarean sections with bayonets". During the massacres,
Dirlewanger was notorious for plundering, with it being noted that: In what became known as the
Wola massacre,
Dirlewanger personnel, along with police units under command of
Heinz Reinefarth, massacred
Polish combatants along with civilian men, women and children, in the
Wola District of
Warsaw. However, the role of
Dirlewanger in the Wola massacre itself may have been limited in the beginning days, and Dirlewanger may not have arrived himself until the 7th of August. Up to 40,000 civilians were murdered in Wola in less than two weeks of August, including all hospital patients and staff. According to the historian
Alex J. Kay,
Dirlewanger murdered some 12,500 people on 5 August.
Dirlewanger "burned prisoners alive with gasoline, impaled babies on bayonets and stuck them out of windows and hung women upside down from balconies". Polish nurses were repeatedly raped, and in some instances, hand grenades were inserted into their vaginas and detonated, while other times a "shouting and flute concerto" followed with the driving of women to the gallows. Historian Jesús Hernández wrote that "They attacked hospitals and murdered patients in their beds, sometimes using flamethrowers. Nurses and nuns suffered, if possible, an even worse fate: they were
flogged,
gang-raped, and hanged naked." In Warsaw, Dirlewanger and his unit killed at least 12,500, and up to 30,000 people, most of them non-combatants. The
Dirlewanger men are known to have executed prisoners and civilians in buildings they had captured, and it is possible that they participated in other mass executions that took place behind the front lines. Hubert Kuberski suggests, however, that due to the small size of Meyer's battalion (365 men) and its primary objective of fighting insurgents and securing Wola's arterial roads, Meyer's battalion could not have played a pivotal role in the extermination of Wola's inhabitants, although that does not rule out the participation of Steinhauer's battalion in these acts, or the involvement of regimental headquarters troops.
SS-Brigadeführer Ernst Rode,
Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski's chief of staff, testified post-war that Dirlewanger received a handwritten order from Himmler. The order, issued in Hitler's name, instructed Dirlewanger to destroy Warsaw and granted him the authority to "kill anyone he wished, as he pleased". Many otherwise unknown crimes committed by the unit in Warsaw were later revealed by Mathias Schenck, a Belgian national who was serving in the area as a German Army
sapper. Regarding an incident in which hundreds of Polish children were murdered, Schenck stated: Schenck noted the often mass rape of female civilians in cellars and basements, highlighting an incident where the men of the brigade raided a cellar, and the subsequent brutal murder of a Polish girl: The regiment arrived in Warsaw with only 865 enlisted personnel and 16 officers, but it soon received 2,500 replacements. These included 1,900 German convicts from the SS military camp at Danzig-Matzkau. Extremely high casualties were inflicted on the unit during fighting in Warsaw by the Polish resistance. During the course of the two-month
urban warfare Dirlewanger's regiment lost 2,733 men, 315% of the unit's initial strength. While some of the regiment's actions were criticized by Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski (who after the war described them as "a herd of pigs") and the sector commander,
Generalmajor Günter Rohr, Dirlewanger was promoted to SS-
Oberführer der Reserve on 12 August 1944 and was recommended for the
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 30 September 1944 by Reinefarth. He received the medal on 16 October 1944 at a reception hall of the
Wawel Royal Castle in Krakow; it was presented by
Hans Frank. The SS newspaper publishing house
Das Schwarze Korps published a press notice about Dirlewanger receiving the Knight's Cross on 16 November 1944:The road of the 49 years old SS-Oberführer Oskar Dirlewanger was always the battle against destruction and Bolshevism. He fought in several Freikorps, led the armored train against Max Hölz and belonged to the Condor Legion. When you see him you cannot tell that he has been wounded eleven times, once very severely during World War I. In this war he has been so successful in leading his unit against Bolshevik bandits that the Soviets put a high price on his head. When the insurrection in Warsaw started, SS-Oberführer Dirlewanger led his men in the battle for houses and streets of the city with unbelievable severity and tenacity. The Führer rewarded their fighting and the personal combat of their commander by awarding the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross to SS-Oberführer Dirlewanger.In gratitude for the presentation of the award, Dirlewanger wrote to Hitler's SS Adjutant,
Hauptsturmführer Otto Günsche, three weeks later and told him: During one fierce fight on 6 August 1944, Dirlewanger's men used civilians as body shields: By 3 October 1944, the remaining Polish insurgents had surrendered and the remnants of the regiment spent the next month guarding the line along the
Vistula. During this time, the regiment was unofficially referred as a "brigade" in the message traffic. The journalist and history writer
Nigel Cawthorne noted how
Dirlewanger committed worse atrocities than the Kaminski Brigade, and how they enjoyed committing them:
Slovakia The regiment played a large part in putting down the rebellion by 30 October. The unit was still considered under strength even after having grown into a four-battalion force, prompting Dirlewanger to seek additional manpower. Before their departure from Warsaw, the strength of the unit was slightly under 4500 men, having gained nearly 2000 probationary troops from Wehrmacht prisons, detention facilities and punishment cells. On 7 October, Dirlewanger toured several concentration camps in search of recruits for his under strength unit. During his visit to the
Flossenbürg Concentration Camp, he met with the camp's commandant, SS-
Sturmbannführer Egon Zill. Zill proposed an idea to Dirlewanger: to recruit
Communist and Socialist prisoners into his ranks. With the
Slovak National Uprising still ongoing, the regiment was deployed to Slovakia. According to Hermann Höfle, the regiment was sent to Slovakia upon the expressed request of Gottlob Berger. On 10 October 1944, they began to move toward Slovakia on trains, and reached Nitra by 12 October. On 16 October 1944, elements of the regiment were strafed and bombed by several
LaGG-5 planes belonging to the Slovak Air Force near the train station at
Diviaky. On the same day, Dirlewanger received his long-awaited
Knight's Cross in Krakow. On 18 October 1944, the regiment launched an assault to capture the area near
Ostro Mountain. Two days later, they renewed the attack but made little to no progress against the determined defenders. On 25 October, the regiment finally succeeded in capturing the towns of
Biely Potok and
Necpaly after intense fighting. Between 27 and 30 October, the regiment continued its operations, engaging in relentless combat against Slovak partisans in the surrounding areas. By 30 October,
Banská Bystrica had been fully taken, and the resistance had been completely crushed, allowing the regiment to continue their formation in the town of
Revúca. As part of their usual anti-partisan duties, the regiment proceeded to eliminate any remaining small elements of partisans who had fled into the surrounding areas. The SS-Sonderregiment Dirlewanger was recognized as a brigade on 13 November 1944 by the
SS-Führungshauptamt, and it was retitled as SS-Sturmbrigade Dirlewanger. However, it was only official on paper and only came fully into effect in December. Eventually, the Brigade received new officers to fill its leadership positions in the newly raised regiment. Among them was
Wilhelm Stegmann, a former SA-
Gruppenführer and Nazi politician who had been charged with attempting to assassinate his political rival,
Julius Streicher. On 1 October 1944, Stegmann was drafted into the SS to expunge his criminal record and “restore his honor,” and was temporarily assigned to the SS-Hauptamt as an SS-
Obersturmführer der Reserve. One month later, he was transferred to the brigade and subsequently appointed commander of the I. Battalion of SS-Sturmregiment 2. Another officer who volunteered to serve as a battalion commander in the new regiment was Kurt Nitschkowski, a former Luftwaffe Flak Oberstleutnant. Nitschkowski had been demoted to the rank of SS-Grenadier for abuse of authority, neglect of duty, unlawful use of weapons, bodily harm, and insubordination, and was sentenced to six months in prison before volunteering for frontline service in the Brigade. Officers who were suspected of having ties to the
20 July plot were also sent to the brigade. One example was Oberst
Harald Momm, a famous German show jumper who was arrested by the
Gestapo for expressing his disappointment over the failed assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler. As a result, he was sentenced to death but was granted a reprieve on the condition that he serve in the
SS-Sturmbrigade Dirlewanger, which he accepted. There, he was demoted to SS-
Hauptsturmführer and served as a company commander in the 5th Company of
SS-Sturmregiment 2. By November 1944, the command structure of the regiment's infantry unit are as below: With the outcome of the war no longer in doubt, large numbers of communist and socialist political prisoners began applying to join the unit in the hopes of defecting to the Soviets. On 3 November 1944, the
SS Main Economic and Administrative Office had issued quotas to all primary
Nazi concentration camps for the suitable selection of political prisoners. The quota for political prisoner volunteers, that totalled up to 1910 men are as follows: The recruitment process underwent for first two weeks of November. Only 770 volunteers from all of the camps are accepted as recruited. To make up the missing 1,140 men, Dirlewanger recruited a mix of asocial elements and career criminals, bringing the total number of recruits to the targeted 1,910. The political prisoners received their training in either
Krakow or
Mošovce. The recruitment process in each concentration camp varied based on the personality of the commanding SS officer. For example, on 17 November in
Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, those deemed suitable for recruitment were given a choice: either volunteer for frontline service with Sonderregiment Dirlewanger or be executed with a single shot to the back of the neck. According to one witness:“Since we did not wish to die, we volunteered against our will.”Unlike what happened in Sachsenhausen, other camps sought to appeal to the political prisoners’ patriotism, their pride in their “Germanness,” and their sense of duty to defend their families against the dangers posed by the approaching enemy. By this point, Sachsenhausen was being used as the reception facility for political prisoners. Upon arrival, they were issued used uniforms and boots, along with SS pay books and marching rations, before being transported by train to Krakow on 10 November 1944, where the SS-Ersatzkompanie Dirlewanger (Replacement Company) had been established. They were constantly kept under armed guard and confined in their living quarters surrounded by barbed wire as a way to prevent them from deserting.
Hungary On 9 December 1944, Hermann Höfle, the overall German commander of Slovakia and
Höherer SS- und Polizeiführer (HSSPF), received urgent orders via telephone from General der Panzertruppen Walther Wenck at the OKH to defend the strategic narrows of Ipolyság. Adolf Hitler had personally designated this narrow gap with a black line on his maps, marking it as a critical priority to prevent the Soviet IX Guards Mechanized Corps from reaching the Upper Hungarian Plain. On 14 December 1944, Soviet forces advancing from
Hont launched an assault and surrounded the town of
Ipolyság, eventually capturing it. At the time, the town was defended by only 60 lightly armed men from the 3rd Company of the Mixed Battalion which had been subordinated to SS-Sturmregiment-2. The next day, on 15 December 1944, the two battalions 2./SS-Sturmregiment-2 and 3./SS-Sturmregiment-2 were positioned in the hills south of Ipolyság. On the morning of the following day, an artillery barrage was directed at their position by Soviet forces. Soon after, a dozen tanks began attacking the 2nd Battalion, but then shifted their assault toward the 3rd Battalion's position. Suddenly, almost every soldier from every company jumped from their trenches and threw their weapons away. This was a mass desertion that had been planned in November. The two battalions' leadership were left dumbfounded by what had just happened, and it was decided that the two battalions were to retreat to the area between
Bernecebaráti and
Kemence. Over 300 men defected to the Red Army during the battle, most of them were political prisoners recruited by Dirlewanger in November. In the morning of 15 December 1944, shortly after the battle had begun,
Generaloberst Johannes Friessner, the commander-in-chief of the Army Group South and Dirlewanger's superior, decided to visit Dirlewanger's Command Post in Palást. He was unimpressed. He described Dirlewanger as "a not very appealing adventurer type," sitting calmly behind his desk with a pet monkey on his shoulder. When questioned about the current situation, Dirlewanger did not know where the front line was, nor was he aware of the status of Buchmann's operation. Dirlewanger's adjutant, Kurt Weisse made a better impression with his acknowledgement about the frontline and the current situation. That same morning, Buchmann's command post was positioned east of Dolné Turovce. To his west, Steinhauer's battalion launched a counterattack to recapture Ipolyság. Meanwhile, to the east, Meyer's battalion and Pioneer Battalion 114 provided suppressing fire against Soviet positions at
Magash and Somos to support Steinhauer's advance. At the same time, 3./SS-Sturmregiment-1, Polack's battalion, was redeploying to a new position along the Margarethe Line. The main brigade command post was located farther back at
Horné Turovce, where all the brigade staff were stationed, including Dirlewanger and Weisse. before the war. That evening, a single T-34 tank with several Soviet soldiers riding on it possibly a reconnaissance team was spotted at Steinhauer's left flank, moving directly toward
Kistur, where Buchmann's command post was located. However, it was halted by defensive fire from the 2nd and 4th Companies of the Mixed Battalion, which had been stationed near Kistur in reserve to support Sturmregiment-2. Following the engagement, the two companies successfully blocked the tank's advance and drove off the accompanying infantry with concentrated fire. The tank, under increasing pressure, was forced to retreat. The counterattack failed to materialize when Soviet forces launched a larger-scale assault from Ipolyság that same afternoon. The renewed offensive forced Steinhauer to retreat eastward toward
Homáti. Meyer's battalion, along with the remnants of Pioneer Battalion 114, was also forced to withdraw far from their original positions. Buchmann's command post was heavily overrun, prompting its relocation to a new position south of Slatina. In unclear circumstances, SS-
Hauptsturmführer Harald Momm, found himself at the banks of the
Kistompa River. There, he gathered retreating troops and formed a Kampfgruppe, which came to be known as
Kampfgruppe Momm. Utilizing the regiment's field gun, the ad hoc unit managed to hold off the advancing Soviet tanks. From 18 to 21 December, Soviet forces continued to gain ground steadily. Momm's position was eventually overrun, forcing his Kampfgruppe to retreat. The Soviet advance pushed dangerously close to Dirlewanger's main headquarters in Deménd. In response, Meyer's and Polack's battalions launched a counterattack, but it failed to achieve any significant results. During this period, Ehlers was reassigned from his role as a battalion commander to take command of SS-Sturmregiment-2, replacing Buchmann, who was in turn appointed to lead SS-Sturmregiment-1. On 19 December 1944, the brigade was officially titled as
2.SS-Sturmbrigade Dirlewanger. The brigade continued fighting throughout the entire month and was eventually withdrawn from the frontline on 31 December 1944. It spent the following month stationed in
Bratislava.
Germany By 2 January 1945, after the disastrous battle of Ipolysag, the 2.SS-Sturmbrigade Dirlewanger had a ration strength of only 2,489 men present for duty, less than half of its authorized strength of 6,500 men. On 2 February 1945, orders were given to the Sturmbrigade to be transferred to the
Oder front. After moving through
Dresden, the brigade arrived at their new assembly point in
Guben and their assembly completed by 12 February 1945. On 14 February 1945, the brigade along with a regular army unit attached to it was committed to battle against the incoming Red Army. On the same day, Dirlewanger was seriously wounded in combat for the twelfth time during the counterattack to recapture the town of Sommerfeld. He was sent to the rear and Schmedes took command; Dirlewanger would not return to the brigade. The element of the Red Army in Naumburg was repelled after combatting with the brigade the next day. On 17 February 1945, the brigade fought against a strong Soviet attack near Sommerfeld and destroyed a tank. After retaking Sommerfeld, the brigade and the
25th Panzer Division attacked the Red Army position in Bieniów. After the fighting, the Soviet were forced to retreat toward the
Bóbr river and had to be recalled to the Neisse due to high losses. Individual
Sturmpionier demolition engineers had already been attached to the force during the fighting in Warsaw. On 22 February 1945, the outskirts of Guben were defended by the 1st Company of SS-Hauptsturmführer Momm's 2nd Battalion, part of SS-Sturmregiment 2. The unit came under attack from the Red Army, supported by two T-34 tanks, one of which advanced toward the town center. The commander of the 1st Company and his men eventually destroyed the tank. The action was filmed and later featured in the German newsreel 'Die Deutsche Wochenschau' No. 754. The following account is from the SS-Oberscharführer who led the company: I released the safety on the bazooka, flipped the sight up, aimed at the tank – it may have been 30 meters away – and pushed the lever down. The grenade left a trail of smoke, hit the tank, and there, before my strained eyes, was an explosion, and then a heavy emission of smoke. I quickly ducked for cover before peeking through the empty window once again. The thing was still standing there smoking – nothing was moving. I had shot down a Russian tank. That was in the afternoon of February 22, 1945. On 1 March 1945, the formation of the new division came into effect. Both the SS-Sturmbrigade Dirlewanger and its attached army units were officially reorganized into a full division, later designated as the
36. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS. The regular army units attached to the formation were the 1244th Grenadier Regiment, the 2nd Battalion of the 687th Army
Pioneer Brigade, two companies from the 681st Heavy
Panzerjäger Battalion, and the 1st Panzer Battalion, including its two StuG companies equipped with 14 vehicles each. On 1 May 1945, the Soviets wiped out all that was left of the unit in the
Halbe pocket. Only a small remnant of the division managed an escape attempt to reach the
US Army lines on the
Elbe river. SS-
Obersturmbannführer Kurt Weisse led a large group of around 400 men escaping from Halbe Pocket. He was later put in British captivity and escaped on 5 March 1946; his later fate is unknown. Schmedes and his staff (excluding Kurt Weisse) were taken prisoner in Soviet captivity. Schmedes was not charged with any crime and discharged shortly due to poor health. == Orders of battle ==