Oskar Dirlewanger

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

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

Early life

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

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

He held various jobs, which included working at a bank, a knit-wear factory,^[1] and as a teacher.^{[citation needed]} In 1934, he was convicted of the rape of a 13-year-old BDM girl, illegal use of a government vehicle, and damaging said vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. For these crimes he was sentenced to two years imprisonment. Dirlewanger then lost his job, his doctor title and all military honors. He was also expelled from the NSDAP. Soon after his release, he was arrested again on similar charges. He was sent to the Welzheim concentration camp, as was standard practice for deviant sexual offenders in Germany at the time;^[2] but he was released and reinstated as a Colonel in the General SS Reserve following the personal intervention of his friend, and later SS-Obergruppenführer, Gottlob Berger, the head of the SS-Hauptamt (Central Command Office) and long-time personal friend of Heinrich Himmler, with the stipulation that he intended to travel to Spain to fight in the Condor Legion against the anti-Axis forces in the Spanish Civil War.^[1]

Dirlewanger served with the Condor Legion from 1936 to 1939 and was wounded three times.^{[citation needed]} Both times he was considered a model soldier and was well thought of in military circles. Following further intervention on his behalf by his patron Berger, he successfully petitioned to have his case reconsidered in light of his service in Spain.^[3] Dirlewanger was reinstated into the Nazi party, albeit with a higher party number. His doctorate was also restored by the University of Frankfurt.

World War II

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

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

In February 1942, the battalion was reassigned for anti-partisan duties in Belarus. Dirlewanger was known to lead his soldiers into combat personally which was unusual for someone of his rank; he was wounded many times in combat. Dirlewanger received the clasp to his Iron Cross 2nd Class on May 24, 1942, and that to his Iron Cross 1st Class on September 16, 1942, and received the German Cross in Gold on December 5, 1943, in recognition of his regiment's successes during this time (such as Operation Cottbus, the destruction of the partisan pseudo-state "Lake Pelik Autonomous Republic" and a claimed body count of 14,000 partisans).

It is also known that Dirlewanger would use a poison known as strychnine to be injected into Jewish women prisoners to watch them convulse to death in front of him and his officers for entertainment^[4].

Dirlewanger's primary patron in the SS hierarchy was Obergruppenführer Gottlob Berger, who provided Himmler with a massive political boost by numerically increasing the Waffen-SS through his position as chief of the SS-Hauptamt (English: SS Main Office). Following an order signed by Berger in 1940, every active SS member would wear the same uniform and carry the same paybook as the professional SS soldiers. The blurring of the line between the camp guards and the Gestapo and the front-line soldiers pushed Himmler toward his ultimate goal, becoming the sole commander of Germany's armed forces.^{[citation needed]} Given Berger's contribution to Himmler's ambitions, it is possible that Himmler allowed Berger a free hand. Both Berger and Himmler were enthusiastic about the incorporation into the Waffen-SS of the Kaminski Brigade, a unit made up of dedicated anti-Communists from lands that had been under Soviet rule. However, the brigade quickly proved to be almost completely militarily ineffective, and Bronislaw Kaminski was summarily and secretly executed for incompetence and theft of "German government property" (the possessions of the Warsaw Poles) after his unit's unruly performance in Warsaw in 1944, during which over 50% of the brigade deserted after uniformly ignoring their objectives in order to loot whatever they could carry.^{[citation needed]}

Dirlewanger's unit was employed in operations against partisans in the occupied Soviet Union. Later, Dirlewanger's unit was used in the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising. In Wola massacre in August 1944, Dirlewanger's unit slaughtered tens of thousands of non-combatant Polish civilians, while achieving little militarily.

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

Death

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

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

See also

• 36th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS

Sources

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

1. ^ ^{a b c} Wistrich, Robert S. (2001). Who's Who of Nazi Germany. Routledge, p. 44. ISBN 0415260388.
2. ^ Stein, George H. (1984). The Waffen SS. Cornell University Press, p. 266. ISBN 0801492750.
3. ^ Maguire, Peter H. (2002). Law & War: An American Story. New York: Columbia University Press, p. 163. ISBN 978-0-231-12050-0.
4. ^ The 12-year Reich: a social history of Nazi Germany, 1933-1945 Richard GrunbergerHolt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971 - page 104
5. ^ Walter Stanoski Winter, Walter Winter, Struan Robertson. Winter Time: Memoirs of a German Sinto who Survived Auschwitz. 2004. Page 139. ISBN 1902806387.

External links

Persondata
Name	Dirlewanger, Oskar
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	26 September 1895
Place of birth	Würzburg
Date of death	5 June 1945
Place of death	Altshausen