Languages spoken in Foreign Volunteer units of Waffen SS

[Ludwig Wittgenstein]

I have a question regarding the foreign volunteer units of the Waffen SS. Looking at the list of divisions, the first four are Germanic and hence German would have been spoken by all ranks throughout the unit. Then there is the 5th Wiking, raised from Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, the Netherlands and Flanders. I'm guessing that all volunteers would have been able to speak German, and that the officer cadre was comprised of Germans anyway. But then there is the 11th Nordland, Scandinavian volunteers which was mostly Danish. Were all of these Danes and Scandinavians fluent in German? ... Then when we get to the rest of the foreign legions - Dutch, Italian, Croatian, Hungarian, Estonian, Latvian, Albanian, Hungarian, Flemish, Walloon etc... I can't imagine that all of these soldiers were German speaking, so presumably there would have been units comprised entirely of soldiers not speaking German, so I wonder at what point in the chain of communications between higher ranks, (which would have been German speaking) and lower ranks, which would have been otherwise, was translation in operation, and surely this would have sometimes caused considerable slowdown in execution of orders, misunderstandings etc.. did they have to recruit officers at a certain level who spoke German plus the language of the foreign volunteers?

Thanks for any help with my question

[Panzermahn]

For the Indische Frewillige Legion der SS, the command language was supposed to be Hindustan but there aren't enough German interpreters who speak them and it ends up that the de facto language used was English (!) for at least the beginning of the establishment of the Indian Legion since the majority of the Indians understood English.

However, Rudolf Hartog, an interpreter for the Indian Legion mentioned that it was easier for the Indians to pick up German rather than the Germans picking up Hindustan so the Indians did managed to learn some German commands or pick up rudimentary German to communicate with Dutch civilians or other Osttruppen units stationed in Netherlands and France in 1943/44

[Janos Zoltay]

The official command language for 25 SS "Hunyadi" & 26 SS "Hungaria" divisions was Hungarian. SS Regiment "Ney" (another Hungarian unit) had a translation section attached to the headquarter staff as its official command language was Hungarian, I have not seen anything mentioned for 25 & 26 having one but I would not be surprised if they did not. Germans who could speak Hungarian were transferred from 1,2,3 & 5 SS divisions when "Hunyadi" was being set up. Also in the book "For the homeland" it mentions a language problem between the commander of the fusilier battalion and his men as they were Hungarians transferred from 25 & 26 SS (mainly 26)

[Panzermahn]

The official command language for 25 SS "Hunyadi" & 26 SS "Hungaria" divisions was Hungarian. SS Regiment "Ney" (another Hungarian unit) had a translation section attached to the headquarter staff as its official command language was Hungarian, I have not seen anything mentioned for 25 & 26 having one but I would not be surprised if they did not. Germans who could speak Hungarian were transferred from 1,2,3 & 5 SS divisions when "Hunyadi" was being set up. Also in the book "For the homeland" it mentions a language problem between the commander of the fusilier battalion and his men as they were Hungarians transferred from 25 & 26 SS (mainly 26)

Hello Janos

My understanding is that senior Hungarian commanders as well as officers of the Hungarian General Staff spoke German as the majority of the senior Hungarian officer corps were pro-German (whereas the Romanians were pro-French)

Panzermahn

[Janos Zoltay]

You are probably correct. Article 3 in the agreement between Hungary and Germany concerning the new divisions states that the command language is to be Hungarian and that commanders (parancsnokok) need to have a knowledge of German.I am not sure how far down the ranks this went as it doesn't mention the lower officers, NCO's and rank and file soldiers . There are veteran accounts stating how the Germans seem more concerned with teaching the rank and file the German language than training them for combat.

[Ludwig Wittgenstein]

Thanks for all these well informed replies so far. English speaking Indian Waffen SS in Europe is a very curious thing, I shall investigate further..
It would be interesting to know precisely at which point in the chain of command for units such as the the Hungarian ones mentioned there was need for translation - surely it couldn't have been anything less than say, company level, as this would surely have been chaotic, so I'm presuming orders would never have been translated and shouted in the field during combat, but perhaps at the point of communication between some officer level via telephone or other system..? And re the mixed units Wiking and Nordland, can someone clarify whether or not German was spoken throughout as I suspect?

[PK]

Interesting subject. In the 20.W.-Gren.Div.d.SS (estn.Nr1) all the regimental and btl commanders could speak German. The Btl commanders communicated with the company commanders in Estonian.

/PK

[-Michael]

The command language within the Legion Flandern and the Sturmbrigade Langemarck was always in German, for both the German and the Flemish officers.
But when the SS-Sturmbrigade Langemarck was reformed into a division in the autumn of 1944, the political leader of the division, SS-Obersturmbannführer Dr. Van de Wiele, demanded that this new division would become a Flemish division.
So he gave the translation department within the Ic the order to translate the Heeresdienstvorschriften in Dutch and he would organise classes in the Dutch language for the German officers of the division.
Within the division, the Dutch command language was also used by a large group of Flemish officers that was adopted from the Flämische Wachabteilungen. The Flämische Wachabteilungen were actually Flemish Landesschützen-Bataillone and were made up out of Flemish Wehrmachtsangehörige, but the organisation was a hundred percent Flemish and had it’s own command language in Dutch.
(source: ‘Vlamingen aan het oostfront’. Etnika. Part 2.)

[-Michael]

SS-Obersturmbannführer Dr. Van de Wiele also wished that he Flemish division would be named ‘SS-volksgrenadier-divisie Vlaanderen’, a name that was also used in the Flemish press, but like we all know, the division was eventually named ‘SS-Freiwilligen-Grenadier-Division Langemarck’.
The term ‘volksgrenadier’ would be used because it would be a division of the Flemish ‘volk’ or ‘people’, translated in English. And the choice of the division name ‘Vlaanderen’ or ‘Flanders’ in English would be logical. The Norwegian, Danish, Dutch and Walloon SS-units fought under their own name, but the Flemish volunteers were stuck with the name ‘Langemarck’, that didn’t had any link with Flemish history.

[Panzermahn]

The other foreign SS unit that uses English as the command language was of course the Britische Freikorps. In fact, most of the German military and civilian personnel assigned to this unit were capable of conversing in English.

It would be interesting to see if there is any recorded contacts between BFC and the Indische Freiwillige Legion der SS but I think it's highly unlikely since the BFC was only formed in 1944