Vlasov-Himmler Agreement

[K.Kocjancic]

Hi!

I'm looking for any info on Vlasov-Himmler agreement(s) (if there were more then one) on Russian collaboration units in W-SS/ROA.

Regards,
Klemen

[Pakhomov]

This was written about in Against Stalin and Hitler: Memoirs of the Russian Liberation Movement.

A meeting was originally arranged between Vlasov and Himmler for 21 or 23 July 1944, but the actions of the July 20 plotters caused this to be postponed. It was organized by Vlasov's German associates through Gunter D'Alquen, who was in charge of SS propaganda at the front and obtained Himmler's permission to use Vlasovite officers to get Red Army troops to defect. They also spoke with SS-Obergruppenführer Berger about it.

He ended up meeting with Himmler on 16 September 1944 at his field headquarters in East Prussia. Himmler spoke with Vlasov privately and apparently promised him ten divisions and a Russian Liberation Committee. However, he was ultimately given permission to create three divisions. The Russian Liberation Committee they spoke of became the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia.

[K.Kocjancic]

This was written about in Against Stalin and Hitler: Memoirs of the Russian Liberation Movement.

A meeting was originally arranged between Vlasov and Himmler for 21 or 23 July 1944, but the actions of the July 20 plotters caused this to be postponed. It was organized by Vlasov's German associates through Gunter D'Alquen, who was in charge of SS propaganda at the front and obtained Himmler's permission to use Vlasovite officers to get Red Army troops to defect. They also spoke with SS-Obergruppenführer Berger about it.

He ended up meeting with Himmler on 16 September 1944 at his field headquarters in East Prussia. Himmler spoke with Vlasov privately and apparently promised him ten divisions and a Russian Liberation Committee. However, he was ultimately given permission to create three divisions. The Russian Liberation Committee they spoke of became the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia.

Thanks for this! Do you have perhaps the text of the agreement?

[Semenov]

Thanks for this! Do you have perhaps the text of the agreement?

hi,
I send it to your e-mail some time ago

[Steve]

Apparently no transcript of the Vlasov Himmler meeting exists. SS Coronel d'Alquen who was present wrote down his recollection of what was said in 1947.

[tigre]

Hello to all ; a complement.................................

Reichsführer SS Himmler receives General Vlasov.

Source: https://pic4.zhimg.com/v2-e044b945faaf9 ... bb77_b.jpg

Cheers. Raúl M .

[steve248]

As with all things, going back to the horse's mouth gives more details. The extract below if from a joint interrogation of Otto Ohlendorf, Hans Ehlich, Eberhard Löw z.Steinfurth, Wilhelm Hoettl (all senior RSHA III officials) and Ernst Kaltenbrunner (RSHA Amtschef), dated 14 Dec 1945.

"RSHA Gruppe III B and the Vlassov Movement.
In the latter half of 1944 a special section was set up in Gruppe III B under SS-Ostubaf Buchardt of Referat III B2 to deal with the Vlassov enterprise. Vlassov was a Russian general who had been contacted as early as 1942 as a possibly rallying point for anti-Russian elements in German occupied territory in the East. The plan was dropped, however, and it was not until the deteriorating situation on the Eastern front in 1944 that it was revived, this time through the SS-Standarte Kurt Eggers, the propaganda unit of the Waffen-SS. The question was raised with Himmler and Amt III, and in September 1944 the first steps were taken to form a Vlassov Movement, the aims from the German side being threefold: the formation of fighting units recruited among Russian prisoners of war, the dropping of agents behind the lines to carry out anti-communist propaganda, and an intensification of similar propaganda among Russian workers in Germany. In November 1944 the Vlassov manifesto was issued after the first meeting of the ‘Committee of Liberation of the People of Russia’.

The enterprise was a joint affair among the Ämter of the RSHA, as in addition to the purely military aspects and the propaganda interest of the SS-Standarte Kurt Eggers, Amt III was involved in the question of Russian Workers, Amt IV in the security supervision of the movement as a whole, and Gruppe VI C from the point of view of possible exploitation for espionage and sabotage purposes. The enterprise was undertaken at too late a date to have much chance of success."

There was someone missing who could give another viewpoint: SS-Obf Dr Erhard Kroeger who from Sept 1944 to end of war “bei dem deutschen Verbindungsstab zu der im Aufbau befindlichen russischen ‘Wlassow-Armee’ zuletzt in Prag”. Kroeger went into hiding 1945-1955 and may expand on this in his later interrogations by the West German police in the 1960s when being investigated for war crimes in the Ukraine in 1941 when Kommandoführer EK 6.