Fate of Western foreign volunteers returning after the war?

Discussions on the foreigners (volunteers as well as conscripts) fighting in the German Wehrmacht, those collaborating with the Axis and other period Far Right organizations. Hosted by George Lepre.
Post Reply
User avatar
Kameraden
Member
Posts: 568
Joined: 04 May 2004, 15:54
Location: Scotland

Fate of Western foreign volunteers returning after the war?

#1

Post by Kameraden » 09 Apr 2008, 17:59

Hi
What was the fate of Western European Waffen-SS volunteers returning to their homlands after the war ?
Anyone have specific answers by Country etc?

Thanx

Rob - wssob2
Member
Posts: 2387
Joined: 15 Apr 2002, 21:29
Location: MA, USA

Re: Fate of Western foreign volunteers returning after the war?

#2

Post by Rob - wssob2 » 10 Apr 2008, 01:34

It varied. For example:

Fall 1945: Belgian courts begin trails of suspected collaborators; over 57,000 people court-marshaled and 242 executed. Many Waffen-SS troops in the west are incarcerated at former concentration camps and subject to ill-treatment.

1949: Freikorps Danmark/Schalburg Korpset commander Knud Børge-Martinsen is executed by firing squad in Copenhagen on June 25. Dutch Waffen-SS volunteer and Knight's Cross winner Mooyman released after a 2-year prison sentence.

1950: United States Displaced Persons Commission rules that Waffen-SS members from the Baltic states "are to be considered as separate and distinct in purpose, ideology, activities and qualifications for membership from the German SS, and therefore the Commission holds them not to be a movement hostile to the Government of the United States." The ruling effectively permits former Waffen-SS members from the Baltics to emigrate to the US.

1951 (circa): Some Dutch Waffen-SS veterans, are assumed to have fought in the Korean War as part of the UN contingent

1951: Flemish Waffen-SS relief organization St. Maartensfonds formed

1953: The last of Freikorps Danmark veterans released from prison. HIAG journal first published as Wiking-Ruf. The veterans' magazine is produced by former SS officers Gille, Karl Ullrich and Janke.
Flemish Waffen-SS veterans demand amnesty rights, Remi Schrijnen arrested by Belgian police.

1956: Freikorps Danmark veteran Erik Herloev Nielsen released from Soviet prison

1962: Soviets release 50 Flemish POWs from Sturmbrigade Langemark captured during the July 1944 Battle of Narva.
Dutch Neo-Nazi organization HINAG (acronym stands for "Help for Former Eastern Front Fighters") under Jean Hartman disbanded.

1964: Belgian government extends Degrelle's death sentence for 10 additional years.

1969: "Jan Hartman" foundation formed as a help agency for Dutch Waffen-SS veterans

1973: Former Waffen-SS commander Léon Degrelle interviewed by a Dutch journalist and offers this commentary on his collaboration with the Nazis: "...I am only sorry I did not suceed, but if I had the chance, I would do it all again, but much more forcefully."

1978: Flemish nationalist party Vlaams Blok formed, which includes former members of the Germanic SS. Part of its political platform is the abolition of Belgium and the creation of a "Greater Netherlands". Another Flemish Neo-Nazi group, Vlaamse Militanten Orde moves Dutch fascist leader's Staf De Clercq�s remains moved to a cemetery in Asse.

1985: SS-Oberführer Léon Degrelle's quote "If there are so many Jews at present, it is difficult to believe they are alive and kicking after the gas chambers." appears in the Spanish magazine Tiempo. Violeta Friedman, a Auschwitz survivor sues Degrelle for libel - specifically denying the existence of the gas chambers. Degrelle's son in law, Juan Servando Balaguer, successfully defeats her case and a subsequent appeal but Freidman takes the case all the way up to Spain's Constitutional court, which in 1991 revokes the previous 2 sentences. In 1995, Spain's House of Commons passes a law against Holocaust negation and revisionism.

1996 The World Jewish Congress demands that the German government release the names of Waffen-SS veterans living in the US and UK who receive $500/mo. veterans benefits in an effort to determine if they are wanted for war crimes. The German Labor Ministry responds ``Passing on names and information is not compatible with our data protection laws'' Earlier in the year, the German Green party took issue with the SS veteran's benefits in parliament. The German government claims that the veterans are screened for any involvement in war crimes before receiving benefits.

French neo-nazi political group L'Oeuvre francais merges with the PNFE, another group founded by former French Waffen-SS volunteers Claude Cornilleau and Henri Simon. PNFE efforts are limited to a newsletter and celebrating Hitler's birthday.

1998: March 16, 1998: 500 members of the National Association of Latvian Soldiers, a veterans organization primarily comprised of former Waffen-SS volunteers from the Latvian 15th and 19th divisions, stage a march in the capital city of Riga to celebrate "National Soldier's Day" and lay a wreath on the Liberty Monument. "National Soldier's Day" was a Latvian holiday that celebrated the occasion of the 2 divisions fighting against the Russians in 1944. Latvian army commander Juris Dalbinsh and Parliament Speaker Alfreds Chepanis participate in part of the march. Soviet Army veterans stage an immediate counter march and the Waffen-SS parade rapidly becomes an international scandal. The parade is condemned by the Russian government and draws criticism from German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and French President Jacques Chirac, and questions rise about the appropriateness of Latvia's candidacy for NATO membership. On March 31 Latvian President Guntis Ulmanis issues a statement about how the SS veterans were an aspect of Latvia's tragic past and states "Independent Latvia has no links with totalitarian occupying regimes". Ojars Kalnins, the Latvian Ambassador to the US comments " The government wishes that the whole issue would go away.*"

2001: Johan Sauwens, interior minister for the Belgian province of Flanders, resigns after his attendance at a St. Maartenford's rally in Antwerp prompts a huge outcry from all over the Belgian political spectrum. Waffen-SS veterans, far-right politicians and neo-Nazi skinheads attend the rally, in which one of the speakers speak of recreating "Greater Germany." Sauwens calls his attendance at the rally "an error of judgement" and denies being a "Nazi boy" despite his 30-year record of membership in the Flemish SS veteran's association.


User avatar
Kameraden
Member
Posts: 568
Joined: 04 May 2004, 15:54
Location: Scotland

Re: Fate of Western foreign volunteers returning after the war?

#3

Post by Kameraden » 10 Apr 2008, 09:49

Rob - wssob2 wrote: 1962: Soviets release 50 Flemish POWs from Sturmbrigade Langemark captured during the July 1944 Battle of Narva.
.

Thanx Rob for your lengthy reply.
I had no idea that the Soviets were still releasing POW's in the 60's.

Thanx again

Snefens
Member
Posts: 48
Joined: 12 Oct 2005, 12:17
Location: Aarhus, Denmark

Re: Fate of Western foreign volunteers returning after the war?

#4

Post by Snefens » 10 Apr 2008, 10:56

Kameraden wrote:Hi
What was the fate of Western European Waffen-SS volunteers returning to their homlands after the war ?
Anyone have specific answers by Country etc?

Thanx
Denmark was in the rather unique situation that the goverment still existed after the German invasion of April 9th 1940. After Barbarossa it officially allowed, citizens and soldiers in the Danish army (which also still existed) to join the SS.

After the war a new law was passed that with retroactive effect from April 9th 1940 made it a crime if you had joined the SS, arguing that the people ought to have known that they were comitting treason. There had also been debate about setting the date to August 29th, 1943, which was when the Germans took full control of the country.

As a rule of thumb SS-voulenteers received 4 year-sentences for having fought on the eastern front, with time spent in western allied prisons being deducted. Usually most were released after about 2 years. POWs in Soviet captivity didn't recieve imprisonment after their return, as they had usually been in prison much longer over there.
If there were aggravating circumstances (murders or participation in the Schalburg-Korps for instance) the sentences were higher. A total of 46 were executed, but not all of these had served in the SS.

Marc Rikmenspoel
Member
Posts: 1131
Joined: 12 Sep 2004, 07:44
Location: Denver, Colorado USA

Re: Fate of Western foreign volunteers returning after the war?

#5

Post by Marc Rikmenspoel » 11 Apr 2008, 19:51

Note that in 1962, it wasn't 50 Flemish POWs that were released, instead, it was 4 survivors of around 50 that had been captured at Orphanage Hill in late July, 1944. There were also Dutch POWs held that long in the USSR, there's a photo in the Vincx/Schotanius book on Brigade/Division Nederland taken in 1961 at a camp deep in the Soviet Union ("400 km southeast of Moscow") that shows a Dutchman in the company of Flemings.

Also note the Gustaaf "Staf" DeClerq was the head of the Flemish VNV, and wasn't a Dutchman.

It is more than a rumor that Dutch Waffen-SS veterans fought in Korea. At least a few dozen joined the Dutch Army at that time, it was a win-win situation. The Dutch Army needed well trained combat veterans, and the former Waffen-SS men could regain some of their civil rights by serving, after having had to carry resident alien passports. The instructors in the Dutch Army could spot the former Waffen-SS men because they were somewhat older than the typical conscripts, and after their German training years earlier, they were said to be incapable of "coming to attention" without cicking their heels together.

In Switzerland it was illegal to serve in a foreign army, and it was considered a worse crime in the World War 2 era, when every ablebodied man was needed for home defense, especially the professional officers. Kids who snuck across the border to join the German military usually received short prison terms, but active soldiers received several years, and professional officers received roughly a decade in prison.

In Sweden it was legal to serve in the German and Finnish militaries, and even professional officers were allowed to do so, because it was considered career advancement. The only men who were imprisoned after the war were those who had deserted from the Swedish Army to join the German military (that is, they joined without permission, as opposed to others who joined with permission).

In Belgium, standards were different in Flanders and Wallonia. Walloon veterans could only meet quietly, and could not have any sort of public profile. In Flanders, the SMF had the support of part of the population, and could meet openly and hold large gatherins which included their families and members of the public.

CHRISCHA
Member
Posts: 2477
Joined: 28 Jan 2003, 19:21
Location: England, Kent

Re: Fate of Western foreign volunteers returning after the war?

#6

Post by CHRISCHA » 11 Apr 2008, 23:00

Very intresting replies.

GDB
Member
Posts: 9
Joined: 19 Aug 2004, 11:41
Location: Belgium, Ypres

Re: Fate of Western foreign volunteers returning after the war?

#7

Post by GDB » 15 Apr 2008, 13:28

Some more figures about convictions in Belgium after WWII:

there were some 405.067 collaborationfiles brought before a juge.
They spoke some 53.005 convictions (or 77% was cleared of all charges)
of those there were some 2.940 deathpenalities
and 2.340 people were sentence for live (in Belgium that means maximun 10 to 13 years, but most of them were freed after 4 to 7 years in prison).
Of the 2.940 deathpenalities, 242 people were shot death from 1944 on.
(or 0.06% was shot dead of all the Belgium peolpe accused of collaboration)

If you was juged just after the war, your punishment was more severe.

A very dificult periode to juge now a days...

Jan

Post Reply

Return to “Foreign Volunteers & Collaboration”