Foreign Volunteers & Auxiliaries

[Frentebro]

Does anyone have an approximate total of the non-German Europeans who joined the Wehrmacht or collaborated as auxiliaries?

[imdkman]

That's a good question....I don't think they're any existing numbers on that subject. But it is known that many Americans returned back to the "Fatherland" to help in their fight well before America was involved in a European campaign.
Also should be noted on a different subject ( one cannot put the Germany Armed forces and the SS together, they were rivals and Armed forces did not trust SS and Ghestapo organizations) but many Romanians, Hungarians and Turks served in SS units. Many 'lower class' and former criminals were also Concentration Camp guards. It was accepted using these foreign SS personnel for 'action groups'....many officers thought that the daily ritual of executing unarmed, innocent women and children was too psychologically horrific for a German national.

[Birgitte Heuschkel]

[quote="imdkmanmany officers thought that the daily ritual of executing unarmed, innocent women and children was too psychologically horrific for a German national.[/quote]

Dirlewanger, eh?

[Marcus]

You can find some numbers on the volunteers in the Waffen-SS on this very site: http://www.skalman.nu/third-reich/ss-foreign-stat.htm

/Marcus

[Andy H]

Try to get hold of an excellent book (IMHO) by J.Lee Ready called "The Forgotten Axis, Germany's Partners & Foreign Volunteers in WW2. Published by Macfarland & Co.Inc. ISBN0-89950-275-X

Hi Ho Silver Away

[Frentebro]

Cheshire, does the book have any numbers? I've seen figures for the W-SS but many joined the Heer.

Hi Birgitte- Latvian auxiliaries are reputed to have been more anti-Jewish than the German SS. Perhaps the almost-ultimate irony is that Germany before Hitler was probably the least anti-Jewish country in Europe. Jews played a large & highly-regarded role in German culture & they fought in WWI in equal proportion to other elements of the population. (The officer who recommended Hitler for his Iron Cross 1st Class was Jewish.)

I don't think very many Americans joined the Wehrmacht. (I'm happy to be able to report that only one American fought on the fascist side in the Spanish Civil War, altho many fought for the Republic. Maybe there hope for us yet.):->

[MadJim]

I don't think very many Americans joined the Wehrmacht. (I'm happy to be able to report that only one American fought on the fascist side in the Spanish Civil War, altho many fought for the Republic. Maybe there hope for us yet.):->[/quote]

Yes, they were heros, I would have loved to fought on the side of people who burned churches, desacrated tombs and murdered nuns, priests and other clergymen - after all they were so dangerous to the "peoples revolution"

[Dan]

The Americans who went to Spain to fight for the Commies were largely Jews of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.

In this case, the Church fought back, and won.

[Frentebro]

Jesus was also a Jew.

Too bad the "Church" needed the help of Hitler & Mussolini to "win".

[Frentebro]

imdkman: The Heer also played a large role in Nazi atrocities, as did police units. There is a recent book out (unfortunately i don't recall the title) about a German Reserve Police Battalion that operated on the Ostfront & was implicated in many crimes. These were very ordinary Germans & not ideological fanatics. Everyone who wore the swastika & swore the oath to Hitler was acting as an agent of Hitler & is responsible to one degree or another for Nazism. The only "good Germans" were those who refused to knuckle under to fascism.

[Birgitte Heuschkel]

The only "good Germans" were those who refused to knuckle under to fascism.

I'll expand "good" to include everyone who did not have a choice; children, civilians who found themselves unable to make a difference, and even every (cowardly?) person who chose to protect his or her loved ones over strangers. It is very easy to generalize from afar -- but I'm thinking that if you find yourself in a similar situation, the chances are good that only very few people have the mettle to become heroes. Most of us are just, well, human.

[Scanderbeg]

Also should be noted on a different subject ( one cannot put the Germany Armed forces and the SS together, they were rivals and Armed forces did not trust SS and Ghestapo organizations) but many Romanians, Hungarians and Turks served in SS units.

I never knew that Turks volunteered in any Waffen-SS Div. Can you please support what you said?

Regards, Besian.

[Andy H]

Though there is no fomal Turkish Waffen SS unit several groups of Turks served in the 1st Ostmuselmanisches (east Muslim) SS Regiment and the Ostturkischer Waffenverband der SS

Hi Hi Silver Away

[Stauffenberg]

This is a complex topic and one I have researched at some length. The proper context to consider this issue is that of "Drang nach Osten", a rallying cry for Europe against Communism, which drew forth volunteers from Spain to Finland, as well as a large number of Soviet citizens. The categories are as follows:

1) Full Axis allies; eg. Italian, Hungarian, Rumanian army formations.

2) SS volunteers from all over Europe at first finding their way into larger German units; eg. the Finns in the SS Wiking 'Nordland' rgt, or the Latvians in the 2nd SS Btn. Later on entire foreign national SS divisions were formed; eg. 14th SS Waffen-Grenadier-Division (Ukrainian), 15th & 19th SS Waffen-Grenadier-Divisions (Latvian), 20th SS Waffen-Grenadier-Division (Estonian), 23rd SS Panzergrenadier and 34th Freiwilligen Grenadier-Divisions (Netherlands), 27th SS Freiwilligen Grenadier-Division Langemark (Flemish), 28th SS Freiwilligen Grenadier-Division Wallonian (Walloon Belgian), 30th SS Waffen-Grenadier-Division (Russian), 33rd SS Waffen-Grenadier-Division Charlemagne(French)

3) Foreign Legions which were comprised of volunteers and formed a unit en bloc which fought attached to German HQs; eg. the French Legion, the Wallonian bde, the two Croatian rgts, the Spanish Blue Division.

4) Ostlegionen: volunteers from various nationals within the USSR forming a very large and rather “hidden” manpower resource for the Wehrmacht. These included Tatars, Chechans, Georgians, Azerbajanis, Estonians, Belorussians, Ukrainians, Cossacks etc. These units were usually battalion level or lower, totalling over 180 btns, with a few cavalry regiments, along with hundreds of thousands of “hiwis” (volunteers) serving within German combat formations as either labourers or front-line troops. Recent information indicates athat n entire Russian division manned by deserters and Cossacks--the "Stempfeld Division"--fought in the ruins of Stalingrad right until the final capitualation in February, 1943.

5) Nationalist partisans actively supporting the Germans or simply fighting the Soviets for independence. One major Ukrainian group was still fighting in the Pripet marshes as late as 1952.

Daniel McBride

[Ebusitanus]

Can you please expand on that "Stempfeld Division". I'm really intrigued