Europäische Freiwillige
Encyclopedia
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
term meaning 'European Volunteers', derived from the German 'Freiwillige' (volunteer), and is used to describe volunteers from an occupied country who join the army of the occupier.
Background
The term was mainly used to describe non-GermanGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
ans (neither Reichsdeutsche or Volksdeutsche
Volksdeutsche
Volksdeutsche - "German in terms of people/folk" -, defined ethnically, is a historical term from the 20th century. The words volk and volkische conveyed in Nazi thinking the meanings of "folk" and "race" while adding the sense of superior civilization and blood...
) who volunteered to fight for the Third Reich during World War Two
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Largely from occupied countries, but also from co-belligerent and neutral nations, they fought in the Waffen-SS
Waffen-SS
The Waffen-SS was a multi-ethnic and multi-national military force of the Third Reich. It constituted the armed wing of the Schutzstaffel or SS, an organ of the Nazi Party. The Waffen-SS saw action throughout World War II and grew from three regiments to over 38 divisions, and served alongside...
as well as in the Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
.
One Azerbaijani POW who volunteered to fight against the Soviets told his German captors that he was anti-Nazi, anti-Bolshevik, and only wanted an opportunity to free his homeland. In the eastern front the volunteers and conscripts in the Ostlegionen
Ostlegionen
Ostlegionen or Osttruppen were conscripts and volunteers from the occupied eastern territories recruited into the German Army of the Third Reich during the Second World War....
came to comprise a fighting force equivalent to 30 German divisions by the end of 1943.
Large numbers of "Freiwillige" also came from areas outside Europe, mainly motivated by a desire to fight for the freedom of their nation against Soviet or British domination. The troops comprised a wide range of ethnicities, for example from the mainly Turkic peoples in the ostlegionen to the Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
Slavs in 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar and the Indians of the Indische Legion. (the Indian National Army
Indian National Army
The Indian National Army or Azad Hind Fauj was an armed force formed by Indian nationalists in 1942 in Southeast Asia during World War II. The aim of the army was to overthrow the British Raj in colonial India, with Japanese assistance...
fought against the British on the Japanese side.)
Countries which had European Freiwillige in the German forces
- AlbaniaAlbaniaAlbania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
- BulgariaBulgariaBulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
- CroatiaCroatiaCroatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
- DenmarkDenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
- EstoniaEstoniaEstonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
- FinlandFinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
- FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
- Great BritainGreat BritainGreat Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
- GreeceGreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
- HungaryHungaryHungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
- IndiaIndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
- ItalyItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
- LatviaLatviaLatvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
- LiechtensteinLiechtensteinThe Principality of Liechtenstein is a doubly landlocked alpine country in Central Europe, bordered by Switzerland to the west and south and by Austria to the east. Its area is just over , and it has an estimated population of 35,000. Its capital is Vaduz. The biggest town is Schaan...
- LithuaniaLithuaniaLithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
- LuxembourgLuxembourgLuxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
- MontenegroMontenegroMontenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
- NetherlandsNetherlandsThe Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
- NorwayNorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
- PortugalPortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
- RomaniaRomaniaRomania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
- SerbiaSerbiaSerbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
- SlovakiaSlovakiaThe Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
- SloveniaSloveniaSlovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
- SpainSpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
- SwedenSwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
- SwitzerlandSwitzerlandSwitzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
- UkraineUkraineUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
- USA
- USSR
Branches of the Wermacht
Volunteers from Western and Northern Europe served in the variuous different branches of the WehrmachtWehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
, i.e., the Kriegsmarine
Kriegsmarine
The Kriegsmarine was the name of the German Navy during the Nazi regime . It superseded the Kaiserliche Marine of World War I and the post-war Reichsmarine. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches of the Wehrmacht, the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany.The Kriegsmarine grew rapidly...
(navy), the Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
(air force), and the Heer (land forces). Several Heer units composed primarily of "non-Germanic
Germanic languages
The Germanic languages constitute a sub-branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all of the languages in this branch is called Proto-Germanic , which was spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
" volunteers (e.g., French, Walloons, Spaniards) were eventually subordinated to the Waffen-SS in the later phases of the war.
At various times, the Wehrmacht also recruited or conscripted foreigners as:
- Special technical officers (Sonderführer)—usually translators, local liaison officers, and the like
- HiWisHiwi (volunteer)Hiwi is a German abbreviation. It has two meanings, "voluntary assistant" and "assistant scientist" .- :...
—often from prisoners of war - LuftwaffenhelferLuftwaffenhelferLuftwaffenhelfer are terms commonly used for German students deployed as child soldiers during World War II....
—mainly teenage boys, but sometimes even girls
SS during World War II
There were a number of divisions of the SS which were made up of non Germans including:5.SS-Panzer-Division Wiking
5th SS Panzer Division Wiking
The 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking was one of the elite Panzer divisions of the thirty eight Waffen SS divisions. It was recruited from foreign volunteers, from Scandinavia, Finland, Estonia, The Netherlands, and Belgium under the command of German officers...
11.SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Division Nordland
11th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division Nordland
The 11th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division Nordland, also known as Kampfverband Waräger, Germanische-Freiwilligen-Division, SS-Panzergrenadier-Division 11 or 11. SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Division Nordland, was a Waffen SS, Panzergrenadier division recruited from foreign volunteers...
13.Waffen-Gebirgs-Division der SS Handschar (kroatische Nr. 1)
14.Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS (ukrainische Nr.1)
15.Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS (lettische Nr.1)
15th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Latvian)
The 15th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS was formed in the Waffen SS's drive for manpower in the wake of Operation Barbarossa; Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941...
19.Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS (lettische Nr.2)
19th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (2nd Latvian)
The 19th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS was an Infantry Division of the Waffen SS during World War II. It was the second Latvian division formed in January 1944, after its sister unit, the 15th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS...
20.Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS (estnische Nr.1)
21.Waffen-Gebirgs-Division der SS Skanderburg (albanische Nr. 1)
21st Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Skanderbeg (1st Albanian)
The 21st Division of the SS Skanderbeg was a Mountain division of the SS set up by Heinrich Himmler in March 1944, officially under the title of the 21. Waffen-Gebirgs Division der SS Skanderbeg...
22.SS-Freiwilligen-Kavallerie-Division
22nd SS Volunteer Cavalry Division Maria Theresia
The 22nd SS Volunteer Cavalry Division Maria Theresia. was a German Waffen SS cavalry division which saw action on the Eastern Front during the Second World War...
23.SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Division Nederland (niederlandische Nr. 1)
23.Waffen-Gebirgs-Division der SS Kama (kroatische Nr. 2)
23rd Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Kama
The 23rd Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Kama was a military formation composed of German officers and Bosniak soldiers in the Waffen-SS during World War II. The numerical designation "23rd" was given to the 4th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Brigade Nederland after the division was disbanded in...
25.Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS Hunyadi (ungarnische Nr.1)
25th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Hunyadi (1st Hungarian)
The 25th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Hunyadi was a Hungarian unit of the Waffen-SS. It was established on November 2, 1944 in Hungary....
26.Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS Gombos (ungarnische Nr.2)
26th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (2nd Hungarian)
The 26th Waffen-Grenadier Division der SS was one of the thirty-eight divisions fielded by the Waffen-SS during World War II. It had a proper name as well as a number, Hungaria. It was formed very late in the war, recruited primarily from Hungarians, and thus bore the secondary designation...
27.SS-Freiwilligen-Grenadier-Division Langemarck
28.SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Division Wallonien
29.Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS RONA (russische Nr. 1)
29.Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS (italienische Nr.1)
29th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Italian)
The 29th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS or Legione SS Italiana was created on 10 February 1945 as the second SS-Division numbered 29. The first on the 29th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS , was disbanded. The new unit created in November 1943, was based on the Waffen-Grenadier-Brigade...
30.Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS (russische Nr.2)
30th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (2nd Russian)
The 30th SS Grenadier Division was a German Waffen SS infantry division formed largely from Belarussian, Russian and Ukrainian personnel of the Schutzmannschaft-Brigade Siegling in August 1944 at Warsaw, Poland. The division was moved by rail to southeastern France by mid-August 1944 to combat the...
30.Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS (weißruthenische Nr.1)
33.Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS (ungarnische Nr. 4)
33rd Waffen Cavalry Division of the SS (3rd Hungarian)
33rd Waffen Cavalry Division of the SS was formed from Hungarian volunteers, in December 1944.It never had more than one regiment when it was absorbed by the 26th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS the following month, after it was almost destroyed in the fighting near Budapest...
33.Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS Charlemagne (französische Nr. 1)
33rd Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Charlemagne (1st French)
The 33. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS Charlemagne and Charlemagne Regiment are collective names used for units of French volunteers in the Wehrmacht and later Waffen-SS during World War II...
34.SS-Freiwilligen-Grenadier-Division Landstorm Nederland
37. SS-Freiwilligen-Kavallerie-Division
37th SS Volunteer Cavalry Division Lützow
37. SS Freiwilligen Kavallerie Division "Lützow" was ordered to be formed in February 1945, consisting of remnants of 8th SS Cavalry Division Florian Geyer and 22nd SS Volunteer Cavalry Division Maria Theresia, including former's SS Pionier Battalion 8, in addition to mostly 16- or 17-year old...
Renaming
Some of these merely consisted of many different nationalities over the course of the war, such as 5.SS-Panzer-Division Wiking, whereas others dropped the "Freiwilligen" and were adopted by the SS, such as 14.Galizische whose name changed 3 times during World War II :-14.Galizische SS-Freiwilligen-Division
14.Galizische SS-Frewilligen-Infanterie-Division
14.Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS (galizische Nr.1)
14.Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS (ukrainishe Nr.1)
Disreputable conduct
Many of the units were accused of war crimes, as well as a number of units who also participated in the Holocaust and in atrocities committed against Soviet civilians during so-called anti-partisanSoviet partisans
The Soviet partisans were members of a resistance movement which fought a guerrilla war against the Axis occupation of the Soviet Union during World War II....
operations. For information on these formations see instead:
- EinsatzgruppenEinsatzgruppenEinsatzgruppen were SS paramilitary death squads that were responsible for mass killings, typically by shooting, of Jews in particular, but also significant numbers of other population groups and political categories...
- Arajs CommandoArajs CommandoThe Arajs Kommando , led by SS-Sturmbannführer Viktors Arājs, was a unit of Latvian Auxiliary Police subordinated to the Nazi SD...
- Ukrainische Gruppe Nachtigall
- Algirdas KlimaitisAlgirdas KlimaitisAlgirdas Jonas Klimaitis was a Lithuanian para-military commander.When the Nazi Germans entered Lithuania, in 1941, at the start of Operation Barbarossa, he formed a military unit of roughly 600 members, which was not subordinate to the Lithuanian Activist Front or the Provisional Government of...
- Lithuanian Security PoliceLithuanian Security PoliceThe Lithuanian Security Police, also referred to as Saugumas , was a Lithuanian Nazi collaborationist police force that operated from 1941 to 1944. It had a staff of approximately 400 people, 250 of them in Kaunas and around another 130 in Vilnius....
- Ypatingasis būrysYpatingasis burysYpatingasis būrys or Special SD and German Security Police Squad was a Nazi killing squad of approximately 50 men, also called the "Lithuanian equivalent of Sonderkommando", operating in the Vilnius Region...
- Estonian OmakaitseOmakaitseThe Omakaitse was a militia organisation in Estonia. It was founded in 1917 following the Russian Revolution. On the eve of the Occupation of Estonia by the German Empire the Omakaitse units took over major towns in the country allowing the Salvation Committee of the Estonian Provincial Assembly...
- Schutzmannschaften
Postwar activities of veterans
Following the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, the former Waffen-SS veterans were prosecuted in their home countries. Treated as pariahs by the fellow countrymen, they often sought support from the former German comrades through membership in organisations such as HIAGHIAG
Hilfsgemeinschaft auf Gegenseitigkeit der Angehörigen der ehemaligen Waffen-SS was an organization founded in 1951 by former members of the Waffen-SS....
.
The German and non-German Waffen-SS veterans began publishing periodicals in the 1950s to promote their own narrative of events. HIAG's magazine Wiking-Ruf first appeared in 1951. This later became the monthly magazine Der Freiwillige published by Munin Verlag, a company with ties to HIAG. Recently, Patrick Agte has taken over the name "Munin Verlag" and publication of Der Freiwillige.
A separate newsletter Unser Wiking-Ruf, devoted solely to SS-Division Wiking, began appearing in the 1990s.
Another apologist periodical devoted to the German and non-German units of the Waffen-SS is the American-published quarterly, Siegrunen .
Authors, Books, Publishers
- Richard LandwehrRichard LandwehrRichard Landwehr has been the author of numerous books about the Waffen-SS, its foreign volunteers in particular. He has been putting out a magazine called Siegrunen on that topic "[f]or more than 25 years"....
, author - The Patriotic TraitorsThe Patriotic TraitorsThe Patriotic Traitors: A History of Collaboration in German-Occupied Europe, 1940-45 is a 1972 book by David Littlejohn. It is a history of the European nationalists who took part in collaborationism with the Third Reich. Individual chapters are devoted to Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands,...
(1972), a book by David Littlejohn - Nation EuropaNation EuropaNation Europa is a monthly magazine, published in Germany, that was originally established in support of Pan-European nationalism...
, a publishing house
Reflecting the veterans' own narrative
(Contains biographies of Europäische Freiwillige who were awarded the Knight's CrossKnight's Cross
Knight's Cross refers to a distinguishing grade or level of various orders that denotes bravery and leadership on the battlefield....
, and other higher military honours.)