Georgian Uprising of Texel
Encyclopedia
Insurgency
An insurgency is an armed rebellion against a constituted authority when those taking part in the rebellion are not recognized as belligerents...
by the 882nd Infantry Battalion Königin Tamara (Queen Tamar
Tamar of Georgia
Tamar , of the Bagrationi dynasty, was Queen Regnant of Georgia from 1184 to 1213. Tamar presided over the "Golden age" of the medieval Georgian monarchy...
or Tamara) of the Georgian Legion of the German Army (Wehrmacht Heer) stationed on the German
Germany
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...
occupied Dutch island
Netherlands
The 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...
of Texel
Texel
Texel is a municipality and an island in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is the biggest and most populated of the Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea, and also the westernmost of this archipelago, which extends to Denmark...
. The battalion was made up of 800 Georgians and 400 Germans, with mainly German officers. The event has been described as Europe's last battlefield.
Overview
The heavily fortified island was part of the German Atlantic WallAtlantic Wall
The Atlantic Wall was an extensive system of coastal fortifications built by Nazi Germany between 1942 and 1944 along the western coast of Europe as a defense against an anticipated Allied invasion of the mainland continent from Great Britain.-History:On March 23, 1942 Führer Directive Number 40...
system of defense. However, since the Allied landings in France
Operation Overlord
Operation Overlord was the code name for the Battle of Normandy, the operation that launched the invasion of German-occupied western Europe during World War II by Allied forces. The operation commenced on 6 June 1944 with the Normandy landings...
it was relegated to relative insignificance. The men of the rebellious battalion were Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
soldiers from the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic captured on the Eastern front. They had been given a choice rarely offered by the Germans: the captured soldiers could choose either to remain in the POW camps, which would mean almost certain death
Nazi crimes against Soviet POWs
The Nazi crimes against Soviet Prisoners of War relate to the deliberately genocidal policies taken towards the captured soldiers of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany...
, or to serve the Germans and be allowed a degree of freedom. The battalion was formed of men who chose the latter option.
The battalion had been formed at Kruszyna
Kruszyna
Kruszyna may refer to the following places in Poland:*Kruszyna, Greater Poland Voivodeship *Kruszyna, Łódź Voivodeship *Kruszyna, Lublin Voivodeship *Kruszyna, Lubusz Voivodeship...
near Radom
Radom
Radom is a city in central Poland with 223,397 inhabitants . It is located on the Mleczna River in the Masovian Voivodeship , having previously been the capital of Radom Voivodeship ; 100 km south of Poland's capital, Warsaw.It is home to the biennial Radom Air Show, the largest and...
in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
in June 1943 and was used initially to fight partisans
Partisan (military)
A partisan is a member of an irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of occupation by some kind of insurgent activity...
. On 24 August 1943 it was ordered to the West to relieve troops of the Indische Freiwilligen-Legion Regiment 950
Indische Freiwilligen-Legion Regiment 950
The Legion Freies Indien or Indische Freiwilligen-Legion Regiment 950 referred to colloquially as the Indische Legion , variously known also as the Tiger Legion and the Azad Hind Fauj , was an Indian military unit raised in 1941 in Germany attached to the German Army The Legion Freies Indien...
. The battalion arrived at Zandvoort
Zandvoort
Zandvoort is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland.Zandvoort is one of the major beach resorts of the Netherlands; it has a long sandy beach, bordered by coastal dunes...
in the Netherlands on 30 August. From September 1943 to early February 1945 it was stationed at Zandvoort as part of the "Unterabschnitt Zandvoort". On 6 February 1945 the battalion was posted to Subsection Texel. Preparations then started in late March 1945 for a move of several companies of the Georgian battalion to the Dutch mainland to oppose Allied advances – triggering the rebellion.
Shortly after midnight on the night of 5-6 April 1945, the Georgians rose up and gained control of nearly the entire island. Approximately four hundred German soldiers were killed in the initial uprising, almost all while sleeping in the quarters they shared with Georgians, who used knives and bayonets. Others were shot and killed while standing guard or walking the roads of the island in groups or individually that night and the following day. Members of the Dutch resistance participated and assisted the Georgians, however, the rebellion hinged on an expected Allied landing — which did not occur. The Georgians further failed to secure the naval batteries on the southern and northern coasts of the island; the crews of these artillery installations were the only Germans still alive on the island.
A counterattack was ordered and the intact artillery batteries on the island began firing at sites where rebels were suspected to be. Approximately 2,000 riflemen of the 163rd Marine-Schützenregiment were deployed from the Dutch mainland. The troops, in a chain link only meters apart, combed the length of the island dragnet style and after two weeks of on/off fighting Texel was retaken. The German commander of the 882nd battalion, Major Klaus Breitner, stated long after the war that the uprising was "treachery, nothing else"; the captured mutineers were ordered to dig their own graves, remove their German uniforms, and be executed.
During the Russian or Georgian war (as it is known on Texel) 120 residents of Texel, 565 Georgians and at least 812 Germans became casualties (see "Casualties controversy"). The destruction was enormous; dozens of farms went up in flames, with damage later estimated at ten million guilders (US$3.77 million). The bloodshed lasted beyond the German capitulation in the Netherlands and Denmark
Capitulation in the Netherlands and Denmark
The Capitulation in North West Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark was an official ceremony at the end of World War II that marked the surrender of all German forces in northwestern Germany, Denmark and Holland to the 21st Army Group, under the command of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, on 4 May...
on 5 May 1945 and even beyond Germany's general surrender on 8 May 1945. Not until 20 May 1945 were newly-arrived Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
troops able to pacify "Europe’s last battlefield."
The Georgians lie buried in a ceremonial cemetery
Cemetery
A cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. The term "cemetery" implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground. Cemeteries in the Western world are where the final ceremonies of death are observed...
at the Hogeberg near Oudeschild. The survivors may have feared facing the same fate as most Soviet collaborators: forced repatriation, under the terms of the Yalta Conference
Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference, sometimes called the Crimea Conference and codenamed the Argonaut Conference, held February 4–11, 1945, was the wartime meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union, represented by President Franklin D...
, often followed by incarceration and banishment and, for officers, execution. The 228 Georgians who survived by hiding from the German troops in coastal minefields, or who were concealed by Texel farmers, were turned over to Soviet authorities. After arrival at a collection camp in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, 26 Georgians were singled out and banished together with their families and nearly all others disappeared into Stalin’s Gulag
Gulag
The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...
s. Those still alive in the mid-1950s were rehabilitated and allowed to return home. Until 1991, the ambassador of the Soviet Union to the Netherlands visited the graves of the Georgians on 4 May every year, and, at least during the latter visits, called the Georgians "Heroes of the Soviet Union." On 4 May 2005, Mikheil Saakashvili
Mikheil Saakashvili
Mikheil Saakashvili is a Georgian politician, the third and current President of Georgia and leader of the United National Movement Party.Involved in the national politics since 1995, Saakashvili became president on 25 January 2004 after President Eduard Shevardnadze resigned in a November 2003...
visited the graves for the first time as the president of independent Georgia
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
.
The German victims were initially buried in a part of the general cemetery in Den Burg. In 1949 they found their final resting place at Ysselsteyn
Ysselsteyn
Ysselsteyn is a small village in the municipality of Venray in Limburg, Netherlands. It was established in 1921 and named after its designer, Hendrik Albert van IJsselsteyn, then Minister of Agriculture....
military cemetery, Limburg
Limburg (Netherlands)
Limburg is the southernmost of the twelve provinces of the Netherlands. It is located in the southeastern part of the country and bordered by the province of Gelderland to the north, Germany to the east, Belgium to the south and part of the west, andthe Dutch province of North Brabant partly to...
province, the Netherlands. The cemetery is administered by the German War Graves Commission
German War Graves Commission
The German War Graves Commission is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of German war graves in Europe and North Africa...
.
The final resting places of several Allied flight crews can also be found in the community cemetery in Den Burg.
A permanent exhibition dedicated to these events can be found "in a corner" of the Aeronautical Museum at the island's airport.
One of the last Georgian survivors of the uprising died in July 2007 and was buried with military honors in Zugdidi
Zugdidi
Zugdidi is a city in the Western Georgian historical province of Samegrelo . It is situated in the north-west of that province. The city is located 318 kilometres west of Tbilisi, 30 km. from Black sea coast and 30 km. from Egrisi range. 100-110 metres above sea level. As of 2007, it had a...
, Georgia. There were two Georgian survivors still alive in 2010: Grisha Baindurashvili, who is now 88 years old and lives in Kaspi, a village 40 km west of Tbilisi, and Eugeny Artemidze, who was one of the main organizers of the rebellion; he died at age 90 on June 22, 2010, at the same day, as he went in war 69 years ago.
Casualties controversy
Canadian troops landed unopposed on Texel on 20 May 1945, effectively liberating the island. Over a two day period the Canadians disarmed 1,535 Germans. Soviet SMERSHSMERSH
SMERSH was the counter-intelligence agency in the Red Army formed in late 1942 or even earlier, but officially founded on April 14, 1943. The name SMERSH was coined by Joseph Stalin...
forces arrived on Texel and took charge of 228 Georgians still alive. A Canadian report prepared for the commander of the SMERSH contingent numbered 470 Georgian and 2,347 German casualties on Texel.
In 1949 the German War Graves Commission disinterred on Texel 812 bodies (including the 400+ killed in their sleep by the Georgians in their shared quarters) for reburial at Ysselsteyn
Ysselsteyn
Ysselsteyn is a small village in the municipality of Venray in Limburg, Netherlands. It was established in 1921 and named after its designer, Hendrik Albert van IJsselsteyn, then Minister of Agriculture....
military cemetery. The numbers given by the Texel district list "565 Georgians, 120 Texel islanders and approximately 800 Germans killed"; followed by "other sources ... speak of more than 2,000 Germans killed." The "other sources" comment in all probability refers to the Canadian report to SMERSH that lumped together under "casualties" the 1,535 disarmed Germans with their 812 dead. The last casualty was ironically a Dutch supporter of the uprising, the local baker Theo Smit, who was accidentally killed by a Georgian.
Sources
- Dick van Reeuwijk. Opstand der Georgiërs, Sondermeldung Texel. Den Burg: Het Open Boek. Herzien Editie 2001, 71 pages. (The Georgian Rebellion on Texel). ISBN 9070202093
- Hans Houterman, J. N. Houterman, Eastern Troops in Zeeland, the Netherlands, 1943-1945, p. 62. Axis Europa Books, 1997. ISBN 1891227009
- Henri Antony Van der Zee (1998), The Hunger Winter: Occupied Holland, 1944-45, pp. 213-220. University of Nebraska Press, ISBN 0803296185 (Reprint. Originally published: London : J. Norman & Hobhouse, 1982.)