Traitors from around the world. Foreigners in the German Wehrmacht and SS troops

Collaborationism during the Second World War. They say that the commissioner is a state of mind. And yes, one can probably agree with this statement. But if so, then another statement will probably be correct, that the fascist is also a state of mind, only with a minus sign. That is, someone follows the idea, but there are also those who choose the “dark side of power” for completely different reasons. This is cowardice, and mercantilism, and immoralism. In any case, all these spiritual qualities are not the most pleasant in the list of properties of a human person. However, they are. To one degree or another, they have ... everyone. But someone may be higher than the baser in his soul, and someone goes on about these qualities. And someone has a low threshold for pain sensitivity, so if he pushes pointed matches under his nails, he will agree to everything. Although there are those like Tommaso Campanella, whom 48 hours was tortured to torture with "velo" ("wakefulness"), that is, they did not let him sleep, periodically putting him on a stake. It is clear that sitting on a Coke does not sleep, and indeed there is not much pleasant in it. The torture was stopped only when the doctor said that another half an hour and he would die. But the most important thing is that Campanella never admitted anything and proved, as he himself wrote about it, "that his spirit is free." But again, this is an exception.

Soldiers of the French SS volunteer regiment (Franzosisches SS-Freiwilligen-Grenadier-Regiment) at a Paris train station say goodbye to their relatives before leaving for the Eastern Front

What is collaboration? TSB is responsible

So when it comes to foreign citizens who fought in the Nazi army during the Second World War, we must remember that there were many reasons why they did this. But for us now it’s important not to delve into all these reasons, but simply to see who, except for persons of German nationality, fought at that time on the side of the German army with weapons in hand. Not so long ago, an interesting article by A. Samsonov on Polish and Jewish collaborators was published on the pages of VO. Today we continue and develop this topic.

American Mildred Gillars. During the war, she broadcast on the Reichsradio. She performed on the radio until May 1945. Arrested on 15 on March 1946 of the year by US intelligence agencies. Received 10 years in prison for treason

To begin with, the topic of the participation of Soviet and foreign citizens in the Second World War as part of the German army and SS troops in the West is devoted to an extensive historiography, they did not make any fake secrets from it, as, say, we had before 1991. According to academician A.O. Chubaryan, “this problem in Soviet historiography was completely ignored,” because “it was based on the idea that the number of traitors to the Motherland was extremely small” (AO Chubaryan stories war // World War II. Actual problems: To the 50 anniversary of the Victory / Ed. O.A. Rzheshevsky. M., 1995. C.11). Therefore, the essence of such a phenomenon as the various types of cooperation of a certain part of Soviet citizens with Germany in domestic historical literature has not received a proper deep scientific interpretation. It is interesting that these very concepts (“collaborationism” and “collaborationists”) are not found at all in the reference literature of the pre-war period. There is no decoding and explanation of what it is, even in such authoritative publications as the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary and the Pomegranate Brothers Encyclopedic Dictionary. This, however, did not mean that in the lexicon of European languages ​​there was no such word and concept at all. It was, of course, but ... it was used extremely rarely.

And here is another “ideological collaborator”: William Joyce, a radio commentator on German radio in English, “Lord How-How” (“Lord Woof-Woof”), as his name was English. Irish by birth, had a diploma from the University of London, founder of the National Socialist League in England. Since August 1939, he was engaged in Nazi propaganda on the radio, while in Germany. Arrested in May 1945 and sentenced to death for treason. Hanged in 1946

In post-war Soviet reference books such as the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, the term "collaborators" has already appeared and was interpreted as: "persons who collaborated with fascist invaders in the countries they occupied during the Second World War 1939-1945." A practically similar explanation of this term was given in "Soviet Encyclopedic Dictionary." Nevertheless, there have been practically no studies on this topic. The concept of “brotherhood of the Soviet peoples” did not allow us to write about all the negative aspects of our common history, and research on this topic was seen as propaganda of nationalism and chauvinism. It is not surprising that they began to investigate the topic of cooperation between Soviet citizens and the enemy only after the collapse of the USSR.

Today we can read such books ...

The Union of Nordic Germans

But Western historians were not connected by ideological frameworks. Moreover, they were especially interested in the participation of "non-Germans" in the SS troops - the elite of the "German nation". After all, the leaders of the Reich have repeatedly stated that "the SS organization is an alliance of specially selected Nordic Germans ...". It was with these words that, for example, the order of Reichsfuhrer SS Himmler of 31 of December 1931 began, according to which a special marriage permit was introduced for all SS men "with the aim of selecting and preserving racial and hereditary pure blood."

Despite the fact that in these publications much attention is paid to uniforms and insignia, they generally represent a good source of information on this topic.

Here, first of all, it should be noted that initially both soldiers, and even more so SS officers, as well as their wives, had to undergo a complex procedure of "racial selection", and in the "special forces of the SS", which appeared already in 1934, and became the prototype of the "SS troops", the selection was even tougher. However, already in June 1944, the number of foreigners in the Wehrmacht and in the SS troops reached 486,6 thousand people, and in all during the war there were at least 1,8 million people. 59 divisions, 23 brigades were formed from foreigners of non-Aryan origin, and besides this, several separate regiments, several special legions and battalions.

But, of course, for truly complete information you need to turn to dissertation research. In principle, all of them are now available: you pay 500 p. and you get the full text of the dissertation on the Internet with all references to sources and the corresponding bibliography on the topic.

The gap between word and deed!

It turns out that it was in the SS troops that foreigners were accepted very willingly! Thus, 12 of the 43 SS divisions were manned by “volunteers of German nationality” from the countries of Northern and Western Europe, that is, not purebred Aryans, but half-blood Germans (and this is very softly said that half-bloods, in many and a quarter of Germanic there was no blood), and even the whole 15 divisions were equipped with “volunteers” of generally non-German nationality who were recruited throughout Europe, and not all of them always went there voluntarily.

How could this happen so that in the elite forces of Nazi Germany there were so many people of "non-German", or even "non-Aryan" origin, previously proclaimed by people of the "lower race"? Slavs, French, Hungarians, Romanians, Albanians, and even people from the mountains of the Caucasus and the "solar republics" of Central Asia - who just did not serve in the SS troops! Why did this happen?

A typical Aryan, right? Portrait of a voluntary assistant to the Wehrmacht - Heavi (Hilfswilliger) with a machine gun MG-34

To begin with, we recall that back in 1940, Gauleiter Essen Terboven, the Reich commissioner of Norway occupied by Germany, said that the Scandinavians are much easier to unite with the Germans than, for example, the same Prussia with Bavaria, that is, northern Germans with southern ones. Norwegians are the same Aryans, he argued (and even more than even some of the Germans, if you mean the same Bavarians), and, if so, then the Norwegians may well become full citizens of the Third Reich. He had the same opinion about the Danes, the inhabitants of the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the Belgians. These were people of "German blood." And if so, then they could consider themselves citizens of Great Germany. Although it may well be that there was no talk of complete equal rights.

Reichsfuhrer SS Himmler held the same opinion. So, in September 1940, on his initiative, the "General SS detachments of Flanders" were created. Two years later, the Netherlands SS also. Well, in May 1941, the Norwegian SS. It seems that they were under the jurisdiction of their pro-fascist leaders. But already in the autumn of 1942, they became part of the organization of the "German SS detachments." And ... were renamed “German SS in Flanders”, “German SS in the Netherlands” and “German SS in Norway”. That is, the German "beginning" came out on top. National - to the second. In April 1943, the Danish “German Corps” (“Schalburg Corps”) was established. The number of all these units amounted to almost 9 thousand people. They were engaged in helping the local police fight the partisans and anti-fascists.

Build a soldier of the Caucasian auxiliary troops of the Wehrmacht

Burgundy - SS State

It is interesting that Reichsführer SS Himmler had plans to create a new German state, Burgundy, in northern Europe, which would include the lands of the Netherlands, Belgium and North-East France. Moreover, all political and state administration were to carry out SS forces here on the basis of their SS code. At the same time, the idea was to unite all the "Nordic blood" in Europe, and to make it so that "never again did the Germans fight against the Germans."

Indian Legion SS "Free India"

Well, in the Reich itself, after the outbreak of war, selection in the SS immediately became significantly less stringent than before. Absolutely non-German surnames, and for some reason, most often Slavic ones, were strewn in the lists of SS formations. For example, in the list of executioners of the Auschwitz concentration camp, such surnames were about 15 – 20%. They ceased to worry about the leaders of the Reich and the SS and the external data of future functionaries. The SS motto: “Your honor is your loyalty” is the only thing the Reichsführer SS required of them.

What a handsome man! Free India Legion Officer

"All the flags of the world to visit us!"

Further more. Although Hitler, in his book Mein Kampf, strongly condemned the French for "spoiling" pure European blood with the blood of blacks and Asians, nevertheless, in the spring of 1944, posters depicting a German soldier in a helmet appeared in many French cities, who demandingly pointed a finger at the person looking at the poster, and with the inscription: "Enroll in the SS troops!" Moreover, these recruiting posters were hung not only in France, but also in other European countries occupied by German troops. And it is clear that for those who had problems with the law, this was a good way to avoid them. Enrolled in the SS and ... "all bribes, smooth." Well, something similar to the situation with the same French Foreign Legion. I got there, and he will save you from prison and from the bag. It’s another matter that then “freedom” had to be practiced with arms in hand, but if someone broke the law, then out of two evils such people had to choose the least, and for many of them the “least” way seemed to be the path of collaboration they chose.

Использованная литература:
1. Drobyazko, S., Karashchuk, A. Eastern volunteers in the Wehrmacht, police and SS. M .: AST, 2000.
2. Kovalev, B. Nazi occupation and collaboration in Russia. 1941-1944. M .: AST, Transitbook, 2004.
3. Carlos Caballero Jurado. Foreign volunteers in the Wehrmacht. 1941-1945. M .: AST, Astrel, 2005.
4. Shabelnik, N. On the Question of Soviet Collaborationism during the Great Patriotic War / Transactions of the Military Space Academy named after A.F. Mozhaysky. Publisher: Military Space Academy named after AF Mozhaysky (St. Petersburg)
5. Gilyazov, I. A. Collaboration movement among Turkic-Muslim prisoners of war and emigrants during the Second World War. Dis. ... dr. Sciences: 07.00.02 Kazan, 2000.
6. Ermolov, I.G. The emergence and development of Soviet military-political collaboration in the occupied territories of the USSR in 1941-1944. Dis. ... ist. Sciences: 07.00.02 Tver, 2005.
7. Shantseva, E. N. Genesis of the partisan movement and collaboration in the Great Patriotic War: the example of the occupied territory of the Bryansk region: August 1941 - September 1943 Dis. ... ist. Sciences: 07.00.02 Bryansk, 2011.
8. Napso, N.T. Eastern legions in the Wehrmacht during the Great Patriotic War 1941 - 1945 Dis. ... to-ist. Sciences: 07.00.02 Maykop, 2000.

To be continued ...