1srelluc
Diamond Member
Mark Feldon never disappoints.
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If you mean going down the Mark Feldon YT rabbit hole you are correct....The next thing you know a hour has gone by.Not to say that I buy into 'all' of that, but just to say that this could become contagious!
I know some WW2 secrets too but I'm not sure if the members here are ready yet?
One time a Polish 'science engineer' who lived next door to A-B in Poland during the war said to me, 200,000 tops.If you mean going down the Mark Feldon YT rabbit hole you are correct....The next thing you know a hour has gone by.
Mark Feldon never disappoints.
I find that hard to believe. Ukraine had it bad in WW2. They didn't fight like the Poles.Ukrainian soldiers guarded Nazi concentration camps.
Ukrainian soldiers guarded Nazi concentration camps.
I find that hard to believe.
One thing people should realize when reading the title of this thread or watching the video is that they were from the foreign legions of the Waffen SS.
The Waffen SS was not the "SS". They actually had a rather good reputation of treatment of others, and not taking part in the war crimes of the SS. And most of those that came from the territory of the USSR were either conscripts, or joined not for racial reasons but because they were anti-communists. And not being Germans, there was less question as for their trustworthiness. Plus, they simply had nowhere else to go as returning home they would have been executed by the Soviets.
And yes, I have long enjoyed watching Mark Felton videos.
In this I have to agree, and that is not how it worked.
Oh yes, there were indeed Ukrainians in the SS, but that was the Waffen SS and not the SS itself. The 14th Waffen Grenadier Division being the most famous, but they were not camp guards. They were a combat unit, used in the defense against the advancing Soviet troops or keeping down rebellion in Slovakia and Slovenia.
The camp guards were almost exclusively members of the SS itself, members of the "SS-Totenkopfverbunde". They were not members of the Waffen SS at all, but a combat trained unit that fell directly under SS control. All members of it were SS members first, and did other duties as directed. In fact, later in the war many would be transferred from camp duty and served with the 3rd SS Panzer Division "Totenkopf", a Waffen SS unit created primarily for those who had been camp guards. This is because it was recognized that not all members were cut out to be camp guards, or leaving them in that duty too long often resulted in them developing personality traits that were not even welcome among the SS. And it is not a coincidence that while war crimes were actually rare among Waffen SS units, they were common in the 3rd Panzer Division. And often while recovering from wounds members of that Division would be rotated to camps until they recovered and could return to combat.
I have to admit, I have never heard of foreigners working as camp guards. In fact, I have never heard of any camp guards that were not ethnically German from Germany-Austria-Hungary-Czechoslovakia.
The SS-TV was derived from the SS-VT or Verfegungstruppen, and the TV were used to form the 3rd SS Totenkopf Division.
Yes, many Ukrainians joined the German army to fight against the Soviet Russians.I find that hard to believe. Ukraine had it bad in WW2. They didn't fight like the Poles.
Ukrainian soldiers that joined the German army had no problem being guards at concentration camps full of Russian soldiers and bolshevik Jews, that they hated.Ukrainian soldiers guarded Nazi concentration camps.
Actually the Waffen SS WAS part of the SS. There were three branches of the SS, the Algemeine (Major Hochstetter from Hogan's Heroes), they were the bureaucrats, the Polizei SS, these were the camp guards, and of course the Waffen , or armed SS. These were the soldiers. And they were pretty brutal if they felt they had cause. 2nd SS destroyed a French town and everyone they could find was murdered during D-Day.
Ukrainian soldiers that joined the German army had no problem being guards at concentration camps full of Russian soldiers and bolshevik Jews, that they hated.
Not really. The Waffen SS did not take orders from the SS, but from the OKW, or Oberkommando der Wehrmacht. In other words, the Army High Command. The SS selected the members, but operationally they were part of and commanded by the Army.
And the massacre of Lidice and Lezaky were brutally crushed in response to the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich. Many were killed in the massacres that followed, and others sent to death camps. However, that was not the Waffen SS but by the Gestapo and SS itself. This is because there was no need for the Waffen SS, they viewed it as a police matter against largely unarmed criminals.
And yes, like any other organization many others did participate in war crimes. And the SS Panzer units are very different from the infantry units. I never said that others did not take part in war crimes, just that it was rare. It must be remembered, that the SS Panzer units were recruited primarily from actual SS members. Where as the Infantry units were just soldiers, and not members of the SS itself. And a hell of a lot of them were not even ethnically German in the infantry units.
Think of it as akin to the National Guard and the Army. Yes, the Army trains the Guard, and when mobilized is in command of them. But the individual states select the members. But that is really it, Other than deciding who can join the guard and the highest leadership, the state really has little to do with it otherwise. And if under the command of the Army, then they have almost nothing to do with it at all until that unit is returned.
Oh, and you need to watch Hogan's Heroes again. Major Hochstetter was not in the SS, he was in the Gestapo. In fact, I can once again honestly say that I can never remember seeing somebody in the SS on the show.
And yes, I am aware that at times his uniform had SS runes on it. But that was simply sloppy costuming, as he was always clearly stated as being a member of the Gestapo.
Furthermore, if you were a member of the Wehrmacht, you were prohibited from being a member of the Nazi Party.
Sorry, I would like some verification of that, because I have never heard of that. Because by obvious logic, that also means that no member of the party could serve or be drafted. And it is not unknown that most of the senior officers were all party members.
That makes about as much logical sense as saying members of the Communist Party could not serve in the Red Army.
Same for the German Navy.Another way of verifying it is look at pictures of German uniforms. NEVER will you see a Party badge on them except for General grade officers.