Hubert Kuberski

We know little about the German perception of the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto, which broke out on April 19, 1943. The astonishing fact is that the SS cavalry participated in the pacification of the uprising - of course not on horses, but as infantry.

Over a quarter of a century has passed since film documentary director Agnieszka Arnold discovered previously unknown information on the “self-cleansing action” in Jedwabne. The brief period of interest taken in this subject by the media and historians did not bring a thorough explanation of the “Jedwabne complex”. We still know little of how the Germans and Austrians forming part of Einsatzgruppen instigated and implemented, or instead inspired, genocidal Selbstrenigungsaktionen taking place in the rear area of all German army groups (Heeresgruppen). The Romanians adopted a slightly different strategy, although it, too, resulted in the extermination of the Jewish population in the territories recovered after their seizure by the Soviets in 1940. In popular understanding of the issue, the so-called pogroms (although this is not a correct term) occurred only in Podlasie/Podlachia/Podlachien region, Kovno/Kauen/Kaunas, and Lvov/Lemberg/Lviv. In reality, their scope spanned the entirety of the “Bloodlands”, from the General Government to the Caucasus. It is important to note that the term Selbstrenigungsaktionen is practically absent from scholarly discourse (suffice it to type it in an Internet search engine). It is worrying that this genocidal episode of the Shoah goes nearly unstudied – of course, as part of international research initiatives free from accusations of biased exploration.

More than five decades ago, the representatives of the German moral power ("moralische Supermacht") amended the law, which they rarely boast of - it was even effectively pushed out of consciousness. Not only Germany, but practically the whole world does not remember or simply does not know what happened on May 10, 1968 in the Bonn Bundestag.

The participation of the SS-Sonderbataillon Dirlewanger in the pacifications of the partisan movement in occupied Belarus remains a topic that, despite some discussion in Polish, Russian, English and German sources, demands further scholarly attention. The article brings into focus the events taking place in the summer of 1943 in the German-occupied territory of the Nowogródek and Wilno Voivodeships of the prewar Republic of Poland, which were included the German-occupied General District of Belarus (Generalbezirk Weißruthenien/Генеральная акруга Беларусь) during the war. The anti-partisan operation (Unternehmen "Hermann") carried out by the Germans with the participation of units consisting of Germans, Austrians, Belarusians, Lithuanians, Latvians and Ukrainians was directed against the Soviet and Polish partisans. Of course, apart from the extensive use documents of German archives, we drew attention to documents of Polish and Soviet provenance, and in particular to the memories of Polish witnesses inhabiting the area of Naliboki Forest. The aim of this article is to present the latest scope of research * Niniejszy tekst powstał w wyniku realizacji projektu badawczego pt. "Studium przypadku SS-Sonderkommando Dirlewanger-oddziały i jednostki obcokrajowców w zmaganiach wojennych dwóch imperiów (III Rzeszy i ZSSR) w latach 1940-1945", nr UMO-2014/13/N/HS3/04429, finansowanego ze środków Narodowego Centrum Nauki.

The testimony of Wilhelm "Willi" Plänk, found in the German archives, partially reconstructed the activities of a little-known Waffen-SS unit deployed in occupied Warsaw. This modest office clerk (trader) made an officer's career, achieving the rank of SS-Obersturmbannführer. Confronting the document with other German wartime documents  and the latest scientific literature revealed surprising details about the genocidal activities of the SS-Totenkopf-Reiterstandarte / SS-Kavallerie Regiment 1. and 2./SS-Kavallerie Brigade in the occupied Polish and Soviet territories. The number of offenses and crimes (large-scale theft and embezzlement as part of the "arization of property", mass massacres of civilians) carried out by SS cavalry officers exceeds the wildest imaginations, despite the awareness of the extent of genocidal executions in the Pripyat basin in the summer of 1941. The crowning of the criminal trail was the involvement of the SS-Kavallerie Ersatz Abteilung Warschau in the pacification of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

The participation of the SS-Sonderregiment Dirlewanger in the pacification of the Warsaw Uprising is one of the many unresolved problems relating to the events that took place from August to October 1944 in Warsaw. The purpose of this article is to present the most re- cent state of research on the actions of this controversial German unit during the first days of the German pacification, i.e. during the Wola Massacre (Genocide Wola 44).

Khatyn - a symbol of German (fascist or, more correctly, National Socialist) crimes in the occupied territory of Belarus in the post-Soviet space, remains alive. The martyrological dimension of the tragic end villages in the then Pleshchenitse region had been instilled in two generations from the moment of paying tribute to the soldiers and victims of the war in 1941–1945 - the earlier ones were remembered by other anniversaries. The symbol of the barbarity of German Herrenvolk clashed in Polish memory with the bloody crime of Soviet officers of NKVD with “cool minds, hot hearts and clean hands”, in a place three hundred kilometers away. The executions of the Polish elites in Katyn were carried out in the vicinity of the graves of Russians. In the pacified Chatyn in Minsk, the Belarusian victims lie next to the Polish ones, and the symbol of the survivors is as tragic as the biblical Job - a miraculously saved, admitting to be Polish Jozef Kaminski (Іосіф Камінскі / Иосиф Каминский)

Уже на протяжении десятилетий, в сознании многих людей, в музейных экспозициях,в популярных изданиях и даже в науч- ных монографиях, наряду с фактами о ведении боевых действий во время подавления Варшавского восстания, присутствуют ми- фологемы и искаженные факты. Описание тех трагических со- бытий часто сводится к неподобающему поведению «власовцев», украинцев из дивизии СС «Галиция» и калмыков. В то же время роль немцев в разорении польской столицы иногда преуменьша- ется.

The death of Oskar Dirlewanger was shrouded in mystery. The discovery of documents in Ludwigsburg almost three decades ago by the German historian Hans-Peter Klausch brought us closer to the truth. The present article is an attempt to answer the question raised in 1993 as to who were the “Polnischen Wachmannschaft.” The attempt to identify the perpetrators was based on a query in two foreign and three Polish archives. The results came to light only after extensive research, and some conclusions are still beyond reach, as they depend solely on the participants of the events in Altshausen.

After the outbreak of the German-Soviet war in June 1941 and the rapid occupation of Belarus, it was subordinated to the military administration of the German Eastern Army (Ostheer). The National Socialist German regime set about creating civilian occupation authorities – soldiers were replaced by “specialists” from the Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories (Reichsministerium für die besetzten Ostgebiete – RMbO or Ostministerium, OMi). Only a part of the Belarusian lands came under the administration of the civilian General Commissariat of Belarus (Generalkommissariate Weißruthenien), which was headed by Gauleiter Wilhelm Kube from July 17, 1941. He was subordinated to Heinrich Lohse, who headed the Reich Commissariat Ostland (Reichskommissariate Ostland), established eight days later – both represented the head of the OMi, Alfred Rosenberg.

The unit commanded by Oskar-Paul Dirlewanger has become an incredible scale of barbarism. Slavic Untermenschen – Belarusians, Russians – were the part of SS-Sonderkommando Dirlewanger for almost three years during the ruthlessly conducted Partisanenbekämpfung (fighting against partisan), which was quickly renamed „Bandenbekämpfung" ("fightting against  the band”) to emphasize humiliation an enemy with whom the Polizei, SS and East European volunteers fought. One of them was SS-Sonderkommando Dirlewanger.

The contribution of Russian emigrants to World War II is widely known, but most often it brings to mind their cooperation and engagement on the Axis side. However, there were several individuals among the post-revolution Russian diaspora in Poland, who decided to fight the Germans and their allies as part of the Polish resistance movement and the Grand Coalition 1939–45. Russian exiles were involved in conspiratorial endeavours of various orientations, from communist to nationalist ones.

The contribution of Russian emigrants to World War II is widely known, but most often it brings to mind their cooperation and involvement at the side of the Axis powers. There were, however, among the post-revolution Russian diaspora in Poland some people, who decided to fight the Germans and their allies within the Polish underground (resistance) movement and the Grand Coalition 1939–1945. Russian exiles were involved in conspiracies of various orientations – from communistic to national one.

In addition to facts, the history of military operations during the Warsaw Uprising began to be co-created by legends. Invented stories have been present for decades in the consciousness of posterity, in the museum layer, in popular studies, and even in scientific monographs. Wishful imaginations of witnesses and research unreliability co-created the presence of "Vlasovites", Kalmyks and Ukrainians from the SS Galizien in the descriptions of the Warsaw Uprising. They were on par with the Panzerkampfwagen VI Ausf heavy tanks. E "Tiger I", which roamed the capital for several days rather by accident than German calculation.

The article aims to introduce the reader to the military activity of Walloon volunteers in the Waffen SS, after their withdrawal from the Caucasus (and from Wehrmacht as well). The Walloons became part of a new European army, i.e. the foreign units in the Waffen SS.
The author discusses the arena of political influence in occupied Belgium (French-speaking Wallonia in particular) that led the volunteers to change their allegiance from the Militärbe- fehlshaber von Belgien und Nordfrankreich to the “SS kingdom”, especially SS-Hauptamt and Bevollmächtigter des RFSSS in Belgien u Nordfrankreich. Initially, the SS emissaries attempted to endorse Degrelle and his movement Rex as a leading political force in Wallonia, if not in entire country. However, the fall of the Third Reich after the defeat at Stalingrad changed the charac- ter of the “anti-Bolshevik crusade” into the “defence of Western civilisation from the Bolshevik hordes”. Some national socialists and Third Reich supporters failed to anticipate the approaching disaster, and Degrelle’s metamorphosis may serve here as an example. He started out as a radical Roman Catholic to end up as a national socialist chauvinist.
The attempt to consolidate the rexist movement failed (everything was planned with the Ostfront in mind), while the transformation of the Walloon infantry battalion into an SS-Sturmbrigade, and later an SS-division (though only by name) proved unfortunate for the volunteers... save for aforementioned Degrelle, whose reputation grew steadily, untroubled even by his involvement in the murder of a Reichsdeutscher with whom his wife had cheated on him.
What is interesting, both the Belgian and British Government pursued several attempts at seizing Degrelle after the war. However, Degrelle had nothing to fear; he fled to Francoist Spain and managed to live there “like a king” even after Franco’s death, only to become the spiritual father of the neo-national socialist organisations re-emerging in Europe after 1945.
The article is an excerpt from the forthcoming doctoral thesis featuring a comparison of the penal battalions and foreign volunteer units participating in World War II (with particular focus on the armed forces of two empires: the Third Reich and USSR).
====================================================
Леон Дегрель и валлонские добровольцы Ваффен СС (1943-1945)
Настоящая статья имеет целью приблизить читателям вопрос военного сотрудничества валлонских добровольцев в одной из частей немецкой вооруженных сил – Войск СС (Ваффен-СС), после отступления с Кавказа (и Вермахта тоже). Валлоны стали одной из составляющих новой европейской армии — иностранных частей в Ваффен-СС.
Автор описывает сцену политических влияний в оккупированной Бельгии (особенно во франкоязычной Валлонии), что привело к замене сторон. Немцы отказались от поддержки “Militärbefehlshaber von Belgien und Nordfrankreich” в пользу представителей “королевства СС”, особенно “SS-Hauptamt” и “Bevollmächtigter des RFSSS in Belgien und Nordfrankreich”. Сначала эмиссары СС пытались продвигать Дегреля и его движение “Рекс”, как главную политическую силу в Валлонии, или даже во всей Бельгии. Но падение Третьего Рейха после поражения под Сталинградом изменило облик “антибольшевистского крестового похода Европы” в защиту “западной цивилизации от большевистских полчищ”. Неко- торые национал-социалисты и коллаборационисты не заметили надвигающейся ката- строфы – самым лучшим примером служила трансформация Дегреля. Он начинал как радикальный римский католик, а превратился в национал-социалистического шовиниста.
Попытка консолидации рексистского движения не удалась – во-первых и в-послед- них – все это делалось для Восточного фронта. И преобразование валлонского пехотного батальона в штурмовую бригаду, а затем дивизию СС (хотя лишь только по названию) не принесло удачи валлонским добровольцам, кроме вышеупомянутого Дегреля. Его влия- ние увеличилось, несмотря даже на участие шефа рексистов в убийстве “рейхсдойчера”, с которым изменила Дегрелю его собственная жена.
Интересны послевоенные попытки бельгийского и британского правительств поймать Дегреля. Ему нечего было опасаться — Дегрель жил в Испании Франко и после своей кон- чины, он стал духовным отцом как “король”, возрождающихся после 1945г. европейских национал-социалистических организаций.
Статья является фрагментом подготавливаемой докторской диссертации, в кото- рой должны быть сопоставлены друг с другом карательные отряды и подразделения из иностранцев во Второй мировой войне (с особым учетом их в вооруженных силах двух империй — Третьего Рейха и СССР).

The article intends to bring the reader closer to the political situation in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia after its partition by member states of the Axis. One of the elements of the new order in the Balkans proved to the Independent State of Croatia (Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, NDH), whose very name called for an explanation.The consolidation of the Ustaša regime was the first task of the new Croatian authorities whose domestic policy consisted of a laborious creation of legislation aimed against the racial and ethnic enemies of the NDH. No one questioned the ensuing genocidal danse macabre Ñ neither the political opposition nor the Church nor the two orientations of the partisan movement,  busy liquidating their opponents. The initial months of the presence of Croatia on the international arena involved the activity of a new state installed within the Axis structure as an actual (albeit not legal) German-Italian condominium. Frustration caused by the treatment of the NDH as an object by its powerful neighbours could find an outlet in combating domestic enemies. The Ustaša regime regarded the Serbs, the Jews and the Roma people to be its internal foes. Partisan warfare added the Chetniks and the partisans to the adversaries of the Croats

Popular study described numerous actions of the Polish underground in the second half of 1943. The success of individual attacks, supply operations and expropriation confirmed the skills of the soldiers of the Home Army, NOW / NSZ (with little support of this effort by BCh and GL). The turn of November and December 1943 brought the decision of the Commander-in-Chief of the Home Army, Maj.Gen. Tadeusz Komorowski "Bor", which marked the launch of a series of counterattacks aimed at particularly harmful representatives of the German occupation apparatus of the General Government. The codename "Heads" came from "Totenkopf" on the caps of the SS exterminators.

Popular study about a long partisan tradition in the Świętokrzyskie Mountains. From the time of the Kosciuszko Uprising, through the production of weapons during the November Uprising, the activities of Langiewicz, Czachowski and Hauke-Bossak's parties during the January Uprising, battles of Piłsudski's legionnaires, to the fights of partisan units of "Hubal", "Jedrusie", "Ponury", "Barabasz", "Szary" and the "Holy-Cross Brigade".

Popular study described an action carried out by the Polish anti-German resistance organization Home Army (Armia Krajowa, or "AK"), which involved a heist of over a million US dollars' worth of currency being transported by German authorities on 12 August 1943. It was carried out in the center of Warsaw by a unit of Kedyw, "Motor", which seized a transport car carrying the money. It was one of the best organized actions of the Polish underground during the German occupation, and it took only 150 seconds.

Popular study about Polish AK underground sabotage and diversion units „Osa” ("Wasp"), „ Kosa 30” ("Scythe 30"), „Kolegium A” ("College A") units. "Osa"/"Kosa 30" was a deeply covert disposable unit of the Commander-in-Chief of the Home Army and carried out combat operations on his direct orders. Initially, the scope of its activity was the General Government. „Kolegium A” of Warsaw's Kedyw (acronym of Kierownictwo Dywersji ("Directorate of Diversion") was a Polish WWII Home Army unit that conducted active and passive sabotage, propaganda, and armed operations against German forces and collaborators during occupation in Warsaw and Warsaw's Uprising.

The collection of articles delivered on 28–30 May 2014 at the conference “Himmler’s Supranational Militia. Indigenous Participation in SS- and Police Units during the Second World War” organised at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland, became the monograph The Waffen-SS. A European History, edited by Jochen Böhler and Robert Gerwarth.

Review of Dmitry Zhukov and Ivan Kovtun, Policemen. History, fates and crimes, Moscow 2016, Pyatyy Rim, ss. 318; iidem, Partisan Hunters. Dirlewanger Brigade, Moscow 2016, Veche, ss. 445; iidem, Burgomaster and executioner. Tonka the machine-gunner, Bronislav Kaminsky and others, Moscow 2017, Pyatyy Rim, ss. 572
===
Recenzje trzech książek: Дмитрий Жуков и Иван Ковтун, Полицаи. История, судьбы и преступления, Mocква 2016, Пятый Рим, ss. 318; iidem, Охотники за партизанами. Бригада Дирлевангера, Mocква 2016, Вече, ss. 445; iidem, Бургомистр и палач. Тонька-пулеметчица, Бронислав Каминский и другие, Mocква 2017, Пятый Рим, ss. 572
/

Książka Christiana Ingrao Czarni myśliwi-Brygada Dirlewangera zainicjowała nową serię poświęconą przeszłości "Historia/Historiae". Wybór polskiego wydawcy padł na pracę francuskiego historyka, wykazującego niekonwencjonalne podejście do kwestii działań SS-Sonderkommando Dirlewanger w ramach "Bandenbekämpfung". Dyrektor paryskiego Institut d'Histoire du Temps Présent (IHTP) jest zwolennikiem bujnie rozwijającej się nowej nauki-antropologii historycznej.
===
Christian Ingrao's book "The SS Dirlewanger Brigade: The History of the Black Hunters" initiated a new series on the past, "Historia /Historiae". The choice of the Polish publisher directed to the work of a French historian showing an unconventional approach to the activities of the SS-Sonderkommando Dirlewanger as part of the "Bandenbekämpfung". The director of the Institut d'Histoire du Temps Présent (IHTP) in Paris is a supporter of the thriving new science of historical anthropology.