the support of Heinrich Himmler as well as other, high-ranking Nazis, who decided simply to turn a blind-eye to the varied, and frequent, alcohol-induced atrocities.
In any case, Dirlewanger was hardly the only one indulging in such revolting acts of sadistic cruelty and murder, even if those other officers who were disgusted by the activities of ‘SS Penal Unit Dirlewanger’ were by now quietly referring to him as being ‘the most evil man in the SS’.
Said Gottlob Christian Berger, a high-ranking Nazi official and one of Dirlewanger ‘protectors’ –
‘Dirlewanger was certainly not what you would have called a ‘good man’… Of course, you cannot say that… He was, however, a truly excellent soldier, albeit with one major flaw in this side of his character – once he started drinking, he was wholly unable to stop…’
At the start of 1942, Dirlewanger and his ever-growing group of men found themselves being reassigned – to conduct ‘anti-partisan’ duties in German-occupied Belarus.
This basically gave SS Penal Unit Dirlewanger carte-blanche to conduct wholesale rape, mutilation and murder. Whole villages were herded inside barns which were then set on fire. Anyone trying to escape was machine-gunned down. Dirlewanger realized that his unit could cross minefields simply by using captured ‘villagers’ as ‘human shields’, forced to walk in front of him and his men.
Members of the infamous SS Penal Unit Dirlewanger
By the end of 1943, with SS Penal Unit Dirlewanger responsible for over 100,000 deaths of innocent men, women and children, together with the destruction of some 200 villages, Himmler decided that there was ample reason to award the unit’s proud leader with the German Cross.
During the Warsaw Uprising of August 1944, when members of the Polish Resistance fought a brave but ultimately futile battle against the German army, SS Penal Unit Dirlewanger continued with their assorted crimes against humanity.
Members of this unit laughed as they impaled babies upon their bayonets, with the mothers then being raped and thrown from windows. A hospital was broken into, the patients set on fire and burnt alive, and the nurses gang-raped before being strung-up, naked, together with the doctors. This was all done to the accompaniment of music, Dirlewanger and his men drinking heavily all the while.
Women and children murdered by SS Penal Unit Dirlewanger
In October 1944, Dirlewanger received another medal – the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross – and his final promotion, to the rank of SS-Oberfuhrer .
In February of 1945, with Germany fast losing the war, he was shot in the chest while fighting against the invading Soviet forces in Brandenburg. He recovered to then go into hiding, but was arrested on June 1, having reportedly been recognized by a former Jewish concentration camp inmate.
Dirlewanger was taken to a prison camp in Altshausen in southern Germany, where he was suddenly pronounced dead of ‘natural causes’ just a few days later. It is strongly suspected that he was in fact beaten to death by Polish guards, who were fully aware of all his crimes and, furthermore, were most desirous that he should fully atone for them at their hands.
Rumors persisted that he’d actually somehow escaped this prison camp and was still alive – with one such rumor stating that he’d joined the French Foreign legion – but in 1960 his grave was opened, and his remains examined to officially confirm his identity.
Eichmann, Karl Adolf
The son of middle-class Protestants, born March 19, 1906, Eichmann’s mother died when he was aged four. His father remarried, and as a result of shrewd business dealings conducted during the First World War became a wealthy man.
Often the young Eichmann visited Vienna, and there made friends with a number of its large Jewish population. He was himself slightly Jewish in appearance, and quickly learnt to communicate in Hebrew and Yiddish.
But
In any case, Dirlewanger was hardly the only one indulging in such revolting acts of sadistic cruelty and murder, even if those other officers who were disgusted by the activities of ‘SS Penal Unit Dirlewanger’ were by now quietly referring to him as being ‘the most evil man in the SS’.
Said Gottlob Christian Berger, a high-ranking Nazi official and one of Dirlewanger ‘protectors’ –
‘Dirlewanger was certainly not what you would have called a ‘good man’… Of course, you cannot say that… He was, however, a truly excellent soldier, albeit with one major flaw in this side of his character – once he started drinking, he was wholly unable to stop…’
At the start of 1942, Dirlewanger and his ever-growing group of men found themselves being reassigned – to conduct ‘anti-partisan’ duties in German-occupied Belarus.
This basically gave SS Penal Unit Dirlewanger carte-blanche to conduct wholesale rape, mutilation and murder. Whole villages were herded inside barns which were then set on fire. Anyone trying to escape was machine-gunned down. Dirlewanger realized that his unit could cross minefields simply by using captured ‘villagers’ as ‘human shields’, forced to walk in front of him and his men.
Members of the infamous SS Penal Unit Dirlewanger
By the end of 1943, with SS Penal Unit Dirlewanger responsible for over 100,000 deaths of innocent men, women and children, together with the destruction of some 200 villages, Himmler decided that there was ample reason to award the unit’s proud leader with the German Cross.
During the Warsaw Uprising of August 1944, when members of the Polish Resistance fought a brave but ultimately futile battle against the German army, SS Penal Unit Dirlewanger continued with their assorted crimes against humanity.
Members of this unit laughed as they impaled babies upon their bayonets, with the mothers then being raped and thrown from windows. A hospital was broken into, the patients set on fire and burnt alive, and the nurses gang-raped before being strung-up, naked, together with the doctors. This was all done to the accompaniment of music, Dirlewanger and his men drinking heavily all the while.
Women and children murdered by SS Penal Unit Dirlewanger
In October 1944, Dirlewanger received another medal – the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross – and his final promotion, to the rank of SS-Oberfuhrer .
In February of 1945, with Germany fast losing the war, he was shot in the chest while fighting against the invading Soviet forces in Brandenburg. He recovered to then go into hiding, but was arrested on June 1, having reportedly been recognized by a former Jewish concentration camp inmate.
Dirlewanger was taken to a prison camp in Altshausen in southern Germany, where he was suddenly pronounced dead of ‘natural causes’ just a few days later. It is strongly suspected that he was in fact beaten to death by Polish guards, who were fully aware of all his crimes and, furthermore, were most desirous that he should fully atone for them at their hands.
Rumors persisted that he’d actually somehow escaped this prison camp and was still alive – with one such rumor stating that he’d joined the French Foreign legion – but in 1960 his grave was opened, and his remains examined to officially confirm his identity.
Eichmann, Karl Adolf
The son of middle-class Protestants, born March 19, 1906, Eichmann’s mother died when he was aged four. His father remarried, and as a result of shrewd business dealings conducted during the First World War became a wealthy man.
Often the young Eichmann visited Vienna, and there made friends with a number of its large Jewish population. He was himself slightly Jewish in appearance, and quickly learnt to communicate in Hebrew and Yiddish.
But
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