Oskar Dirlewanger
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Oskar Dirlewanger as an SS-Oberführer, 1944. |
Oskar Dirlewanger (
September 26,
1895-
June 7,
1945) was a
World War II officer with the
Schutzstaffel (SS). He commanded the
SS-Sturmbrigade Dirlewanger unit. Dr. Oskar Dirlewanger was an infantry soldier in
World War I and won both the
Iron Cross 2nd Class and the Iron Cross 1st Class. He was a member of several
Freikorps after the war. He attempted to join the Schutzstaffel three times, finally becoming a full-fledged member of the
National Socialist German Workers Party in 1932.
He served in the
Condor Legion in the
Spanish Civil War.
A convicted
rapist, himself interned at a
concentration camp before the SS believed it necessary to form a brigade solely of ex-convicts for use on the
Eastern Front, he was for his experience reluctantly selected by
Heinrich Himmler to lead it. His unit were employed in the fight against
Partisans in the occupied Soviet Union, where they earned a reputation for savagry. Later the same unit was used in the suppression of the
Warsaw uprising, where they committed even worse attrocities, considered severe even by Nazi standards. It was known Himmler had a profound dislike for Dirlewanger.
Dirlewanger was sentenced for
war crimes and, according to one version, was beaten to death by a fellow
inmates at
Altshausen, a
French prison camp.
Author French McLean gives a different version of his death stating that Polish soldiers, charged with guarding Dirlewanger, fatally beat him, possibly as revenge for his actions in Warsaw.
Other rumors, including one story of Dirlewanger serving in the
French Foreign Legion, and later defecting to Egypt to accept a commission in
Gamal Abdel Nasser's army were proven false.
* MacLean, French L. - The Cruel Hunters: SS-Sonder-Kommando Dirlewanger Hitler's Most Notorious Anti-Partisan Unit
