French and Russian Nazis Defend the Reich - ϟϟ Foreign Fighters Part 3
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.พ. 2025
- As the war turns ever more against Germany, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler keeps loosening the racial standards of his Waffen SS. More and more non-Germans fill the ranks of his forces. Some of these non-German fighters will be among the last defenders of the Third Reich.
Click here for parts one and two: • ϟϟ Foreign Fighters
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Hosted by: Spartacus Olsson
Director: Astrid Deinhard
Producers: Astrid Deinhard and Spartacus Olsson
Executive Producers: Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson
Creative Producer: Marek Kamiński
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Written by: James Newman
Research by: James Newman
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Map research by: Sietse Kenter
Edited by: Karolina Dołęga
Artwork and color grading by: Mikołaj Uchman
Sound design by: Marek Kamiński
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Spartacus Olsson
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Last Minute Reaction - Phoenix Tail
Last Point of Safe Return - Fabien Tell
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Rememberance - Fabien Tell
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We talked some more about Himmler’s racial theories and general fusion of paganism, German nationalism, and the occult in a an earlier video th-cam.com/video/_JNGuCwHiBs/w-d-xo.html.
Thank you for all of this wonderful content, Spartacus! 😁👍
@@nickmacarius3012 Thank you for watching
As I understand it Soviets who died in German service were counted as both enemy killed and Soviet losses, is that correct ?
A power that invades,occupies, exploited, their own contries you mean Soviet Union, The British Empire. The French Dutch colonial empyres ???
@@nickdanger3802 the official Soviet casualty figures included all kinds of nonsense and double counting, that was one of them.
The foreign fighters became some of the most fanatical of the fighters, especially late in the war when it became apparent that they had nothing left to lose.
It's not like you're ever going back home again
Yeah, they probably thought they would be severally punished if Germany lost the war. But except those who found themselves in Russian captivity, most actually got away without heavy punishment after the war
@@yobama9880 it was a social mark, outside of Germany or Spain non ever rose to prominense again. Even a shadow of a doubt of collaboration was a social death sentence.
@@yobama9880 There's at least one case of members of the Légion Charlemagne that got captured by Americans, given to the French, and shot dead the next day.
I believe that in the Netherlands some were imprisoned and some chose not to return to the Netherlands because of penalties they might have faced.
Kaminski... imagine beeing so brutal and evil that even the SS is disgusted and fed up with you.
Oskar Dirlewanger and his Brigade were if you can believe it even worse, some of the, no exaggeration, evil and sadistic scum in human history, just reading on some of there crimes will make you sick.
You're giving Nazis way, way too much credit here. This wasn't the outcome of some rational calculation, this was just their clownshow business as usual.
@@reallyidrathernot.134 I dont give any Credit for Murderers, nor for Trolls like you.
The Norwegian nazi goons that co-signed with Quisling and his ilk where many was tasked with guarding POW slave labor camps in Norway (mostly POW's from the balkans) where so brutal and sadistic, that the SS had to confiscate their weapons (even their knives) or the Germans would have been out of slave labor in the northern Norwegian tundra to build railways and roads.
After the war, one of those surviving Yugoslavian POW's where hired as the prosecutor for the war crimes tribunal in Norway.
Kaminski was viewed more as a bandit than an a actually ally for his attitude after Lokot Republic, Himmler was finding more and more useless the POHA/Russian SS. If you look at Kaminski's Lokot, there are few traces of actual "nazi ideology implementation" (they still were judeophobic ofc) and more a generic anti-communist regime, supported mainly by Rosenberg while Himmler hardly was recognizing the Russian People's Liberation Army as a foreign SS division (even if they were doing the same job as the others: cleaning certain areas from partisan activity). Honestly, actual russian nazis who fought together with the germans were people like Mikhail Oktan, with his regime in Oryol which was antagonistic to Kaminski's territory
Being a French SS volunteer is such a pathetic career trajectory. You somehow manage to lose WW2 twice.
Honestly, I understand it more than I understand how the ss could become popular in the first place. French leadership ran a military like it was still 1920. Their command and control couldn’t effectively organize fighting against the Germans. Then when the French sign an armistice, Britain attacks French forces multiple times all over the world. So much has tensions between British and French soldiers grown that American troops must land in North Africa even though French officers have promised to switch sides. Honestly We are lucky the Germans didn’t trust the French because we very well could have had a fully Axis French Empire.
Yeah, thank god most of the french cucks were fight till the end for this world we are living in. Especially nowdays france are fcking awesome place. Totally worth to destroy Europe for this...
@@gregorgerzson1767 Germany destroyed Europe, lmfao
Still fought with honour and valour in both instances
At least they showed up for the series finale, unlike Steiner and Wenck.
Steiner was one of the most capable SS officers in existence. But the German Army was so low on manpower that he was relegated to a rear echelon command in February 1945 in the Hartz Mountains because there were no men left for him to command. When Hitler ordered him to take command of a Kampfgruppe he would personally gather from stragglers to lead his counterattack, the only men he could find was a rear echelon battalion of the 4th Panzergrenadier Division that possessed exactly zero weapons for combat. Thus, Steiner's counterattack ended in a farce of "much too little, much too late."
Edit: Corrected the Panzergrenadier Division.
For them, there was no going home. And the Germans weren't telling them about getting out to South America.
Where is Wenck!!!!!!!
honestly, we gotta give Steiner some credit for not attacking tbh. He knew damn well his forces couldn't win atp and didnt send them to their meaningless slaughter
@@deleted_215 agreed. It shows they at least had some shred of humanity.
In Canada we were reminded in 2023 of this history when Parliament invited and gave a standing ovation to a Ukrainian WWII veteran for fighting the Russian invaders of his homeland. It was during President Zelensky’s visit. Everyone involved was embarrassed when it soon turned out Yaroslav Hunka had been fighting the Russians as a member of a Galician (Ukrainian) Waffen-SS division.
Fucking idiots, every one of them who invited a Nazi into parliament. It was just free propaganda points for the Russians who constantly bitch about “Ukronazis” while committing atrocities against the Ukrainian people left and right.
That was a shame and a disgrace, and about what I'd expect from that moron Trudeau and his lackeys
So what ? Just because hes SS dosent mean he personaly commited crimes. Foriegners were only allowed into the SS so that was the only way to fight russians
Hunka and the SS weren't fighting against the Russians. That's giving them way too much credit. They mostly fighting against civilians, and occasionally fought against their own countrymen that were in Soviet service
There were lots of ways to fight Russians without swearing an allegiance to Hitler and donning the uniform of the SS. One popular way was to pick up a rifle and shoot them as a partisan. Another popular way was for groups of partisans with many rifles and weapons to also shoot them, destroy rail lines, etc... Oddly enough, none of these required joining the SS.
-TimeGhost Ambassador
It's kind of hard to believe this series is fast approaching an end. Thank you so much
We've still got a lot to cover, but we are definitely approaching the end now....
Thanks for watching.
ill never forget the picture of the charlemagne remnants defending the government district. i saw it a few years ago with a caption that had the division name, i had never heard of the french ss before, so i looked it up and slowly realised how fanatical the foreign ss really was and how ironic that last stand ended up being. great video as always and an amazing closing speech to such an overlooked topic
How fanatical some of them were. As a general rule foreign Waffen-SS recruited from Western Europe fought better than the Easterners, though the Latvians and Estonians in the Waffen-SS were often considered impressive. Even so, the vast bulk of the French SS had either become casualties earlier or had deserted, and it was only a tiny remnant that made it to Berlin. Moreover, they were free of the impulse to try to escape westwards that gripped a lot of Germans. Going west for them meant being arrested for collaboration and possible lynching. That some ended up fighting in Berlin is not so surprising.
I read a French graphic novel, possibly one of a series, about the last weeks of the Charlemagne "division" (closer to a company in size, when it got to Berlin). While it did not exactly heroize them, even describing them would have been a taboo subject decades ago.
@@stevekaczynski3793 French books about Charlemagne division and the last days of it in Berlin were published long time ago, back in the sixties and seventies.
I swear, by the end of this series, Spartacus's head will explode on his final 'Never Forget'.
Let's hope not. This is *history telling at its finest* by Sparty and the @WorldWarTwo team.
With such episodes, that one who "forgets" misses either their ears, eyes, or something in between (Hello Canada's government btw).
What about Leon Degrelle? The Rexist collaborator who was dubbed ‘Hitler’s son’ who managed to escape to Spain.
Oh do tell. Is that what this episode was about or was it about TCN's defending the Reich?
And who never had any regrets for his collaboration. In fact he was close to neo-nazi groups and holocaust denialism. One of the scum of the earth who, sadly, thanks to the protection of Franco, died peacefully.
The man behind the worst talk I’ve ever witnessed, sent to me by a former friend who was convinced I had the SS “all wrong”
I've covered Degrelle somewhat in the regular episodes. The recruitment of the Wallonian SS was covered in part one of the foreign fighters videos. His escape might be covered in my episodes this summer... who knows.
That'd be awesome. @@spartacus-olsson
Love your content and the WAH series. No other channel goes into detail like you and Indy and the girls
There have been a few TV interviews here in France of some former French SS of the Charlemagne. The common pattern is that none of them expressed regrets. They never thought, even after many years, to have betrayed.
I remember watching a documentary with Christian de la Maziere, who was captured by the soviets after being wounded. The journalist, at the end of the interview, asked him "do you have any regret now ?", hoping to hear a sorry or some remorse. He said "Yes, I do have one. To not have joined the Charlemagne earlier" 😅
Interesting to note is during the Battle of Berlin, Hitler was deeply disappointed with the defenders of the Reichstag and the parliamentary building. He wanted German SS units to defend but upon hearing French and foreign SS units, he was disgusted by this. He wanted German units to defend a German building.
What an odd complaint for an Austrian.
Karma!
And where you get this info from?
Wow, how narcissistic can he be? All the German SS men are either dead or stuck in a gulag, he should be thankful that ANY men, regardless of their "Aryan Purity" are even available to defend anything.
World's sulkiest dictator.
Foreign troops are only good for anti partisans, he is not mistaken because he originally intended to use them as disposable
you got a window open? I swear I can hear birds chirping in the background
It was a very beautiful and warm spring day, and here in the Bavarian countryside that means very loud bird song.
@@spartacus-olsson Love it.
Hearing birds singing in a video of this subject matter is like the sounds of the Flanders fields 100 years after ww1
@@PumaTwoU I live directly next to a big Bavarian forest and after enough time, you'll start to get sick of birds waking you up at 6 A.M. in the morning, but perhaps that's just me.
So I am not the only one...
In the opposite side, "Tovaritch Kapitane Foch-Fournier", former french officer in the red army as tankist, was collecting a numerous number of prisonners of the Division Charlemagne, in his road to the final victory. He finished the War as "Podpolkovnik" (the highest rank as foreigner in the red army i think in the time). ✌️
Second highest. The hightest rank a foreigner archieved in the Red Army was that of mayor general, given to Spanish officer (and Spanish Civil War veteran) Enrique Líster in 1944. Originally given the rank of Mayor, Líster had previous experience as a divisional commander from the Spanish Civil War, in which he led a shocktroop division during several key battles (most notably the Battle of the Ebro). Due to the defeat of the Republican Loyalists in 1939, he was one of the many Spanish communists who fled to the USSR, where he offered his services to the Red Army. He fought in the northern part of the front during the Great Patriotic War, being promoted again to the rank he had once held in the Spanish People's Republican Army. He was later assigned as an attaché to Josip Broz Tito's Yugoslavia, again with the rank of Mayor General. Podpolkovnik is the Russian equivalent to Lt. Colonel, so three ranks below Mayor General.
Should have mentioned at 17:20 that one of the people sent to Canada, Yaroslav Hunka, was given a standing ovation by the Canadian parliament for “fighting against Russia in WW2”… great job to whoever called up a Nazi soldier
You're dumb.Bolshevism was a big threat for Europe.Ever heard of Holodomor,mass deportations to Siberia,executions,the invasion of Poland,Finland,the annexations of the Baltic states,Bessarabia,Northern Bucovina and Herța Region?
You don't fight one genocidal dictator by joining up with another genocidal dictator, swearing allegiance to him, and then helping with his own genocide. You may recall the Nazis and the SS did atrocities and mass murder as well. Many people managed to resist without working for Himmler and Hitler.
-TimeGhost Ambassador
@@WorldWarTwo "You don't fight one genocidal dictator by joining up with another genocidal dictator," Shouldn't, you mean. You're also taking a removed stance as well as obviously never have been in a dire situation.
I said what I said and I meant what I meant. Applying logical fallacies to try and forgive wearing an SS uniform and swearing a loyalty oath to Hitler does not change the fact millions of people and many nations hated the Soviets and SS membership was an outlier situation with them, which further drives home the point.
-TimeGhost Ambassador
@@WorldWarTwo I do absolutely agree with you there, but I would just note that in the Ukrainian case it was either Soviets who had commited a genocide against the Ukrainians, the Nazis currently committing a genocide, and the UPA who were also committing ethnic cleansing. So for a Galician the only way to fight both was to join the UPA. Again I still agree with your point, I sympathise with those Baltic conscripts but not with the Ukrainian men who joined up knowing what the Nazis were doing, but given that the only force between Soviet and Nazi for a Galician was the UPA its still not a great choice.
Just want to put a comment here giving a shout-out to Spartacus for reading and replying respectfully to people here, both when people agree or disagree with his words. On just only a few occasions I don't fully agree with something that is said in the conclusions of WAH episodes, but I learned so much from this series and this channel in general. I really appreciate you guys and your work! Greetings from Utrecht
Thank you
Sometimes I wonder how much Himmler believed his own bullshit.
Sparty, you're a force of nature. You bring a dignity and hypnotic intensity to these horrible topics. You're a joy to watch, even with the darkest subject matter. ❤
How could he have believed in his own theories if he looked in a mirror?
I think some of these prominent Nazis were mentally ill or were under a cultist mindset. Himmler was one of those on the psychotic end imo
He was trying to seek contact with the Western Allies as early as 1943, though he may have been trying to make separate deals with them so as to be allowed to continue fighting the USSR. He definitely had his "pragmatic" side.
The father of a close friend was Latvian and fought against both the Soviets and the Germans, at various times during the war, as a partisan and as a member of the Wehrmacht. He ended up in a camp for displaced persons in Germany and managed to end up in Canada.
An amazing story and I wish I had more details.
The fate of many partisans in the east was to fight a great struggle with no help against both the soviets and the nazis sadly for those people and occupied nations
Yes, of course, a member of Wehrmacht who fought against Germans... This Nazi white washing is just... Sigh.
As always looking sharp Sparti and very well researched and complete explained!
The Game of Poor Life Choices; Epic edition.
If Nazi Germany had won the war, which looked probable until 1942 and still possible until 1943, they would have been in a good position.
Good stuff, Sparty!
Thx
As a German, I takes some time to adjust to the runes in the video title. 😮 (We are of course allowed to show them within educational materials, but not in the title.)
Actually we are, if the title is for educational material...
Those aren't runes, they are just Adidas jersey numbers.
@@phillip5245 I see what you did there...
@@spartacus-olsson In principle it is allowed, but we just would not do it
@@phillip5245 Now I can see it. It is just the logo of the 44th division 😅
Really interesting video on an often overlooked subject
Thanks for watching.
"As the Soviet Union preached increasingly Nationalistic Revanchist rhetoric as the war dragged on, National Socialism took on a decidely international tone."
True, so true!
Though not a perfect application, this fact demonstrates the meaning of the quote “war makes strange bed fellows of us all.”
The Third Reich had no choice, it was running out of Germans by 1942 and would've collapsed sooner absent Finnish/Romanian/Hungarian/Italian support. More attention needs to be paid to the non-Germans who fought on the Ostfront.
Thank you for the lesson.
The impassioned ending is one of your best.
Thank you for all you have done.
Thank you
I agree, thanks @Spartacus
There were also two Romanian regiments in Germany under the command of general Platon Chirnoaga. They fought on the Oder Front. Those regiments were formed by volunteers recruited from Romanian POWs in Germany.
By this time there were large numbers of Romanians fighting the Germans in Hungary and Slovakia. WW2 was confusing...
Fantastic writing Sparta, especially your powerful ending. You never fail to portray the injustice done and the pure evil that permeates the Nazi regime! Often after I’ve watched a War Against Humanity episode, I have to take a shower because your delivery was so powerful, I feel the Nazi stench on myself! I promise you that since I first learned of this Evil, I’ve studied it intensely in a quest to discover the kinds of people drawn to their ideology and brutality but I promise that I have never forgotten all the victims!
Really like to know how any of these non-Germans explain why they were captured in SS uniforms. Given what that organization did, I would be far less inclined to accept their surrender.
At times that did become an unofficial policy though it didn't distinguish between German and foreign-born members of the SS. The Canadians were less inclined to take SS men prisoner after a good number of their own PoWs were summarily executed by the SS in massacres during the Normandy campaign, and accounts by American veterans of the Battle of the Bulge often state that after the news of Malmedy broke, they stopped taking SS men prisoner and simply shot them even if their hands were raised.
Aside from all the moral arguments against brutality to enemy PoWs, a practical one is that is counter-productive in that you stoke intense hatred in your enemies who are now far more inclined to treat your own captured men brutally as a form of eye-for-an-eye retaliation.
Remember, the Nazis actively hid their crimes from the broader general public during WW2.
(That's why most of the concentration camps and mass graves were in remote forested locations, and why the Gestapo kidnappings happened at night.)
That way if anyone brought up Nazi brutality, people could just say, "Pfffft!!! _I never saw any of that!_ That's just a bunch of Allied propaganda!"
"He's telling me they're Polish"
Those who could changed into army or at least non-SS uniforms. SPOILER
Even Himmler will attempt this...
@@omahadreaming5432 exactly what I thought, Galicia was part of Poland before ww2
Great Delivery Sparky !!!
I don't know if Spartie writes his own lines or what but he sure can deliver a powerful end speech. I love this series and all the presenters who make up this presentation. Thank You truly guys and gal!
I wrote most of my stuff myself, I always write the conclusions. In this case the script was written by James Newman, and the conclusion by me.
@@spartacus-olsson It was truly awesome Spartacus! It gave me the tingles when You were reciting it. Thanks again!
Wow, the final words were something else, what a gripping narration by Spartacus!!
Thank you for watching.
Yes, nowhere to hide emotionally, ethically or politically. It seemed Spartacus lifted every rock-of-excuse they were hiding under - and slammed it back down squashing whatever was there.
lol it was cringe as fuck.
Ron Jeffery's book of his experiences as an escaped POW of the Germans in Poland and his time as an agent- "Red Runs the Vistula" recounts his close dealings with the Russians in the Vlasov Army who he maintains were going to switch sides and he states his efforts were destroyed by Kim Philby. It;s a fascinating book and there is a Wiki entry for him.
The loyalty of many Vlasovites to the Nazi cause was indeed doubtful - especially when the Reich was clearly losing. I find it doubtful that Philby undermined his efforts, though, simply because the impression is often given that Philby was everywhere, and I doubt that very much.
Having both my grand fathers being Alsatian and incorporated against their will in the Wehrmacht, I cannot despise enough the traitors that joined the Charlemagne division. For years there was confusion in part of France between the two groups which pretty unjust.
Amen
Had the American GIs known what Europe and their own country would become as a result of the allied victory in 1945, they would have never landed in Normandy.
@@lahire4943 care to elaborate on what it is that "we have become" Monsieur fleur-de-lys...
@@lahire4943 oh t'as pas honte?
@@spartacus-olsson
A morally degenerate society, disfigured by mass immigration, that any pre-1945 sane person would have despised with all his soul. Tell a 1944 GI that same-sex marriage is legal in the US and that the American white people will soon be a minority, among other things, and see his reaction, LOL.
I think it's fitting to hear the birds chipring in the background. It signals the end of storm that was the war. Hope and all that
Danke!
Thanks!
The birdsong adds a certain counter to the tension.
Its like the final shot of Blackadder's series finale
Ah yeah, Sparty replied to someone asking above, the lovely weather lead to some very loud birds!
Academically precise research combined with moral compassion and outrage. The very complex ethnic and nationalistic and selfish motivations of these various leaders and groups to join the heinous SS are brilliantly boiled down to their frightful essence by Sparticus and his team. You do a great service to humanity by helping all of us to "never forget."
Thank you
Imagine being a Slav and fighting for the Nazis.
The croats and slovaks be like
Imagine being a Russian and supporting Putin.
@@ShelbovskyYou are such a weirdo. I've seen Russians on the internet leaving behind comments that read like yours. You aren't a soldier, you are not at war and Soviet Union collapsed 33 years ago because socialism doesn't work. And yet here you are commenting some stupid battlecry's.
Imagine fighting for the Nazis
Not hard to imagine when you aren't biased and understand that today's view of the nasties is from hindsight that these people didn't have.
They weren't "good poeple" by any means, but they only had the choice to fight for versions of the same evil.
thanks Spartacus and crew i love your works
Thank you very much!
Among the SS Frenchmen were also several Spanish soldiers, former members of the Blue division, sent by Franco to help the Germans in the Eastern front. In 1943, Franco recalled the unit back to Spain, but several hundreds remained in Germany and became part of the Charlemagne division
I assume they were falangist back in Spain? I know many of that faction were less than satisfied with Franco's style of nationalism.
Liked the little birdie singing in this episode.
You said in your previous video on the SS that non-German SS men weren't allowed to wear the Sig-runes on their uniform. Yet in the same video you have a picture of SS-sturmbannführer handing out medals to the Latvians, with sig-runes on their right collar. Same is true for volunteers from Finland, which I'm more familiar with. Pictures of them allways include the runes on their collar.
The truth is that non-Germanic SS men who had proved their worth in battle were allowed to wear the runes on their collars. Only raw recruits, guard units and below par fighting units were not granted that right.
Also the Germans were just lazy with it
@@tancreddehauteville764 Allright, I don't know could be. People shouldn't claim non-Germanics weren't allowed to wear the runes if some are allowed, some not. They should state that ones that proved themselves in battle were allowed, others not. If that is actually true. Yeah I was a little surprised Spartacus made that claim when literally 15 seconds later in the video there's a picture of latvians wearing runes on their collar. Also I'm Finnish and I've been intrested in the Finnish SS-men and in the pictures of them, you can allways see them sporting the same runes on their right collar.
I appreciate Sparty and the team for allowing comments that are loaded or dissenting from the information provided
Rather than just ban or delete arguments that are problematic. For me, free speech is a make or break and i appreciate it. Trolls and blatent hate speech should be banned of course, but everyone else should be permitted to express thoughts regarding mankind's most significant event.
We must remember that limiting free speech has no ending when it is allowed to begin.
19:37 woah 😮 you can feel the rage 😡 disgust 🤢🤮 and sadness 😢 in sparty voice, couldn’t have said it better myself sir NEVER FORGET!
Himmler becoming more "diverse" in his hiring practicrs definitley wrecks his so called "master race" belief.
I find it rather amusing that the SS's strict entry or admittance criteria as dictated by Himmler himself would've denied Himmler membership to his own organisation.
In July of 44, my Grandfather was promoted to 1st Lieutenant and transferred to the 87th Infantry Division from the 29th after landing at Omaha Beach. He commanded a company and liberated Buchenwald.
Hitler:What kind of proper aryans have been brought to defend the last government buildings in Berlin?
General:French.
Hitler:Oh.
Terms and conditions apply my failure.
There is a stark contrast between the chirping of birds in the background and the story you tell, it's kind of poetic, like, maybe there is hope, even in the darkest times
'Never Forget"...that the vast majority of the Latvian and Estonian Waffen SS units were conscripts who were offered the choice of being forced laborers or soldiers fighting the Soviets. Having recently been occupied by the Soviets in 1939 and being severely mistreated by them, many having had family members deported never to be seen again, there was absolutely no love for the Soviets among these men and many eagerly volunteered for the armed services, and they had no idea they were joining the SS until they actually got to the training camps. The Nuremberg Tribunal even recognized this and declared them exempt from the blanket declaration of the SS being a Nazi organization and not valid POWs. Former Estonian SS soldiers even stood guard at Spandau prison. And yes, many of the Belgian, French and especially the Dutch SS fought to the bitter end.
boo-oh.
its clear as hell, particularily looking at baltic rhetoric now, that they took up arms in support of hitler's ideals of exterminating the slavic population, that they were so gracely exempted out of.
if you hate bolcheviks you fight them as partisans, as said above
you don't need to join the SS. you have other ways.
Will you do a video about what happened to collaborators in the inmediate aftermath of the war and in the future? Can't believe how many of these scumbags managed to return to their countries without any major punishment or just lived peacefully in Spain or Argentina.
They escaped because the Allies had other priorities such as preventing famine in Germany and adjoining countries, and processing a million plus German POWs with limited resources.
More Nazis would go on to live in the US than they did in countries like Spain or Argentina.
You can't dispense Justice when 90% of your country is in ruins and everyone is hungry. Also, you can't dispense Justice when the number of accused run in the millions. No justice system can process all of them...
@@petergray2712 The Cold War also gave them some cover.
wow- absolutely amazing Spartacus ! Love your end speeches !
Spectacular! Bravo. Great episode.
Mr. Sparty would You be so kind to send me a link of Your glasses? They look great.
You're wrong about Wlassow's role in Prague uprising - he was strictly against it, it was a pure initiative of the 1st KONR's ID (600 ID in the Wehrmacht's list) Maj. Gen. Sergei Bunjachenko. Bunjachenko issued the order for his troops to take part in the uprising, while Lt. Gen. Wlassow wanted them to reunite with his personal staff as soon as possible.
Btw. did you know, that Andrei Wlassow (and his staff's members) received his salary from the SS-Hauptamt as SS-Gruppenfueher? One Russian historian found in German archives and published a payroll sheet of March'45, where Wlassow was named "SS-Gruppenfuehrer" and other officers as SS-leaders according to their army ranks as well. I probably have pdf of this book in my computer.
What a closing statement! Honestly, fantastic.
Thank you
@@spartacus-olsson Passionate, but full of holes.
And biased and wrong.
@@pvdoug well, since you seem to be the blessed owner of the truth, why don’t you be a chum and share it with us!
@@owenlindkvist5355 and since you seem to know a fuller story, be a good chap and plug those holes for us!
A very old former member of the ukranian galicia division was honoured by the canadian parliament a few months ago. This episode makes it look even worse than it already did.
you should check out Dmitry Utkin's (cofounder of wagner-incidentally a group named after AH's favourite composer) tattoos. Also Rogozin another notsee was leader of Roskosmos until very recently, I don't know why there's so much admiration in the former soviet empire for ideologies that called for terrible things to happen to them
@@AlexC-ou4juRussia has always had a fatal fixation with Utopian fantasies. It's a mix of survivors guilt (which can give people the mistaken belief that their divinely chosen to survive according to the Almighty's plan) following major wars and other mass casualty calamities, combined with a tendency for the Russian elite to proactively turn the immense suffering of they inflicted on the enslaved lower ranking Russians into a messianic project of attaining the New Jerusalem (trading suffering in this life in return for promised divine emancipation in the next life).
Wow, as if that hasn't been mentioned in this comments section a dozen times already.
So? You dont like it?
Not really.
Sparty really put on a great performance here. This series is much appreciated.
Outstanding, informative video and the coolest mustache on TH-cam!
Thank you for your kind words! I envy that moustache as well...
-TimeGhost Ambassador
Hey! I'd really like to know more about 17:54 what source did you use for Estonians in Berlin 1945? I know from my family heritage that I had a relative considered MIA in Berlin but I've never found sources about the Estonians in Berlin. Would appreciate a response
I really value the quality of journalism found in the WaH series but usually dip out of the last 5 mins as Spartacus gets more and more worked up. After 4 years of this we know they were unspeakable but honestly his summaries gets a bit much. Sorry. Cos the work is important but that message can be lost in froth.
That’s a reasonable choice since you’re a regular viewer, and somebody who clearly understands what all of this means… the conclusions are not written for you, they’re written to counter the narrative of those who still espouse the ideas I document the results of here.
If you followed the comments that came in under this video alone (some of them are gone now) you’d see why it’s needed. An astonishing number of clowns came in and either said exactly the opposite of what I said, or attacked my closing statement as inaccurate in other words; they did it for good reasons. While we won’t change their mind, we have to make sure that those who have yet to understand the scope of all of this are provided with the clear message. To let stand without comment the rhetoric supporting, justifying, or explaining away the atrocities of this war would be highly irresponsible.
Since not everyone watches this as a series, I have to do it again, and again, and again. Trust me when I say that I too wish it wasn’t so, if nothing else since it would mean that people have understood, but also for personal reasons. It’s not something I do with great pleasure, and if you think it’s tedious to listen to, imagine writing it for six years…
Or as I put it to Indy just yesterday when discussing future programming: “[sure, we should cover other genocides], but I’m also sick and [expletive] tired of being the moral outrage guy.”
@@spartacus-olsson fair go, it must be hard work. But as we agree, important.
Excellent episode. For my taste the ending was a bit dramatic if you actually have studied the topic. Enlisting as a foreignerer had as many reasons as there were volunteers. Some evil, some noble and some grey in between. I knew a man when I was younger who was a Dutch volunteer in the Waffen-SS. He was 18 and his parents basically forced him to join.
My point remains - whatever reasons they had, they fought for Naziism and thus for their wars of aggression and genocide. Individual fates are complicated and nuanced, collective fates not as much. By choice, misfortune, or chance they joined a collective that led them down a dark path where there are no longer and nuances of grey.
In Latvia each year on 16th of March in capital city there is so called “Legionairs march” which is dedicated to Latvian SS troops who served during German occupation 1941-1944.
Veterans who fought for 3rd reich and younger generations as well, walk some distance from the Dome square, where SS troops used to march, to statue of liberty, to lay flowers at the base of the statue.
This day is not being considered officially by local government, but a lot of local policeman are protecting the walking crowd, to support protection in case there will be opposers.
If you read online sources, this day is represented as memory day to those who fought against bolshevism in 1944.
This event is still present and will be for many years to come.
Jesus Christ
@@ВладиславВладислав-и4ю yes considering it happened 80 years later, and you act like there arent nazis fighting in Ukraine
I didn't hear you mention the 101st SS Spanish Volunteer Company that served with the Walloon Legion who were some of the last defenders of the Führerbunker.
Dear Spartacus.
Would it be possible to dedicate a future episode to the meaning if the words 'never forget', that you utter at the end of every WaH video, especially in the context of current sociopolitical developments? I have a feeling that the message is lost on many people who watch the WW2 IRT and WaH series mainly due to a fascination with history and armed conflict, but fail to understand how the modern world reflects many of the developments from close to a century ago that gave rise to the events that your videos cover.
A good idea. I’ll see what we can do
The irony is truly staggering when one imagines if the Wehrmacht and SS had undertaken such recruitment drives in the East in 1941 and ‘42 when they still had a chance to achieve a war winning position.
They could have had enough manpower for an entire Army Group equipped with captured Russian equipment if they had been not so short sighted and full of hubris.
Given the manpower shortages in 1942 in Southern Russia, they might have made a difference in the outcome in those campaigns had they been treated better.
If the Red Army could utilise Poles, Romanians, and others then what might have been?
Vlasov’s 2nd shock army was surrounded south of Leningrad in mid to late ‘42.
It could have been refitted, retrained in time for spring ‘43.
An estimated 1.5 million ostlegion were recruited but largely sidelined, treated with suspicion or sent to theates away from where they wanted to fight…like the XV Cossack Corps posted to Northern Italy.
Their own race policies cost them a possible victory or pro longing of the war in the East.
A great first hand account of this is Twilight of the Gods, written by a Swedish soldier who joined the SS. He fought against the Russians on the Eastern front all the way to the Battle of Berlin. Truly one of the most fascinating books about the war I’ve read
I have not read the book but considering he was a citizen of a neutral nation, and yet voluntarily joined the SS, it's probably safe to assume he was an ideologue that probably omitted some details from his account.
@@ahorsewithnoname773 then read it before you form an opinion
@@adammanning8882 I'm just saying people should take the account with a grain of salt. A lot of SS men put pen to paper in the post war claiming to have only fought "honorably" against the Soviets or what have you, despite belonging to an organization that had an atrocious record of brutality against both civilians and enemy PoWs.
@@adammanning8882What do you think about Halder's memoirs of the war that led to the Clean Wehrmacht Myth? He put his version of that part of history, people read it and then believe the Wehrmacht is innocent of war crimes for over 50 years. Just because you told people to read it first before judging doesn't negate the fact that what he wrote isn't the whole truth and people are incapable of knowing where the truth ends and the lie begins...
@@theotherohlourdespadua1131 I said to read a book written by a combat veteran, I’ve never read Halder’s memoirs. You’re going way out on a limb making a lot of assumptions. Read the book or don’t, I’m not making any money off of it
There were men from the Baltic area who fought for either Germany or the USSR.
A friends dad who was Lithuanian served in the Luftwaffe and was stationed in Germany at the end.
He never returned home but emigrated to Australia.
Great delivery Spartacus!
What a powerful concluding and emotionally moving monologue - bravo Spartacus!
The father of my uncle was one of the duce guards that was captured when mussolini was caugth. He survived and give to my uncle a Charlemagne patch and he gifted to me whe dont know how he got it
Some French SS units were fighting Polish units in Pomerania . Polish command decided to keep captured Frenchman and not hand them over to Soviet NKVD. After the war those POWs created a bit of diplomatic problem but in the end they were sent to France for trials.
Also if I can recall correctly Gen Anders refused to have anything with Ukrainian SS POWs. He had more than enough Polish survivors and witnesses of SS Galitzen and OUN atrocities.
Anyone else noticed that Spartacus has a skull and crossbones on his tie? Better than having it on your cap I guess...
I always like your closing reminders of why this war is fought Spartacus. Bird song at the end was a also a reminder, a beautiful spring day in Europe.
His rhetoric at the end can and should be applied to the Soviet Union. Never forget.
The crimes of the USSR have been regularly discussed and denounced, including their industrial scale rape and murder of German civilians. There is no reason to "what about the USSR?" on an SS episode.
-TimeGhost Ambassador
@@WorldWarTwo Incorrect, and it isn't a whataboutism, it's pointing out that it equally applies and should be so in order to avoid the widespread issue of trying to gloss over that the USSR was as equally horrible, and have their own evils beyond that. So, take your weak attempt at handwaving and shove it up your ass. Judging by how you handle yourself, this great channel really needs to reconsider hiring activists with a nasty habit of using fallacies and cliches.
@@WorldWarTwo "The crimes of the USSR have been regularly discussed and denounced, including their industrial scale rape and murder of German civilians." And this somehow removes the validity of my statement? Fuck off. And in spite of all the efforts to point out the heinous body and the acts of the Soviet Union, you still have a vast array of idiots trying to glorify them. In addition, citing said Union is not an attempt to deride any mention of the SS (Which would be a whataboutism, you cuck), rather said body is mentioned in the context of the video, and this point deserves highlighting. Particularly reinforced when you look at your responses.
I think it is important to distinguish between those that did indeed volunteer, and those that were coerced and forced to join, if not the SS, than the many auxiliary units.
Indeed. It seems, or so I've read, that some of those Baltic people who served in SS units were after investigation, officially exonerated by the Allies, particularly by the U.S. and ended up serving as Guard Companies for the Allies during the Nuremburg war crimes trials.
My German ancestors and the ghosts of the SS watching me base and eat Pide while watching this episode:
The Charlemagne division was actually based on the 8. SS-Sturmbrigade "Frankreich" established independently of the LVF in 1943. The LVF, Milice as well as French members of the OT, SD, Luftwaffe and French nationals serving in other units were later transferred to the Brigade in September 1944 which is when it was upgraded to a division. Check out "For Europe" by Robert Forbes for more info, best book on Charlemagne at the moment
It really goes to show how much hatred towards the Soviets (who prior to reincorporating the breakaway regions were almost entirely Russians) that much of Eastern Europe had that they worked with the Nazis, a group that was openly murdering them. It can be hard to understand but when you realize that many of these places had centuries of oppression by Russian rule, and then suffered brutality and deliberate famine under the Soviets, it becomes much easier to grasp.
What is harder for me to reconcile is the Western European volunteers. Their nations weren't threatened by anyone but the Germans. Even more than many in Eastern Europe who joined they were true believers in the Nazi ideology and deeply antisemitic.
Damn that ending was... solid.
The statements made here about the motivation of the SS men do not apply to all recruited men. Many were recruited under pressure and some young men in the German villages in Yugoslavia, Hungary or Romania were completely clueless and didn't know who they were joining. My grandfather told me that many of the recruits didn't even know which country they were fighting for, they couldn't even write their names. But what their captain said was the law...
We covered them in Part 2 - at this stage of the war there are no more Volskdeutsche left to forcefully recruit - they have either already been recruited, or have been liberated. It should be noted that most of the Volksdeutsche conscripted men went to the Wehrmacht though - the Waffen-SS took the dedicated volunteers.
@@spartacus-olsson But this is not true for every region. In the villages of northern Bachka, the ethnic German men did their service for the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. They fought against Germany in 1941 (probably with little motivation). Then the Batschka was occupied by Hungary and the men fit for military service were sent to Honved. The ethnic Germans there had had Yugoslavian citizenship since WW1 and Hungarian citizenship after 1941. According to the Hague Land War Regulations, they were not allowed to join the Wehrmacht. You had to cross the Danube to actively join the Wehrmacht. From the Hungarians' point of view, however, this was a serious offence and the farmers were threatened with having their land taken from them. But the SS came directly to the villages and promised the ethnic Germans German citizenship. My grandmother said that the farm labourers and have-nots were particularly enthusiastic about the SS and the German idea. The farmers were afraid of losing their land and remained loyal to their land and farm and the church. My grandfather had the windows of his farm smashed because he didn't join the SS. But in the end, everyone had to join the SS. And after the occupation of Budapest by the SS on 16 October 44, even the Germans who did service for the Honved were automatically forced to join the SS. It is wrong to claim that all SS men were fanatical. This was certainly true for many, but for many others it was not true!
In principle, it can be said that the earlier recruitment took place, the more voluntary it was and the more convinced the recruits were. From mid-1944 onwards, recruitment was only compulsory. There was no longer any consideration of ethnic background. Everyone was recruited or imprisoned.
Fredo Gensicke, SS Unterscharführer responsible for the recruitment of the 31st SS Volunteer Grenadier Division, wrote in his book "Mein Weg zur 31. SS FGD, Michaelis-Verlag 2016: "The conscription took on grotesque proportions! In the summer of 1944, there were definitely hardly any volunteers left for military service, neither in Hungary nor for the Waffen-SS. Members of the German ethnic group leadership sent all ethnic Germans between the ages of 16 and 50 summonses for conscription. As hardly anyone obviously complied - the Russians were already at the door, and who would leave their family - the Hungarian gendarmerie actively helped to bring the unwilling men to the draft. And that was not all: parts of the Bosniaks of the Kama stationed in the area were used to "capture" the ethnic Germans (...).
It was reported that family members were imprisoned or tortured so that the men who hid from the SS in the fields or stables would voluntarily surrender to the SS.(Caroline Mezger, Forging Germans, Oxford University Press 2020)
"Not all SS"
I know this is unrelated to the video, but there's a channel on yt called Escape to Rural France which shows the undertaking of a single man rebuilding Château du Chaumont, which during the Vichy regime was home to many Jewish children who were in hiding in there until their location was revealed by nearby residents. I'd love to see you guys have a talk with Dan, the guy who's rebuilding the château, as it is an immense pleasure to watch him research the past life of the building and even talk with some of the surviving children.
It was disbanded in May 1945. The Waffen-SS grew from three regiments to over 38 divisions during World War II. Combining combat and police functions, it served alongside the German Army (Heer), Ordnungspolizei (Order Police), and other security units.
Superb history lesson and great presentation. Thank you!
Thank you for watching!
Were the birds near the end accidental or added? Either way it kind of plays like a Spring time for humanity coming after a long winter ending.
No Roumainians but Ethnic Germans / Folksdeutshe from Roumania in the SS (Saxons from Ardeal, Brasov / Koenigsberg and Swabians from the Danube, Banat Swabians, Satu Mare Swabians).
Roumanians have been second large invasion group in USSR under their own flag, around 500k large.
Q: Will the Dutch SS-Landstorm division also be covered?
You guys and gals do amazing with pronunciation of names of people, places, things.
Spartacus' "Never forget" at the episode end brings me to tears every time. Keep up the great work.
Maybe 25 years ago, PBS had a program about foreign SS fighting to the end in Berlin. At the very end of the presentation they offered the Red Herring that they acted to combat Bolshevism.
Cut out the last 2 mins and it’s a pretty good video.
Man I would absolutely hate to be called out by Spartacus lol
I guess we will learn about the incident between some Charlemagne's prisoners and general Leclerc at the end of the war.
Best summary of the last days I've ever heard. 😮
In April 1945 Groningen (NL) was defended against the advancing Canadian troops by the Wehrmacht, Dutch and Belgian SS-troops, members of the Landwacht (NSB members with weapons), SD members and some other groups. It is said the SS-ers and SD-ers fought the most fanatic.
What is the background music that you use for these WAH videos Sparty? They sound just as chilling with the content of the videos.
8:52 SPOILERS
Bach-Zelewski's legal defence would later be quoted in a popular Limp Bizkit song
Around 90 of my countrymen would be fighting in the SS in the upcoming battle of Berlin. Wonder what went through their heads dying for a country that invaded you
Having it happen right before already, by the soviets.
The tragic magic of having to deal with two dictatorial monsters cohabiting the same continents
Id read somewhere that the SS had a low quota allowance of volunteers from Germany versus the Wehrmacht. Is this true, was there a concentrated effort to recruit beyond borders to make up those numbers?
See the first episode of the Foreign Fighters videos.... th-cam.com/video/5cOfE8dnuMc/w-d-xo.htmlsi=OTz9DvScDHBg8psg
@@spartacus-olsson Thank you so much. Its the kind of detail that has a huge effect but I had never come across.
that ending was THE MIC DROP of all times in history.....along with many others the team created. this entire series ought to be used in high schools across the board. there is still far too many young people that aren't truly being taught the details and uter destruction inhumanity and genocide this war created all because of the manifestations of a few truly evil individuals and the control and grip they had on the people and land with means to make war.
never forget and NEVER cede to evil
Powerful closing Sparty. It’s important to speak to what those men actually did rather than the excuses & prevarications.
I recall seeing a recruitment poster for the Waffen SS in Denmark from January , 1945? Here we have Death dressed as an Soviet soldier, sitting on the caboose of a train (heading for Siberia?). looking at the viewer and just one word across the poster's top "ALDRIG!" ("NEVER!").
I saw it in the book, "Under Hagekors Og Dannebrog" ("Under the Swastika and Dannebrog") about the Danish volunteers to the Waffen SS!