While some nations have carefully doccumented and apologized for their members of the SS, others have rewritten history to omit this, or even to celebrate them. Did your country have SS fighters? If so how does it remember them?
My country is Canada, but my grandparents came from Hungary. I don't know if you would call it a "foreign SS", but once the Arrow Cross Party took over things certainly changed for the Jews of Hungary. Their entire family was deported to Auschwitz. My grandparents survived; most of their family was exterminated in the gas chambers. Hungary seems to have a bit of a mixed record when it comes to taking responsibility for their participating in the genocide. I don't know how you find the mental strength to continue talking about such atrocities, Sparty, but bless you for doing this because I certainly could not.
Latvian here. The governemt neither condemns it, nor embraces it. As you said, it was 90+% forced conscription, and a tiny minority were recruited. Thus, the government cant do either of previous things i mentioned, so commemorative adhoc events still occur, but they are seldom if ever recognized by government or members of parliament, and taking a stance alone is controversial, nevertheless stating an actual opinion.
Jay, That's quite an episode to have in your family history! I'm glad your grandparents survived, and sorry more of your family didn't, that's awful. Thank you for sharing that with us all. Doing this series obviously takes a toll on Sparty sometimes, but he's a tough historian who is determined to see this war through to the end, and with the kind and inspiring support from viewers like you he will definitely make it! - T.J.
My grandparents come from Serbia. During the war, my grandma's village and whole family were summarily executed by Nazis, but they were Croatians, rather than German-speakjng soldiers. My grandma and some of her sisters survived the mass execution with multiple gunshot wounds
@@AaAa-sd4vg That's right, chetniks sometimes collaborated with the Nazis in their fight against the Partisans (communists). The Partisans were the only true anti-nazi movement in Yugoslavia.
@@AaAa-sd4vg Er hat dies gar nicht angesprochen, sondern das Leid seiner Familie. Meine nicht ihre Qual mit deinen Worten irgendwie rechtfertigen zu müssen.
SS division Prinz Eugene committed large crimes in Yugoslavia in WW2 mostly against Serbian people. So in national collective memory they become notorious. They consisted mostly of local Germans which were about half milion in country, mostly lived in Vojvodina, today north Serbia. After the war the almost all Germans were either run away or expelled from country.
The SS Division Prince Eugene was mainly recruited from Volksdeutsche from the Banat (North-Eastern Serbia and Romania). The Batschka (Vojvodina) was occupied by Hungary in 1941. The Volksdeutsche were therefore mainly recruited from the Hungarian Honved. After Hungary wanted to declare itself neutral in October 1944, Budapest was occupied by the SS. The ethnic Germans were now transferred to the Waffen SS, especially to the "31st SS-volunteer-grenadier-division". The word "voluntary" was a joke. Fredo Gensicke, a German SS man who was responsible for recruitment at 31. FGD SS, wrote in his book that at this point there were virtually no more volunteers. The villages of Vojvodina were literally raided by the Waffen-SS and all the young men were forcibly recruited. There are many reports of men hiding and family members being held prisoner by the SS until the men surrendered voluntarily. The euphoria for the German Reich had long since vanished among the ethnic Germans at this point and the Russians were already at the door. Many members of the 31st were picked up and disarmed and murderedin the Czech Republic a few days after the end of the war. Incidentally, the women and children of the German ethnic group in Vojvodina were not chased out, but driven into concentration camps in Gakowa (Gakovo) and Kruschiwl (Kruševlje). Those who survived the death marches to the camps died of hunger, forced labour, killings, disease and abuse over the next three years. From relatives of the tortured who had emigrated to the USA, the United Nations heard about Tito's concentration camps and forced him to close them. But by then many had already died. In Gakowa alone, at least 2/3 of the 17,000 who were imprisoned died. Most of them are documented and their names are well recorded. War is terrible and never black and white...! The Germans committed terrible crimes against the Serbs and they took revenge in the most terrible way and this also affected many innocent people who lived in peace with their Serbian neighbours before the war. Let us hope that both sides have learned from this dark history!
In the part about Yugoslavia, you obviously tended to avoid even mention of the Croatian Ustas. Their participation in World War II was the most numerous and bloodiest, both on the territory of Yugoslavia and on the Russian front.
That would be because this was a special on SS volunteers which, although in terms of the Croatian SS troops there could certainly have been some overlap with Ustaše members, were organized separately.
No Ustasha units fought on the Soviet front, only Croatian legions of the Wehrmacht, and Croatian legions in the Italian army, which were not Ustasha and did not wear any Ustasha symbols. However, there were two Waffen-SS units defined as croatian (kroatische), although Croats were only a minority, these units included Catholic Croats, Muslim Bosniaks (considered Muslim Croats by Pavelic's regime) Volksdeutsche of Croatia, Bosnia and Vojvodina, and a small part Albanians. These units were: the 13. Waffen-Gebirgs-Division der SS "Handschar" (kroatische Nr. 1) and the 23. Waffen-Gebirgs-Division of the SS "Kama" (kroatische Nr. 2)
Facts : 250k Ukrainiens fought alongside the Germans during the war, for various motives as highlighted in the video (vs 400k Russians and 150k people of polish origin including Upper Silesia) 4.5 millions fought against them with the Red Army. DISCLAIMER : I'm not here to judge any people, those are just numbers I found in peer-reviewed research and I think they're good to know for anyone interested in this topic
Let's not leave out the Russians who fought with the Germans against their own government, they were called the Kaminski brigade or waffen-Sturn-Brigade der SS Rona.
@@Kafson Bandera, as a Ukrainian nationalist leader, was in jail and in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp during the Soviet-German war. So, how could he have genocidated the Jews and the Poles ? By the way, in Auschwitz he lost two of his brothers, killed by polish capos. You really must read something serious about this...
I have a Latvian-American friend who was very active in her Latvian community when she was young...until she quite accidentally discovered that her uncles and quite a few others in that enclave had fought for the Nazis. And when she pressed them about atrocities, they were furious, telling her that they had no choice and that she just didn't understand how evil the Jews were. Long story short, she moved to France and never spoke to them again. Now that this generation is dead, she hasn't changed her mind about her decision to cut off all contact with them, but she has become rather bitter about being kept in the dark about the very dark family secret during her entire childhood, yet another example of just how alive history really is--not in Hegel's high-falutin' sense of "Spirit moving through Time," but instead much more like grasping fingers reaching for us from the grave.
I agree, it's often surprising to realize how close to us these events and people are, even when we really are nearly 80 years later. Tough hearing about families torn apart so long after the fact, but totally understandable really. - T.J.
What do you mean they don't seem to count? There are literal hours of content in this series covering Russian and Japanese atrocities, along with atrocities from many other nations on every side of the conflict. Your comment makes no sense and I can't help but wonder if you've even been watching the show. - T.J.
I think is exaggerated to judge like that. I mean what she except them to do ? All History is defined in context. In that specific context Baltic countries had just got their independence from Imperial Russia ,fought hard and bloody for that independence got occupied by USSR and then Germans came again and sought to find manpower for front. For Baltic perspective it was more issue of fighting for homeland then for Reich even thought as always contexts are hard. What would one rather be a slave under Soviet system with spefic outcome that would be death starvation or slavery or fighting for ones people under different uniform? I don't think choice was difficult for most of those Men to make that choice. She on other hand had privilege to live under mostly free and peaceful country where menaces against your people and live weren't present.
@@Slezyy :D Winter palace was stormed only in the communist movie. In reality, it was almost empty and poorly guarded, and communists took the opportunity to replace the temporary government or whatever it was called with themselves... I suppose you talk about year 1917 and Russian revolution, that was some 24 years before WWII.
There is a memorial to 14thh SS Galician in Oakville, ontario, canada. It has been controversial at times along with the nazi past of former defense minister's grandfather and the Deschenes commision investigations.
Incidentally, I have known a lot of people who support/supported(if deceased now) WW2 Germans. Maybe they have strange tattoos. But I've never met a single fascist. I'm sure they exist, but I've never met one even among the most hardcore Bandera fan, including my SS grandpa. They liked the Germans because they helped fight the communists. Grandpa loved postwar Canada. Minding one's own business, work an honest job, buy a house and cottage, hunt, fish, own land, freedom of speech and religion. Nobody in America would assume every Afghan who sided with the US Army believes everything the US president believes, so one shouldn't assume every Ukrainian who was in the SS or, currently , Azov, believes what a moustached politician in Berlin believed.
@@frakismaximus3052 a very good point. You hear that from ex communist party members here in Vinnytsia (in Ternopil, everyone loves Ukraine, independent and not Soviet). A red star or hammer and sickle - there are 6, in coat of arms form, across from Silpo supermarket in town - oh, "that's just history, people's memories they are fond of" ...like the Holodomor? But if someone proposes - as a soldier I know has - a Stepan Bandera Avenue, oh, that's offensive! Outrageous! It will hurt people's feelings! If it hurts a bunch of Russian imperialists who want Putin to come take over, I say, good!
I'm of the opinion that the Oakville monument should be subjected to a rock crusher, but alas it's on private property. There is no place in Canada for monuments to Axis forces, let alone a unit of a criminal organization that murdered millions (including Canadian POWs).
@@frakismaximus3052 where? I know that Ukrainian ex-patriots built a huge monument to the victims of communism in Ottawa, the capital. We don't have one for the victims of capitalism, yet.
A lot of the facts delivered on this series have often been chilling or worse. But I do appreciate how informative all video's from this series have been. Keep it up Sparty.
There were 3 SS divisions on the territory of Kingdom of Yugoslavia: Handžar, Kama and Skenderbeg (Albanian) SS. Interesting titbit about Galizia SS: the emblem of the Galizia SS is in wide use in Ukraine today, Zelensky posted a few images of soldiers wearing that patch, SBU officers also like it and in a recent visit by the EU officials to Ukrainian cemeteries you can see the flags with that same symbol.
This isn't the gotcha you think it is. The symbol is a Ruthenian Lion, which is much older than the SS division raised in Ukraine. It's colours are blue and yellow, the colours of.. Ukraine.
We use them same in Latvia for our legion emblems for memorials, however we use them to commemorate the soldiers that had no choice but to choose either side of 2 enemies that would occupy. I would guess it would go same for Ukraine on that one. History is much more complicated when you have human nature and it is weird how its not simply black and white.
How about the Serbian Chetnik WW2 massacres of civilians in Eastern Bosnia ( then Eastern Croatia), for example, what happened to the muslim population in the town of Foca when the Serbian Chetniks entered it. Don`t forget the WW2 Serbian speciality of heart extraction of tied up, live, POW`s.
@@spartacus-olsson Oh, o.k. There were a number of Serbian Chetnik WW2 massacres of civilians in the puppet "Independent State of Croatia", including the "Trubar massacre" of Roman Catholic pilgrims which happened on the 27th July 1941 and the "Bosansko Grahovo massacre" which happened on the same date 27th July 1941, in which the Roman Catholic priest Juraj Gospodnetić was barbecued by the Serbian Chetniks, while his mother was forced to watch his torture & death.
Maybe it's just a coincidence, but literally today, on 16 March, Latvians are commemorating warriors of the Latvian legion because on 16 March 1944 was the only day when the two Latvian divisions (15th and 19th) fought together in the same sector of the front (near to Velikaya river, now, Pskov oblast).
And what is your point? Haven't you learned our history? If not, take a peak - here on yt are several videos explaining in Latvian and in english who were legionares and why they fought soviets. Start learning instead of watching stupid videos (most probably made by order and on money from Kremlin).
Interesting fact: During WW2, the friend of Chang Kai Shrek and man in second highest position of KMT, 汪精卫 wang jing wei, turned to Japanese to establish a puppet regime. After his death and buried, Chang Kai Shek ordered to put few tonnes of TNT to blow up his grave. In chinese culture, disturbing someone tomb is the one of the worst thing you can do. And here you can see Chang Kai Shek really hate that traitor to the guts. Blowing the tomb also mean the dead will never have peaceful sleep. That means 汪精卫 will never have eternal peace.
@@WorldWarTwo Will you do a video about Strafdivision 500 und Strafdivision 999? That could be of real intrest. BTW. I asked that one time before now, month ago (don`t say that in a hostile manner, just saying you should really think about a video for the 555er and 999er soldiers)
Thank you for the Special video as always Sparty and team. I am wondering if anything similar will be done for the Japanese collaborators of places in the Pacific that were occupied by the Japanese during the war as well?
@@WorldWarTwo please do expand WAH into Asia more! I know you guys have alot to cover and the war is becoming more brutal in 1944 but Asia is much less covered. I'm sure that Burmese, Thai, Vietnamese, Phillipinos, Koreans, Mongolians and Chinese were all used in similar ways by the Japanese as the Germans did Europeans. Interested to see if Japan had the same connections to elements of Islamic fanaticism as the Nazis.
@@999mi999 depends which ones, some are largely slavic whereas the further south it starts to get weary. I mean what is slavic, if you're going by r1a then even Czechs and Slovaks etc are only really roughly a third to half of it.. But culturally are
@@999mi999 South Slavs, particulary from western Balkans / former Yugoslavia - while not genetically too close to "Easterners" - are still own branch of Slavic people that was made by mix of original Slavic settlers with more indegenious Illyrians dominating the area until that point. I guess that is the "Balkanic" - but the Slavic genes are strong there.
I'd say that General Vlasov had the ill-fortune to grow up looking like a cartoon villain, but I think it's more likely that the opposite was the case: he and men like him were trope-formers. Vlasov doesn't look like a cartoon villain, cartoon villains look like Vlasov.
Interesting you should say that. The British science fiction comic of the 1970s, "2000 AD", had a strip called "Invasion!" which imagined Britain conquered by the "Volgan Republic of Asia", obviously meant to be the USSR. A fanatical and cruel "Volgan" general was given the facial features of Vlasov by the cartoonist...
In Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro whole villages were ereased from the existance because of Princ Eugen and Handzar divison. Those events were one of the reason of 1990s Yugoslavia wars.
@@philipb2134 No the wars in the "Balkans" are basically old territorial disputes due to population shifts that the Ottoman Turkish invasion of Europe caused. You can also add the interference of the Great powers to mix things up more i.e: Great Britain & France doing a WW1 secret deal with Italy to annex Slovenian & Croatian coastlines ( Treaty of London 1915) and helping to create Yugoslavia, an artificial country with 3 main religions & two different alphabets.
@@serdradion4010 So the Serbs in the 1990`s who were burning pregnant women & little children in houses in Bosnia were doing it for revenge for something that happened 45 years before and who those little children & babies had nothing to do with. Makes sense only if you are a "Servian" trying to justify war crimes & genocide.
@@andrewrobinson2565 Really? The EU is a failed experiment that never delivered on any of its promises and rather than raise poorer countries up, it has dragged richer countries down.
A friend of mine died about 4 or 5 years ago. His name was Peter Krulc and he was born in Slovenia in 1939, (not Slovakia). He told me that several villages were burnt to the ground by SS Police units, not far from his family's farm. How many people were murdered in these atrocities I don't know. If anyone has information on these SS Police units that operated in Slovenia please let me know.
@@WorldWarTwo You are welcome Sparty, Indy, Astrid and the rest of you at World War Two. Peter, who was a member of my church here in Calgary, had many hair raising stories from the war, and he was just a boy even by the time the war ended. One time his family's home was commandeered by Yugoslav partisans for almost a week. A cousin came racing in to their house one afternoon and warned them that the Germans had heard about it and were only half an hour away with a strong column of soldiers. Being caught with partisans in your home was an immediate death sentence whether you invited them in or they just came in at gunpoint. The Nazis thought nothing of executing entire families even with small children. All of the partisans fled into a nearby woods but some left behind pieces of clothing and some even left weapons. And there were a tremendous number of footprints in the snow, way, way too many for simply their family. So Peter's father ordered everyone to gather all the left over clothes and weapons and hide them under haystacks and wherever they thought the Germans wouldn't look. But hiding all the footprints in the snow from partisan boots was an impossible task. I think the lot of them must have been praying because immediately a snow storm blew through and buried all the inconvenient evidence under perhaps a foot of snow. The Germans couldn't find any indication the partisans had ever been there and returned from whence they came. Peter's family also hid fugitive Jews and SOE agents in a hollowed out cavern three feet under their living room fireplace, with the entrance hidden by a cleverly designed piece of carpentry connected to a staircase. The Germans came around several times looking for the hideaway but could never find it. One time they even dug right into the dirt around the fireplace but gave up after getting down two feet. One more foot and that would have been it. What a brave family of Slovenians and I am proud to have called him a friend. 👌😉 PS Peter and his older brother Karl's daughters were knock outs! Karl's daughters especially were blond bombshells back in the 1980s. Karl was also a member of my church but died back in about 2004 or so, while in his late 60s. They both died from prostate cancer. A family trait apparently. Karl was caught trying to escape from Slovenia in the 1950s and the communist government tortured him while they held him in prison. They let him go and he made a bee-line straight out of the country, never to be seen there again until the communists were swept from power in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
You would need to be more specific. Under Höherer SS- und Polizeiführer Adriatisches Küstenland Odilo Globočnik (the guy who put plans for killing of Polish Jews in 1942 into practice, perhaps single most effective and largest campaign of mass murder ever) there were dozens of SS Police Units and regiments, usually operating with addition of regular units, Slovensko Domobranstvo and a mix of Đujić Chetniks, Ljotićevci, Russian Protection Korps, generally all collaborators that escaped to Slovenia in 1944. Infamous is Police Regiment Bozen. First Battalion of that unit took part in minor anti-partisan sweep in the area of Rijeka, Kastav and Učka mountain. At the modern border of Slovenia they have gathered all citizens they found and set building they put them in ablaze killing entire village of Lipa. They have also hanged several activist during same operation and with demolition squads of regular army destroyed a lot of houses. Interestingly, collaboration volunteer units of Ljotić (Srpski Dobrovoljački Korpus) and Rupnik (Slovenski domoibranci) were also a part of SS administration and de facto part of it same as Waffen units. Slovenski domobranci even took oath to Hitler. Partisans viewed these units same as Ustashe: irredeemable Nazis and butchers and usually executed anyone who was 20 or older without trial
We visited Villefranche-de-Rouergue in 2021, and I walked into the memorial to the uprising by some Bosnians of the Hanschdar division against their officers. Odd thing to see.
One correction, the Handschar Division was not based on a "neo-Ottoman" aesthetic, rather a revival of the former Austro-Hungarian Bosnian Regiments. Himmler knew of this and used this extensively upon the division's recruitment. "Himmler endeavored to restore what he called "an old Austrian tradition" by reviving the Bosnian regiments of the former Austro - Hungarian army in the form of a Bosnian Muslim SS Division" "In the struggle for the freedom of your homeland, with which the Germans have always been allied, your ancestors have sewn immortal military glory to your banners on the battlefields of Europe. The heroic deeds of the Bosnian regiments of the old Austrian army have entered into German history.." Source: Himmler's Bosnian Division by George Lepre
You're correct in the motivations of Himmler, but we are correct in saying that aesthetically there was an Ottoman influence. The name of the divison: "Handschar," comes from khanjar, the sword Ottoman police had carried in the region. The fezes were optionally used by Bosniak infantry in the A-H WW1 army, but originally were popularized by the Ottoman Empire in the 1800s.
Yeah,,and then I don't know why the world was surprised by the YUG civil war in the 90s -accusing Serbs and favoring Hitler's poodles... it was just a continuation of ww2
The idea that racial ethnicity is somehow a precise art fails on the fact that these are not scientific concepts, but ideas in people’s heads. In this case we’re talking about the definition of “Slavs” that the Nazis followed. Now, in an attempt to shoehorn their racism into something that makes it possible to define people’s identity, they managed to take things to an absolutely absurd level. It was rough, imprecise and contradictory at best. The only verifiable definition of Slavic is a language culture definition. Lithuanian and Latvian are Balto-Slavic languages, while Estonian is a Finno-Ugric language. So… by the only workable definition most of the Baltics are dominated of Slavic language culture. By the definition of the Nazis nothing makes any sense anyway….
Slavs are the most numerous European group and control the largest territory in Europe that happens to be the most fertile as well. Slavs only weakness is their leadership is easily infiltrated.
Totenkopf badge on a fez is something I've not previously been aware of. The film 1944 tells an interesting story of Estonians fighting in the Waffen SS and Red Army against each other.
There was no Yugoslavia in Second World War, the Croats were on the side of the Nazis. Ustase-Croatian citizens killed Serbian Jews and Gypsies in the Jasenovac camp, they also had a camp for Serbian children. the only such camp in the world.
Funny how the Nazis recognized one Slavs as Aryan and others as subhumans. Belarusians were recognized as Aryans in 1944 (if I'm not mistaken) while Poles remained "subhuman".
Shows how there really was no logic to Nazi logic. I wrote this in a reply previously, but it is appropriate here as well: "in an attempt to shoehorn their racism into something that makes it possible to define people’s identity, they managed to take things to an absolutely absurd level. It was rough, imprecise and contradictory at best" -Will
I think they moved the goals about a bit, due to pragmatism. For example there was no logical reason to think Slovaks were "Aryan" while Poles were "subhuman". Even their languages and cultures are similar to each other. But there were only about three million Slovaks, in a puppet state relatively easy to control. There were over 20 million Poles and controlling them was harder. Poles had also been involved in armed conflict with Germans in the interwar years.
There is a logic to this: the Poles were perceived as rebellious serfs (the Germans controlled large areas of Poland for centuries) with their ridiculous Polish independent state, which was crushed in 1 month. At the same time, Belarus, being occupied, was stuffed with partisans and the population who helped them at the cost of their lives - 25-30% of belarusians was perished. Don’t forget that the concept of “Aryanness” was not only about phenotype, but also about "war culture". Thus, the Japanese are Aryans, but the Czechs and Poles are not.
An estimated 1,000 men of the Bosnian SS ended up fighting in the Arab Liberation Army in 1948, against the Israeli. The overall comander of the Army was a frmr. Wehrmacht Colonel Fawzi al-Qawuqji.
My both grandfather were Yugoslavian partisans since day one. Grew up listening stories late evening about the sacrifice those brave man lived through. The war crimes that Croatian and Bosnian ss division committed were explained slowly but surely in details. Too much for a little kids to comprehend and to absorb. Tough man they were, Yugoslavian partisans and they fought on the right side of the history.
Yugoslav partisans were 95% of the Serbian population and during II WW in all 7 Nazi offensives against Yugoslav partisans, ONLY the Serbian population had to runaway with partisans not to be eradicated by Nazis(German and domestic), never Croatian, Muslim Bosnian or any other population
Fight for a genocide hell-bent on the subjugation and ultimate destruction of your people and cultural identity or Fight for a genocide hell-bent on the subjugation and ultimate destruction of your people and cultural identity. Very tough choice
A very interesting video on the SS divisions in the Waffen SS Since this has come out will a part 3 come out talking about other ethnicities (if not mentioned in part one) such as Turkmen, Georgian. Azerbaijani, Indian, Arab etc.?
So... let's try understand what you're saying. When we make a video about Foreign SS Units you think it would be necessary to mention nationalist movements that were not part of the SS as well? So if we make a video about chicken, you would also like us to mention all birds that are not chicken, but also birds... yeah, smart idea 🙄
@@spartacus-olsson Good evening Mr Olsson and thanks for your reply. Without diving into too many details it would have been interesting to mention that the Ukrainian nationalist movement split into the OUN-A and -B wing and that one was devout to the nazi cause and played a big role in getting 80 thousand men to begin with, and the other wing under Bandera which refused to collaborate and was prosecuted. I know you do thorough research - your WaH series is a great example - but I feel like the maximum runtime constricted you a bit in covering the very different formations of this special episode in greater detail. Nice detail that you made a chicken comparison in your reply here, but a good chunk of the runtime you could have used on the formations was instead spent to repeat the same critique of Himmler's inconsistencies. Perhaps and episode on how nazi stances on peoples changed would be interesting. From Heydrich's "I am a Zionist" to Wannsee or Hitler's "Germany above all" to his fondness of Degrelle and promises of statehood and federalisation after the war instead of Protektorat and Kommisariat status. Thank you for the devotion to your work and take care
@@KrokLP i think you mean the OUN-M and OUN-B and the split in sympathies is not at all as clear cut as you portray it. The split inside the OUN, and then the path from there to the UPA is incredibly complex. The irresponsibly simplified version is that since the leadership of both beaches of the OUN were imprisoned by the Germans in the summer of 41 the OUN had nothing to do with the events in 43, and 44 that we cover here. At the risk of overstretching my metaphor… by 1943, the OUN was a headless hen long dead, but from her eggs had sprung new chicks, and some of them had become birds in SS feathers.
@@ВаљевојеЗапСрбија The Serbian Chetniks collaborated with the Nazis, Fascist Italians and even with the Ustasha organisation. There are plenty of WW2 photos online.
@@ВаљевојеЗапСрбија "Supreme Leadership of Chetniks never collaborated with fascist." You are talking about Serbian Chetnik General Dragoljub "Draža" Mihailović who was sacked by Yugoslav (Serb) King Peter in 1944 after Churchill personally showed King Peter evidence that Mihailović was a Nazi collaborator. King Peter officially replaced Mihailović from his ministerial post with the Yugoslav (Croat) politician Ivan Šubašić ( who was the last Ban of Croatia). Serbian Chetnik General Mihailović after WW2 was shot in Serbia for war crimes and for being a Nazi collaborator.
@@ВаљевојеЗапСрбија Like I said already Serbian Chetnik General Mihailović after WW2 was shot in Belgrade, Serbia by Serbs for his war crimes against civilians including the murder of babies and children by the Serbian Chetniks. Serbian Chetnik General Mihailović was also convicted of Nazi collaboration. "The biggest genocide in entire history of Balkan...." Can you name one town or city that the Serbs were eliminated 100% from during WW2 by the Ustasha organisation?
Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Bohemia and Moravia, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Hungary, India, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Russia, Spain , Sweden, Switzerland and other countries had Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, but lets talk about Ukraine, Baltic States and former Yugoslavia only because they “celebrate “ them. well done
This was part 2 of a special episode series on a couple of the Slavic SS volunteer groups. We did an episode a couple years ago on SS volunteers from other countries… th-cam.com/video/5cOfE8dnuMc/w-d-xo.html
Not " Yugoslav " ( Yes, there was Yugoslavia state, but a few nations in it ) - but Croatian and some Bosnian muslims ( Handžar divizija ) were in SS . Not even one Serbian was a member of ss nor went to the eastern front in ss uniform.
Bosniaks and Croatians are south Slavic people of the former Kingdom of Yugoslavia, therefore our usage term Yugoslav is appropriate. Actually several thousand Serbs were part of the Serbian Volunteer Corps, under the umbrella of the SS and actively collaborating with the Nazis, but yes, as of March 1944 not formally integrated with the SS.
@@WorldWarTwo First of all, you should make a distinction. In that time, kingdom of Yugoslavia was already. gone. There was "Independant state of Croatia," which included not just Croatia, but Bosnia as well , and it stretched all the way to " old fairground ( Staro sajmište ) in Belgrade. " The independent state of Croatia " - was, as the name suggests, independent ( but in reality - it was the puppet state of nazi Germany.. Many "Bosniaks", as you call them today, then called themselves " muslims " , they were members of the Ustasha movement, and in the uniform of the independent state of Croatia. In contrast, Serbia was an OCCUPIED. The correct name was " Occupation zone - Serbia " ( at least similar ... English is not my native language clearly ... ) Can you name one Serb who went to eastern front in german uniform ( even one from so called " Serbian Volunteer Corps ) ?
Croatians and Bosnians in terms of south slavic ethnicity and their nationality as people of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, have no greater or lesser claim to the labeling of “Yugoslav” than any other South slavic peoples, including Serbs. Nazi Germans used the term Gebiet des Militärbefehlshabers in Serbien Historical record seems to point to SVC members typically being assigned Czech or Italian uniforms, especially helmets, not German ones. Plenty can be named, they will be executed by Tito and his Partisans at the end of the war.
@@WorldWarTwo That was not the answer to my question. Name one Serb who went on eastern front to fight for the Nazi Germany against Russia, in German or any other uniform - as part of " ϟϟ Foreign Fighters " (you can find many Croats and Bosnian Muslims who did that tho as a part of " Independent State of Croatia like I have pointed out in my previous comment. There is a HUGE DIFFERENCE in between occupied Serbia, and so called "Independent State of Croatia" and you simply should not put a sign of equality between them. In Belgrade, capital of Serbia, on March 27 1941, people chose rather to die than to sign a pact with Nazi Germany. In Zagreb, capital of Independent State of Croatia, Nazis were welcomed with flowers. That's the difference. ). Tito executed all those who did not agree with his regime which is not a proof of anything.
@@tinpanalleybluesman I agree bro, it drives me nuts when they try and equate a few thousand misguided Serbs with nazi-puppet Croatia in WW2. These things weren't even in the same area code let alone ballpark. I suspect this type of revisionism really began in the 90's during the Croatian war of independence, when Croats knew they'd have a PR problem garnering support from the west. They hired PR firms that went to work to clean a lot that up, the main goal was to try and create the perception in the west that it was the Serbs who fought for the nazis and the Croats were alongside the allies. Just take a look at the fiasco in the Canadian Parliament a couple of weeks ago and that should tell you everything you need to know that attempted historical revisionism is real and we need to be vigilant against it. BTW, I have not viewed the video yet, so I'm not accusing the content creator of revisionism necessarily, I'm just speaking generally.
"But what motivates these men who fight in the waffen divions" Either anti-semitism or anti-bolshevism and in many cases both. The Nazi's often overshadow what the Soviet Union did to Eastern Europe. To many Balts and Ukrainians the nazi's saying "we're anti-bolshevists" was enough. It's possible to both condemn their actions and beliefs and acknowledge the evil of the Soviet Union.
I'm Icelandic and according to my heritage I'm 4,1% Baltic and 5,1% Celtic, I'm pretty sure most of the germans had some non Germanic european mix also. Most of us are mix and in fact its healthy. Inbread is not good
Where did you get this amount of two Latvian Waffen-SS divisions as 87.000 men in theirs' top? It's is too much for just 2 divisions (especially for that time when nogmal German infantry|grenadier division was 10.708 combat and 2005 non-combat troops) Was 87.000 total amount of these two divisions volunteers during the whole war, or total amout of Latvians in German service in Waffen-SS, Heer and police structures?
@@Oberschutzee I know about that. But according to other sourses in the Internet it's wrong and 87.000 men in active service in two divisions of Waffen-SS - it's total amount of Legion's members doring 1943-45.
Я наверное сейчас заплачу, мне больно писать зная что делали фашисты разной национальности в моей родной Белоруссии , где я родилась, каждый четвёртый житель убит, много людей сожгли живимы. Моя семья выжила, но это было чудо, как моя бабушка смогла сохранить четверых детей в таких диких условиях, 4 года войны. И тем более ужасно понимать что фашисты делали чёрные дела руками украинцев....как и сейчас. Опять немецкие танки убивают русских детей руками украинцев и мы 9 лет просили мира, а детей убивали и весь мир это не замечал, но когда русские пришли защитить Русские поселения в Украине, все закричали нельзя! То есть всех устраивало , что украинская власть убивает русских людей.
Советы убили намного больше людей намного более зверскими методами, у вас одна история, у многих совсем иная. В чем точно смысла нет, так это в приплетении сюда современной политики, рф начала эту войну совсем не для защиты русских
Не знаю откуда ты информацию берешь, в 2014 году появились на территории Восточной Украины проросийские сепаратисты, вот те как раз частенько и убивали мирное население, обычно на блокпостах останавливали и могли обокрасть/изнасиловать/убить. Потом началась война между этими сепаратистами и остатками украинских войск. Продлилась она не больше 3 лет (активная фаза). В 2022 году началась обычная война за инициативой Путина. В каждых войнах страдает мирное население
@@MrKarat-up8gx Сепаратизм (от лат. separatus - «отдельный») - идеология и основанные на ней политические движения, направленные на отделение части территории от существующего государства и ликвидацию его суверенитета над ней.
Paul Milata's book Zwischen Hitler, Stalin und Antonescu. Rumäniendeutsche in der Waffen-SS is a very good book on the subject. He states that Volksdeutsche from Romania fought in the 1stSS div, also in Wiking, Nordland and otherdivisions. Those first divisions were not exvlusive to germans from germany only but they were a majority. Towards the end of the war Volksdeutsche were recruted in large numbers.
@@mdza no there were Russians and Ukrainians as well. 400k Russians and 250k Ukrainians. It's also not only about the SS but also about the auxiliary police for example
The idea that racial ethnicity is somehow a precise art fails on the fact that these are not scientific concepts, but ideas in people’s heads. In this case we’re talking about the definition of “Slavs” that the Nazis followed. Now, in an attempt to shoehorn their racism into something that makes it possible to define people’s identity, they managed to take things to an absolutely absurd level. It was rough, imprecise and contradictory at best. The only verifiable definition of Slavic is a language culture definition. Lithuanian and Latvian are Balto-Slavic languages, while Estonian is a Finno-Ugric language. So… by the only workable definition most of the Baltics are dominated of Slavic language culture. By the definition of the Nazis nothing makes any sense anyway….
@@WorldWarTwo It was delusional of germans to think of this, even when people received medal for bravery there were slavic runes engraved, latvians discarded of those, as I said our people and lithuanians didn’t want to be linked with slavs. Germans narrattive by the end of 1944 changed towards our people and they just wanted cannon fodder, so they forcefully conscripted our men. There were of course volunteers of which few are considering criminals in our country but you must understand that large portion did enlist voluntarily, because of what soviet did to their families. My grandfathers brother was killed in Baltezers hands tied behind back by soviets in 14 june 1941. Information regarding Balts: Even the Study of the Rigvedas the first hymn (most text) of the hymn, was written 62 verdant roots. There are 52 similar roots in span of 5000 years in the Latvian language roots, Lithuanian - 38, but English, Greek, Latin and German language - 8 to 12 roots. Anyone interested could search for that. The Russians were formed from East Slavic tribes, and their cultural ancestry is based in Kievan Rus'. Genetically, the majority of Russians are identical to their East and West Slavic counterparts; unlike northern Russians, who belong to the Northern European Baltic gene pool. Sanskrit belongs to the Indo-European family of languages. Latvian is more archaic than Lithuanian in the intonations inherited from Proto-Baltic sanskrit It is one of the three earliest ancient documented languages that arose from a common root language now referred to as Proto-Indo-European language and not related to russians. We are more related to prussians than slavs. Your content was good tho👍🏻
Vēsturnieks droši vien nodomāja: if balts looks like a slavs, swims like a slavs and qacks like a slavs, then they probably are slavs. Nothing personal.
but just never mention Croatians. they literarly cleaned in numerous concentration camps Serbs, Gypsies and Jews from the territory of the present day Croatia. Only in Jasenovac (concentration camp) 750 000 people died, 500 000 Serbs and the rest Gewes and Gypsies (either by starvation or by torturing or by further deportation to Germany).
It must be noted, that in Latvia members of so called SS Freiwilligen Legion around 80%-85% were conscripts. It was called Voluntary as a workaround of Hague 1907 convention which forbids to conscript people of occupied territories. In 1943 6 months prison sentence was instituted to those who refused, but in 1944 death penalty. Also there is lack of record of atrocities committed by members of Legion. Nevertheless members of infamous "Arāja Komanda" who were members of security police and responsible of murdering 25000 jews on November 30 1941 were incorporated in the Legion.
And this is why they march around today, proudly? This is why they are equal in status to red army war veterans, and liable to receive the exact same pension? History rewriting at its best.
Вообще-то страны Балтии были куплены Петром 1 у шведской короны. Читайте Ништадский мирный договор. Прибалтика была завоевана Петром 1 у Швеции, но что бы шведская корона окончательно отказалась от этих земель Российская империя заплатила ей деньги. Еще раз повторю, не было никакой независимой Прибалтики! Петр 1 отвоевал эти территории у Швеции. И компенсировал потерю шведской короне серебром. Шведская корона взяла деньги и по сути продала права на Прибалтику.
Also SS Handschar division , formed by the Bosnian Muslims, was also very brutal and committed horrific crimes against Serbs. They were much worse than Prinz Eugene although they are Slavs.
I'm somewhat confused regarding the picture at 6:47. You mentioned that the Waffen Divisions were prohibited from wearing Siegrune, and yet the soldiers in the aformentioned picture can be seen with Siegrune on their lapels. Is this photograph an exception to those rules?
Catholic and Muslim SS, not “Yugoslav SS”. My grandfather grew up in Samobor, and he said that the Germans were actually respectful and ok (they still shat themselves at the sight of the Germans Ofc) and that the Ustaše and Domobrani were equally cruel to and sadistic to even their own Catholic people (cRoATs). He left Samobor a few years after the war (he was 16-17) and went to Zemun. The place was tainted for him forever.
There is a book by Franz Schraml "Kriegsschauplatz Kroatien"( eng. Croatian Battlefield) about Croatian units under Wehrmacht rule, 369., 373., 379. divisions.
@@lillic4712 autor navodi ustroj i ratni put te 3 divizije, zapise i svjedocanstva pojedinih clanova te zapovjednika. Knjiga ima ilustracije iz operacija na podrucju tada NDH. Mislim da je u orginalu napisana 1962., a tek u 90-im prevedena na hrvatski jezik. HR. naziv je "Hrvatsko ratište", i moze se naci u par antikvarijata.
@@stipe_ramo necudime da je tako kasno prevedeno.. ja sam trazila tu knjigu samo nigdje nepise sinopsis knjige. Moram priznat da mi je tesko knjige o ratnu citati jer mi je to pomalo dosadno.. ☺️ ali nasa povijest je jako interesantna. Hvala ti..
During the Great War, the Russian Imperial Army noticed their Latvian soldiers fought well, and decided to create specific Latvian Riflemen regiments and these performed very well- especially as they were often fighting on or near Latvian soil. After the collapse of Russia, they became in essence a national army and helped secure Latvian independence. One group- consisting of working class men from Riga and other cities- known as the "Red Riflemen" became Lenin's personal military bodyguard -as they were ideologically bound to his revolutionary plans. By tacitly allowing the formation of the Latvian Legion, leading nationalists hoped that Latvians would fight together- rather than be dispersed through the Wehrmacht- although some were- and it was considered that these units might, as had been the case 25 years earlier, be able to help again with creating an independent Latvia- as per the Colonel Janums quote you gave. These leaders never imagined, that Germany under Hitler, would fight to the bitter end- fighting on German home territory with a "scorched earth" policy, all the way back to Berlin. This completely negated the vain hope that the war would stalemate in the East and these units might help to form an independent Latvia.
@@ИванИванов-х8й5ч Well, they got their due reward later: "However, “Lenin’s Praetorians” - highly valued in the 1920s - fell dramatically out of favour in the Stalinist 1930s. Most were arrested and shot during the Great Terror."
@@NickRatnieks Лвтыши занимали все руководящие должности в ЧК,НКВД,ГПУ...Комисар латыш Берзин был начальником ГУЛАГ. Самый критический момент революции-восстание эссэпов в Москве-латышкие части подавили восстание и......СПАСЛИ ленина и......РЕВОЛЮЦИЮ.
@@ИванИванов-х8й5ч Yes, they were critical to the survival of Lenin and they were trusted and helped create the machine itself. Their role cannot be underestimated- although very few know about them. As Solzhenitsyn said "They were the midwifes of the Revolution" and it succeeded due to their efforts.
@@NickRatnieks да 100 %,латыши сыграли очень важную роль в русской истории в 20 веке. Малоизвестный факт-латышские "красные стрелки "заходили на территорию независимой Латвии, вступали в бой с немецкими войсками, но по приказу Троцкого были выведены в РСФР. История полна сюрпризов.
A Ukrainian girl at my university told me her grandfather fought in the Galician Division. He believed the Germans were the lesser of the two although the Germans held them in contempt.
Often collaborators are seen as nothing more than useful fools to the occupying power and that was also the case here. He might have viewed the Germans as a lesser evil, but in fact the Germans planned to exterminate the Ukrainian people and settle the country with Germans if they won the war. Not surprisingly the number of Ukrainians that fought against the Axis greatly outnumbered those that fought for it.
Thank you for this video my opa was in the 20% of Christian Croatia's in the handshar as a interpreter and was told he didn't join out of choice. I'd like to say I've learnt a little bit more about him today and thanks goes to you guys and all your hard work. He survived the war and immigrated to Australia with his family
out of 100,000 Ustasha, approximately 500 of them were sent to train Muslims (Croatian flowers) of the SS Handjar division..amazed by the terror and violence and the spread of fear..together they ended up across Ukraine on the Volga River
Worth pointing out that a lot of the soldiers in foreign Waffen divisions were only voluntary in principe in reality it was like you can choose not to join but it’s a death sentence to you and your family
@@sargonsblackgrandfather2072 where are you getting this information? The SS Waffen divisions were recruited with volunteers in all countries. The Wehrmacht on the other hand conscripted people against their will. It’s really that simple. For instance; there was no Polish Waffen Division. Yet some Volksdeutsche who had been Polish citizens before 1939 served voluntarily in the Waffen SS (as Volksdeutsche they qualified for the regular Waffen SS, so no need for a Polish Waffen Division). Far more German speaking Poles (by a factor of many) were conscripted into the Wehrmacht against their will.
There was no Yugoslav SS, only Croatian SS division, Bosnian Muslim SS and Albanian SS division. Their main goal was genocide over Serbs, and some even went to Stalingrad to help their nazy lords.
@@POCKET-SAND Oh yeaa ? Was there any Serbian SS unit ? Or maybe there were some Serbian soldiers fighting alongside Germans ? No ! When You say colaboratiors, You probably mean on colaboration of Uk and France in destroying Chezhoslovakia, or even on sympathies that British royal familly publicly displayed for Her Hitler.
@@POCKET-SAND They were acctually called Yugoslav Army in Homeland, and were under controll of government in exile from London. Some of them did collaborate with Italians and Germans, like Chetniks from Dalmatia, as Italians from Dalmatia were defending Serbian people from Croatian fashists Ustasha. Most of Chetniks didnt colaborate at all.
Poland was a different story since Poland was invaded together by Germany and Soviet Union when they were allies. Other countries mentioned here were invaded by Soviet Union in 1939 to 1940, and later when Germany betrayed Soviets and attacked, those nations invaded by Soviets were "happy" to see Germans as their liberators.
I once heard a lecture by Lithuanian she-writer who was telling how common Lithuanians were involved in elimination of Jews and were viewing this as just an ordinary job:(
Can you make one about dutch SS groups? Historical writing in my country is from my personal experience deeply in denial about the amount of volunteers that fought for the nazi's.
About 50 thousand young Dutch men served in the german army. About 25 thousand worked as non-combatants driving trucks etc. but about 25 thousand fought in the SS, about 5 thousand died.
There is also a moving dutch documentary by the public TV NCRV called "Zwarte Soldaten" (Soldiers in black, after a collaborateur song) in which now old ex-SS men relay how they came to join. One describes how he blundered into joining, another repents, another is still dressed in black. Interesting insight into how ordinary people thought and dealt with the circumstances, and how they struggled to justify it.
Not really. That figure is well established. See some comments from others to your post. There is no denial there. The Netherlands also saw the highest number in Western Europe of Jews deported and killed. Some 70 to 75% were killed. In NL, they would like to tell you that people were indifferent and that there was big collaboration and little resistance. But figures show that the number of people in the resistance and the ones that collaborated were not higher or lower than in other Western European countries. And just like there, most people did nothing actually, neither resisted or collaborated. What sets NL apart was that unlike other countries, NL was not under the administration of the Wehrmacht but of the SS with Seisinquart and the SD being particularly fanatic. The Nazis also encountered a sophisticated civil administration that for tax reasons kept record who belonged to which religion (the State contribution to churches and synagogues was based on tax). NL at the time was also a highly pillared society with neighborhoods for Catholics, Protestants and Jews. So the Germans found everybody were they wanted them to be.
There were no 'Yugoslav nazis' - after the break of Kingdom of Yugoslavia in spring of 1941. the SS units came from Independent State of Croatia (which at that time also included most of present-day Bosnia and Hercegovina) who were then sent to fight Soviets. So in the context of your narrative, please be more careful with labels as the use of 'Yugoslav nazis' are inaccurate and misleading and can be interpreted as insulting.
@@WorldWarTwo I am sorry What two Group? 7500 students and teachers was killed in Serb Kragujevac in one Day 4500 in Valjevo what about Jasenovac, Jadovno and many other! Hitler and Croatian! Only Serb presented themselves Yugoslav!? You didn’t want tell “Croatian” this is bloody history don’t hide it behind others! Don’t talk if you not talk the truth?! You hurting others!
While some nations have carefully doccumented and apologized for their members of the SS, others have rewritten history to omit this, or even to celebrate them. Did your country have SS fighters? If so how does it remember them?
My country is Canada, but my grandparents came from Hungary. I don't know if you would call it a "foreign SS", but once the Arrow Cross Party took over things certainly changed for the Jews of Hungary. Their entire family was deported to Auschwitz. My grandparents survived; most of their family was exterminated in the gas chambers. Hungary seems to have a bit of a mixed record when it comes to taking responsibility for their participating in the genocide.
I don't know how you find the mental strength to continue talking about such atrocities, Sparty, but bless you for doing this because I certainly could not.
Latvian here. The governemt neither condemns it, nor embraces it. As you said, it was 90+% forced conscription, and a tiny minority were recruited. Thus, the government cant do either of previous things i mentioned, so commemorative adhoc events still occur, but they are seldom if ever recognized by government or members of parliament, and taking a stance alone is controversial, nevertheless stating an actual opinion.
Fondly
Good luck keeping this video monetized with the lightning symbols in the title
Jay,
That's quite an episode to have in your family history! I'm glad your grandparents survived, and sorry more of your family didn't, that's awful. Thank you for sharing that with us all.
Doing this series obviously takes a toll on Sparty sometimes, but he's a tough historian who is determined to see this war through to the end, and with the kind and inspiring support from viewers like you he will definitely make it!
- T.J.
Kinda ironic Germany ended up having one of the most diverse armies.
Also almost all the other Germanic nations were their enemies.
Germany was the only Germanic axis country.
that sounds like something out of a fever dream
I doubt they viewed them as anything more than cannon fodder
@@BosnianBEAST-ky9xv I doubt it considering that entering the Waffen SS, the best units, is a big deal.
they need men
My grandparents come from Serbia. During the war, my grandma's village and whole family were summarily executed by Nazis, but they were Croatians, rather than German-speakjng soldiers. My grandma and some of her sisters survived the mass execution with multiple gunshot wounds
Thank you Daniel, for sharing this.
Never forget.
Terrible😢. I am glad they survived
@@AaAa-sd4vg That's right, chetniks sometimes collaborated with the Nazis in their fight against the Partisans (communists). The Partisans were the only true anti-nazi movement in Yugoslavia.
@@AaAa-sd4vg Er hat dies gar nicht angesprochen, sondern das Leid seiner Familie. Meine nicht ihre Qual mit deinen Worten irgendwie rechtfertigen zu müssen.
@@AaAa-sd4vg
And...?
SS division Prinz Eugene committed large crimes in Yugoslavia in WW2 mostly against Serbian people. So in national collective memory they become notorious. They consisted mostly of local Germans which were about half milion in country, mostly lived in Vojvodina, today north Serbia. After the war the almost all Germans were either run away or expelled from country.
The SS Division Prince Eugene was mainly recruited from Volksdeutsche from the Banat (North-Eastern Serbia and Romania). The Batschka (Vojvodina) was occupied by Hungary in 1941. The Volksdeutsche were therefore mainly recruited from the Hungarian Honved. After Hungary wanted to declare itself neutral in October 1944, Budapest was occupied by the SS. The ethnic Germans were now transferred to the Waffen SS, especially to the "31st SS-volunteer-grenadier-division". The word "voluntary" was a joke. Fredo Gensicke, a German SS man who was responsible for recruitment at 31. FGD SS, wrote in his book that at this point there were virtually no more volunteers. The villages of Vojvodina were literally raided by the Waffen-SS and all the young men were forcibly recruited. There are many reports of men hiding and family members being held prisoner by the SS until the men surrendered voluntarily. The euphoria for the German Reich had long since vanished among the ethnic Germans at this point and the Russians were already at the door. Many members of the 31st were picked up and disarmed and murderedin the Czech Republic a few days after the end of the war. Incidentally, the women and children of the German ethnic group in Vojvodina were not chased out, but driven into concentration camps in Gakowa (Gakovo) and Kruschiwl (Kruševlje). Those who survived the death marches to the camps died of hunger, forced labour, killings, disease and abuse over the next three years. From relatives of the tortured who had emigrated to the USA, the United Nations heard about Tito's concentration camps and forced him to close them. But by then many had already died. In Gakowa alone, at least 2/3 of the 17,000 who were imprisoned died. Most of them are documented and their names are well recorded. War is terrible and never black and white...! The Germans committed terrible crimes against the Serbs and they took revenge in the most terrible way and this also affected many innocent people who lived in peace with their Serbian neighbours before the war. Let us hope that both sides have learned from this dark history!
@@harbinger200 and cetniks were totaly not collaborating with the germans and totaly not comitting warcrimes. Cry me a serbian river
@@biglez32420 so we should let you to kill us on most animalistic way? When you got punched back cry me a croatian river
@@biglez32420 You are wasting your time with the "Greater Serbian" advocates.
They killed almost as many Bosniaks and Croats as they did Serbs though
Props to Ryan Gosling for a stunning performance as the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. What next for this fine man?
Saw that right when I read this 😂😂
If there is a biopic, Ryan should play him.
I've ALWAYS had a feeling that the Grand Mufit of Jerusalem reminded me of someone, now it makes so much sense. The similarity is uncanny.
@@budalabudo2250 😂😂😂😂
That guy is everywhere, I swear.
In the part about Yugoslavia, you obviously tended to avoid even mention of the Croatian Ustas. Their participation in World War II was the most numerous and bloodiest, both on the territory of Yugoslavia and on the Russian front.
That would be because this was a special on SS volunteers which, although in terms of the Croatian SS troops there could certainly have been some overlap with Ustaše members, were organized separately.
No Ustasha units fought on the Soviet front, only Croatian legions of the Wehrmacht, and Croatian legions in the Italian army, which were not Ustasha and did not wear any Ustasha symbols.
However, there were two Waffen-SS units defined as croatian (kroatische), although Croats were only a minority, these units included Catholic Croats, Muslim Bosniaks (considered Muslim Croats by Pavelic's regime) Volksdeutsche of Croatia, Bosnia and Vojvodina, and a small part Albanians. These units were: the 13. Waffen-Gebirgs-Division der SS "Handschar" (kroatische Nr. 1) and the 23. Waffen-Gebirgs-Division of the SS "Kama" (kroatische Nr. 2)
Nothing compared to Tito’s communists
@@ivanhus3852 There are like 10 videos on TH-cam alone of Croatian soldiers on eastern front wearing Croatian insignia
@@mirkotorca1950 Yes Croatian insignia not ustasha insignia
Facts :
250k Ukrainiens fought alongside the Germans during the war, for various motives as highlighted in the video (vs 400k Russians and 150k people of polish origin including Upper Silesia)
4.5 millions fought against them with the Red Army.
DISCLAIMER : I'm not here to judge any people, those are just numbers I found in peer-reviewed research and I think they're good to know for anyone interested in this topic
And out of all "nations of the USSR" it was Russians who were the biggest group among Nazi collaborators.
Let's not leave out the Russians who fought with the Germans against their own government, they were called the Kaminski brigade or waffen-Sturn-Brigade der SS Rona.
@@Zzrik fun fact is that around 300k Russians fought with the Germans, which is more than their Ukrainiens counterparts
@@Kafson is that kind of like how Russia has all manner of monuments to Stalin? Lol
@@Kafson Bandera, as a Ukrainian nationalist leader, was in jail and in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp during the Soviet-German war. So, how could he have genocidated the Jews and the Poles ? By the way, in Auschwitz he lost two of his brothers, killed by polish capos. You really must read something serious about this...
I have a Latvian-American friend who was very active in her Latvian community when she was young...until she quite accidentally discovered that her uncles and quite a few others in that enclave had fought for the Nazis. And when she pressed them about atrocities, they were furious, telling her that they had no choice and that she just didn't understand how evil the Jews were.
Long story short, she moved to France and never spoke to them again. Now that this generation is dead, she hasn't changed her mind about her decision to cut off all contact with them, but she has become rather bitter about being kept in the dark about the very dark family secret during her entire childhood, yet another example of just how alive history really is--not in Hegel's high-falutin' sense of "Spirit moving through Time," but instead much more like grasping fingers reaching for us from the grave.
I agree, it's often surprising to realize how close to us these events and people are, even when we really are nearly 80 years later. Tough hearing about families torn apart so long after the fact, but totally understandable really.
- T.J.
The Russians and Japanese committed atrocities during that same period. They don’t seem to count
What do you mean they don't seem to count? There are literal hours of content in this series covering Russian and Japanese atrocities, along with atrocities from many other nations on every side of the conflict. Your comment makes no sense and I can't help but wonder if you've even been watching the show.
- T.J.
OTOH, if one enjoys the odd foray into the hifalutin sense, Hegel is hard to beat.
I think is exaggerated to judge like that. I mean what she except them to do ? All History is defined in context. In that specific context Baltic countries had just got their independence from Imperial Russia ,fought hard and bloody for that independence got occupied by USSR and then Germans came again and sought to find manpower for front. For Baltic perspective it was more issue of fighting for homeland then for Reich even thought as always contexts are hard. What would one rather be a slave under Soviet system with spefic outcome that would be death starvation or slavery or fighting for ones people under different uniform? I don't think choice was difficult for most of those Men to make that choice. She on other hand had privilege to live under mostly free and peaceful country where menaces against your people and live weren't present.
I seem to recall after the war, the US used former Latvian SS to help guard the Nuremberg trials, making the whole thing even stranger.
Also to add Latvian riflemen was those who stormed Winter palace leading to Soviet revolution
The Americans did worse than that. The CIA is the bastard child of Nazee spooks and American desire to dominate Europe following the war.
@@Slezyy WTF😂
@@Slezyy :D Winter palace was stormed only in the communist movie. In reality, it was almost empty and poorly guarded, and communists took the opportunity to replace the temporary government or whatever it was called with themselves... I suppose you talk about year 1917 and Russian revolution, that was some 24 years before WWII.
@@Slezyy yeah, many people are still living in the paradigms of soviet ideology and believe in movies and stories written in children tales books...
There is a memorial to 14thh SS Galician in Oakville, ontario, canada. It has been controversial at times along with the nazi past of former defense minister's grandfather and the Deschenes commision investigations.
And oddly, there are numerous, much more public monuments to communism in Canada that no one seems to have any issue with at all...
Incidentally, I have known a lot of people who support/supported(if deceased now) WW2 Germans. Maybe they have strange tattoos. But I've never met a single fascist. I'm sure they exist, but I've never met one even among the most hardcore Bandera fan, including my SS grandpa. They liked the Germans because they helped fight the communists. Grandpa loved postwar Canada. Minding one's own business, work an honest job, buy a house and cottage, hunt, fish, own land, freedom of speech and religion. Nobody in America would assume every Afghan who sided with the US Army believes everything the US president believes, so one shouldn't assume every Ukrainian who was in the SS or, currently , Azov, believes what a moustached politician in Berlin believed.
@@frakismaximus3052 a very good point. You hear that from ex communist party members here in Vinnytsia (in Ternopil, everyone loves Ukraine, independent and not Soviet). A red star or hammer and sickle - there are 6, in coat of arms form, across from Silpo supermarket in town - oh, "that's just history, people's memories they are fond of" ...like the Holodomor? But if someone proposes - as a soldier I know has - a Stepan Bandera Avenue, oh, that's offensive! Outrageous! It will hurt people's feelings! If it hurts a bunch of Russian imperialists who want Putin to come take over, I say, good!
I'm of the opinion that the Oakville monument should be subjected to a rock crusher, but alas it's on private property.
There is no place in Canada for monuments to Axis forces, let alone a unit of a criminal organization that murdered millions (including Canadian POWs).
@@frakismaximus3052 where? I know that Ukrainian ex-patriots built a huge monument to the victims of communism in Ottawa, the capital. We don't have one for the victims of capitalism, yet.
A lot of the facts delivered on this series have often been chilling or worse. But I do appreciate how informative all video's from this series have been. Keep it up Sparty.
Thank you very much, always a pleasure to read comments like this
@@WorldWarTwo---Your welcome
There were 3 SS divisions on the territory of Kingdom of Yugoslavia: Handžar, Kama and Skenderbeg (Albanian) SS. Interesting titbit about Galizia SS: the emblem of the Galizia SS is in wide use in Ukraine today, Zelensky posted a few images of soldiers wearing that patch, SBU officers also like it and in a recent visit by the EU officials to Ukrainian cemeteries you can see the flags with that same symbol.
This isn't the gotcha you think it is. The symbol is a Ruthenian Lion, which is much older than the SS division raised in Ukraine. It's colours are blue and yellow, the colours of.. Ukraine.
@@rickglorie It's not the Swastika but an ancient Hindu symbol defence 😄😄😄😄 🤡
@@galileo_rs Ah yes, swastika = nazi. Nazis were bad because they used swastikas obviously.
We use them same in Latvia for our legion emblems for memorials, however we use them to commemorate the soldiers that had no choice but to choose either side of 2 enemies that would occupy.
I would guess it would go same for Ukraine on that one.
History is much more complicated when you have human nature and it is weird how its not simply black and white.
@@apgaismiba Bullshit. They were Nazi collaborators and Latvia is infamous, like Ukraine, for whitewashing their collaboration.
When are you gonna do a WAH episode on the Independent State of Croatia? Do Jasenovac, Pag and other places not deserve an episode of its own?
Go back through my content… I’ve covered it several times.
How about the Serbian Chetnik WW2 massacres of civilians in Eastern Bosnia ( then Eastern Croatia), for example, what happened to the muslim population in the town of Foca when the Serbian Chetniks entered it.
Don`t forget the WW2 Serbian speciality of heart extraction of tied up, live, POW`s.
@@northernstar4811 that too has been covered in WaH.
@@spartacus-olsson Oh, o.k.
There were a number of Serbian Chetnik WW2 massacres of civilians in the puppet "Independent State of Croatia", including the "Trubar massacre" of Roman Catholic pilgrims which happened on the 27th July 1941 and the "Bosansko Grahovo massacre" which happened on the same date 27th July 1941, in which the Roman Catholic priest Juraj Gospodnetić was barbecued by the Serbian Chetniks, while his mother was forced to watch his torture & death.
@@northernstar4811 Calling Chetniks is like callin Jews for revolting against holocaust.
you guys should cover the 30 years war next so we all get old together
Maybe it's just a coincidence, but literally today, on 16 March, Latvians are commemorating warriors of the Latvian legion because on 16 March 1944 was the only day when the two Latvian divisions (15th and 19th) fought together in the same sector of the front (near to Velikaya river, now, Pskov oblast).
And what is your point? Haven't you learned our history? If not, take a peak - here on yt are several videos explaining in Latvian and in english who were legionares and why they fought soviets. Start learning instead of watching stupid videos (most probably made by order and on money from Kremlin).
Heyheyhey not yugoslav MOSTLY AND ONLY CROATIANS WERE NAZIS FROM THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA only ustashe
Heyheyhey Croatians are South Slavic i.e. Yugoslav people and former citizens of the now occupied Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Spartacus, great show and I thoroughly enjoyed your excellent delivery. Grats to the Timeghost Team as well.
An excellent historical coverage of that specific matter during WW2
Thanks Mohammed!
Really good episode. Will you make an Episode about the Chinese, Taiwanese and Korean soldiers fighting for Japan as well?
It's not planned just yet, but we'll seriously consider it!
Interesting fact: During WW2, the friend of Chang Kai Shrek and man in second highest position of KMT, 汪精卫 wang jing wei, turned to Japanese to establish a puppet regime. After his death and buried, Chang Kai Shek ordered to put few tonnes of TNT to blow up his grave. In chinese culture, disturbing someone tomb is the one of the worst thing you can do. And here you can see Chang Kai Shek really hate that traitor to the guts. Blowing the tomb also mean the dead will never have peaceful sleep.
That means 汪精卫 will never have eternal peace.
@@WorldWarTwo Will you do a video about Strafdivision 500 und Strafdivision 999? That could be of real intrest.
BTW. I asked that one time before now, month ago (don`t say that in a hostile manner, just saying you should really think about a video for the 555er and 999er soldiers)
@@WorldWarTwo You know the Chinese KMT leader Chiang Kai Shek had a son who was a panzer tank commander, Chiang Wei Guo.
Thank you for the Special video as always Sparty and team. I am wondering if anything similar will be done for the Japanese collaborators of places in the Pacific that were occupied by the Japanese during the war as well?
Thanks as always Dickson! Nothing planned yet for Japan, though we will have other videos come out that cover other European SS fighters.
@@WorldWarTwo please do expand WAH into Asia more! I know you guys have alot to cover and the war is becoming more brutal in 1944 but Asia is much less covered. I'm sure that Burmese, Thai, Vietnamese, Phillipinos, Koreans, Mongolians and Chinese were all used in similar ways by the Japanese as the Germans did Europeans. Interested to see if Japan had the same connections to elements of Islamic fanaticism as the Nazis.
“Why are there Slavs in the SS?”
“Uh, oh! Those aren’t Slavs they’re Germanic. Yup, new research shows past genetic interbreeding. Mhm Germanic.”
People joke, but southern slavs are legitimately not genetically slavic. 90-99% of the people are of balkanic and italic descent.
@@999mi999 Ajde bre liče
@@999mi999 depends which ones, some are largely slavic whereas the further south it starts to get weary. I mean what is slavic, if you're going by r1a then even Czechs and Slovaks etc are only really roughly a third to half of it.. But culturally are
@@999mi999 Linguistically they are slavic. If you go into biology, then no nation is slavic, it's a mixture of everybody with everybody.
@@999mi999 South Slavs, particulary from western Balkans / former Yugoslavia - while not genetically too close to "Easterners" - are still own branch of Slavic people that was made by mix of original Slavic settlers with more indegenious Illyrians dominating the area until that point. I guess that is the "Balkanic" - but the Slavic genes are strong there.
I'd say that General Vlasov had the ill-fortune to grow up looking like a cartoon villain, but I think it's more likely that the opposite was the case: he and men like him were trope-formers. Vlasov doesn't look like a cartoon villain, cartoon villains look like Vlasov.
A classic hen and egg riddle…
Interesting you should say that. The British science fiction comic of the 1970s, "2000 AD", had a strip called "Invasion!" which imagined Britain conquered by the "Volgan Republic of Asia", obviously meant to be the USSR. A fanatical and cruel "Volgan" general was given the facial features of Vlasov by the cartoonist...
In Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro whole villages were ereased from the existance because of Princ Eugen and Handzar divison. Those events were one of the reason of 1990s Yugoslavia wars.
The problem with the Balkans is that they produce more history than they can consume.
@@philipb2134 No the wars in the "Balkans" are basically old territorial disputes due to population shifts that the Ottoman Turkish invasion of Europe caused.
You can also add the interference of the Great powers to mix things up more i.e: Great Britain & France doing a WW1 secret deal with Italy to annex Slovenian & Croatian coastlines ( Treaty of London 1915) and helping to create Yugoslavia, an artificial country with 3 main religions & two different alphabets.
Those war crimes of WW2 were inspirational cause for the revenge war crimes in the BIH Civil war.
@@northernstar4811 OTTOMAN RULED EUROEPANS 500 YEAR.
@@serdradion4010 So the Serbs in the 1990`s who were burning pregnant women & little children in houses in Bosnia were doing it for revenge for something that happened 45 years before and who those little children & babies had nothing to do with.
Makes sense only if you are a "Servian" trying to justify war crimes & genocide.
I believe the greatest luxury in my life is to have never been a soldier.
And for that you can thank a vet. My father often said "If what I went through saves my 4 sons from going to war, it was worth it".
@@johnkidd1226 +1 I thank those who served and those who created the Coal and Steel Community, the forerunner of the EU 🇪🇺☮️❤️.
@@andrewrobinson2565 Really? The EU is a failed experiment that never delivered on any of its promises and rather than raise poorer countries up, it has dragged richer countries down.
Being a soldier is a choice. Putting them on a pedestal is not necessary.
@@Conn30Mtenor Not if your country has Compulsory Military Service or Military Conscription in force. Then there is no choice.
A friend of mine died about 4 or 5 years ago. His name was Peter Krulc and he was born in Slovenia in 1939, (not Slovakia). He told me that several villages were burnt to the ground by SS Police units, not far from his family's farm. How many people were murdered in these atrocities I don't know. If anyone has information on these SS Police units that operated in Slovenia please let me know.
Wow thank you for sharing this personal account
@@WorldWarTwo You are welcome Sparty, Indy, Astrid and the rest of you at World War Two. Peter, who was a member of my church here in Calgary, had many hair raising stories from the war, and he was just a boy even by the time the war ended. One time his family's home was commandeered by Yugoslav partisans for almost a week. A cousin came racing in to their house one afternoon and warned them that the Germans had heard about it and were only half an hour away with a strong column of soldiers. Being caught with partisans in your home was an immediate death sentence whether you invited them in or they just came in at gunpoint. The Nazis thought nothing of executing entire families even with small children. All of the partisans fled into a nearby woods but some left behind pieces of clothing and some even left weapons. And there were a tremendous number of footprints in the snow, way, way too many for simply their family. So Peter's father ordered everyone to gather all the left over clothes and weapons and hide them under haystacks and wherever they thought the Germans wouldn't look. But hiding all the footprints in the snow from partisan boots was an impossible task. I think the lot of them must have been praying because immediately a snow storm blew through and buried all the inconvenient evidence under perhaps a foot of snow. The Germans couldn't find any indication the partisans had ever been there and returned from whence they came.
Peter's family also hid fugitive Jews and SOE agents in a hollowed out cavern three feet under their living room fireplace, with the entrance hidden by a cleverly designed piece of carpentry connected to a staircase. The Germans came around several times looking for the hideaway but could never find it. One time they even dug right into the dirt around the fireplace but gave up after getting down two feet. One more foot and that would have been it. What a brave family of Slovenians and I am proud to have called him a friend. 👌😉
PS Peter and his older brother Karl's daughters were knock outs! Karl's daughters especially were blond bombshells back in the 1980s. Karl was also a member of my church but died back in about 2004 or so, while in his late 60s. They both died from prostate cancer. A family trait apparently. Karl was caught trying to escape from Slovenia in the 1950s and the communist government tortured him while they held him in prison. They let him go and he made a bee-line straight out of the country, never to be seen there again until the communists were swept from power in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
@@ToddSauve A wonderful story, Todd. Thanks for telling us.
You would need to be more specific. Under Höherer SS- und Polizeiführer Adriatisches Küstenland Odilo Globočnik (the guy who put plans for killing of Polish Jews in 1942 into practice, perhaps single most effective and largest campaign of mass murder ever) there were dozens of SS Police Units and regiments, usually operating with addition of regular units, Slovensko Domobranstvo and a mix of Đujić Chetniks, Ljotićevci, Russian Protection Korps, generally all collaborators that escaped to Slovenia in 1944. Infamous is Police Regiment Bozen. First Battalion of that unit took part in minor anti-partisan sweep in the area of Rijeka, Kastav and Učka mountain. At the modern border of Slovenia they have gathered all citizens they found and set building they put them in ablaze killing entire village of Lipa. They have also hanged several activist during same operation and with demolition squads of regular army destroyed a lot of houses. Interestingly, collaboration volunteer units of Ljotić (Srpski Dobrovoljački Korpus) and Rupnik (Slovenski domoibranci) were also a part of SS administration and de facto part of it same as Waffen units. Slovenski domobranci even took oath to Hitler. Partisans viewed these units same as Ustashe: irredeemable Nazis and butchers and usually executed anyone who was 20 or older without trial
@@brankodrljaca1313 thank you for this write up.
I remember a quote from a Ukrainian soldier who fought with the SS Division Galicia: "We fought under Germans, but they hated us and we hated them".
@@aquilae1670 Unfortunately for many people it was true.
Guess to say they both hated communism and the USSR more!
@@692ALBANNACH and this is an excuse for brutal killing ordinary people, your fellow citizens?
@@tanchik_1523 fellow citizens called russians who invaded and occupied Ukraine.
@@OrkosUA Not True, Just NAZI propaganda against Polish, Jews and Russian people...
The best summary on the subject ever published on TH-cam. Thank you !
Thank you!
We visited Villefranche-de-Rouergue in 2021, and I walked into the memorial to the uprising by some Bosnians of the Hanschdar division against their officers. Odd thing to see.
Hi from Bosnia🇧🇦🇧🇦🇧🇦🇧🇦
Never forget. Thank you all. I was beginning to wonder if I'd missed an WAH episode.
He forget to mention two Moslem divisions. They proved to be ineffective. But they had fashionable caps. They were in the Balkins.
Great episode, lots of interesting details left out of most other histories.
Keep up the great work.
Thank you for your support!
We pride ourselves on being as detailed as possible with the historical records we have at our disposal :)
One correction, the Handschar Division was not based on a "neo-Ottoman" aesthetic, rather a revival of the former Austro-Hungarian Bosnian Regiments. Himmler knew of this and used this extensively upon the division's recruitment.
"Himmler endeavored to restore what he called "an old Austrian tradition" by reviving the Bosnian regiments of the former Austro - Hungarian army in the form of a Bosnian Muslim SS Division"
"In the struggle for the freedom of your homeland, with which the Germans have always been allied, your ancestors have sewn immortal military
glory to your banners on the battlefields of Europe. The heroic deeds of the Bosnian regiments of the old Austrian army have entered into German history.."
Source: Himmler's Bosnian Division by George Lepre
You're correct in the motivations of Himmler, but we are correct in saying that aesthetically there was an Ottoman influence. The name of the divison: "Handschar," comes from khanjar, the sword Ottoman police had carried in the region. The fezes were optionally used by Bosniak infantry in the A-H WW1 army, but originally were popularized by the Ottoman Empire in the 1800s.
@@WorldWarTwo well of course - the Handžar and the Fez are both two symbols of Ottoman legacy in Bosnia.
Yeah,,and then I don't know why the world was surprised by the YUG civil war in the 90s -accusing Serbs and favoring Hitler's poodles... it was just a continuation of ww2
@@vukaleksic1654 what an idiotic assertion.
Croats and Bosnian muslims killed almost milion Serbs.
They did the same in ww1
It’s funny that leaders like Hitler, Himmler and Goebbels were so finicky when they wouldn’t pass the racial inspection themselves 😂
I feel like I’ve waited for you to do the second part for years haha
It's been 79 years...
Exactly, you took your time 🙄😂
Baltics are not slavic
The idea that racial ethnicity is somehow a precise art fails on the fact that these are not scientific concepts, but ideas in people’s heads. In this case we’re talking about the definition of “Slavs” that the Nazis followed. Now, in an attempt to shoehorn their racism into something that makes it possible to define people’s identity, they managed to take things to an absolutely absurd level. It was rough, imprecise and contradictory at best.
The only verifiable definition of Slavic is a language culture definition. Lithuanian and Latvian are Balto-Slavic languages, while Estonian is a Finno-Ugric language. So… by the only workable definition most of the Baltics are dominated of Slavic language culture. By the definition of the Nazis nothing makes any sense anyway….
Thank God. Baltic nations are inbreds...
Another excellent episode! Keep up the good work!!
German leadership's opinion on us Slavs is one of the MAIN reasons why they lost the war. Probably THE main reason.
Slavs are the most numerous European group and control the largest territory in Europe that happens to be the most fertile as well. Slavs only weakness is their leadership is easily infiltrated.
Totenkopf badge on a fez is something I've not previously been aware of. The film 1944 tells an interesting story of Estonians fighting in the Waffen SS and Red Army against each other.
SS Galizien was responsible for handling concertrating camps in Poland and not only, it was used to fight Poles during Warswa uprising and more ....
There was no Yugoslavia in Second World War, the Croats were on the side of the Nazis. Ustase-Croatian citizens killed Serbian Jews and Gypsies in the Jasenovac camp, they also had a camp for Serbian children. the only such camp in the world.
It's hard to believe that part 1 came out more than 2 years ago in June 2020. I only know this because I followed the link in the description.
Funny how the Nazis recognized one Slavs as Aryan and others as subhumans. Belarusians were recognized as Aryans in 1944 (if I'm not mistaken) while Poles remained "subhuman".
Shows how there really was no logic to Nazi logic.
I wrote this in a reply previously, but it is appropriate here as well: "in an attempt to shoehorn their racism into something that makes it possible to define people’s identity, they managed to take things to an absolutely absurd level. It was rough, imprecise and contradictory at best"
-Will
I think they moved the goals about a bit, due to pragmatism. For example there was no logical reason to think Slovaks were "Aryan" while Poles were "subhuman". Even their languages and cultures are similar to each other. But there were only about three million Slovaks, in a puppet state relatively easy to control. There were over 20 million Poles and controlling them was harder. Poles had also been involved in armed conflict with Germans in the interwar years.
There is a logic to this: the Poles were perceived as rebellious serfs (the Germans controlled large areas of Poland for centuries) with their ridiculous Polish independent state, which was crushed in 1 month. At the same time, Belarus, being occupied, was stuffed with partisans and the population who helped them at the cost of their lives - 25-30% of belarusians was perished. Don’t forget that the concept of “Aryanness” was not only about phenotype, but also about "war culture". Thus, the Japanese are Aryans, but the Czechs and Poles are not.
An estimated 1,000 men of the Bosnian SS ended up fighting in the Arab Liberation Army in 1948, against the Israeli. The overall comander of the Army was a frmr. Wehrmacht Colonel Fawzi al-Qawuqji.
And got easily demolished
@@JoeSmith-sl9bq Once the Hagana got rolling. They were fairly threatening in the beginning.
Croats and Bosnian muslims are biggest naciz
Together they killed Serbs and Jews
@@Alex.HFA1 Imagine being described as "fairly threatening for a short while" in a war
Hey dude you’re not going to mention the Croatians??? Aka the Ustase !! These guys did the most damage in the the Balkans.
4:41 we shouldn't call the Baltic States "Soviet states", they were conquered by the Soviets and were occupied states.
Technically, all "Soviet States" except Russia were conquered and forcefully absorbed by the Bolsheviks.
My both grandfather were Yugoslavian partisans since day one. Grew up listening stories late evening about the sacrifice those brave man lived through. The war crimes that Croatian and Bosnian ss division committed were explained slowly but surely in details. Too much for a little kids to comprehend and to absorb. Tough man they were, Yugoslavian partisans and they fought on the right side of the history.
Thank you for sharing this personal story Zeljin.
Yugoslav partisans were 95% of the Serbian population and during II WW in all 7 Nazi offensives against Yugoslav partisans, ONLY the Serbian population had to runaway with partisans not to be eradicated by Nazis(German and domestic), never Croatian, Muslim Bosnian or any other population
Fight for a genocide hell-bent on the subjugation and ultimate destruction of your people and cultural identity or Fight for a genocide hell-bent on the subjugation and ultimate destruction of your people and cultural identity. Very tough choice
Hi Sparty
These specials are nice to watch.
Lots of information.
Thanks.
Funny when the bullets start flying a lot of the hardline ideological bullcrap goes out the window
wait where is part one?
A very interesting video on the SS divisions in the Waffen SS
Since this has come out will a part 3 come out talking about other ethnicities (if not mentioned in part one) such as Turkmen, Georgian. Azerbaijani, Indian, Arab etc.?
Good job not mentioning the OUN or UPA, dont want to sabotage the war effort!
So... let's try understand what you're saying. When we make a video about Foreign SS Units you think it would be necessary to mention nationalist movements that were not part of the SS as well? So if we make a video about chicken, you would also like us to mention all birds that are not chicken, but also birds... yeah, smart idea 🙄
@@spartacus-olsson Good evening Mr Olsson and thanks for your reply. Without diving into too many details it would have been interesting to mention that the Ukrainian nationalist movement split into the OUN-A and -B wing and that one was devout to the nazi cause and played a big role in getting 80 thousand men to begin with, and the other wing under Bandera which refused to collaborate and was prosecuted. I know you do thorough research - your WaH series is a great example - but I feel like the maximum runtime constricted you a bit in covering the very different formations of this special episode in greater detail. Nice detail that you made a chicken comparison in your reply here, but a good chunk of the runtime you could have used on the formations was instead spent to repeat the same critique of Himmler's inconsistencies. Perhaps and episode on how nazi stances on peoples changed would be interesting. From Heydrich's "I am a Zionist" to Wannsee or Hitler's "Germany above all" to his fondness of Degrelle and promises of statehood and federalisation after the war instead of Protektorat and Kommisariat status. Thank you for the devotion to your work and take care
@@KrokLP i think you mean the OUN-M and OUN-B and the split in sympathies is not at all as clear cut as you portray it. The split inside the OUN, and then the path from there to the UPA is incredibly complex. The irresponsibly simplified version is that since the leadership of both beaches of the OUN were imprisoned by the Germans in the summer of 41 the OUN had nothing to do with the events in 43, and 44 that we cover here. At the risk of overstretching my metaphor… by 1943, the OUN was a headless hen long dead, but from her eggs had sprung new chicks, and some of them had become birds in SS feathers.
Nazzis from Yugoslavia were croat and bosbian muslims. Only Serbs and our brother from Crna Gora were not nazzi soldiers.
Serbian Volunteer Corps-(Serbisches Freiwilligenkorps) & the Serbian Chetniks.
@@ВаљевојеЗапСрбија The Serbian Chetniks collaborated with the Nazis, Fascist Italians and even with the Ustasha organisation. There are plenty of WW2 photos online.
@@ВаљевојеЗапСрбија "Supreme Leadership of Chetniks never collaborated with fascist."
You are talking about Serbian Chetnik General Dragoljub "Draža" Mihailović who was sacked by Yugoslav (Serb) King Peter in 1944 after Churchill personally showed King Peter evidence that Mihailović was a Nazi collaborator.
King Peter officially replaced Mihailović from his ministerial post with the Yugoslav (Croat) politician Ivan Šubašić ( who was the last Ban of Croatia).
Serbian Chetnik General Mihailović after WW2 was shot in Serbia for war crimes and for being a Nazi collaborator.
@@ВаљевојеЗапСрбија Like I said already Serbian Chetnik General Mihailović after WW2 was shot in Belgrade, Serbia by Serbs for his war crimes against civilians including the murder of babies and children by the Serbian Chetniks. Serbian Chetnik General Mihailović was also convicted of Nazi collaboration.
"The biggest genocide in entire history of Balkan...."
Can you name one town or city that the Serbs were eliminated 100% from during WW2 by the Ustasha organisation?
@@ВаљевојеЗапСрбија Yeah, that`s not true.
Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Bohemia and Moravia, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Hungary, India, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Russia, Spain , Sweden, Switzerland and other countries had Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, but lets talk about Ukraine, Baltic States and former Yugoslavia only because they “celebrate “ them. well done
This was part 2 of a special episode series on a couple of the Slavic SS volunteer groups.
We did an episode a couple years ago on SS volunteers from other countries…
th-cam.com/video/5cOfE8dnuMc/w-d-xo.html
Yes, perfect timing! And Russia is obviously not slavic, while Latvia is?
@@WorldWarTwo since when Baltic nations became Slavic? and yes, where is the review of ruzzian Waffen SS ?
Thank you so much for covering this part of Estonian history.
Thank you for your support!
@@WorldWarTwopročitaj knjigu Kaput,italijanskog novinara Malapurte.
Not " Yugoslav " ( Yes, there was Yugoslavia state, but a few nations in it ) - but Croatian and some Bosnian muslims ( Handžar divizija ) were in SS . Not even one Serbian was a member of ss nor went to the eastern front in ss uniform.
Bosniaks and Croatians are south Slavic people of the former Kingdom of Yugoslavia, therefore our usage term Yugoslav is appropriate.
Actually several thousand Serbs were part of the Serbian Volunteer Corps, under the umbrella of the SS and actively collaborating with the Nazis, but yes, as of March 1944 not formally integrated with the SS.
@@WorldWarTwo First of all, you should make a distinction. In that time, kingdom of Yugoslavia was already. gone. There was "Independant state of Croatia," which included not just Croatia, but Bosnia as well , and it stretched all the way to " old fairground ( Staro sajmište ) in Belgrade. " The independent state of Croatia " - was, as the name suggests, independent ( but in reality - it was the puppet state of nazi Germany.. Many "Bosniaks", as you call them today, then called themselves " muslims " , they were members of the Ustasha movement, and in the uniform of the independent state of Croatia. In contrast, Serbia was an OCCUPIED. The correct name was " Occupation zone - Serbia " ( at least similar ... English is not my native language clearly ... ) Can you name one Serb who went to eastern front in german uniform ( even one from so called " Serbian Volunteer Corps ) ?
Croatians and Bosnians in terms of south slavic ethnicity and their nationality as people of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, have no greater or lesser claim to the labeling of “Yugoslav” than any other South slavic peoples, including Serbs.
Nazi Germans used the term Gebiet des Militärbefehlshabers in Serbien
Historical record seems to point to SVC members typically being assigned Czech or Italian uniforms, especially helmets, not German ones.
Plenty can be named, they will be executed by Tito and his Partisans at the end of the war.
@@WorldWarTwo That was not the answer to my question. Name one Serb who went on eastern front to fight for the Nazi Germany against Russia, in German or any other uniform - as part of " ϟϟ Foreign Fighters " (you can find many Croats and Bosnian Muslims who did that tho as a part of " Independent State of Croatia like I have pointed out in my previous comment. There is a HUGE DIFFERENCE in between occupied Serbia, and so called "Independent State of Croatia" and you simply should not put a sign of equality between them. In Belgrade, capital of Serbia, on March 27 1941, people chose rather to die than to sign a pact with Nazi Germany. In Zagreb, capital of Independent State of Croatia, Nazis were welcomed with flowers. That's the difference. ). Tito executed all those who did not agree with his regime which is not a proof of anything.
@@tinpanalleybluesman I agree bro, it drives me nuts when they try and equate a few thousand misguided Serbs with nazi-puppet Croatia in WW2. These things weren't even in the same area code let alone ballpark. I suspect this type of revisionism really began in the 90's during the Croatian war of independence, when Croats knew they'd have a PR problem garnering support from the west. They hired PR firms that went to work to clean a lot that up, the main goal was to try and create the perception in the west that it was the Serbs who fought for the nazis and the Croats were alongside the allies. Just take a look at the fiasco in the Canadian Parliament a couple of weeks ago and that should tell you everything you need to know that attempted historical revisionism is real and we need to be vigilant against it. BTW, I have not viewed the video yet, so I'm not accusing the content creator of revisionism necessarily, I'm just speaking generally.
"But what motivates these men who fight in the waffen divions"
Either anti-semitism or anti-bolshevism and in many cases both.
The Nazi's often overshadow what the Soviet Union did to Eastern Europe. To many Balts and Ukrainians the nazi's saying "we're anti-bolshevists" was enough.
It's possible to both condemn their actions and beliefs and acknowledge the evil of the Soviet Union.
You’re doing a good presenting Spartacus
Thank you!
I'm Icelandic and according to my heritage I'm 4,1% Baltic and 5,1% Celtic, I'm pretty sure most of the germans had some non Germanic european mix also. Most of us are mix and in fact its healthy. Inbread is not good
Where did you get this amount of two Latvian Waffen-SS divisions as 87.000 men in theirs' top? It's is too much for just 2 divisions (especially for that time when nogmal German infantry|grenadier division was 10.708 combat and 2005 non-combat troops) Was 87.000 total amount of these two divisions volunteers during the whole war, or total amout of Latvians in German service in Waffen-SS, Heer and police structures?
Latvian Legion 87,550 men as of July 1, 1944; with another 23,000 men as Wehrmacht auxiliaries according to wiki
@@Oberschutzee I know about that. But according to other sourses in the Internet it's wrong and 87.000 men in active service in two divisions of Waffen-SS - it's total amount of Legion's members doring 1943-45.
@@lucem.glorifico well it makes sense
Я наверное сейчас заплачу, мне больно писать зная что делали фашисты разной национальности в моей родной Белоруссии , где я родилась, каждый четвёртый житель убит, много людей сожгли живимы. Моя семья выжила, но это было чудо, как моя бабушка смогла сохранить четверых детей в таких диких условиях, 4 года войны. И тем более ужасно понимать что фашисты делали чёрные дела руками украинцев....как и сейчас. Опять немецкие танки убивают русских детей руками украинцев и мы 9 лет просили мира, а детей убивали и весь мир это не замечал, но когда русские пришли защитить Русские поселения в Украине, все закричали нельзя! То есть всех устраивало , что украинская власть убивает русских людей.
Советы убили намного больше людей намного более зверскими методами, у вас одна история, у многих совсем иная.
В чем точно смысла нет, так это в приплетении сюда современной политики, рф начала эту войну совсем не для защиты русских
@@yuzhmash3390 я не отрицаю что при Союзе людей много уничтожали, бабы новых нарожают. А сегодняшняя ситуация продолжение прошлого.
Не знаю откуда ты информацию берешь, в 2014 году появились на территории Восточной Украины проросийские сепаратисты, вот те как раз частенько и убивали мирное население, обычно на блокпостах останавливали и могли обокрасть/изнасиловать/убить. Потом началась война между этими сепаратистами и остатками украинских войск. Продлилась она не больше 3 лет (активная фаза). В 2022 году началась обычная война за инициативой Путина. В каждых войнах страдает мирное население
@@MrKarat-up8gx Сепаратизм (от лат. separatus - «отдельный») - идеология и основанные на ней политические движения, направленные на отделение части территории от существующего государства и ликвидацию его суверенитета над ней.
@@MrKarat-up8gx выучи вначале термины, потом пиши. Украинцы это и есть сепаратисты.
Fantastic as usual!
Paul Milata's book Zwischen Hitler, Stalin und Antonescu. Rumäniendeutsche in der Waffen-SS is a very good book on the subject. He states that Volksdeutsche from Romania fought in the 1stSS div, also in Wiking, Nordland and otherdivisions. Those first divisions were not exvlusive to germans from germany only but they were a majority. Towards the end of the war Volksdeutsche were recruted in large numbers.
Ah, a topic which I am certain causes no controversy in the year 2023 whatsoever...
Why would it
@@stc3145 Look up Azov, Aidar, Spravii sektor, Bandera, and you'll find out.
@@Danny_Boel Lets not forget RONA, Vlasov and Kaminski now. Funny how you lot always look at these things from one side only.
@@Danny_Boel I'd personally look up Wagner PMC and its sub-unit - Rusich Group. I mean, so long as we're being objective..
@@Danny_Boel Read about Wagner and find out yourself
I believe that the Russians had the largest representation of all foreign representation in the German fighting force.
If you believe so, where is your source?
@@mdza i know that 400k Russians fought for the Germans during WW2. Don't know if there was a larger foreign force though.
@ArthurLnz They were not Russians but Ukrainians that fought for German SS troops.
@@mdza no there were Russians and Ukrainians as well. 400k Russians and 250k Ukrainians. It's also not only about the SS but also about the auxiliary police for example
@@mdza Some Russian Cossack formations were transferred to SS. And Russian Liberation Army fought on Germany side until the end of the WW2.
Balts are not slavs!
The idea that racial ethnicity is somehow a precise art fails on the fact that these are not scientific concepts, but ideas in people’s heads. In this case we’re talking about the definition of “Slavs” that the Nazis followed. Now, in an attempt to shoehorn their racism into something that makes it possible to define people’s identity, they managed to take things to an absolutely absurd level. It was rough, imprecise and contradictory at best.
The only verifiable definition of Slavic is a language culture definition. Lithuanian and Latvian are Balto-Slavic languages, while Estonian is a Finno-Ugric language. So… by the only workable definition most of the Baltics are dominated of Slavic language culture. By the definition of the Nazis nothing makes any sense anyway….
@@WorldWarTwo It was delusional of germans to think of this, even when people received medal for bravery there were slavic runes engraved, latvians discarded of those, as I said our people and lithuanians didn’t want to be linked with slavs.
Germans narrattive by the end of 1944 changed towards our people and they just wanted cannon fodder, so they forcefully conscripted our men. There were of course volunteers of which few are considering criminals in our country but you must understand that large portion did enlist voluntarily, because of what soviet did to their families. My grandfathers brother was killed in Baltezers hands tied behind back by soviets in 14 june 1941.
Information regarding Balts: Even the Study of the Rigvedas the first hymn (most
text) of the hymn, was written 62 verdant roots.
There are 52 similar roots in span of 5000 years in
the Latvian language roots, Lithuanian - 38, but
English, Greek, Latin and German language - 8 to 12
roots. Anyone interested could search for that. The Russians were formed from East
Slavic tribes, and their cultural ancestry is
based in Kievan Rus'. Genetically, the
majority of Russians are identical to their
East and West Slavic counterparts; unlike
northern Russians, who belong to the
Northern European Baltic gene pool. Sanskrit
belongs to the Indo-European family of languages.
Latvian is more archaic than Lithuanian in the
intonations inherited from Proto-Baltic sanskrit It is
one of the three earliest ancient documented
languages that arose from a common root language
now referred to as Proto-Indo-European language and not related to russians. We are more related to prussians than slavs.
Your content was good tho👍🏻
Vēsturnieks droši vien nodomāja: if balts looks like a slavs, swims like a slavs and qacks like a slavs, then they probably are slavs. Nothing personal.
but just never mention Croatians. they literarly cleaned in numerous concentration camps Serbs, Gypsies and Jews from the territory of the present day Croatia. Only in Jasenovac (concentration camp) 750 000 people died, 500 000 Serbs and the rest Gewes and Gypsies (either by starvation or by torturing or by further deportation to Germany).
Great Video as always ❤
It must be noted, that in Latvia members of so called SS Freiwilligen Legion around 80%-85% were conscripts. It was called Voluntary as a workaround of Hague 1907 convention which forbids to conscript people of occupied territories. In 1943 6 months prison sentence was instituted to those who refused, but in 1944 death penalty. Also there is lack of record of atrocities committed by members of Legion. Nevertheless members of infamous "Arāja Komanda" who were members of security police and responsible of murdering 25000 jews on November 30 1941 were incorporated in the Legion.
come man. Don't deny they were war criminals.
@@loveroffunnyy they were not. They were not tried in Nuremberg...in fact they were guarding it.
@@0Letten0 wow that's very cool. What about all these jews they helped the germans murder?
And this is why they march around today, proudly? This is why they are equal in status to red army war veterans, and liable to receive the exact same pension? History rewriting at its best.
@@flintb6559 Are you saying that they are perfectly harmless and didn't commit war crimes as waffen SS members?
I worked with a veteran of the Estonian division. You should consider what the Russians did before Barbarossa.
Im sure this comment section will be civil, reasoned, and wont be used to justify certain current events.
We're keeping our eyes on it 👀
@@WorldWarTwo you missed Azov praising comments
There are no Yugoslav Nazis... There where and still are Croatian Nazis, Muslim (Bosniak) Nazis.
Only 3 nations did not voluntary join SS: Czechs, Greeks and Poles.
It wasn't hard to convert Baltic states vs red army - the red army did attack Baltic states in ww1 and occupy them right when ww2 started.
Вообще-то страны Балтии были куплены Петром 1 у шведской короны. Читайте Ништадский мирный договор. Прибалтика была завоевана Петром 1 у Швеции, но что бы шведская корона окончательно отказалась от этих земель Российская империя заплатила ей деньги.
Еще раз повторю, не было никакой независимой Прибалтики! Петр 1 отвоевал эти территории у Швеции. И компенсировал потерю шведской короне серебром. Шведская корона взяла деньги и по сути продала права на Прибалтику.
great video love the channel ty...........................
Thanks Surferjo!
Also SS Handschar division , formed by the Bosnian Muslims, was also very brutal and committed horrific crimes against Serbs. They were much worse than Prinz Eugene although they are Slavs.
I'm somewhat confused regarding the picture at 6:47. You mentioned that the Waffen Divisions were prohibited from wearing Siegrune, and yet the soldiers in the aformentioned picture can be seen with Siegrune on their lapels. Is this photograph an exception to those rules?
Catholic and Muslim SS, not “Yugoslav SS”.
My grandfather grew up in Samobor, and he said that the Germans were actually respectful and ok (they still shat themselves at the sight of the Germans Ofc) and that the Ustaše and Domobrani were equally cruel to and sadistic to even their own Catholic people (cRoATs).
He left Samobor a few years after the war (he was 16-17) and went to Zemun. The place was tainted for him forever.
There is a book by Franz Schraml "Kriegsschauplatz Kroatien"( eng. Croatian Battlefield) about Croatian units under Wehrmacht rule, 369., 373., 379. divisions.
I sta se tu pise ?
@@lillic4712 autor navodi ustroj i ratni put te 3 divizije, zapise i svjedocanstva pojedinih clanova te zapovjednika. Knjiga ima ilustracije iz operacija na podrucju tada NDH. Mislim da je u orginalu napisana 1962., a tek u 90-im prevedena na hrvatski jezik. HR. naziv je "Hrvatsko ratište", i moze se naci u par antikvarijata.
@@stipe_ramo necudime da je tako kasno prevedeno.. ja sam trazila tu knjigu samo nigdje nepise sinopsis knjige. Moram priznat da mi je tesko knjige o ratnu citati jer mi je to pomalo dosadno.. ☺️ ali nasa povijest je jako interesantna. Hvala ti..
@@lillic4712 jako interesantna povjest . Kako istrebiti milion ljudi bez gasnih komora i municije uz pomoć oštrih i tupih predmeta!
@@lakyluciano4219 Ko je tebe sta pito ? Sta trazis ovdje ? Sta je to tebe briga? Goni se odavde i lazi drugima hrvatski stokeru !!
Great episode,but you forget Albanian "skenderbeg" division.
1.50 One million Soviets in service for Germany.
Like your excellent presentation.
During the Great War, the Russian Imperial Army noticed their Latvian soldiers fought well, and decided to create specific Latvian Riflemen regiments and these performed very well- especially as they were often fighting on or near Latvian soil. After the collapse of Russia, they became in essence a national army and helped secure Latvian independence. One group- consisting of working class men from Riga and other cities- known as the "Red Riflemen" became Lenin's personal military bodyguard -as they were ideologically bound to his revolutionary plans. By tacitly allowing the formation of the Latvian Legion, leading nationalists hoped that Latvians would fight together- rather than be dispersed through the Wehrmacht- although some were- and it was considered that these units might, as had been the case 25 years earlier, be able to help again with creating an independent Latvia- as per the Colonel Janums quote you gave. These leaders never imagined, that Germany under Hitler, would fight to the bitter end- fighting on German home territory with a "scorched earth" policy, all the way back to Berlin. This completely negated the vain hope that the war would stalemate in the East and these units might help to form an independent Latvia.
Твои "латышские стрелки "и сделали Русскую революцию, вместе с финами. Они давили все белые восстания. Латыши 1917-1921, это Вагнер 2022-2023 г.
@@ИванИванов-х8й5ч Well, they got their due reward later: "However, “Lenin’s Praetorians” - highly valued in the 1920s - fell dramatically out of favour in the Stalinist 1930s. Most were arrested and shot during the Great Terror."
@@NickRatnieks Лвтыши занимали все руководящие должности в ЧК,НКВД,ГПУ...Комисар латыш Берзин был начальником ГУЛАГ. Самый критический момент революции-восстание эссэпов в Москве-латышкие части подавили восстание и......СПАСЛИ ленина и......РЕВОЛЮЦИЮ.
@@ИванИванов-х8й5ч Yes, they were critical to the survival of Lenin and they were trusted and helped create the machine itself. Their role cannot be underestimated- although very few know about them. As Solzhenitsyn said "They were the midwifes of the Revolution" and it succeeded due to their efforts.
@@NickRatnieks да 100 %,латыши сыграли очень важную роль в русской истории в 20 веке. Малоизвестный факт-латышские "красные стрелки "заходили на территорию независимой Латвии, вступали в бой с немецкими войсками, но по приказу Троцкого были выведены в РСФР. История полна сюрпризов.
A Ukrainian girl at my university told me her grandfather fought in the Galician Division. He believed the Germans were the lesser of the two although the Germans held them in contempt.
@@enemy1191 I think like many Ukrainians he looked on the Germans as liberators. Bullying from German NCOs was endemic. A case of frying pan, fire.
Often collaborators are seen as nothing more than useful fools to the occupying power and that was also the case here. He might have viewed the Germans as a lesser evil, but in fact the Germans planned to exterminate the Ukrainian people and settle the country with Germans if they won the war.
Not surprisingly the number of Ukrainians that fought against the Axis greatly outnumbered those that fought for it.
I'd be suprised if he hadn't held them in contempt.
@@informedtraveler3014 yeah very true
@@informedtraveler3014Why?
Thank you for this video my opa was in the 20% of Christian Croatia's in the handshar as a interpreter and was told he didn't join out of choice. I'd like to say I've learnt a little bit more about him today and thanks goes to you guys and all your hard work. He survived the war and immigrated to Australia with his family
11, 12, 13 SS Handžar Divisions were all volonteer units... Sorry to dissapoint you
He was a nazzi ustasha who was helping to kill over a million Serbs in nazzi puppet state of croatia
Those were volonterer divisions! Disgusting and shame!
@@LetsDance1244 if you don't know so shut up !!
Деда те је слагао бато
369 Croatian division operated in the territory of Ukraine and Kiev.
out of 100,000 Ustasha, approximately 500 of them were sent to train Muslims (Croatian flowers) of the SS Handjar division..amazed by the terror and violence and the spread of fear..together they ended up across Ukraine on the Volga River
Judging from the comment section some folks are still fighting the war in their minds.
Another example how necessity makes strange bedfellows.
A comment to show my support for the channel, and to feed it's TH-cam algorithm. It is good to see you are getting some sponsorship
Thanks as always Salty!
Worth pointing out that a lot of the soldiers in foreign Waffen divisions were only voluntary in principe in reality it was like you can choose not to join but it’s a death sentence to you and your family
That’s not correct. It’s correct for a lot of foreign fighters in the Wehrmacht, but the Waffen Divisions were recruited by voluntary draft.
@@spartacus-olsson it was the case in all countries except maybe in Holland and France.
@@sargonsblackgrandfather2072 where are you getting this information? The SS Waffen divisions were recruited with volunteers in all countries. The Wehrmacht on the other hand conscripted people against their will. It’s really that simple. For instance; there was no Polish Waffen Division. Yet some Volksdeutsche who had been Polish citizens before 1939 served voluntarily in the Waffen SS (as Volksdeutsche they qualified for the regular Waffen SS, so no need for a Polish Waffen Division). Far more German speaking Poles (by a factor of many) were conscripted into the Wehrmacht against their will.
@@spartacus-olsson latvian legion majority were consripts
@@Oberschutzee based on a semi voluntary draft….
As always, brilliant 👍
Thank you!
There was no Yugoslav SS, only Croatian SS division, Bosnian Muslim SS and Albanian SS division. Their main goal was genocide over Serbs, and some even went to Stalingrad to help their nazy lords.
There were Serbian collaborationists too, people need to stop denying history.
@@POCKET-SAND Oh yeaa ? Was there any Serbian SS unit ? Or maybe there were some Serbian soldiers fighting alongside Germans ? No ! When You say colaboratiors, You probably mean on colaboration of Uk and France in destroying Chezhoslovakia, or even on sympathies that British royal familly publicly displayed for Her Hitler.
@@ljubisazecevic509 Chetniks, my friend.
@@POCKET-SAND They were acctually called Yugoslav Army in Homeland, and were under controll of government in exile from London. Some of them did collaborate with Italians and Germans, like Chetniks from Dalmatia, as Italians from Dalmatia were defending Serbian people from Croatian fashists Ustasha. Most of Chetniks didnt colaborate at all.
@@ljubisazecevic509 Many did
Just notice how there was no polish ss divisions
No, but many Western Poles were drafted into the Wehrmacht.
@@POCKET-SAND likely against their will or if working for the AK, for espionage purposes
Poland was a different story since Poland was invaded together by Germany and Soviet Union when they were allies. Other countries mentioned here were invaded by Soviet Union in 1939 to 1940, and later when Germany betrayed Soviets and attacked, those nations invaded by Soviets were "happy" to see Germans as their liberators.
You've got me very curious about the Lithuanian situation, any recommendations for further study here?
OUN and UPA.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithuanian_Territorial_Defense_Force
The book "The Unknown Eastern Front - The Wehrmacht and Hitler's Foreign Soldiers" by Rolf-Dieter Muller has a short(7 page) chapter on Lithuania.
I once heard a lecture by Lithuanian she-writer who was telling how common Lithuanians were involved in elimination of Jews and were viewing this as just an ordinary job:(
Too bad our PM'S Office here in Canada didn't see this before inviting a member of these forces to attend our House of Commons for a warm reception.
... really? They didn't see? Oh c'mon! Burst that bubble you're living in...or take off those pink glasses once and let yourself to see reality!
They honored Mr. Hunka in 2007 as well, you may want to check that out, unless I have some bad info.
Can you make one about dutch SS groups? Historical writing in my country is from my personal experience deeply in denial about the amount of volunteers that fought for the nazi's.
About 50 thousand young Dutch men served in the german army. About 25 thousand worked as non-combatants driving trucks etc. but about 25 thousand fought in the SS, about 5 thousand died.
First part of this is linked in the description. That covers the earlier West European foreign SS legions.
Stephan at History Hustle also did at least one video on conscripts and volunteers, including the Dutch.
There is also a moving dutch documentary by the public TV NCRV called "Zwarte Soldaten" (Soldiers in black, after a collaborateur song) in which now old ex-SS men relay how they came to join. One describes how he blundered into joining, another repents, another is still dressed in black. Interesting insight into how ordinary people thought and dealt with the circumstances, and how they struggled to justify it.
Not really. That figure is well established. See some comments from others to your post. There is no denial there. The Netherlands also saw the highest number in Western Europe of Jews deported and killed. Some 70 to 75% were killed. In NL, they would like to tell you that people were indifferent and that there was big collaboration and little resistance. But figures show that the number of people in the resistance and the ones that collaborated were not higher or lower than in other Western European countries. And just like there, most people did nothing actually, neither resisted or collaborated. What sets NL apart was that unlike other countries, NL was not under the administration of the Wehrmacht but of the SS with Seisinquart and the SD being particularly fanatic. The Nazis also encountered a sophisticated civil administration that for tax reasons kept record who belonged to which religion (the State contribution to churches and synagogues was based on tax). NL at the time was also a highly pillared society with neighborhoods for Catholics, Protestants and Jews. So the Germans found everybody were they wanted them to be.
There were no 'Yugoslav nazis' - after the break of Kingdom of Yugoslavia in spring of 1941. the SS units came from Independent State of Croatia (which at that time also included most of present-day Bosnia and Hercegovina) who were then sent to fight Soviets. So in the context of your narrative, please be more careful with labels as the use of 'Yugoslav nazis' are inaccurate and misleading and can be interpreted as insulting.
Interesting video
Bosnian Handžar SS Division, Kaminsky Brigade, Ustashe.
“Yugoslav nazi”? What you talking??
@Ms Kozul
We’re talking about two groups of Yugoslav SS volunteers
@@WorldWarTwo I am sorry
What two Group? 7500 students and teachers was killed in Serb Kragujevac in one Day 4500 in Valjevo what about Jasenovac, Jadovno and many other! Hitler and Croatian! Only Serb presented themselves
Yugoslav!? You didn’t want tell
“Croatian” this is bloody history don’t hide it behind others!
Don’t talk if you not talk the truth?! You hurting others!
In this video we talked about Croatian and Bosnian Muslim SS Volunteers, two groups of Yugoslav peoples.
We spoke the truth the entire video.