Azerbaijani SS volunteer formations were recruited from capturedAzerbaijaniprisoners of war from theRed Army, which was the military force ofSoviet Union. Twenty years beforeWorld War II andOperation Barbarossa, the USSR hadinvaded Azerbaijan and sovietized it during the occupation into theAzerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. An estimated 600,000 Azerbaijanis were recruited into the Soviet Army during the war.[citation needed]
In November 1943, Meyer-Mader offered his services toHimmler to help raise and command a Turkic SS unit. Himmler approved the broad plan and then transferred him into the ranks of theWaffen-SS and promoted him to the rank ofSS-Obersturmbannführer. Then, on 14 December, a meeting was held in Berlin in the presence of theGrand Mufti of Jerusalem,Amin al-Husseini. The Grand Mufti approved the plan to raise a Turkic-Muslim SS division and to give his "spiritual leadership" to influence the Muslim volunteers.[1][2]
Between November 1943 and January 1944, there was a series of meetings between Meyer-Mader and Muslim volunteers. As a result of these meetings, on January 4, 1944, it was decided to form the East Muslim SS Regiment(Ostmuselmanisches SS-Regiment). At the same meeting, it was decided to disband the followingWehrmacht'sOsttruppen battalions who would serve as a basis for a new platform: 450th, 480th, 782nd, 786th, 790th, 791st and I/94thTurkestanische battalions, Azerbaijani 818th and Volga Tatar 831st. Many of the volunteers deserted at this time, and the 818th defected toPolish andUkrainian resistance movements in 1943.[3][4]
Furthermore, at the same time, Meyer-Mader visited prisoners of war camps and called for volunteers to join the new Muslim SS legion. The recruits were not only Turkestani but also Azerbaijani, Kyrgyz, Uzbek, and Tajik. By the end of January 1944, he was able to recruit 3,000 volunteers who were concentrated inPoniatowa. To increase the staffing regiment, dozens of German officers and non-commissioned officers were transferred there. Nevertheless, it was a prolonged process, mainly due to a lack of equipment, including uniforms and even shoes. Therefore, by the October 1944 deadline, which Himmler appointed for the deployment of divisions, the regiment had only 4,000 people formed into 3battalions.
The unit was formed inTrawniki, Poland, before they were transferred toByelorussia for further training.SS-Obersturmbannführer Andreas Meyer-Mader was appointed as its first commander.[5][6]
This unit suffered from poor discipline, and poor morale, especially after Meyer-Mader was killed during a skirmish with partisans in Yuratishki, nearMinsk, on March 28, 1944. The situation worsened when the replacement commander,SS-Hauptsturmführer Billig, executed 78 unit members forinsubordination. This incident angered Himmler, who relieved Billig.[7][5][2] In May 1944, the 550 men (Turkestanis,Volga Tatars, Azerbaijanis, Kyrgyz, Uzbeks, and Tajiks) from theOstmuslemanische SS-Regiment were attached to theSS-Sonderregiment Dirlewanger.[8]
On January 29, 1944,Heinz Reinefarth was assigned asSS and Police Leader inReichsgau Wartheland (the pre-war PolishPoznań Voivodeship, annexed by Germany in 1939). In this post, he was responsible for the organised repression against Poles and other nationalities deprived of all rights by Germany. After the outbreak of theWarsaw Uprising, Reinefarth was ordered to organise a military unit from the 16th Police Company and other smaller security units and head forWarsaw. Upon arrival, his forces were included in theKorpsgruppe Von Dem Bach of GeneralErich von dem Bach-Zelewski who Himmler ordered to quell the rebellion.
From August 5, 1944, Reinefarth's group fought in theWola area. In several days, his andDirlewanger's soldiers executed approximately 40,000 civilian inhabitants ofWarsaw in what is now known as theWola massacre. The Wola killings were mostly inflicted byKampfgruppe Reinefarth that assaulted the area held by the insurgents from the west.
It is hard to determine which specific units are to be held responsible, but the main “cleansing” tasks had been assigned toAngriffsgruppe Dirlewanger with following forces:
Lack of precise documentation does not allow to specify precisely which elements of the above were involved in the Wola killing. It is also possible that some units of the other assault group that operated in the Wola area (Angriffsgruppe Reck) were taking active part in the events, as they also consisted of police/gendarmerie and special assignment units (Hptm. Kirchhubel'sWarschau Polizei Kompanie, Hptm. Fersemann'sPolizei Wachtkompanie, platoon ofSS-Röntgen MG Kompanie fromPoznań, but also SS Grenadiere of SS-Schule Treskau and Azerbaijani 7.Komp/II Bt. Bergmann).[9]
On October 20, 1944, the rest of theOstmuselmanisches SS-Regiment was transferred from Ukraine to Slovakia and renamed "Osttürkische Waffen-Verbände der SS" and reorganized into 3 battalions organized along ethnic lines.
Each battalion would consist of staff, one staff company and 5 infantry companies. TheOstmuselmanisches regiment was integrated into theOsttürkische Waffen-Verbände der SS and was considered to be dissolved. In December 1944, theWaffen-Gruppe Aserbeidschan (commanderW-Ostuf Kerrar Alesgerli) was transferred to theKaukasiche Waffen-Verbände der SS. The disbanded TatarWaffen Gebirgs Brigade der SS would replace the Azerbaijani soldiers; Commander: SS-StandartenführerHarun el-Raschid Hintersatz. (born Wilhelm Hintersatz (A German officer, born in Senftenberg, Lausitz, who had converted to Islam in 1919.[10])
The reorganisations began in January 1945 as follows:
Apparently, new “volunteers” were integrated because theOsttürkische Waffen-Verbände had increased from 5,000 men in January 1945 to 8,500 men in the period of February–May 1945. As Hitler's Reich crumbled, the Waffen-SS gave up all adherence to standards for recruit selection. If they could walk and shoot a rifle, they were good enough for the SS. At this time, all German military forces were scraping the bottom of the manpower barrel - for example, in January 1945,Heer and Waffen-SS recruiting centres were combined. Waffen-SS troops were increasingly transfers from other military branches of the Wehrmacht from paramilitary and labour formations.[2][5][11][12][13] The whole unit arrived in March 1945 inMerate, 30 km north ofMilan,northern Italy. Assigned to the area's defence, theOsttürkische Waffen-Verbände apparently participated in no larger operation against partisans. On 26 April 1945, Hintersatz signed a pact with the local partisan command, according to which the soldiers would remain in the barracks in Merate until the US troops arrived. This happened on 30 April 1945, the whole unit went into the1st Armored Division's hands.[14]
In December 1944, while training inSlovakia, a rumour that the unit was to be transferred toRussian Liberation Army demoralized the soldiers. On December 24, 450 men deserted onChristmas Eve, although 300 eventually returned. The Azerberjani regiment was removed from theOsttürkische Waffen-Verbände on 30 December 1944, and transferred toKaukasischer Waffen-Verband der SS.[15]
Kaukasischer Waffen-Verband der SS, also known asFreiwilligen Brigade Nordkaukasien, began forming with volunteers from the Caucasus region, with theFreiwilligen-Stamm-Division as a nucleus. It was transferred from theNeuhammer training camp toPaluzza in northern Italy in Jan. 1945 and was still forming when it surrendered to British forces at the end of the war.
Organisation:[16]
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