A look at the man and the unit who set Eastern Europe on fire.
In warfare throughout history we are confronted with brutality. The ancient Mongols left a trail of death and devastation that was complete and heartless. We often forget today of the hundred of cities that have been ‘sacked’ by invaders throughout time where no one was spared. Recent history is no exception to this dark side of martial struggle. During World war two several heinous units existed. In the Pacific theater the Japanese Army’s top secret Unit 721 is the subject of recent exposure in its barbaric activities. In the European theater dozens of Soviet NKVD units committed war crimes that will probably never be known. These however are eclipsed by the butchers of SS General Doctor Oskar Dirlewanger’s special commando unit named after him. The unit was formed from hardened criminals who were given the chance to either die in concentration camps or serve in Dirlewanger’s horde. Once in the unit it really was a case of the inmates running the asylum. In fact, many of the members were recruited from asylums for the criminally insane towards the end of the war. Starting off as a small company sized unit of some 84 men, it grew to a full division of more than 6,000.
Their commander was himself a convicted child molester and rapist and only military service allowed him to escape from the concentration camp as well. It was known that Dirlewanger was paranoid in command, prone to giving extreme orders and enforcing his own brand of battlefield discipline. He ordered several of his own men shot or hung for what he saw as breaches of discipline. He led from the front when his unit was in combat and was often wounded. When conducting so called ‘punitive’ operations he was a total brute, directing the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of civilians in which he took a very hands on part. He was captured while in hospital after the war and never made it to a war crimes trial.
