Dirlewanger Brigade | |
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German: 36. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS | |
![]() Division insignia | |
Active | 1940–45 |
Country | ![]() |
Branch | ![]() |
Type | Infantry |
Role | Bandenbekämpfung (security warfare; literally "combating of bandits") |
Size | Brigade Division |
Nickname(s) | Black Hunters |
Engagements | |
Commanders | |
Notable commanders | Oskar Dirlewanger |
The Dirlewanger Brigade, also known as the SS-Sturmbrigade Dirlewanger (1944),[1] or the 36th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (German: 36. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS), or The Black Hunters (German: Die schwarzen Jäger),[2] was a unit of the Waffen-SS during World War II. The unit, named after its commander Oskar Dirlewanger, consisted of convicted criminals. Originally formed from convicted poachers in 1940 and first deployed for counter-insurgency duties against the Polish resistance movement, the brigade saw service in German-occupied Eastern Europe, with an especially active role in the anti-partisan operations in Belarus. The unit is regarded as the most brutal and notorious Waffen-SS unit, with its soldiers described as the "ideal genocidal killers who neither gave nor expected quarter".[3][4][5] The unit is regarded as the most infamous Waffen-SS unit in Poland and Belarus.[6]
During its operations, the unit participated in the mass murder of civilians and committed other atrocities in German-occupied Eastern Europe. It gained a reputation among Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS officers for its brutality. The unit epitomized the "anti-partisan activity on the Eastern front that emerged from the image of the hunt and the animalization of the enemy".[7]
According to French historian Christian Ingrao, Dirlewanger's unit committed the worst atrocities of the Second World War.[8] The unit killed at least 30,000 civilians in Belarus alone,[9][10] with up to over 120,000 killed and 200 villages destroyed by Dirlewanger's unit in Belarus.[11] Several members such as Hans von Cullen were put to death after the war by ad-hoc tribunals. Several commanders attempted to remove Dirlewanger from command and to dissolve the unit, but powerful patrons within the Nazi apparatus protected Dirlewanger and intervened on his behalf. Amongst other actions, the unit took part in the destruction of Warsaw in late 1944 and in the Wola massacre of more than 50,000 of Warsaw's inhabitants in August 1944 during the Warsaw Uprising – as well as in the brutal suppression of the Slovak National Uprising of August to October 1944.
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