Dirlewanger Brigade

Rare card · No. 59469

The Dirlewanger Brigade, also known as the 2.SS-Sturmbrigade Dirlewanger (19 December 1944), or the 36th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (German: 36. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS), or The Black Hunters (German: Die schwarzen Jäger), was a unit of the Waffen-SS during World War II. The unit, named after its commander Oskar Dirlewanger, consisted of convicted criminals, other prisoners, and some volunteers. Originally formed from convicted poachers in 1940 and first deployed for guarding a labor camp and later 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." The unit is regarded as the most infamous Waffen-SS unit in Poland and Belarus, and arguably the worst military...

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