Forgotten heroes of the forgotten war

It took 64 years only to the brave German authorities to find criminals from so called Dirlewanger brigade responsible for mass killings in Warsaw 1944.
But of course it was a Polish daily Rzeczpospolita who has published the recently discovered ss brigade list .
Die ewig gestrigen Polacken !

The police is just starting examination of some 80 years old ss-members, all of them ending their days as model citizens of the Bundesrepublik.
Are they calling for reconciliation or perhaps complaining of "Poles living in the past" ?
Whatever, I'm sure they even "don't remember" any Warsaw uprising.

Polish link: tvn24.pl/-1,1579208.1,0,1,odnalezli-katow-warszawy,wiadomosc.html

Wouldn't it be irrelevant even if they called for it? I'm unaware of any age limitations for these gentlemen to face charges.

Hope they get hanged for the crimes they did.

btw, a school in Kreuztal, Germany, named after Friedrich Flick (a tycoon using slave labour, a member of the Nazi party, which he of course funded generously, after the WWII convicted for 7 years in Nuremberg Trials) after reoccurring petitions from its ex-students, finally changed the name and is now called Städtisches [=Municipal] Gymnasium Kreuztal (on Wiki, in German language only)

As a matter of fact we don't have any veracious record of Dirlewanger's death.
But look what I,ve found searching the web for "Direlewanger":

Oskar Dirlewanger was recovering from his last wound at a hospital in Althausen, Bavaria, at the end of the war. On June 1st, 1945, French occupation forces used Polish soldiers in their service to forcibly bring him to the Althausen jail. Dirlewanger was beaten and tortured over the next several days. He died under torture from the Polish guards during the night of June 4-5. This information was supressed at the time, and many bogus sightings of him were made around the world, until his remains were exhaumed and identified in 1960. Thus ended the life of a man who lived by, and excelled at, violence.

Just some commentary...

I think you have to draw the line somewhere. So every man who wore a SS uniform should be punished? What is the difference between SS and ground forces of the SA or air of Luftwaffe or Kreigsmarine or the conscripted general German Army?

Post-war a lot of NAZI senior officers who were in charge of camps, brigades, battalions, etc. were tired accordingly... though, some now in history want the ground pounders to pay as well; I do not think that is logical.

I commend the Jewish peoples and the Israeli government for searching (at vain sometimes) world-wide for surviving senior officers of the Reich in order to bring them to justice... in modern history no other government or peoples have been so angered to bring themselves vindication like the Israelis/Jews.

H

Definitely - there was a big difference between Waffen-ss combat units and so called Allgemaine ss, more or less, the political "arm" of the nazi-party.

After the war, the judges of the Nuremberg Trials declared part of the SS a criminal organization.
I tend to see some of the Waffen ss unit as "less criminal" but believe me:
drawing the line is pretty hard here.

For example some Russians are ready to recognize Vlasov army as a patriotic anti-commie organization.
I would rather admit general Vlasov was a Russian patriot but for sure not his bunch of criminals coming partially from Kaminski brigade.
It was not my only example - for sure Jewish organizations consider Waffen ss from the Baltics to be Holocaust responsible.
For many Latvians or Estonians they are freedom fighters.

But all these do not refers to Dirlewanger.
I can imagine torturing him was a pleasure.

Dirlewanger was a sadistic pervert, period!
He was in jail for raping kids already before he came to the SS....he met a fitting end!


yup!

Happy new year for all friends and enemies...