The SS-Sonderkomma​ndo "Dirlewanger": a Memoir

[Mil-Archive]

By the way, gents, it mentions on page 109 there were soldiers in the Dirlewanger division from Turkish descent, was this true?

It's been a while since I read the McClean book 'Cruel Hunters' but I don't remember any mention of Turkish people or people of Turkish descent being members.

On p.282 of there is a 'Composition of Sonderkommando Dirlewanger' chart which lists Foreign troop levels at:

July 1940 - June 1942 0%
June 1942-June 1943 15%
July 1943 - June 1944 30%
July 1944 - Nov 1944 10%
Dec 1944 - Feb 1945 5%
Feb 1945 - May 1945 5%

If they were almost 1/3 foreign at one point then I'd guess it's possible.

[MarcRikmenspoel]

The Sonderkommando Dirlewanger often contained Soviet citizens recruited from where the unit was stationed. It would be natural that some of those ex-Red Army men would be Turks from, say, Turkestan. I doubt it was intended to mean Turks from Turkey.

[Mil-Archive]

The Sonderkommando Dirlewanger often contained Soviet citizens recruited from where the unit was stationed. It would be natural that some of those ex-Red Army men would be Turks from, say, Turkestan. I doubt it was intended to mean Turks from Turkey.

That makes a lot more sense.

[Lee Luke]

Just finished it. Worth reading. It is one soldiers view and memories of his years with the Dirlewanger SonderKommando. It may not be completely historical accurate but what other veteran of this unit has published his memoir?

Keeping his identity hidden is an understandable request, due to the reputation of this unit.

[SSamir]

The Sonderkommando Dirlewanger often contained Soviet citizens recruited from where the unit was stationed. It would be natural that some of those ex-Red Army men would be Turks from, say, Turkestan. I doubt it was intended to mean Turks from Turkey.

It also could be Turkmenistan, because it says "Turkmen".

[Mil-Archive]

My copy of 'The SS-Sonderkommando "Dirlewanger": a Memoir' arrived and as of page 50 it is very good so far.

One thing I noticed is that chunks of this book are copy pasted from an earlier German language one ;

'Das SS-Sonderkommando "Dirlewanger": Der Einsatz in Weißrussland 1941-1944'. (hardback 220 pages)

http://www.bookdepository.com/Das-SS.../9783895557644

For example the entire timeline, maps and all are lifted from that one.

Also, random photo pages (not just pictures but layout and captions) are reprinted from the earlier German one.

For anyone who is interested there is a third Michaelis Dirlewanger related one which is not too expensive at the moment here :

http://www.bookdepository.com/Die-SS.../9783895557064

These German language ones are a slightly smaller size than the english language one but tend to have good map, photo and document content.

I also picked up his 'Anti-partisan badge' book today which is informative but at 38 pages is more of a big article than a book (considering the amount of pages which are photographs or document scans). And annoyingly that one is different format size to both the english language memoir and to the German language dirlewanger ones.

[Mil-Archive]

Finished reading it last night and thought it was quite good overall. It's concise and written in a no-frills, down to earth kind of a way what makes it very easy to read and absorb.

I would have preferred more detail in certain parts. For example often he says things like 'where we were accompanied by a Police Batallion' and so on it would be good to know Which Police batallion etc. He does seem to have a better memory for identifying SS units than he does for non SS.

Overall I'd say its a good book that doesn't dwell on atrocities but doesn't pretend they didn't happen either. I have a Motorised Felgendarmerie photo group from White Russia/Belarus including Minsk, Mogilev etc during this time frame and so it was good to have some background context and finally know what those fortified structures adjacent train tracks were built for. As I was reading it I expected to turn the page and land on some ‘very bad stuff’ which never really seemed to fully materialise.

There are points where for example it says things like ;

'we found quite a few defiled women and girls, as well as executed elderly people. . . . . . when we saw the dead German civilians, we didn't waste any time here. We buried the dead soldiers and civilians and prepared defensive positions.'

It's not clear to me if the 'we didn't waste any time here' could be hinting at something more, or it could just be the way it's translated. Maybe the units notoriety leads the reader to expect more ? The book is 110 pages approx. text, I think it’d have been better to be about 240 pages, slightly more detail all the way through. Not sure what amount of material Michaelis had to work with but I think the book would have been better with more substance. Still a very readable and recommendable book.