Did Lithuanian Auxillaries assist Einsatzgruppen?

[ItsWillCmp]

Hi everyone, as a few of you know, my great grandfather served in the Waffen-SS and was later killed in Yugoslavia in 1944 while serving with the 21. SS Skanderbeg Division. After the war, his widowed wife married a Lithuanian man who she met. According to my Oma he served in the German Army during ww2 but this seemed a bit strange to me. I am only familiar with Lithuanians serving as auxiliaries for the Einsatzgruppen. So this begs the question, did Lithuanians ever serve in the Wehrmacht and if they only served in the auxiliary function, who did they mainly help out?

P.S. I know he was a major alcoholic after the war, up until he died. So maybe if he did assist the Einsatzgruppen this might explain the alcoholism.

Thanks again for any help,

Will C

[hucks216]

Due to the size of the Wehrmacht I dare say there would of been some Lithuanians serving within it although how many I have no idea.
As for the Lithuanian Auxiliaries, just do a Google search and you will see lots of links for the crimes carried out by them, such as:

The German army occupied Žiežmariai on June 24, 1941. Local nationalists took over the town and launched an assault on the Jewish inhabitants, accusing them of shooting Lithuanians. They looted the Jews’ possessions and murdered several Jewish men. On August 27-28, 1941, Einsatzkommando 3a, commanded by Karl Jaeger, and the Lithuanian auxiliary police murdered the Jewish population of Žiežmariai along with Jews from Kaisiadorys and Žasliai. The town’s remaining Jewish women and children were murdered on August 29, 1941.
( https://www.yadvashem.org/untoldstor...ex.asp?cid=484 )

Lithuanian volunteers were also involved in the massacre at Ponary Forest.

[Ironcrown]

Lithuanians were not considered arians by the germans, and unlike with the Latvians and Esthonians they did not form SS volunteers units with them. However, many Lithuanians were drafted into the Wehrmacht, mainly in second line or workers units, as they were generally not considered as trustworthy soldiers.
In some cases they saw action, like in September 1944 on the Gothic Line, When around 40 "volunteers" from a workers battalion were sent to the first line to reinforce the FJ Sturmregiment under attack at the Giogo Pass. Some were killed in action but most of these soldiers surrendered at the first opportunity.

Here are a couple of dogtags from my collection that were found at Giogo Pass. "Lit" obviously means "Litauer". Probably these were discarded by the surrendering owners.
Note the high serial numbers, meaning that the Lithuanians drafted into the Wehrmacht (in the Lufwaffe, in this case) were probably many thousands.

[Edward]

Lithuanians citizens who were considered Volksdeutch were considered trustworthy and drafted into the Wehrmacht. I had a group of docs at one time to one such individual who was born and lived in Lithuania. He even served in the pre-war Lithuanian Army. He was later killed on the Russian Front serving oddly enough with the Bavarian 7th Infanterie-Division.

[Ironcrown]

I meant to say Lithuanians of lithuanian ethnicity, Volksdeutsche were of course considered in a different way. But in my opinion, due the lack of manpower, even not Volkdeutsche were accepted into the Wehrmacht.
Reading the 1959 I see that ethnic germans were very few: out of a population of circa 2.700.000 inhabitants, only 11.166 were considered of german origin. Probably during the war there were more, but I don't think about millions!

[Edward]

But in my opinion, due the lack of manpower, even not Volkdeutsche were accepted into the Wehrmacht.

In the set of documents I had it also came with his Wehrpass showing military service and other papers as a regular front soldier.

[ItsWillCmp]

Thank you all for your responses! They've been quite informative.

[Pierre]

If I am not mistaking I think that the second best sniper of the Wehrmacht was Bruno Sutkus, lithuanian guy who served in the 68. Infanterie Division.


Pierre