Why did Dirlewanger division soldiers wear masks?

[Gernika81]

Hi. Looking for information about the infamous Dirlewanger division on the Internet, I came across a curious pic from 2 soldiers of that division in action in Warsaw, wearing camo masks or something like that. Which was the purpose of wearing those masks? Camo purposes or maybe to hide their identities when they commited the atrocities among the population?

The pic is a bit scary, taking into account the violence of these soldiers during the Warsaw uprising.

[David Fettes]

The background does not look like it is in a city and the masks are made from Army splinter pattern. IMO this photo has nothing to do with the Dirlewanger unit.

As for your comment "maybe to hide their identities when they commited the atrocities among the population?" I think you will find that they did not think they were committing atrocities, they were just doing their job. Hell they probably even enjoyed it, they didnt give a damm, so why hide the face.

[Thorsten B.]

Yes - why hiding their faces?

What do they have to be afraid of?

Most - if not all - men of this unit faced unspoken scenes of violence way before taking part in Warsaw uprising anyway, so what´s the point?

[Gernika81]

Yes, you must be right. They were criminals, so why to hide their faces?

[Thorsten B.]

Can you tell us the source in detail?

[Gernika81]

http://www.thedarkpaladin.com/dirlewanger.htm

[fritztk]

Yes, you must be right. They were criminals, so why to hide their faces?

criminals..
hmmm.
depends on your morals i suppose..
cheers
fraser

[viva_giulio]

this pic it's from a scout team. in a patrol a scout team must be almost invisible cause quite always the mission is to report enemy force, position etc etc

Use less fantasy with Waffen SS. The best army in the modern age (a jewish study report that)

[Dmv]

agree, just camo, although very interesting!

[Woolgar]

Camo, similar to the ghostly snow camo masks seen in the Ardennes

Nick

[Ohlau]

criminals..
hmmm.
depends on your morals i suppose..

What "hmmm" ? THEY WERE CRIMINALS with no doubts. Even for german staff.


Soldiers with face mask - aren't they from "Brandendburg" troops ?

[Texasuberalles]

The soldier in front is holding a Russian sub machine gun.

[Thorsten B.]

Yes - with Trommelmagazin.

Well, they were better than the Schmeisser at some point.

I would love to know if somebody has such a camo mask in his collection or pics at least and willing to share them here.

Hannibal Lecter would be a fan of them as well, I suppose :-)

[Basil]

There is no real reason to think these are Dirlewanger soldiers; there was no special reason for Dirlewanger soldiers to wear camouflaged masks. This actually looks like some kind of PR photo: the W-SS would not have featured the Dirlewanger unit.

[Ian Hulley]

This actually looks like some kind of PR photo: the W-SS would not have featured the Dirlewanger unit.

There were enough glamorous looking heroes and foreign celebrity soldiers to feature without routing out the likes of the Dirlewanger and Kaminski 'soldiers'.

Ian