Captured German Records About The Dirlewanger Brigade - Looking For Translation Help

[PAB_Collector]

Hey guys,

please see my thread in the Paperwork section, may be of interest:

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...d.php?t=521023

[GeorgM]

Not to hijack the thread, but I wonder if estate agents in Esslingen a.N. have to divulge who the former tenant of Kesselwassen 16 was when selling it? I wonder if it is common knowledge ("Oh, yes, that was Dirlewanger's house.") who lived where. Germany must be full of such places.

[Basil]

Yes, interesting, but surely French MacLean's 'The Cruel Hunters' is essentially a digest of all the NARA material on the Dirlewanger Brigade? IMHO, H.-P. Klausch's 'Antifaschisten in SS-Uniform' (Edition Temmen 1993) is a more comprehensively researched account, whilst Rolf Michaelis also used the NARA material extensively, as well as digging up a few interesting photos, soldbuchs etc.

In summary, I'm not sure the 'Dirlewanger Brigade' is much of a mystery any more (a bit like the British Free Corps, which used to very obscure but isn't any longer). There aren't a lot of known photographs of the unit, but it was relatively small and primarily employed on duties which the SS didn't want photographed.

[PAB_Collector]

Yes, interesting, but surely French MacLean's 'The Cruel Hunters' is essentially a digest of all the NARA material on the Dirlewanger Brigade? IMHO, H.-P. Klausch's 'Antifaschisten in SS-Uniform' (Edition Temmen 1993) is a more comprehensively researched account, whilst Rolf Michaelis also used the NARA material extensively, as well as digging up a few interesting photos, soldbuchs etc.

In summary, I'm not sure the 'Dirlewanger Brigade' is much of a mystery any more (a bit like the British Free Corps, which used to very obscure but isn't any longer). There aren't a lot of known photographs of the unit, but it was relatively small and primarily employed on duties which the SS didn't want photographed.

MacLean's work is a skim of the surface of the material, one could write a multi volume set on the Brigade with what is available.

[Thorsten B.]

Great info source!

If you need help in translation feel free to let me know.

[PAB_Collector]

Great info source!

If you need help in translation feel free to let me know.

PM sent.

[Basil]

MacLean's work is a skim of the surface of the material, one could write a multi volume set on the Brigade with what is available.

Well, yes and no. I've had a look through the NARA material on the Dirlewanger Brigade and much of it is fairly inconsequential. MacLean did a reasonable job of extracting the key elements for his book - from a historian's point of view at least - although obviously things like award lists etc are interesting to collectors. Where MacLean didn't make much effort was in talking to survivors, of whom there were a surprisingly large number, or finding first person testimony. It was actually something of a badge of honour in East Germany to have been drafted to serve in the Dirlewanger Brigade, and this is the angle from which Klausch approached it. The DDR recognised that many serving in the unit by the end were hard-core Socialists and Communists: these were the guys who deserted en masse in the spring of 45 after they had been drafted from the KLs to Dirlewanger's unit.

Anyway, good luck with your research.

[PAB_Collector]

Well, yes and no. I've had a look through the NARA material on the Dirlewanger Brigade and much of it is fairly inconsequential. MacLean did a reasonable job of extracting the key elements for his book - from a historian's point of view at least - although obviously things like award lists etc are interesting to collectors. Where MacLean didn't make much effort was in talking to survivors, of whom there were a surprisingly large number, or finding first person testimony. It was actually something of a badge of honour in East Germany to have been drafted to serve in the Dirlewanger Brigade, and this is the angle from which Klausch approached it. The DDR recognised that many serving in the unit by the end were hard-core Socialists and Communists: these were the guys who deserted en masse in the spring of 45 after they had been drafted from the KLs to Dirlewanger's unit.

Anyway, good luck with your research.

I guess that depends on ones perception of "inconsequential" information.

I find Cruel Hunters to be real nice shell of information, but the details and innards of the unit are omitted (understandably), I think a much more detailed work is possible for us detail junkies.