36th Waffen Grenadier Division of The SS - Composition

Composition

On 14 June 1940, the Wilddiebkommando Oranienburg (Oranienburg Poacher's Command), a part of the Waffen-SS was formed. On 24 June 1940, Himmler made Dirlewanger its commander. By 1 July 1940, it numbered 84 men. Initially a unit of convicted poachers, over time it became increasingly composed of common criminals. In contrast to those who served in the German penal battalions (who had committed minor offences), the volunteers sent to the "Dirlewanger" were those who had been convicted of major crimes. While the theory was that service in the "Dirlewanger" would rehabilitate the criminals, it provided them with the opportunity to continue offending with no repercussions. Martin Windrow, the British historian, described them as a "terrifying rabble" of "cut-throats, renegades, sadistic morons, and cashiered rejects from other units." Some Nazi officials romanticized the unit, viewing the men as "pure primitive German men" who were "resisting the law".

As news of the unit spread, hundreds of concentration camp prisoners applied to join it. By September, 1940, the formation numbered over 300 men. With the influx of criminals, the emphasis on poachers was now lost, and those convicted of other more severe crimes, (including assault, burglary and rape) joined the unit. Accordingly, the unit name was changed to Sonderkommando "Dr. Dirlewanger" (Special Command "Dr. Dirlewanger"). As the unit strength grew, it was placed under the command of the SS-Totenkopfverbände (the formation responsible for the administration of the concentration camps) and it was redesignated SS-Sonderbatallion "Dirlewanger" . (It became a Waffen-SS unit again in late 1944). In January 1942, to re-build its strength, the unit was authorised to recruit Russian and Ukrainian volunteers. In its final phase, Dirlewanger's men came to include, besides common criminals, increasing numbers of political prisoners, homosexuals, Gypsies (likely recruited from Dachau and Sachsenhausen concentration camps) and patients from psychiatric hospitals, as well as others considered unfit to serve in normal military units.