The Azerbaijani Legion (german: Aserbaidschanische Legion) was one of the foreign units of the
Wehrmacht
The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previous ...
. It was formed in December 1941 on the
Eastern Front as the ''Kaukasische-Mohammedanische Legion'' (Muslim Caucasus Legion) and was re-designated 1942 into two separate legions, the North Caucasian legion and the Azerbaijani legion. It was made up mainly of former Azerbaijani
POW
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold prisoners of war ...
volunteers but also volunteers from other peoples in the area. It was part of the
Ostlegionen
''Ostlegionen'' ("eastern legions"), ''Ost-Bataillone'' ("eastern battalions"), ''Osttruppen'' ("eastern troops"), and ''Osteinheiten'' ("eastern units") were units in the Army of Nazi Germany during World War II made up of personnel from the ...
. It was used to form the
162nd (Turkistan) Infanterie-Division of the Wehrmacht in 1943.
Many Azerbaijanis joined here in hopes of liberating their homeland from
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
rule. One Azerbaijani soldier who was captured said to the Germans he was anti-Bolshevik, and only wanted an opportunity to free his homeland.
The Azerbaijani Legion participated in the systematic killing of between 40,000 and 50,000
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...
civilians in
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
during the
Wola massacre
The Wola massacre ( pl, Rzeź Woli, lit=Wola slaughter) was the systematic killing of between 40,000 and 50,000 Poles in the Wola neighbourhood of the Polish capital city, Warsaw, by the German Wehrmacht and fellow Axis collaborators in the ...
.
Origins
The sweeping initial victories of
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named after ...
produced hundreds of thousands of
Soviet POWs, many of whom were not
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
. All of them were hungry; many were starving. In a mere eight months of 1941-42, the invading German armies killed an estimated 2.8 million Soviet POWs through starvation, exposure, and
summary execution
A summary execution is an execution in which a person is accused of a crime and immediately killed without the benefit of a full and fair trial. Executions as the result of summary justice (such as a drumhead court-martial) are sometimes include ...
. Conditions in the prison camps were atrocious.
There were no barracks or permanent housing. The camps were simply open areas fenced off with barbed wire. The prisoners had to lie in the sun, then in mud, and in the fall—with temperatures as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius—faced the possibility of freezing to death.
The foreign Waffen beginnings were shrouded in great secrecy for fear of
Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...
's disapproval, who was categorically opposed to any form of participation of
Soviet citizens in the war against Russia. But the
German army
The German Army (, "army") is the land component of the armed forces of Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German ''Bundeswehr'' together with the ''Marine'' (German Navy) and the ''Luftwaf ...
's needs on the
Eastern Front induced German commanders to accept the services of volunteers to fight the
Soviet regime
The political system of the Soviet Union took place in a federal single-party soviet socialist republic framework which was characterized by the superior role of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), the only party permitted by the Co ...
even against the clear orders of the
German High Command.
Tens of thousands of them were
Muslims
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraha ...
, where most of them came from the Soviet Union. In December 1941 a top-secret memorandum ordered that the OKW was to create two Muslim units: the
Turkestan Legion
The Turkestan Legion (german: Turkistanische Legion) was the name for the military units composed of the Turkic peoples who served in the Wehrmacht during World War II. Most of these troops were Red Army POWs who formed a common cause with the G ...
, consisting of
Central Asia
Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...
n Muslim volunteers; such as
Turkomans,
Uzbeks
The Uzbeks ( uz, , , , ) are a Turkic ethnic group native to the wider Central Asian region, being among the largest Turkic ethnic group in the area. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, next to Kazakh and Karakalpak mino ...
,
Kazakhs
The Kazakhs (also spelled Qazaqs; Kazakh: , , , , , ; the English name is transliterated from Russian; russian: казахи) are a Turkic-speaking ethnic group native to northern parts of Central Asia, chiefly Kazakhstan, but also parts o ...
,
Kyrgyz,
Karakalpaks
The Karakalpaks or Qaraqalpaqs (; kaa, Qaraqalpaqlar, Қарақалпақлар, قاراقلپقلر), are a Turkic ethnic group native to Karakalpakstan in Northwestern Uzbekistan. During the 18th century, they settled in the lower reache ...
, and
Tajiks
Tajiks ( fa, تاجيک، تاجک, ''Tājīk, Tājek''; tg, Тоҷик) are a Persian-speaking Iranian ethnic group native to Central Asia, living primarily in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Tajiks are the largest ethnicity in Tajik ...
, and the
Kaukasisch-Mohammedanische Legion
The Caucasian-Mohammedan Legion (German: ''Kaukasisch-Mohammedanische Legion'') was a volunteer unit of the German Army during World War II. The Legion was created on 13 January 1942 by order of General of the Infantry Friedrich Olbricht. The Leg ...
from
Caucasian
Caucasian may refer to:
Anthropology
*Anything from the Caucasus region
**
**
** ''Caucasian Exarchate'' (1917–1920), an ecclesiastical exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Caucasus region
*
*
*
Languages
* Northwest Caucasian l ...
Muslims volunteers; such as
Azerbaijanis
Azerbaijanis (; az, Azərbaycanlılar, ), Azeris ( az, Azərilər, ), or Azerbaijani Turks ( az, Azərbaycan Türkləri, ) are a Turkic people living mainly in northwestern Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan. They are the second-most numer ...
,
Dagestan
Dagestan ( ; rus, Дагеста́н, , dəɡʲɪˈstan, links=yes), officially the Republic of Dagestan (russian: Респу́блика Дагеста́н, Respúblika Dagestán, links=no), is a republic of Russia situated in the North C ...
is,
Ingush, and
Lezgins
Lezgins or Leks ( lez, Лезгияр, Лекьер. lezgijar) are a Northeast Caucasian ethnic group native predominantly to southern Dagestan, a republic of Russia, and northeastern Azerbaijan. The Lezgin are predominantly Sunni Muslims and s ...
.
The German courting of the Muslims was part of Hitler's schemes for bringing
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
onto his side and to advance control of the
oil fields
A petroleum reservoir or oil and gas reservoir is a subsurface accumulation of hydrocarbons contained in porous or fractured rock formations.
Such reservoirs form when kerogen (ancient plant matter) is created in surrounding rock by the presence ...
in the
Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
and
Baku
Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...
. The most numerous ethnicity among the Muslims that served the Germans were the Turkestanis. The first Turkestani volunteers were integrated as a single
battalion
A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions are ...
of the
444th Security Division in November 1941 and became an auxiliary force to help the Germans fight the
Soviet partisans
Soviet partisans were members of resistance movements that fought a guerrilla war against Axis forces during World War II in the Soviet Union, the previously Soviet-occupied territories of interwar Poland in 1941–45 and eastern Finland. The ...
. Major Andreas Meyer-Mader was appointed as commander of the 444th Battalion. Meyer-Mader, an Austrian, had served on the staff of
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975), also known as Chiang Chung-cheng and Jiang Jieshi, was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary, and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 ...
’s
National Revolutionary Army
The National Revolutionary Army (NRA; ), sometimes shortened to Revolutionary Army () before 1928, and as National Army () after 1928, was the military arm of the Kuomintang (KMT, or the Chinese Nationalist Party) from 1925 until 1947 in China ...
before
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
According to
Argumenty i Fakty newspaper, 40,000 Azerbaijanis fought for
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
, while 700,000 Azerbaijanis were conscripted into
Soviet armies.
450th Turkistanisches Battalion
The 450th Battalion was raised at
Legionowo
Legionowo is a city in Masovia ( pl, Mazowsze), east-central Poland.
Location
Legionowo is located to the north-east of the center of Warsaw and only to the south of Zegrze Reservoir ( or ), near the Warsaw-Gdańsk railroad and Warsaw-Suwał ...
, then in
General Government
The General Government (german: Generalgouvernement, pl, Generalne Gubernatorstwo, uk, Генеральна губернія), also referred to as the General Governorate for the Occupied Polish Region (german: Generalgouvernement für die be ...
, and spent most of the summer
patrolling
Patrolling is a military tactic. Small groups or individual units are deployed from a larger formation to achieve a specific objective and then return. The tactic of patrolling may be applied to ground troops, armored units, naval units, and co ...
the
communications
Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inquir ...
and
rail networks between
Kharkiv
Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.[Stalingrad
Volgograd ( rus, Волгогра́д, a=ru-Volgograd.ogg, p=vəɫɡɐˈɡrat), geographical renaming, formerly Tsaritsyn (russian: Цари́цын, Tsarítsyn, label=none; ) (1589–1925), and Stalingrad (russian: Сталингра́д, Stal ...]
. However, discipline became so bad that Meyer-Mader was removed from command of the 450th Battalion in 1943.
In November 1943, Meyer-Mader met
Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...
to offer his services to help raise and command a Turkic SS unit. Himmler approved the broad plan and then transferred him into the ranks of the
Waffen SS
The (, "Armed SS") was the combat branch of the Nazi Party's ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with volunteers and conscripts from both occupied and unoccupied lands.
The grew from th ...
and promoted him to the rank of
SS-Obersturmbannührer (Lieutenant Colonel). On 14 December, a meeting was held in Berlin in the presence of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem,
Mohammad Amin al-Husayni
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mono ...
. The Grand
Mufti
A Mufti (; ar, مفتي) is an Islamic jurist qualified to issue a nonbinding opinion ('' fatwa'') on a point of Islamic law (''sharia''). The act of issuing fatwas is called ''iftāʾ''. Muftis and their ''fatwas'' played an important rol ...
approved the plan to raise a Turkic-Muslim SS division and to give his "spiritual leadership" to influence the Muslim volunteers.
Ostmuselmanisches SS-Regiment
Between November 1943 and January 1944, there was a series of meetings between Meyer-Mader and Muslim volunteers. As a result of these meetings, on 4 January 1944, it was decided to form the Ostmuselmanisches SS-Regiment. At the same meeting, it was decided to disband the following
Wehrmacht
The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previous ...
battalions who would serve as a basis for a new platform: 450th, 480th, 782nd, 786th, 790th, 791st and I/94th Turkistanische battalions, Aserbaidschanische 818th and
Volga Tatar
The Volga Tatars or simply Tatars ( tt-Cyrl, татарлар, tatarlar) are a Turkic ethnic group native to the Volga-Ural region of Russia. They are subdivided into various subgroups. Volga Tatars are Russia's second-largest ethnicity after t ...
831st. Many of the volunteers deserted at this time, and the 818th defected to
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...
and
Ukrainian resistance movements in 1943.
Wola massacre
Azerbaijani soldiers from the legion (111th regiment), under the command of
Oskar Dirlewanger
Oskar Paul Dirlewanger (26 September 1895 – ) was a German military officer ('' SS-Oberführer'') who served as the founder and commander of the Nazi SS penal unit "Dirlewanger" during World War II. Serving in Poland and in Belarus, his nam ...
and ''
SS-Brigadeführer'', participated in the systematic killing of between 40,000 and 50,000
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...
civilians in
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
during the
Wola massacre
The Wola massacre ( pl, Rzeź Woli, lit=Wola slaughter) was the systematic killing of between 40,000 and 50,000 Poles in the Wola neighbourhood of the Polish capital city, Warsaw, by the German Wehrmacht and fellow Axis collaborators in the ...
.
Two hours before midnight on 5 August, the Azerbaijani soldiers and the
Bergmann Battalion The Special Group Bergmann or the Bergmann Battalion (german: Sonderverband Bergmann) was a military unit of the German Abwehr during World War II, composed of five German-officered companies of the Caucasian volunteers.
History
The Bergmann ba ...
attacked St Lazarus hospital, executed hundreds of patients, doctors, and nurses, before burning it down.
Unternehmen Zeppelin
The Unternehmen (operation) Zeppelin was initiated in 1942 by SS-Brigadeführer
Walter Schellenberg
Walter Friedrich Schellenberg (16 January 1910 – 31 March 1952) was a German SS functionary during the Nazi era. He rose through the ranks of the SS, becoming one of the highest ranking men in the '' Sicherheitsdienst'' (SD) and eventually a ...
, who became in the middle of May 1943 the Chief of Section E of Amt IV of the
RSHA
The Reich Security Main Office (german: Reichssicherheitshauptamt or RSHA) was an organization under Heinrich Himmler in his dual capacity as ''Chef der Deutschen Polizei'' (Chief of German Police) and ''Reichsführer-SS'', the head of the Nazi ...
, the foreign intelligence service of the SS. The SS-Obersturmbannführer (Lieutenant Colonel) Georg Greife was responsible for this operation.
As soon as the German troops had entered the territory of the
North Caucasus
The North Caucasus, ( ady, Темыр Къафкъас, Temır Qafqas; kbd, Ишхъэрэ Къаукъаз, İṩxhərə Qauqaz; ce, Къилбаседа Кавказ, Q̇ilbaseda Kavkaz; , os, Цӕгат Кавказ, Cægat Kavkaz, inh, ...
, members of the different Caucasus National Committees, started to set up the core of a State administration and other organizations for the eventuality that
Wehrmacht
The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previous ...
would force the passage in Transcaucasia.
In the summer of 1942, the Reich ministries for Finances, Interior, Foreign Affairs, as well as the RSHA, created a special group, “Sonderstab Kaukasus”. The “Sonderstab” (special staff) was under the aegis of “Unternehmen Zeppelin”. The members of the “Sonderstab” were to organize units of police forces to maintain order in the territory of the North Caucasus and would constitute the organization apparatus of the State.
The Unternehmen Zeppelin had many purposes: creating intelligence groups for the collection and transmission of information from the USSR; advocacy groups for the distribution of social, national, and religious propaganda; rebel groups to organize and conduct a rebellion; and sabotage groups for political sabotage and terror.
From wireless reports of these commandos behind the Russian lines, it is possible to determine what actions were taken. It was envisaged to recruit the future civil servants among the prisoners of war of Caucasian nationality, who were in large numbers in the German camps of the North Caucasus. Abbas Bey Atamalibekov directed the Azerbaijani group. (There is not much information about Atamalibekov. In 1919 he was a member of the Azerbaijani Delegation led by
Alimardan Topchubashev
Alimardan bey Alekber bey oghlu Topchubashov ( az, Әлимәрдан бәј Әләкбәр оғлу Топчубашов, italic=no, Əlimərdan bəy Ələkbər oğlu Topçubaşov; 4 May 1862, Tiflis – 8 November 1934, Paris) was a prominent ...
, which participated at the
Paris Peace Conference in
Versailles
The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, u ...
. He actively participated in forming national legions from the Soviet prisoners of war in 1942, together with
Abdurahman Fatalibeyli-Dudanginsky and Fuad Amirjan in Berlin. He represented Azerbaijani SS in the Azerbaijan National Committee from 1943 to 1945 and then fled to Chile)
Unternehmen Zeppelin was “partially successful”. Most of the Sonderstab members were captured and executed by KGB agents. In his personal archives, a member of the
Ostministerium, Gerhard Von Mende, gives the number of 348 people of Azerbaijani origin who participated in those operations. It is not known if any one of them were SS.
[“Sonderstab Kaukasus”. p. 2. Personal records of P. von zur Mühlen Sergei Chuyev. Damned soldiers. Moscow, "YAUZA, EKSMO, 2004 Sotskov Lev Filippovich Neizvestny Separatizm: At the Service of SD and Abwehr. Excerpts from Testimony of Walter Schellenberg, taken at Nuremberg, Germany, 13 November 1945, Page 1623. Unternehmen Zeppelin: The Deployment of SS Saboteurs and Spies in the Soviet Union, 1942-1945 Perry Biddiscombe Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 52, No. 6 (Sep. 2000), pp. 1115-1142. Le Caucase dans les Plans Stratégiques de L’Allegmagne 1941-1945 Georges Mamoulia. Alimardanbek Topchubashev: Letters from Paris: Vilayat Kuliev. Baku]
See also
*
Azerbaijani SS Volunteer Formations Azerbaijani SS volunteer formations were recruited from prisoners of war, mainly from the Soviet Union and the countries annexed by it after 1939. Nazi Germany organised them to fight against the Soviet Union.
Origins
In November 1943, Meyer-Mader ...
*
National Committee of Azerbaijan National Committee of Azerbaijan ( az, Azərbaycan Milli Komitəsi, german: Nationales Komitee von Aserbaidschan) was an organization created in Berlin by Azerbaijani political immigrants. Established in late 1941, the committee's main goal was to ...
*
Free Arabian Legion
The Free Arabian Legion (german: Legion Freies Arabien; ar, جيش بلاد العرب الحرة, ''Jaysh bilād al-ʿarab al-ḥurraẗ'') was the collective name of several Nazi German units formed from Arab volunteers from the Middle East, no ...
*
Ostlegionen
''Ostlegionen'' ("eastern legions"), ''Ost-Bataillone'' ("eastern battalions"), ''Osttruppen'' ("eastern troops"), and ''Osteinheiten'' ("eastern units") were units in the Army of Nazi Germany during World War II made up of personnel from the ...
*
Reichskommissariat Kaukasus
The Reichskommissariat Kaukasien (russian: Рейхскомиссариат Кавказ), also spelled as Kaukasus, was the theoretical political division and planned civilian occupation regime of Germany in the occupied territories of the Cauc ...
*
Abdurrahman Fatalibeyli
*
Israfil Israfilov
*
Wola massacre
The Wola massacre ( pl, Rzeź Woli, lit=Wola slaughter) was the systematic killing of between 40,000 and 50,000 Poles in the Wola neighbourhood of the Polish capital city, Warsaw, by the German Wehrmacht and fellow Axis collaborators in the ...
References
Notes
Bibliography
* {{Cite book, last=Hamburg Institute for Social Research, title=The German Army and Genocide, year=1999
Modern history of Azerbaijan
Azerbaijani collaborators with Nazi Germany
Foreign volunteer units of the Waffen-SS
Foreign volunteer units of the Wehrmacht
Collaboration with the Axis Powers