Abwehrgruppe 218, known under the codename "

Edelweiss EDELWEISS (Expérience pour DEtecter Les WIMPs En Site Souterrain) is a dark matter search experiment located at the Modane Underground Laboratory in France. The experiment uses cryogenic detectors, measuring both the phonon and ionization signals ...

" (german: "Edelweiß"), was a German rear-security unit operating in

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

during

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 ...

. Unit was constituted during September 1944 and led by SS-Sturmbannführer Erwein von Thun-Hohenstein. In the period from September 1944 to April 1945 the unit carried out more than 50 missions, which resulted in killing around 300 people, including civilians; another 600 were taken prisoner. One of the most famous actions of the unit was the capture of members of an American OSS mission under command of Lieutenant James Holt Greene and a British SOE mission under Major John Sehmer on 26 December 1944 in the Nízke Tatry Mountains. The unit is known for a number of war crimes, especially the massacre of civilians in the villages of

Ostrý Grúň Ostrý Grúň ( hu, Élesmart) is a village and municipality in the Žarnovica District, Banská Bystrica Region in Slovakia. History The village was massacred and burned down in January 1945 by the Nazi anti-partisan unit Edelweiss, after the ...

and

Kľak Kľak ( hu, Madarasalja) is a village and municipality in the Žarnovica District, Banská Bystrica Region in Slovakia. History On January 21, 1945 the village was burned by Waffen-SS anti-partisan unit Edelweiss with help of Heimatschutz unit. ...

, among the most notorious war crimes committed on Slovak territory during the war. Abwehrgruppe 218 "Edelweiss" had around 250-300 men in four sections: * the "Partisan" section: about 25 men under the direct command of SS-Sturmbannführer von Thun-Hohenstein * the "Russian" section: about 50 men under command of SS-Oberscharführer Berlisov * the "Caucasian" section: about 50 men under command of SS-Oberscharführer Khan * the "Slovak" section: about 131 men under command of SS-Hauptsturmführer Nižňanský

References

{{reflist Military history of Slovakia during World War II Abwehr