Sunday, 17 May 2026

What is Race?

 

Source: Glauben und Kämpfen: für die SS-männer aus den deutschen Volksgruppen des Südostens (Journal „Believe and Fight”, for the SS of the South East German folk groups)

 

„What is not of good breed in this world is worthless.

 

(Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf)

 

Within the mass of living beings, groups can be discerned that are more or less similar to each other and have similar physical characteristics. They possess the same essence. We call these groups of living beings „species“.

 

Humanity, which is alive today, forms a „species“ because the individuals are mutually fertile. But when one considers and compares a white person, a Negro or a Mongolian, it becomes clear that one cannot speak unrestrictedly only of the species „man“, one has to make a new sub- classification in order to make an accurate judgement. This leads to the concept of human races.

 

We can distinguish each race by the differences it possesses due to the particularity of its hereditary, psycho-intellectual and physical characteristics, dispositions and qualities. Each race has certain qualities and characteristics that are unique to it. These racial characteristics are transmitted hereditarily to the descendants.

 

The race is thus a group of living beings distinguished by the common possession of certain hereditary characteristics. It always produces similar beings. Or, to summarise: The race is a community of inherited dispositions (Stengel v. Rutkowski).

 

As long as a race remains pure, its hereditary heritage is passed on intact from one generation to the next. It is therefore necessary for men of the same race to have a heightened racial awareness and to recognise the dangers leading to interbreeding, transformation, degeneration and thus the decline of the race concerned. Each people has evolved from specific races into a homogeneous community of life. The overall race defines the ethnic characteristic and is immutably externalised through its hereditary heritage. Like all Germanic peoples, the dominant Nordic race also marks the German people with its specificity.

 

What is a people?

 

Each people represents an outwardly visible community. The same blood, the same land, the same language, the same customs, the same culture and the same history form an inseparable bond. Both race and history and culture are necessary for peoplehood. The people are both a community of hereditary dispositions and a community of environment. Each generation is only one link in the chain that begins with the oldest ancestors and continues into the future with future generations. Together they form the people’s community. The existence of the individual therefore has a purpose when it is intimately connected with the people as a whole.

 

Every living blood holder in this community has a responsibility to give life to future generations.

 

Each people has its own ethnic characteristic. The racial composition of the people determines this characteristic.

 

The people are a community of origin and destiny. As a community of hereditary dispositions, it is capable of creating and largely shaping its environment.

 

The importance of races

 

The common hereditary mass conditions the physical and spiritual aptitude for creation that is proper to a race. Race” as a working concept not only refers to the particular vitality living and expressing in us, but also becomes the essential value, the ideological reference point.

 

There are races that can produce great civilisations and others that will never rise on their own. There are races with heroic attitudes and others without combative courage. Cultural creations are exclusively the work of races of great value. Humanity evolves or declines because of the preservation of the purity and strength of the civilisation-creating races.

 

The racial structure of a people is unique. Its modification always leads to a transformation of its character and civilisation. Any racial mixture means for the race worthy of the name a decrease in its value.

 

Related – foreign – same strain – different strain

 

Mankind has strongly separated racial groups within it. Broadly speaking, we distinguish between: whites, blacks and yellows. Each of these groups in turn comprises a number of sub-races that have certain traits in common. In this case, we speak of kinship or, briefly, of related races. Peoples who, in their racial composition, have the same components as the German people, are related to us. The majority of European peoples are in this case.

 

Since the essential racial substance often varies considerably among our relatives, the quantitative aspect of the racial components must be taken into account. The Germanic peoples have a predominance of Nordic blood in their racial mix. Their relationship to the German people is therefore defined as „of the same stock”. Other peoples who also have weak Nordic racial components, but are not Nordic in substance, we say are ‘of foreign stock’.

 

The favourable racial mixture present in the German people is based on the confluence of related races and the superior and predominant share of Nordic blood.

 

The origin of the Nordic breed

 

The central sphere of the Nordic breed includes the regions of Southern Scandinavia, Jutland, the North Sea, the Baltic Sea and extends into the heart of Germany.

 

From early on, the Nordic man was a sedentary farmer. He invented the plough, which was later adopted by other peoples, grew cereals and raised domestic animals. The enormous increase in population of this Nordic mankind prompted them to acquire new territories and caused wave after wave to flow into neighbouring lands: into the European area and into large parts of Asia. The original settled population was marked by the Nordic way of life, even if often only temporarily.

 

The statement that „light comes from the East”, as science once claimed, is false. It should rather be said „strength comes from the North!

 

The importance of the Nordic race for humanity

 

The Führer says in Mein Kampf:

 

„All that we admire on this earth today, science and art, technology and inventions, are the creative product of a few peoples and perhaps, originally, of a race.

 

The great civilisations created by the Indo-Germans in India, Persia, Greece and Rome bear impeccable witness to the Nordic creative spirit. They also disappeared with the decline of the Nordic ruling class. Even today, we are aware of the kinship with these cultures, which have the same origin.

 

However, we are not so presumptuous as to believe that all culture, even that of ancient times, can be attributed to the Nordic race alone. People of other racial composition have also created civilisations. But we feel differently when we try to understand the cultures of ancient China, Babylon or the old Indian cultures of the Aztecs (in present-day Mexico) and the Incas (in present-day Peru). It is undeniable that these were also great civilisations; however, we feel the mark of an undeniably foreign nature in their contact. They are not related to us, but alien in race. Another spirit speaks in them. Never have these cultures of another kind reached a level comparable to that which has been influenced by the Nordic spirit.

 

Today’s technical development has also been the product of Nordic men. This is the case, for example, with the new Turkey, the rise of North America or the progress of the Far East, on an equivalent level.

 

In places of mixing with neighbouring races, the influence of the Nordic race has consistently proved to be extremely innovative and has involved active developmental tendencies, giving rise to the highest cultural creations.

 

The German people and the Nordic race

 

In spite of the often high mixture and intermingling of breeds in various parts of the Reich, we find in the different parts of Germany distinct breeds that are more strongly typed.

 

There are regions where a tall stature, narrow face and light hair, eye and skin colours dominate (the physical appearance of the Nordic race). Closely related to the Nordic man, often referred to as a ‘subspecies’ of the Nordic man, the Westphalian man turns out to be taller, broader and more massive.

 

In many parts of the Reich, on the other hand, we find tall, short-headed men with a narrow face, a large nose, brown eyes and black hair (the physical appearance of the Dinaric race).

 

In some parts, small, slender and agile men with dark eyes and skin colour (the physical appearance of the Western or Mediterranean race) live.

 

In other regions, the following characteristics predominate: medium-sized, stocky bodies, short heads, broad faces with prominent cheekbones, blond hair and light eyes (physical aspect of the Baltic-Eastern breed).

 

Finally, in some parts of the Reich, one encounters stocky, round-headed men with broad faces, brown eyes, brown to black hair and dark skin colour (physical appearance of the oriental race).

 

Nordic type Baltic-Eastern type

 

Nordic type Baltic-Eastern type

 

The Nordic race is more or less strongly represented in all parts of the Reich, whether in the north or south, west or east. Many of our people cannot be exactly identified with one race. With the exception of those representatives who appear to be purebred, each race is found among all peoples in a more or less strongly mixed form.

 

The Nordic hereditary heritage predominates in the German people. The Nordic race is not only the predominant race, but its blood is present in almost all Germans. The concepts of „Blood and Soil” are not an empty concept, but constitute our destiny. The aim of the selection of the German people has therefore also been defined. It is carried out in accordance with the vital law of its creative race.

 

The share of Nordic blood in the hereditary mass of the German people amounts to about 50%. Apart from that, genealogy teaches us that every German has Nordic blood.

 

Thus the German people are a racial community in the truest sense of the word. History interpreted according to a racial principle has long since shown that the Nordic race produces a far greater number of outstanding men than other races. The Nordic race is above all the holder of the genius of the German people. Great achievements in all fields have made them the leading race of mankind. No other human race has produced so many outstanding spiritual leaders, army leaders and statesmen.

 

In the course of bold expeditions, the Nordic man conquered vast territories, founded states and created civilisations. Already around the year 1000, the Vikings had landed in America. The Nordic spirit realised the development of large areas of land.

 

One of the most striking qualities of the Nordic race is its self-control. Nordic boldness has inspired warlike conquests. Probity and strength of will, combined with self-confidence, powerfully reinforce the feeling of independence. These qualities certainly diminish intuition, and the Nordic man is in great danger of losing and wasting himself. The Nordic man has a great predilection for sport and combat – he loves risk. He is therefore more likely than other men to be found in occupations that involve danger. But it must be said that the character of the individual is more decisive than the colour of the hair. The individual essentially belongs to a race whose virtues he professes through action.

 

When we examine each country of Europe in its racial composition, we notice that in almost all the states the same races are found. We find the Nordic race outside Germany, in the Scandinavian countries, in England and the Netherlands, as well as in Russia, Italy, France, Spain, etc. But we also find, for example, men of the Oriental type in the various European countries. The important thing, in the end, is not to make a general racial judgement about a people. It is rather to study the predominant elements of each race in the people concerned. And it can be seen that on a purely numerical level, the Reich is already ahead of the other peoples in terms of the proportion of Nordic blood.

 

Germany can legitimately claim to lead the German-Nordic peoples.

Thursday, 14 May 2026

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Complete Piano Sonatas


Piano: Walter Gieseking

Year of recording: 1953 – 1954

 

Piano Sonata No. 1 in C Major, KV 279

 

I. Allegro (00: (00:01)

II. Andante (00:04:48

III. Presto (00:09:21)

 

Piano Sonata No. 2 in F Major, KV 280

 

I. Allegro assai (00:12:27)

II. Adagio (00:16:55)

III. Presto (00:20:35)

 

Piano Sonata No. 3 in B-flat Major, KV 281

 

I. Allegro (00:23:38)

II. Andante amoroso (00:28:19)

III. Rondo: Allegro (00:32:08)

 

Piano Sonata No. 4 in E-flat Major, KV 282

 

I. Adagio (00:37:14)

II. Menuetto I-II (00:41:11)

III. Allegro (00:45:09)

 

Piano Sonata No. 5 in G Major, KV 283

 

I. Allegro (00:48:22)

II. Andante (00:52:19)

III. Presto (00:57:55)

 

Piano Sonata No. 6 in D Major, KV 284 „Dürnitz“

 

I. Allegro (01:01:38)

II. Rondeau & Polonaise: Andante (01:05:26)

III. Tema Con Variazioni (01:08:49)

 

Piano Sonata No. 7 in C Major, KV 309

 

I. Allegro con spirito (01:24:15)

II. Andante un poco adagio (01:28:19)

III. Rondo: Allegretto grazioso (01:34:31)

 

Piano Sonata No. 8 in A Minor, KV 310

 

I. Allegro maestoso (01:40:56)

II. Andante cantabile (01:45:13)

III. Presto (01:52:04)

 

Piano Sonata No. 9 in D Major, KV 311

 

I. Allegro con spirito (01:55:06)

II. Andante con espression (01:59:40)

III. Rondo: Allegro (02:05:19)

 

Piano Sonata No. 10 in C Major, KV 330

 

I. Allegro moderato (02:11:26)

II. Andante cantabile (02:17:49)

III. Allegretto (02:24:59)

 

Piano Sonata No. 11 in A Major, KV 331

 

I. Andante grazioso (02:30:22)

II. Menuetto - Trio (02:37:56)

III. Alla Turca: Allegretto (02:43:40)

 

Piano Sonata No. 12 in F Major, KV 332

 

I. Allegro (02:47:28)

II. Adagio (02:52:05)

III. Allegro assai (02:56:57)

 

Piano Sonata No. 13 in B-flat Major, KV 333

 

I. Allegro (03:01:28)

II. Andante cantabile (03:06:27)

III. Allegretto grazioso (03:12:50)

 

Piano Sonata No. 14 in C Minor, KV 457

 

I. Molto Allegro (03:18:52)

II. Adagio (03:22:44)

III. Allegro assai (03:30:20)

 

Piano Sonata No. 15 in F Major, KV 533

 

I. Allegro (03:35:04)

II. Andante (03:41:02)

III. Rondo: Allegretto (03:48:25)

 

Piano Sonata No. 16 in C Major „Sonata facile“, KV 545

 

I. Allegro (03:54:35)

II. Andante (03:57:45)

III. Rondo: Allegretto (04:02:39)

 

Piano Sonata No. 17 in B-flat Major, KV 570

 

I. Allegro (04:04:30)

II. Adagio (04:10:28)

III. Allegretto (04:18:32)

 

Piano Sonata No. 18 in D Major, KV 576

 

I. Allegro (04:22:31)

II. Adagio (04:27:20)

III. Allegretto (04:32:27)

 

Piano Sonata in F Major, KV 547a

 

I. Allegro (04:36:23)

II. Rondo: Allegretto (04:40:42)

 

Tuesday, 12 May 2026

Die Deutsche Wochenschau – Newsreel No. 649, 10 February 1943


1. Germany.

 

Construction of new military factories in Germany. A. Speer, the initiator and director of the construction project, with his “construction staff.” A view of the military facilities under construction.

 

– A view of the workshops at the new military factory.

 

– Workshop buildings at military enterprises.

 

– Assembly of weapons.

 

– Installation of a huge electric turbine.

 

– Workers heading to the military factory.

 

– Female workers in the workshops of the military factory.

 

– Assembly of tanks.

 

– Workers gather during their lunch break for a rally.

 

– Arrival of Goebbels and Speer.

 

– Reichsminister Dr. Goebbels’ speech narrated by the announcer.

 

– Workers applaud.

 

Grand Admiral Dönitz, appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Reich Navy, leaves his former post in France.

 

– Karl Dönitz and officers at the entrance to his office.

 

– Dönitz gets into a car.

 

– Karl Dönitz and Raeder at the Führer’s headquarters.

 

– Grand Admiral Raeder is appointed Inspector General of the German Navy.

 

– The admirals and the Führer.

 

2. North Africa.

 

On the Tunisian front.

 

– Unloading of Italian and German transport ships in one of the ports of Tunisia.

 

– Loading of weapons and food onto trucks.

 

– British air raid.

 

– Anti-aircraft gun prepares for battle.

 

– German fighters take off.

 

– Scenes from an air battle.

 

– German anti-aircraft guns firing.

 

– A captured British pilot.

 

– A downed British plane crashes to the ground.

 

3. Central sector of the Eastern Front.

 

On the Smolensk-Bryansk-Demyansk line.

 

– German supply convoys moving through a blizzard.

 

– Soldiers escorting a horse-drawn train.

 

– Soldiers clearing snow from the trenches.

 

– Soldiers clearing trenches.

 

– Installation of barbed wire barriers and tripwire traps.

 

– Soldiers in trenches and dugouts.

 

– A soldier on guard duty.

 

– Scenes of skirmishes with Soviet troops (night shots).

 

4. Military operations south of Lake Ladoga.

 

German field fortifications (barbed wire barriers, trenches).

 

– Advancing Soviet tanks (filmed from a distance).

 

– German infantry preparing to repel the attack.

 

– Howitzers firing; crew at the gun.

 

– Machine gunners firing. A soldier reloading a muzzle-loading grenade launcher. Damaged Soviet tanks, bodies of Soviet soldiers.

 

– Advance of German tanks and grenadier units.

 

– Firefight.

 

– Tanks and infantry advancing toward Soviet positions.

 

– One of the German military airfields.

 

– Clearing snow from the airfield.

 

– Checking engines, loading bombs.

 

– A bomb is being transported by truck.

 

– A large high-explosive bomb is being attached to a Junkers Ju-88 aircraft.

 

– Aircraft take off.

 

– Junkers Ju-87 and Fw-190 fighters in the air, pilots in the cockpit.

 

– A massive German air raid on Soviet rear areas.

 

– Bombs flying toward their targets.

 

– Numerous fires caused by exploding bombs (view from an aircraft).

 

– Scenes from an aerial battle. 

Saturday, 9 May 2026

Adolf Hitler – Speech in the Lustgarten, 1st May 1936

 

Berlin, May 1, 1936

 

We ourselves have been able to deal with our internal difficulties without detriment to any other people. Solve your own problems, and do not attempt to involve others in what are your own quarrels. In Germany we do not need- and I can say this today to you above all, my Volksgenossen:

 

I do not need to perform some glorious deed which will bring death to millions in order to obtain esteem and respect from my Volk. I have that anyway! I am not standing on shaky ground; I do not need to lead millions of our people to the sacrificial altar so that millions of others might perhaps believe in me! In these three years we have done nothing that could possibly have caused suffering to another people; we have taken not a single step that might harm anyone. We have not reached out our hands to grasp anything that did not belong to us. We have remained within our borders, we have offered our hand to the others in friendship dozens of times. -What more could one expect? During these three-and-a-quarter years, the German Volk has become strong and determined internally. Yet it has never abused its determination to perhaps threaten anyone else. Quite the opposite: in these three-and-a-quarter years, we have attempted to introduce this determination to European life as a factor toward its stability. How can we help it if others do not agree? We have witnessed it during these past few weeks. Only recently we made the world a generous offer, not schemed up by a handful of legal experts and lawyers but issuing from healthy common sense, simple and clear-cut. If there is a will, that is the way Europe can be given inner peace and a feeling of security. But what happens to us? At the same time we declare that we are prepared, regardless of past or present, to offer our hand in friendship to all peoples, to conclude treaties with them, we see yet another smear campaign breaking out. Once again lies are being spread about that Germany will invade Austria tomorrow or the day after. I ask myself: who are these elements who have no desire for tranquility, for peace, for understanding; who have a need to constantly agitate and sow the seeds of mistrust, who are these people? (Cries of “The Jews!”) I know (Applause lasting several minutes), I know it is not the millions who would have to take up arms were these agitators to succeed in their plans. They are not the ones! Not in any nation! It is a small faction of interests (Interessenklungel), an international clique that lives off stirring up other peoples by agitation. We know these fellows from our own country, and we see their tracks between the peoples. Thus it is all the more necessary for us to cling more than ever-and for this reason most of all- to our own unity and consolidation.

 

How splendid it is in Germany to have a Volk that leads itself, orders itself and guides itself instead of being governed by the rubber truncheon! How splendid it is today to have people here who are not attempting to mutually make their lives difficult and bitter, but who are beginning to show more and more consideration for one another! We are so fortunate to be able to live amongst these people, and I am proud to be your Fuhrer. So proud that I cannot imagine anything in this world capable of convincing me to trade it for something else. I would sooner, a thousand times sooner, be the last Volksgenosse among you than a king anywhere else. And this pride fills me today above all. When I was driving through these long streets earlier and saw to the left and right these hundreds of thousands and millions of Volksgenossen who had come from their plants and workshops, from our factories and counting houses, my heart was about to burst, I truly felt it: that is our Germany! That is our Volk, our marvelous German Volk and our dear German Reich! In this hour I believe we can have but one desire: let the other peoples cast a single glance in here, let them only see this Volk of peace and labor and I believe they would take those rabble-rousers and throw them out! Then they would understand and comprehend why this most sacred national community is and will always be both the most sacred guarantor of a genuinely European order and thus of a truly human culture and civilization. Therefore, I ask you in this hour to take heart and allow your spirit to gaze back upon the past and share in feeling the good fortune we have come to enjoy by virtue of having found our way back to one community, to one Volk. And let us pledge our dedication to this Volk on this first of May of work and of the Volksgemeinschaft with our old vow: to our German Volk and our German Reich:

 

Sieg Heil!

Wednesday, 6 May 2026

The Last Battle of the 20th Waffen- Grenadier Division Der SS (Estonia Nr.1)

Published in „Siegrunen“ Magazine – Volume XI, Number 1, Whole Number 63,

Spring 1997

 

An Eyewitness Report by SS-Hstuf. F.W.

 

Translated by Gustav Jürgens

 

ABOVE: Estonian Waffen-SS sword and „ E “ collarpatch. This was generally not well liked since it resembled a „ slash mark “ across the „ E “ from a distance, similar to typical European traffic signs. (Tammiksaar Collection, courtesy of Erik Rundkvist).

 

A fter heavy fighting in the east, the 20th Estonian SS Division was to be reformed at the military training grounds in Neuhammer at the beginning of 1945. During this reorganization, units of the 20th SS Division were caught up in heavy fighting when the Russians suddenly crossed the Oder River at Borkenhaim on 21 January 1945. The Estonian volunteers were instrumental in stabilizing that section of the front.

 

The division finally finished its reformation in Lammsdorf, Upper Silesia under the command of SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Waffen- SS Franz Augsberger. The 45th and 46th Waffen-Grenadier Regiments der SS under the respective commands of Waffen-Obersturmbannführer der SS Alfons Rebane and Waffen-Sturmbannführer der SS Paul Maitla, were composed solely of Estonians. The signals battalion, artillery regiment, maintenance company and other support element were made up of mixed Estonian and German personnel while the engineer battalion, anti-tank detachment and a subordinated panzer-grenadier battalion were all German in composition.

 

ABOVE: The Estonian volunteer, Waffen-Unterscharführer der SS Ants Teder. (Courtesy of Erik Rundkvist).

 

Once refit, the 20th SS Division was put into the northern flank of the Upper Silesian Front from the right bank of the Glazer Neisse River to Falkenberg/Dambrau. The left-wing of the division was held by an attached panzer-grenadier battalion under the command of an Army Hauptmann (Captain); then came the 45th and 46th Waffen-Grenadier Regiments under the Estonian officers Rebane and Maitla. After a heavy artillery barrage, the Russians launched an attack on a broad front on 15 March 1945. They managed to penetrate the defensive lines in the area of the Grenadier Btl. 486 (Army) and 46th WGRdSS (Maitla). Without waiting for orders from the division headquarters, Waffen-Ostubaf. Rebane stopped the enemy penetration with a counterattack. Waffen- Stubaf. Maitla then received instructions from the division to counterattack with his regiment as well, which he did successfully. Only the counterattack initiated by the Grenadier Btl. 486 failed.

 

Close to the breakthrough area, a reserve regiment, (Rgt. „ Schlesien”, which was set up in Neisse), was brought during the night. Early on the following morning (16 March), the Soviets launched a successful attack from Grotkau. This assault, carried out on the right bank of the Neisse River, had been directed against the positions of Bti. 486 and the neighbouring Rgt. „ Schlesien “ . The Russian attack force was misdirected and missed Bd. 486 but did strike the Rgt. „ Schlesien “ , completely destroying it.

 

At 08:00, I arrived at Rossdorf-Jatzdorf, an area that was supposed to be 8 kilometers behind the main line of resistance, and met Oberleutnant Schumann, leading the 10 men that remained of his 5th Company of the Rgt. „ Schlesien “ . According to him, they were all that remained of the regiment. The Russian spearhead that could already be seen, was lead by T-34 tanks against the three „Wespen“ ( „ Wasp “ ) self-propelled guns that were attempting to make a front. I immediately informed (20th SS) divisional commander Augsberger about the situation and was ordered to use all available forces in an attempt to defend the town and hold it. The Soviet spearhead however, had turned off the northern road towards the west. Then it went along the left bank of the Neisse River towards the town of Neisse. To the best of my knowledge, there were no German troops in this area at this time.

 

The following night I moved under orders southward about 30 kilometres to Korndorf, after first relinquishing the command of a two- company combat group in Jatzdorf to another SS officer. As soon as I entered Korndorf, I was named the (town) combat commander by a Major of the 56th Panzerkorps. This officer had made a reconnaissance drive and discovered that the neighbouring town, 3 kilometres away, was occupied by the Russians. During that drive, his driver was killed and he had been wounded. This officer then drove directly to General Koch-Erpach to inform him about the new frontline situation.

 

During the day, somewhere between 300 and 500 troops arrived in town. I organized them into a combat group. In the evening I relinquished command of them to an Oberst von Mohr from 56th Panzerkorps. These soldiers had not been members of the 20th SS Division; I do not know what unit they belonged to, only that they had been fighting for the past three days. After passing them over to Oberst von Mohr, I went with my staff, as ordered, to Tillowitz and then to Friedland. The divisional staff of the 20th SS, which had been in Falkenberg, was now transferred to Friediand. It was here that I found out that the Russian assault wedge that had attacked the city of Neisse had linked up in Neustadt with another Russian unit advancing from Opel, thereby forming a pocket.

 

On 19 March, the order came to break out of the pocket, with division commander Augsberger setting the town of Ziegenhals as the goal to reach. Up to this point, the old defensive lines north of Falkenberg were still being held by the 45th and 46th Waffen-Grenadier Regiments. I was ordered by Brigfhr. Augsberger to use a spearhead from SS-Panzerjäger Abteilung 20 (SS-Anti-tank Detachment 20), to reach Ziegenhals and prepare everything there for the arrival of the division. Therefore I was one of the first members of the 20th Waffen-Grenadier Division der SS to enter Ziegenhals. I began immediately to set up a divisional staff headquarters and to direct the troops into position.

 

The first to arrive were men from the battle-weary Werkstaatkompanie (Repair and Maintenance Company). They were followed by soldiers from the Pionier Bataillon (Engineer Battalion), the Nachrichten Bataillon (Signals Battalion), Artillerie Regiment (Artillery Regiment), etc. Then came the remainder of the engineers that had been in Rossdorf, and finally the troops of the 45th and 46th Waffen-Grenadier der SS Regiments, who had the longest route to march.

 

ABOVE: Estonian Waffen-SS frontline soldiers. (Erik Rundkvist Archives).

 

During the breakout, the divisional staff under the command of Brigfhr. Augsberger had a brush with a Russian anti-tank unit which left Augsberger and his adjutant, Ostuf. Hinz, mortally wounded. Because of this, the arrival of the divisional staff in Ziegenhals was delayed. For three days therefore, I was the only German officer of the 20th Waffen- Grenadier Division der SS in Ziegenhals. The staff, or rather what was left of it, arrived on 22 March under the command of the 1 a, (first staff officers), Ostubaf. Mützelfeld. On that same day, a Major Schiller from a newly set up Army Corps was given command at Ziegenhals with orders to form new combat units out of the remnants of the three 56th Panzerkorps divisions that had been caught in the Tillowitz-Falkenberger pocket.

 

I reported to Major Schiller that the 20th WGDdSS was not out of commission or disorganized but had in fact been ordered to Ziegenhals by Brigfhr. Augsberger, where I had reassembled it. Major Schiller however, referred to a document which stated that the 20th SS Division had „ ceased to exist “ . At this point in the conference, the 1 a, Ostubaf. Mützelfeld entered and confirmed that such a document did exist. He then rushed right over to Army Corps HQ, so he said, to get the document corrected.

 

I personally received an order from Major Schiller to gather the 20th SS Division together and occupy a section of the front south of Ziegenhals in strong point fashion. Before I could carry out the order,

 

Mützelfeld returned with a new directive stating that the Estonian SS Division was no longer a „ routed “ unit but a corps reserve under direct Army Corps command.

 

We left Ziegenhals on the evening of 22 March 1945, and immediately received new heavy weapons and reinforcements. The latter included an Estonian engineer battalion that had been trained in Dresden and two police companies. 20th SS was now attached to the 8th Armee Korps and was given a defensive line to hold that stretched to Bolkenhaim, 30 kilometers to the south. Our new divisional commander was SS- Oberfiihrer Berthold Maack. The new main line of resistance was held until 8 May, when we received the order to retreat in stages to behind the Oder River.

 

Even during these times of retreat, there were no desertions among the Estonians. The only event that I remembered was the disappearance without a trace of two sentries. Whether they deserted or were taken prisoner by the enemy was never clearly established. During the retreat, which actually started on 7 May, the majority of the personnel of the division ended up as Russian POW's. The last time I saw these comrades was in a prison in Jidn.

 

The Estonian volunteers of the 20th Waffen-Grenadier Division der SS never lagged in combat because they knew what they were fighting for. They were fighting for the freedom of Europe and they took this motto seriously: Freedom or death!

 

ABOVE: Original Estonian Waffen-SS armshields in the national colours of blue-black-white. (Tammiksaar Collection, courtesy of Erik Rundkivst).