Swiss Volunteers of the Waffen-SS

Swiss armshield.

 

Published in „Siegrunen“ Magazine - Vol. XIII, No. 6,

Whole Number 80, Summer 2008

(32nd Year of Publication)

 

Panoramastrasse Nr. 11 was a nondescript “boarding house” in the city of Stuttgart, Germany. Throughout a goodly portion of the war it served as a sort of recruit depot for potential Swiss and Liechtensteiner volunteers for German military service. Soon after the beginning of WWII, citizens of Switzerland and Liechtenstein had begun crossing the German border, mostly illegally, seeking either to enlist in the German military services or to work in wartime industries. To deal with this situation, at least insofar as those seeking military service was concerned, The SS Main Office and the Waffen-SS decided to establish a collection station for these volunteers where they could be housed and evaluated. Thus the “Panorama Home” as it came to be called, was established in January 1941.

 

It initially came under the guidance of an early Swiss volunteer for the Waffen-SS, SS-Obersturmführer Alfred Nikles. He would be succeeded by a former Swiss 31-year old political activist and ardent nationalist, SS-Unterscharführer Benno Schaeppi, (who would later become a Waffen-SS officer), in October 1942. He would in turn be replaced by SS-Untersturmführer Sepp Naegle, one of the few Liechtensteiners to graduate from SS-Junkerschule “Tolz”, on 1 April 1944. Late in the war the “Panorama Home” moved from Stuttgart to the cities of Strassburg and Bregenz to continue its operations.

 

In the course of its existence, more than 1500 Swiss and Liechtensteiner volunteers were processed at the “Home”. The greatest influx of recruits came in the summer and autumn of 1941 after the beginning of the war with the Soviet Union and again in early 1943 after the Stalingrad catastrophe, when the threat of a Soviet advance into Western Europe became more of a reality. The main job for the staff at the “Panorama Home” was simply to find appropriate military employment for the volunteers. In addition, each potential recruit had to have an extensive and time consuming Gestapo background check. Since Switzerland and by extension Liechtenstein, were both neutral states with plenty of Allied “agents” crawling around, it was deemed necessary to make absolutely sure that no spies or saboteurs were being “planted” into Germany. Also, anyone found to have had an undisclosed criminal record was immediately sent home. The volunteers did not have to be “National Socialists”, (most of them weren’t), it was simply enough that they were anti-communists and believed in the European struggle against the Soviets Union. A few of the more idealistic young Swiss took umbrage at the Gestapo prying into their affairs and actually left for home or employment elsewhere. While the overwhelming majority of the recruits were sent to Waffen-SS units, some went to other branches of the Wehrmacht or were used for “specialty” work in high-tech industries and possibly for espionage purposes.

 

That was really what bothered the Swiss government, which learned about the “Panorama Home”, very early on. They thought that the volunteers could be used as “5th Columnists” in a potential German invasion or takeover of Switzerland, and while the German government never seriously considered this option, (baaing an Allied grab of the country), contingency plans were drawn up. At least one Swiss SS officer in the SS Main Office was engaged to some extent in this sort of undertaking, for which he was punished rather severely after the war.

 

There was a very large Swiss business and working community in Germany, not to mention students in German schools of higher education, and while some of these people did volunteer for military service, others faithfully provided information to authorities back home in Switzerland, although they were not “spies” per se. So just about anything that was happening in Germany during the war was known by the Swiss government. The two countries did retain cordial relations until the end of the war including massive mutual trade.

 

It is hard to say precisely how many Swiss volunteers actually went into the Waffen-SS. Quoted figures range from a low of 600 to a high of 2,000. The most accurate total is probably aboutl360. After the war there was a strong Waffen-SS veteran’s group in the country that still remains active. Other figures state that there were at least 40 Swiss Waffen-SS officers (up to the rank of SS-Oberführer) and 300 or so Swiss volunteers killed or missing during the war. Some of the Swiss chose to become German citizens to avoid prosecution in their homeland after the war, so exact recruitment figures will never be precise.

 

Liechtenstein contributed 85 to 110 volunteers, thanks largely to a strong but closely contained National Socialist/Nationalist movement in the tiny principality. Around 40 of them were killed or missing in action. These are rather substantial figures for a country whose population was only 11,500 in total in 1940!

 

Swiss volunteers would not serve in any specific national contingent but throughout the Waffen-SS in general. There was however a concentration of them in the 6. SS Mountain Division “Nord”, including a largely Swiss company in the division’s reconnaissance detachment, (2./SS-Gebirgs Aufklärungs Abteilung 6). So someone in authority thought it was a good idea to match up people from mountainous Switzerland in a mountain formation, even though Division “Nord” served mostly in the swampland of Finnish Karelia! 5. SS Panzer Division “Wiking” also had a substantial Swiss contingent early on.

 

The most notable Swiss volunteer was SS-Obersturmbannführer Dr. Franz Riedweg, (see his biography that follows), he was in charge of the “Germanic Bureau” (or Germanic Suboffice) at the SS Main Office, which helped with the recruitment and welfare of Germanic European volunteers. Riedweg also employed other Swiss volunteers in his “office”. A medical doctor and surgeon, he would go on to take charge of the Field Hospital of the III. Germanic SS Panzer Corps.

 

Another prominent Swiss officer, was SS-Sturmbannführer (or possible Obersturmbannführer) Herrsche, who commanded the Training and Replacement Battalion of the French 33. Waffen-Grenadier Division der SS “Charlemagne”. In the waning days of the war, he led some remnants of the division, about 1,200 in all, across Germany, first towards the other remnant of the “Charlemagne” Division in northern Germany and then later towards the Swiss border in what was called the SS March Regiment “Charlemagne”. Twelve members of his command were captured by the “Free French” and executed in a particularly nasty war crime on the direct orders of General LeClerc. Some other Swiss officers that spoke French were assigned to French Waffen-SS training and combat units. One of these in particular, was SS-Untersturmfiihrer Dr. Alfred Zander, who became a Waffen-SS officer on 30 August 1943 and was assigned to the Germanic SS Training School at Sennheim, Alsace. He later became SS-Sturmbannführer Herrsche’s adjutant with the “Charlemagne” Division’s Training Battalion.

 

Another Swiss SS officer with pronounced National Socialist leanings was SS-Obersturmführer Dr. Heinrich Büeler who served at the Germanic Bureau of the SS Main Office from April 1942 until September 1943, when he decided to become a “front soldier”. He was then sent to the SS-Junkerschule “Tolz” and after graduating became a training officer with the French Waffen-SS. He was eventually made a “political officer” on the staff of the French Waffen-SS Inspectorate. His main message to the French volunteers was that they were part of a great united European confederation, fighting Bolshevism and predatory Capitalism.

 

During the deployment of the “Charlemagne” Division in Pomerania in February and March 1945, Büeler became a combat company commander. He particularly distinguished himself during the fighting for Kolberg, where he led a 200-man French SS battlegroup from 4 March 1945 until 18 March 1945. This contingent fought alongside another 100-man French company and 3,000 some German troops who managed to stave off the attacking Red Army long enough to allow the successful evacuation of some 68,000 civilian refugees by sea by the German Navy. By the end of the battle, SS-Ostuf. Büeler’s command had been reduced to 30 men! Of the 300 French volunteers fighting in Kolberg, all but 50 had been killed or wounded.

 

SS-Untersturmführer Benno Schaeppi, who had overseen the “Panorama Home” in Stuttgart from October 1942 until the end of March 1944, had enlisted in the Waffen-SS on 15 March 1941, and had served as a war correspondent with the 2nd SS Panzer Division “Das Reich” during its first year in Russia. He then served as a press functionary at the Germanic Bureau of the SS Main Office for a short time before being posted to the “Panorama Home”. In April 1944, Schaeppi began an officer’s training course at the SS-Junkerschule “Tolz” and after graduating was placed in charge of the III. Germanic SS Panzer Corps’ War Reporter’s Company in November 1944. He would hold this position until the end of the war.

 

A senior Swiss military officer who had commanded a border guard battalion in his homeland, also enlisted in the Waffen-SS and eventually became the highest ranking Swiss volunteer with the rank of SS-Oberführer (Senior Colonel), although to this day his identity remains unknown or concealed. He certainly would have been an embarrassment for the Swiss authorities!

 

The most highly decorated Swiss volunteer of them all was SS- Untersturmführer Peter Renold. He was born on 6 June 1924 in Wollishofen in the Canton of Zurich. In 1939, when the war broke out, Renold was a 15-year-old student in Germany and an ardent member of the Hitler Youth. In November 1941, at the age of 17, he eagerly enlisted in the Waffen-SS. In 1942 he was transferred to the Wehrmacht’s “Brandenburg” Commando Division for special training and in the course of 1942 and 1943, he would participate in no fewer than 16 “Brandenburger” operations behind enemy lines in the Soviet Union.

 

By 1944, Peter Renold was back serving in the Waffen-SS, this time with SS Paratroop Battalion 501. While serving with this unit, he took part in the airborne/ground attack on Tito’s HQ in Yugoslavia in May 1944, which came within a whisker of capturing the Red terrorist leader. Renold then completed an officer’s training course and afterwards was assigned to SS Panzergrenadier Rgt. 5 “Totenkopf” of the 3rd SS Panzer Division “Totenkopf’. In the last months of the war he was credited with destroying 9 enemy tanks in close combat which brought him a nomination for the Knight’s Cross. This was supposedly given to him on 6 May 1945, although documentary evidence seems to still be lacking. He was likely the most distinguished Swiss combatant in the Waffen-SS.

 

After World War II ended, the Swiss government went after its “German collaborators” with a vengeance. No fewer than 33 people in this category, including 1 Liechtensteiner, were condemned to death as “traitors” by Swiss courts. Swiss military volunteers also fared poorly. In late 1947 a “show trial” was conducted for 17 of the most prominent Swiss Waffen-SS members in Lucerne and all were given lengthy prison terms. SS-Stubaf. Dr. Franz Riedweg was given an 18-year term in absentia. Although held in British captivity at the time, they did not send him back to Switzerland as he had become a German citizen during the war.

 

Many others had returned to Switzerland, either voluntarily or forcibly, including Dr. Zander, Dr.Biiehler and Benno Schaeppi. At the 1947 trial, Dr. Zander received an 11-year sentence at hard labor; his release date is unknown. Dr. Büehler, a voluntary returnee, was given an 8-year sentence at hard labor and was released on 10 February 1954 after having served a little over 6 years of his sentence. Benno Schaeppi received a 16-year sentence of confinement at hard labor, but he was released, (unrepentant!), on 1 August 1956, about 8 ¹/₂ years into his sentence. These men had really committed no crimes against the Swiss nation, but were purely anti-communist volunteers. However, their government decided to “make an example” out of them.

 

The Liechtensteiner volunteers who served in the Waffen-SS and survived the war, fared much better. Their government treated them with respect and decency and none were ever held in confinement in their homeland. It should be noted that the Liechtenstein government also “faced down the world” in 1945 by giving political asylum to hundreds of members of Vlasov’s Russian Liberation Army who had crossed into the country. Despite pressure from all sides to hand them over to either the Allies or Soviets, (to face almost certain death), Liechtenstein would not do so, and these Russian volunteers eventually were allowed to live free lives in exile!

 

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Three known Swiss volunteers who served with elements of the “Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler” were the following: SS-Hauptsturmführer Karl Frank (“LAH” Training and Replacement Battalion), SS-Mann Kurt Eberle (Panzer Technical School in Berlin under the aegis of the “LAH” detachment in that city), and SS- Mann Heinz Diriwachter, (on the staff of the “Main” Company/SS Training and Replacement Btl. “LSSAH”).

 

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There were at least four different Swiss “medical missions” to the Eastern Front, in which Swiss doctors, medics and nurses volunteered their services at German Army and Waffen-SS field hospitals. They were stationed at the following locations (dates mostly unknown):

 

1) Gshatsk, Juchnow, Roslawl and Vjasma

2) Warsaw and L’viv (Lemberg), Ukraine

3) Riga, Diinaberg, Latvia and Pskov

4) Kharkov and Stalino (1942/1943)

  

To date very little information has emerged about these undertakings except that the “missions” were privately sponsored by people or groups unknown worried about the Soviet menace!

 

SS-HAUPTSTURMFÜHRER DR. KURT BRÜDERLIN

 

Kurt Brüderlin was born on 12 June 1914 in the town of Thun, Switzerland. His father was a career officer in the Swiss Army Brüderlin was extensively educated; first in Thun and Bern and then at universities in Paris and London, obtaining a doctorate in economics in the process. He was also fluent in three languages: German, French and English.

 

An ardent Swiss nationalist and anti-communist, Brüderlin became an early member of a Swiss National Socialist movement which maintained cross border ties to German National Socialists. One of his most inspirational moments came when he attended a graduation evening at the S.A. (Stormtrooper) Leadership School in Munich in 1934. In the meantime, he also served in the Swiss Army, becoming an Oberleutnant (1st Lt.) in an artillery unit.

 

When WWII broke out, Kurt Brüderlin closely watched developments. His greatest concern was the threat to Western Europe from Soviet communism and in 1943, when Stalingrad capitulated and the German military position began to falter, he decided it was time to act: he would join in the armed struggle against communism to help protect Europe and his homeland.

 

In March 1943, Brüderlin illegally crossed the border into Germany and reported into the nearest police outpost, stating that he wished to volunteer for service in the German Armed Forces. The police were able to direct him to a house at 11 Panorama Street in Stuttgart, the so-called “Panorama Home”, where all Swiss volunteers were being processed. Here he had to simply wait around until the completion of his Gestapo background investigation. When he was cleared, Brüderlin asked that he be allowed to serve in a Wehrmacht artillery unit, since that was his specialty in the Swiss Army. He was not expecting to serve in the Waffen-SS, but he soon learned otherwise. After three weeks at the “Panorama Home”, he was dispatched to the Munich-Freiman Barracks, the home of the Artillery Replacement Regiment of the Waffen-SS. On 6 May 1943 he was given the equivalent of his old Swiss rank, SS-Obersturmführer, and officially began his German military service.

 

Brüderlin was now given the opportunity to serve as an instructor at the 2nd Germanic Volunteer Officer’s Training Course at the SS Junkerschule Tolz, but he turned the assignment down, stating emphatically that he wanted to serve at the front. So on 17 August 1943 he was sent to the SS Main Office in Berlin to receive a combat assignment. Here he would meet his fellow countryman, SS- Obersturmbannführer Dr. Franz Riedweg, who headed up the Germanic Volunteer Bureau in the SS Main Office.

 

He soon received his marching instructions to join the Artillery Detachment of the 1st SS Motorized Infantry Brigade which was located at Orscha in Weissruthenia (now Belarus). He was named to command the Staff Battery, a position he would hold from late August 1943 until the end of January 1944.

 

On 25 September 1943, Kurt Brüderlin received his only Waffen-SS promotion to the rank of SS-Hauptsturmführer (Captain). In the late autumn of 1943, during retrograde fighting back across the Beresina River, he was riding in a half-track vehicle used to pull field artillery pieces, when it struck a dormant aircraft bomb that had landed on the edge of the road without exploding. However, it made up for that little oversight now, and with a thunderous roar, Brüderlin and the vehicle crewmen were all wounded. He would be out of action for the next few months.

 

In early 1944, Brüderlin returned to his unit which had now been withdrawn from the front. The 1st SS Motorized Infantry Brigade would now be expanded into the 18th SS Panzergrenadier Division “Horst Wessel” beginning in February 1944. SS-Hstuf. Brüderlin then expressed his desire to command the 10th (12cm Guns) Battery of the new SS Artillery Regiment 18, since it contained the same artillery pieces that he worked with in the Swiss Army. In order to do this however he had to attend an artillery battery commander’s training course which was held at the SS Artillery School “Beneschau” near Prague. This commenced in late January 1944 and ended a few weeks later in February 1944. However, when Brüderlin finished the course he found himself unexpectedly assigned to the 6th SS Mountain Division “Nord” in Finland where he took charge of 9th Battery (Light Field Howitzers) of SS Mountain Artillery Regiment 6. The “Nord” Division was home to many other Swiss volunteers, including SS-Hstuf. Hans Bühlmann, as the Waffen-SS higher authorities seemed to favor sending them to this particular outfit.

 

In September 1944 when Finland abruptly switched sides to avoid Soviet occupation, the 6th SS Mountain Division “Nord” was in a perilous position; it had to immediately withdraw through Northern Finland to the Norwegian frontier to avoid encirclement. During this time a new Finnish Ski Brigade was deployed in the Kemi-Kuusamo sector with the direct intention of disrupting the German retreat. This led to serious clashes with the Finns. On 8 October 1944, when elements of the “Nord” Division were engaged in fighting their ex-Allies in the city of Tomio, some of the SS Mountain troops were cutoff and fell into the hands of the Finns. Among them was SS-Hstuf. Brüderlin, who from this point on was officially listed as missing in action.

 

Actually though he was a POW and he was sent initially to a Finnish am detention camp at Oulu, but the Finns soon handed their captives over to the Soviets and Brüderlin found himself sent to a camp at Tambow to the southeast of Moscow in Russia. After nearly a year in Red captivity, the Soviets decided to release him on the basis of his “neutral” nationality in the autumn of 1945. He was then sent to a prisoner release facility near Feldkirch, Austria. From there he tried to make his way to Switzerland on his own but he was soon arrested by French occupation troops for having been a member of the Waffen-SS. These people held him in confinement until September 1946 when they turned him over to the Swiss police.

 

In 1947 he was placed before a Swiss Military Tribunal which decided he should serve two years at hard labor for having “deserted” his Swiss reserve military service to join the Waffen-SS. After his release, Brüderlin worked at various odd jobs, including clerking and cleaning-up duties at an Alpine resort, before resuming his studies in philosophy, psychology and history at the University of Basel. He matriculated as a Doctor of Philosophy in 1961 and then served as a business and psychology instructor for many years. In 1971 he authored a popular economics book which became a standard work of its kind in Switzerland.

 

All the while Kurt Brüderlin maintained contacts with his fellow Swiss Waffen-SS comrades and he even attended many veteran’s meetings in Germany. He also aided and supported young people who engaged in Swiss nationalist activities. In 2000, with the help of the Swiss Waffen-SS Veterans Comradeship, he was able to publish his wartime memoirs, entitled: “Insights and Views of a Swiss Volunteer of the Waffen-SS”. He died at his residence in Basel, Switzerland on 17 February 2005 at the age of 90. Kurt Brüderlin remained proud of his service in the Waffen-SS until the end!

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The Swiss SS volunteer Hannes Martin Mettler from St. Gallen, Switzerland, was killed in action near Kiev on 14 September 1941.

 

He probably served in the 5th SS Division “Wiking”.

  

 

SS-OBERSTURMBANNFÜHRER DR. FRANZ RIEDWEG

 

Franz Riedweg was born in Lucerne, Switzerland in 1907. After completing his basic schooling he studied medicine at Universities in Bern, Berlin and Rostock. Early on he developed an extreme dislike of communism and became a member of the “Swiss Action Against Communism” organization and began authoring anticommunist books. Among his achievements at this time was the production of a film attacking Bolshevism entitled “The Red Pest”.

 

This film in particular brought him to the attention of many people in the German government in the 1930's, including Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, who saw a potential place for him in the SS organization. In 1938, Dr. Riedweg moved permanently to Germany, married a German woman, became a German citizen and also joined the armed SS, or SS-Verfügungstruppe as it was then known. He was soon admitted to the SS-Standarte “Deutschland” as a medical officer with the rank of SS- Hauptsturmführer (Captain), and he took part in the Western Campaign of 1940 with his regiment as part of the SS-VT Division.

 

In 1941, with the assistance of SS-Gruppenführer Felix Steiner, the commander of SS Division “Wiking” and a great supporter of Pan-Germanic volunteers, Dr. Riedweg was able to establish a “Germanic” sub office or bureau within the SS Main Office in Berlin, to deal with the affairs of non-German volunteers from the various “Germanic” countries. The office registered and processed volunteers, helped them with any difficulties in their transition into the German military forces and helped arrange welfare and support for their families. It also published numerous periodicals and books for the volunteers along with political and recruiting propaganda.

 

In 1942, Dr. Riedweg was activated again for medical duties with the 5th SS Panzer Division “Wiking” on the Eastern Front, and in the following year he helped with the formation of the Germanic SS Panzer Corps (“Nordland” and “Nederland” Divisions). In between these assignments he continued working with the Germanic SS Office which was reorganized as “Amtsgruppe D” of the SS Main Office. In addition to Scandinavian and Lowland volunteers, Riedweg’s office arranged the processing of volunteers from abroad, including British and Swiss volunteers. The latter two nationalities were dealt with secretly through “safe houses” established in civilian neighborhoods. Eventually a British combat platoon (“Britisches Freikorps”) saw action with the 11th SS Panzer- grenadier Division “Nordland” and the Swiss volunteers were scattered throughout the Waffen-SS, with a fair sized concentration in the 6th SS Mountain Division “Nord”.

 

Sometime in 1944, the now SS-Obersturmbannführer (Lt.Col.) Dr. Riedweg took charge of the Military Hospital of the III. SS Germanic Panzer Corps and stayed at this post until the end of the war. In the spring of 1945, Riedweg went into British captivity and was held until 1948. In 1947 he was tried by the Swiss government in absentia for “treason”, found guilty and sentenced to 16 years captivity at hard labor. The sentence was never carried out however as Riedweg had become a German citizen and the British never turned him over to the Swiss.

 

Following his release from post-war confinement, Dr. Riedweg opened a medical practice in the town of Uberlingen before later relocating to Munich. In 1968 he founded “The European League”, an organization devoted to the establishment of an ecumenical, Christian, united Europe and over the years the “League” issued many of his articles and publications on the subject. Dr. Franz Riedweg died at the age of 97 in Munich on 22 January 2005.

 

THE SWISS COMPANY OF 6. SS MOUNTAIN DIVISION “NORD”

 

When the SS-Kampfgaippe “Nord”, which had been serving in Finland, was expanded into a full division in late 1941, it required an influx of new personnel. Among these were many Swiss volunteers who had been utilized to form a mountain reconnaissance company that had been training for many weeks at an SS training school in Ellwangen/Jagst. This predominately Swiss company, was used to constitute the 2nd Company of the new SS Mountain Reconnaissance Detachment 6 of the 6th SS Mountain Division “Nord”.

 

A former Captain on the Swiss General Staff, SS-Hauptsturmführer Graf was named to command the company. Like most of the Swiss volunteers, his motive for joining the Waffen-SS was an ardent desire to fight the menace of Soviet communism.

 

In January 1942, the “Swiss” Company was sent to the Wildflecken camp (later the home of the French 33rd SS Division “Charlemagne”), to train specifically for its eventual deployment in the Karelia region of Finland. In May 1942 the company was deemed “fit for action” and at the end of the month it began a boat journey from Danzig across the Baltic Sea to Finland. Upon arrival in that country it was then sent by motorized transport to the “Nord” Division deployment area around the towns of Oulukuujamo and Kiestinki in Karelia, arriving in the early part of June 1942.

 

The Swiss 2nd Company was initially deployed in the frontline “Gudrun” defensive positions next to some Wehrmacht elements, but in August and September 1942, the whole “Nord” Recce Detachment was shifted to the north to protect the “Nord” Division’s left wing. Since the warfare on this part of the Eastern Front was static, the Swiss volunteers were put to work building bunkers and guard outposts. Then on 23/24 September 1942, the SS Recce Detachment 6 guard post “Birkhahn” was attacked and overrun by a Soviet company. The 2nd Company was then ordered to retake the position; it did so in a very violent assault in the course of which

 

SS-Hstuf. Graf was killed in action by an explosive bullet to his chest.

 

In the summer of 1943, the “Swiss” Company, now led by SS- Hstuf. Rahn, was deployed in a large-scale anti-partisan operation to try and shut down the terrorists who had been plaguing the rear area support troops. SS-Hstuf. Rahn decided to lead one phase of the operation from above in a Fieseler Storch scout plane. His idea was to locate a partisan enclave and then direct the troops on the ground towards it.

 

The first thing that had to be done was for the ground troops to identify themselves to their commander in the sky. This was to be accomplished through the use of a signal flare which would designate the exact location of the soldiers, who were accompanied by a Finnish liaison officer. When the airplane was heard and seen overhead, the designated trooper shot off the bright, white flare which streaked directly towards the Fieseler Storch and managed to strike its engine mounting! The pilot subsequently lost control and the air plane went down in the thick woods! Nothing like this had ever happened before or probably since!

 

The Waffen-SS soldiers had shot down their own commander against all the odds! A platoon with an engineer squad was then sent out into the swampy terrain to find the plane. They took with them inflatable rubber boats to cross the numerous rivers and streams. It was a difficult and arduous undertaking for not only was the terrain difficult but there was the continuous threat of partisan ambush. Fortunately the enemy never appeared and by following a trail of downed tree branches the soldiers eventually located the wreck. Both of the occupants of the Fieseler Storch were found badly burned and SS-Hstuf. Rahn could only be identified by the decorations on his tunic. Ironically, on this same day, his son was born back in his homeland.

 

The combat engineers constructed litters from tree branches and the bodies were slowly hauled out of the swamps and back to the main divisional lines. It was truly a sad day for the “Swiss” Company of the “Nord” Division; it was a tragedy that could never have been accomplished deliberately no matter how hard they tried and was probably a unique incident in the history of World War II. 

 

A group of newly decorated NCOs from the 6th SS Mountain Division “Nord” in Finland.

 

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Some 7,000 Norwegian Waffen-SS volunteers fought on the Eastern Front in WWII out of which number at least 980 were killed or missing. The highest per capita losses were suffered by the SS-Ski Battalion “Norge” of the 6th SS Mountain Division “Nord” in two days of heavy fighting in northern Finland on 25 and 26 July 1944 around Kaprolet and Hasselmann. In this engagement against superior Soviet forces, some 150 Norwegians were killed in action which amounted to roughly half the battalion strength!

 

350 Norwegian nurses also served on the Eastern Front, mostly in Waffen-SS field hospitals. Of this number at least 20 were killed, mostly due to enemy aerial bombardments.

 

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SS-Hauptsturmführer Ludwig Lieb ended the war as a battalion commander in SS Grenadier Regiment 96 of the 38th SS Grenadier Division “Nibelungen”. He had been a regimental adjutant with SS-Panzergrenadier Regiment 10 “Westland” of the 5th SS Panzer

 

Division “Wilting” before commanding 1st Company/I. Btl./SS- PzGr.Rgt.10 “Westland”. After recovering from serious battle wounds he was posted to the SS Junkerschule “Tolz” as an instructor and “inspection leader” (chief). When the school was mobilized for combat duty in early 1945, Lieb went into the “Nibelungen” Division with most of the other “Tolz” personnel. He died after a long illness in 1992.

 

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More Waffen-SS Knight’s Cross recipients (39) were born in the year 1920 than any other. In second place was the “birth year” 1914 (35), followed by 1921 (29).

 

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SS-Sturmann Graf Knut Posse was born on 26 July 1926 and was the youngest Swedish volunteer for the Finnish Army during its “Continuation War” (1941-44) with the Soviet Union. In 1943/44 he served near Wiborg and Jamdeba on the Karelian Front. When Finland changed sides in September 1944, the anti-communist Posse sought release from Finnish military service to join the Waffen-SS. He was able to achieve his objective in December 1944 when he signed up at the Waffen-SS recruiting office in Oslo, Norway.

 

From here he was either sent for training with the SS Feldersatz Battalion 11 at Graz, Austria, which serviced Nordic volunteers, or was assigned to the SS-Jagdverbände (Commandos) at Friedenthal near Berlin. He was then supposedly designated for a special mission in the vicinity of the Swiss border. Information on him is sketchy at best and comes mostly from a Swedish “historian” who openly befriended Waffen-SS veterans while working all along secretly with the “Nazi hunters” and Swedish secret police. He turned out some articles for the Waffen-SS veteran’s magazine “Der Freiwillige” before the discovery of his sordid activities was made and a warning was issued about him.

 

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In March 1954, 21 Spanish Waffen-SS volunteers who had been captured during or after the Battle of Berlin in April/May 1945, were finally returned to their homeland after almost 9 years in Soviet captivity. They were among an estimated 200 Spaniards who fought in the battle with the Spanish SS Companies 101 and 102. Many, if not most of their comrades either died in action or later on the communist labor camps.