Dirlewanger Brigade - Himmler's Convict Legion

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  • čas přidán 21. 05. 2021
  • Dr. Mark Felton is a well-known British historian, the author of 22 non-fiction books, including bestsellers 'Zero Night' and 'Castle of the Eagles', both currently being developed into movies in Hollywood. In addition to writing, Mark also appears regularly in television documentaries around the world, including on The History Channel, Netflix, National Geographic, Quest, American Heroes Channel and RMC Decouverte. His books have formed the background to several TV and radio documentaries. More information about Mark can be found at: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Fe...
    Visit my audio book channel 'War Stories with Mark Felton': • One Thousand Miles to ...
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    Disclaimer: All opinions and comments expressed in the 'Comments' section do not reflect the opinions of Mark Felton Productions. All opinions and comments should contribute to the dialogue. Mark Felton Productions does not condone written attacks, insults, racism, sexism, extremism, violence or otherwise questionable comments or material in the 'Comments' section, and reserves the right to delete any comment violating this rule or to block any poster from the channel.
    Credits: Rana; US National Archives; Bundesarchiv.
    Thumbnail: Wehrmacht 39

Komentáře • 5K

  • @Ulvetann
    @Ulvetann Před 3 lety +2646

    Wounded 12 times and still surviving WWII. -Even Hell didn't want this person.

    • @j0nnyism
      @j0nnyism Před 2 lety +384

      The devil was probably worried about losing his job

    • @twks123
      @twks123 Před 2 lety +58

      Those people will only go to the 19th level of hell, the deepest level of hell even deeper than the 18th level, surpassing all religious and gods governing, with their souls tortured in the 19th level of hell in the way even worse than the worst way possible, and this torture lasting forever beyond infinity, beyond extreme, and beyond the end of the universe.

    • @twks123
      @twks123 Před 2 lety +12

      @@j0nnyism Those people will only go to the 19th level of hell, the deepest level of hell even deeper than the 18th level, surpassing all religious and gods governing, with their souls tortured in the 19th level of hell in the way even worse than the worst way possible, and this torture lasting forever beyond infinity, beyond extreme, and beyond the end of the universe.

    • @HorstEwald
      @HorstEwald Před 2 lety +88

      @@twks123 you posted cringe my guy

    • @Jim-de4dj
      @Jim-de4dj Před 2 lety +20

      @@twks123 So not as bad as living in America then?

  • @jakemarzano2298
    @jakemarzano2298 Před 3 lety +4168

    You know something's wrong when the SS says you need to take it down a notch.

    • @thegunslinger1363
      @thegunslinger1363 Před 3 lety +361

      A bunch of unscrupulous, sadistic, angry, vindictive, and bitter men. Given weapons and sent to conduct operations in civilian areas. What could possibly go wrong....

    • @Krezo200
      @Krezo200 Před 3 lety +5

      @UCIXnNfm_9vYVuDQ6c2aSjSg why

    • @brandonquezada9523
      @brandonquezada9523 Před 3 lety +11

      What did George do bro?

    • @aylmer666
      @aylmer666 Před 3 lety +104

      You know the Ustase’s Jacinovac camp was bad when even the Nazi concentration camp officials who came and visited were shocked by its awful conditions.

    • @CS-zn6pp
      @CS-zn6pp Před 3 lety +74

      @@thegunslinger1363 did it "go wrong" or did it go down exactly as expected. Deploying this lot of psychopaths to an area had easily foreseeable outcomes so I would guess any deployment would be an informed decision.

  • @StanStacks
    @StanStacks Před 2 lety +327

    If you were to describe Dirlewanger to me without me knowing know what he looks like, my mental image of him would be exactly how he looked in real life. Never has a face fit a description of a person so perfectly.

    • @hensoakira
      @hensoakira Před rokem +1

      He look like a lost grandad of hitler, how ironic.

    • @j.m.d.a1496
      @j.m.d.a1496 Před 9 měsíci +14

      He looks gorgeous

    • @baumkuchen6543
      @baumkuchen6543 Před 9 měsíci

      "Middle aged child molester"

    • @hellepost1439
      @hellepost1439 Před 9 měsíci +1

      Paul Scäfer, Hartmut Hopp, Augusto Pinochet. COLONIA DIGNIDAD ☠️☠️☠️☠️

    • @sethr6962
      @sethr6962 Před 3 měsíci

      Physiognomy is real lol

  • @aliray1165
    @aliray1165 Před 2 lety +339

    Himmler: “send in the dirlewanger brigade”
    SS: “now steady on old chap”

  • @heinrichvonhagen2226
    @heinrichvonhagen2226 Před 3 lety +2606

    You know a story is bad when the happy ending is "And he was supposedly beaten to death".

    • @em1osmurf
      @em1osmurf Před 3 lety +162

      in another Dr Felton story, many SS officers and guards mysteriously ended up shot dead when concentration camps were liberated by americans. not investigated either.

    • @mesolithicman164
      @mesolithicman164 Před 3 lety +91

      The karmaic law in action.

    • @thegreenbird795
      @thegreenbird795 Před 3 lety +135

      @@em1osmurf all's well that ends well......

    • @rascallyrabbit717
      @rascallyrabbit717 Před 3 lety +26

      @@em1osmurf oh well

    • @leonrothier6638
      @leonrothier6638 Před 3 lety +91

      What do you mean? He tripped on a pistol and shot himself in the back of the head five times.

  • @danmorgan3685
    @danmorgan3685 Před 3 lety +1968

    Just imagine being a guy convicted of poaching and roped into this unit. Then things just keep getting worse.

    • @ahappypikachu9753
      @ahappypikachu9753 Před 3 lety +508

      Could you imagine?! You’re guilty of killing some game out of season to feed your family, get caught, and now you spend all your time with the nations biggest criminal-sadists and Psycho’s.

    • @Nick-qm7qc
      @Nick-qm7qc Před 3 lety +404

      'Hey guys is it cool if I just go back to prison?'

    • @warrenmilford1329
      @warrenmilford1329 Před 3 lety +282

      Yea, you'd find that a lot of those initial 300 odd poachers, that initially formed the unit, were probably generally law abiding citizens, and as stated above, were only poaching to feed their families during hard times. I'm sure they probably would have made an effective partisan hunting unit, if used in that capacity. However, to then have thousands of serious criminal psychos added to their ranks, and be used to butcher civilians, must have been horrendous for them.

    • @pflernak
      @pflernak Před 3 lety +161

      @@warrenmilford1329 I wonder how many of those initial 300 poachers survived half way into the war

    • @fistinyourface7053
      @fistinyourface7053 Před 3 lety +86

      At first it was composed of poachers since they knew how to move in the woods. Later on they started to draft every criminal available.

  • @Willysmb44
    @Willysmb44 Před 2 lety +122

    Imagine being in a unit where SS troops would talk about you behind your back, calling your unit a bunch of psychos. I can't even imagine that

    • @olekcholewa8171
      @olekcholewa8171 Před rokem

      Friedrich Wilhelm Krüger, the commander of SS and Police in German-occupied Poland who was a war criminal himself and killed thousends of poeple, said that "if this bunch of pigs won't leave his territory in 2 weeks, he will arrest Dirlewanger in person".

  • @aIex1337
    @aIex1337 Před 5 měsíci +23

    Amazing documentary, Dr. Felton. My Great Grandfather, Karl, born 1921 was sent to this unit in 1943. He was a regular Wehrmacht Heer (Army) soldier sent to the unit due to dissenting remarks.
    He's still alive to this day and almost never referenced his time in this Brigade, as opposed to his Regular Army service. He's currently 102.

  • @davidf.4886
    @davidf.4886 Před 3 lety +1407

    “People talk sometimes of a bestial cruelty, but that's a great injustice and insult to the beasts; a beast can never be so cruel as a man, so artistically cruel. The tiger only tears and gnaws, that's all he can do. He would never think of nailing people by the ears, even if he were able to do it.”
    Dostoyevsky

    • @mathiasweiss7559
      @mathiasweiss7559 Před 2 lety +80

      He was wrong. Just look at a cat playing with a living mouse or an orca with an half dead seal. The whole planet kills for fun.

    • @DEVS_VLTIMA
      @DEVS_VLTIMA Před 2 lety +59

      @@davidf.4886 animals are driven by a higher transcendental purpose to master the space around them, humans used to be like this, now we stumble around a disgusting materialistic and consumerist “culture” devoid of purpose or meaning

    • @yannick245
      @yannick245 Před 2 lety +2

      Cats kill and torture for fun.

    • @nonnobissolum
      @nonnobissolum Před 2 lety +22

      @@davidf.4886 Get a grip. We get it. You're a cat fan. Fact is....I've seen plenty in my 60 years of life to suggest that we are as naive about the innocence of the animal kingdom as we are about our own capacity for animalistic behavior, and/or ability to overcome such impulses. And Dostoyevsky had no way of knowing what lions and tigers and bears oh my would do with opposable thumbs and any kind of capacity for creativity or existential downtime/angst.

    • @nonnobissolum
      @nonnobissolum Před 2 lety +7

      @@davidf.4886 🤣 I don't think that's the point.

  • @machstem6390
    @machstem6390 Před 3 lety +2123

    Imagine getting a complaint from the SS about barbarism.

    • @chadgoose7886
      @chadgoose7886 Před 2 lety +51

      @@l337pwnage dilate

    • @E-E.ADVENTUREGEARS
      @E-E.ADVENTUREGEARS Před 2 lety +27

      @@Sercer25
      SS MEANS SUPER STEALTH

    • @fmwr1397
      @fmwr1397 Před 2 lety +137

      There's nothing to imagine if you're not a sheep who believes in the Hollywood caricature of the SS.

    • @jaykay616
      @jaykay616 Před 2 lety +2

      How bad this dude can be.........

    • @johnh.tuomala4379
      @johnh.tuomala4379 Před 2 lety +29

      Even as Nazis go, that bunch must have been the worst of the worst.

  • @stevecooper2541
    @stevecooper2541 Před 2 lety +48

    The SS-SONDERKOMMANDO 'DIRLEWANGER' A MEMOIR was written by a man who was sentenced to two years in prison for poaching in 1939 at the age of 19. He was one of the original 75 recruits when the kommando was formed in 1940 and remained with the unit until the end of the war. He was released from POW camp in 1946 and lived until 2006. A very well written and very interesting story.

    • @f4ust85
      @f4ust85 Před rokem +1

      I cant believe these men didnt get handed over to the Soviets (or Slovaks, Poles...) the first day after the war (the way all the Vlasov guys or Cossacs did for far less). They were of no value in terms of intelligence and were literally the most brutal war criminals of the entire war who murdered thousands of people in Belarus, Ukraine, Poland or Slovakia, all over the east...

    • @BadBoy-bt6lb
      @BadBoy-bt6lb Před 6 měsíci +3

      The bastard was lucky to live to old age.

  • @StanObirek
    @StanObirek Před 3 lety +474

    During Warsaw Uprising Polish fighters were short of ammunition, had to aim well before firing, as a result Dirlewanger's brigade suffered unusually high proportion of dead to wounded. A legion of cowards good against defenceless women and children. This short movie makes them look almost like angels.

    • @MrFrenchteacher1
      @MrFrenchteacher1 Před 2 lety +49

      Dr Dirlewanger won numerous gallantry medals for exceptional courage in close combat.
      The Polish soldiers who murdered him while he was a defensless prisoner were great heroes, no doubt about that, or were they?

    • @MrReiniC
      @MrReiniC Před 2 lety +243

      @@MrFrenchteacher1 short answer. Yes. Those Polish soldiers did a good job.

    • @peterschmidt4341
      @peterschmidt4341 Před 2 lety +17

      @@MrReiniC no they did not.

    • @Mark-vq5dz
      @Mark-vq5dz Před 2 lety +17

      It certainly doesn't do their wickedness justice for me.....and yet another reason justifying the wiping out of the evil group that was the Nazis.
      Also it makes those daft buggers who like to dress up as SS and reenact look even more pathetic

    • @joperamod5760
      @joperamod5760 Před 2 lety +1

      @@Mark-vq5dz why?

  • @jamesgorman2442
    @jamesgorman2442 Před 3 lety +3099

    The Russian movie “come and see”, shows the actions of this unit in the film. Makes Schindler‘s list look like a Disney film

    • @fordprefect80
      @fordprefect80 Před 3 lety +140

      Yeah watched it a few weeks back. Compelling and quite confronting.

    • @sergeyk6782
      @sergeyk6782 Před 3 lety +186

      @@fordprefect80 my grandpa survived such an action.

    • @captainsergeant
      @captainsergeant Před 3 lety +229

      When I first watched that movie I just assumed it was an extreme exaggeration due to the over the top actions of the German soldiers. I now know this was not the case.

    • @torycsummers7328
      @torycsummers7328 Před 3 lety +49

      Yes ive seen it. And yes i agree. Its a rather disturbing movie.

    • @hugo2242
      @hugo2242 Před 3 lety +102

      I thought schindlers list was a disney film?

  • @Betterifitsfree
    @Betterifitsfree Před 3 lety +1727

    "Died of mysterious circumstances" more like; beaten so freaking bad they couldn't tell who it was except by his shoe size.

    • @matthewlok3020
      @matthewlok3020 Před 3 lety +42

      But little wonder if that turned out to be true

    • @dave_h_8742
      @dave_h_8742 Před 3 lety +132

      Oh dear, what a shame, never mind 😉

    • @F40PH-2CAT
      @F40PH-2CAT Před 3 lety +67

      @@matthewlok3020 its accepted as the most likely outcome. He was too infamous to hide.

    • @marcinswoboda7993
      @marcinswoboda7993 Před 3 lety +181

      do not jump to conclusions, he fell from stairs, several times

    • @wach9191
      @wach9191 Před 3 lety +28

      He has weird body tho, slim with big head.

  • @xander9564
    @xander9564 Před 2 lety +114

    "One must be amazed, when one learns of the inner nature of man, that the number of criminals is so small." -- Dr. Wilhelm Stekel

    • @EroticOnion23
      @EroticOnion23 Před 2 lety +12

      Not really, humans & apes are social animals, the real crazies like those in this brigade would have definitely been kicked out of the community in prehistoric times, and genetically selected out. A few seems to have slipped through though...Psychotic, sadistic behavior is very prevalent though in war-like societies (Germanic, Japanese, Samoan, etc.) due to, well, the more peaceful ones being the first off killed in wars...it all boils down to natural selection...

  • @braeduin
    @braeduin Před 3 lety +546

    The brigade's last action was against the Soviets - Me: Oh good
    Many of them surrendered to the Americans - Me: Damnit
    Dirlewanger died in mysterious circumstances, perhaps beaten to death by Polish soldiers - Me: Oh good

    • @SuperChuckRaney
      @SuperChuckRaney Před 2 lety +24

      I wonder if anyone researched how many unit members went BACK to jail, after the war, by committing new civilian crimes?

    • @lookbovine
      @lookbovine Před 2 lety +4

      Why add the Me:’s?
      Anyone being beaten to death should not be welcome news. There’s karma others may experience and then karma for wishing ill.

    • @braeduin
      @braeduin Před 2 lety +55

      @@lookbovine Yes, it's very noble and high minded of you to pass judgement on my comment while sitting there comfortably behind your computer screen in 2021. Of course you're going to reply to me about rule of law and civilized behaviour, all of which I totally agree with. However, I added the "me's" as a reflection of my emotional response to those historical events which were completely out of my control and happened long before I was born . I felt a certain satisfaction in the way that this particular individual met his fate - especially at the hands of Polish soldiers who likely knew or were related to his victims, and who had suffered great hardships and endured some of the most brutal actions of the Second World War.
      Of course the right things would have been to go through due process and to have given this criminal a fair trail. However, I am a mere human and my emotional sense of justice reacted the way it did.

    • @johnh.tuomala4379
      @johnh.tuomala4379 Před 2 lety +5

      @Jo SM If in fact Dirlewanger did die of a 'heart attack" (as did Milosevic, decades later), you can bet that far more likely than not that "heart attack" was induced by human fists.
      The more things change, the more they remain the same.

    • @KGWyzel
      @KGWyzel Před 2 lety +1

      If they were captured by American forces, then they were likely put on trial in Nuremberg.

  • @johnstafford6810
    @johnstafford6810 Před 3 lety +1447

    I imagine that Himmler also saw this unit as an opportunity to empty the prisons and rid the state of as many of these criminals as possible .

    • @luchko3936
      @luchko3936 Před 3 lety +9

      @Greg Htma yup

    • @thanakonpraepanich4284
      @thanakonpraepanich4284 Před 3 lety +26

      @George Lynch Dixon
      Did the Nazi propaganda claimed Patton's 4th Armor were just like that; mafias, Irish gangs and hitmen released from Chicago jails on promise of full pardon if they survived the war?

    • @Carandini
      @Carandini Před 3 lety +63

      @@thanakonpraepanich4284 They made the same claims about US Airborne since they shaved their heads (which was what the Germans did to convicts). The 4th Armored was dubbed 'Roosevelt's Butchers' by the German press and said to be dregs culled from America's prisons.

    • @Warsie
      @Warsie Před 3 lety +4

      @Greg Htma But political prisoners in GULAG weren't let out as much or at all lmao

    • @Warsie
      @Warsie Před 3 lety +2

      @Greg Htma The people let out of prisons and given commands were political prisoners like communists and other radicals who won. Of course they'll free their comrades lmao

  • @Trek001
    @Trek001 Před 3 lety +881

    You know a man is dark when even the SS go "Now steady on"

    • @stansfieldmcelroy
      @stansfieldmcelroy Před 3 lety +10

      @@knuthamsun6106 oh knut, bad form old boy

    • @nickmitsialis
      @nickmitsialis Před 3 lety +9

      @George Washington You saw that picture of Oskar Dirlewanger...it's like his face has been 'withered' by the evil inside of him. I know people say 'don't judge a book by it's cover, but just looking at him, you know he's bad news.

    • @JAG8691
      @JAG8691 Před 3 lety +7

      Dirlewanger doesn't deserve to be called a Man.

    • @andrewcox6980
      @andrewcox6980 Před 3 lety +8

      @@knuthamsun6106 if you look up the definition of terrorism, you'll see it means ruling through fear. He in fact was a terrorist enforcer, working for one of the most murderous terrorist regimes in history.

    • @floridaman0219
      @floridaman0219 Před 3 lety +12

      ​​ @Johannes Blume The death’s head was used by a Hussar cavalry regiment and the black Brunswickers long before the SS

  • @renatorodriguez834
    @renatorodriguez834 Před 3 lety +76

    I am hospitalized trying to recover from Covid for 3 weeks so far and your videos help me a lot to deal with this. Thank you Dr. Felton.

  • @thiaguinhooitodois2211
    @thiaguinhooitodois2211 Před 2 lety +203

    Wifey hears the intro music and asks “watching ww2 history again?” Lol

    • @soyboyhunter2022
      @soyboyhunter2022 Před 2 lety +12

      yes i am 😎

    • @morphkogan8627
      @morphkogan8627 Před 2 lety +3

      @@soyboyhunter2022 i love soy

    • @j0nnyism
      @j0nnyism Před 2 lety +4

      The music is perfectly chosen. It’s almost as if it’s preparing us to fight against the Wehrmacht

    • @markhammar3977
      @markhammar3977 Před 3 měsíci +2

      That's my ring tone when she calls me, she has the imperial March from star wars as mine bahaha.

  • @j-dub618
    @j-dub618 Před 3 lety +1790

    If Mark Felton didn't exist, the historical community would have to invent him.

    • @eagleone5456
      @eagleone5456 Před 3 lety +11

      Yeah, I dont believe we could.

    • @MrBrookcantdance
      @MrBrookcantdance Před 3 lety +19

      Good god the brown tongueing on this channel makes me cringe. Sad sad bastards.

    • @Harmony_FM
      @Harmony_FM Před 3 lety +26

      @@MrBrookcantdance the only sad & pathetic display I’m seeing is your lack of appreciation.

    • @fasthracing
      @fasthracing Před 3 lety +7

      @@MrBrookcantdance I fully agree with you.

    • @krisfrederick5001
      @krisfrederick5001 Před 3 lety +7

      Dr. Felton wasn't born "They assembled him out of dead Professors and G.I.'s at OSC."

  • @youngimperialistmkii
    @youngimperialistmkii Před 3 lety +1265

    "Beaten to death by Polish solders" A great ending to a horrible story.

    • @tapset
      @tapset Před 2 lety +73

      It's safe to say he had it coming

    • @yadayadayadayadayadayada777
      @yadayadayadayadayadayada777 Před 2 lety +10

      Nevermind all the POW after war that had to die in polish death camps eh.

    • @youngimperialistmkii
      @youngimperialistmkii Před 2 lety +64

      @@yadayadayadayadayadayada777 What are you talking about?

    • @elrondhubbard7059
      @elrondhubbard7059 Před 2 lety +115

      @@youngimperialistmkii
      He's trying to 'whatabout' Nazi crimes to deflect away from them, because he's a fan I suppose.

    • @enigma_7772
      @enigma_7772 Před 2 lety +4

      He wasn’t beaten to death.

  • @ronniecoleman2342
    @ronniecoleman2342 Před 10 měsíci +14

    Atilla the Hun: We are the most ruthless soldiers in history.
    Dirlewanger: Hold my beer.

  • @jeffblacky
    @jeffblacky Před 3 lety +69

    my grand uncle was attached to these guys in 43 , after he had problems in his prior unit for drunk on duty. He did 8 months before returning to his unit before 1944. He was captured in late 1944 and did not return until 1950. His old unit was the 4th SS Polizei Panzergrenadier Division , Flak Battalion 4 as a gunner.

  • @aubs400
    @aubs400 Před 3 lety +921

    An atrocious man and unit, but important for this story to be told and known, not least as a warning of what human beings are capable of. As always, thank you, Dr. Felton, for your brilliant insight and work!

    • @RonJohn63
      @RonJohn63 Před 3 lety +9

      The problem with your comment is that these people were heinous criminals *before* the war.

    • @kadecase7470
      @kadecase7470 Před 3 lety +29

      @@RonJohn63 It could be argued that he’s talking about the people who authorized such a unit to be created in the first place.

    • @n7warhound885
      @n7warhound885 Před 3 lety +15

      You’d thinking this unit would be more widely known and talked about. The act of murdering 500 kids by hand. Can’t even picture that scene

    • @IMAN-od8jv
      @IMAN-od8jv Před 3 lety +3

      @@n7warhound885 really terrible

    • @qaz120120
      @qaz120120 Před 3 lety +6

      To be frank, he contributed a lot the german army. Take his achievements into perspective and the 'crimes' are negligable.

  • @renard6012
    @renard6012 Před 3 lety +1510

    "History doesn't repeat if you censor it." CZcams, probably.

    • @DriftedVisionMan
      @DriftedVisionMan Před 3 lety +42

      Could be said of almost anywhere on the internet sadly

    • @99somerville
      @99somerville Před 3 lety +14

      You ain’t kidding.

    • @119jle
      @119jle Před 3 lety +58

      Could you imagine if we ever had media that was unbiased that you could believe and trust in?

    • @dennisg6963
      @dennisg6963 Před 3 lety +24

      Wow what a thought. Also I think CZcams is already run by the actually fascists...

    • @Addystiffler
      @Addystiffler Před 3 lety +4

      A false statement obviously

  • @bubbarucks4535
    @bubbarucks4535 Před 3 lety +13

    Again Mr. Felton another outstanding teaching lesson in our human history. I always enjoy how well narrated and in depth your studies are and personally think you are by far the best! Please keep up the great work and GOD bless!!

  • @dustinandtarynwolfe5540
    @dustinandtarynwolfe5540 Před 3 lety +5

    Even your subtitles are immaculately timed. Dr. Felton, I say this every time in different ways but you have the highest quality history channel hands down. I just keep finding things you do well that others pay no mind to. Once again, thanks for your dedication.

  • @ficz9596
    @ficz9596 Před 3 lety +720

    You know it's serious when even the SS consider their actions brutal.

    • @ericreckless541
      @ericreckless541 Před 3 lety +34

      It seems fashionable these days to suggest the Nazi soldiers were just the same as the Brits, US, French etc. No they were not as Mark Felton demonstrates.

    • @shanegraham9077
      @shanegraham9077 Před 3 lety +8

      I was shocked when they said they were too extreme. Something must have went wrong guys

    • @spooderdoggy
      @spooderdoggy Před 3 lety +45

      @@ericreckless541 Your taking Mark Felton out of context. I watch his videos all the time and don’t ever recall Dr. Felton equating SS troops to allies troops. He is simply stating the SS used some troops that were even more ruthless and lawless than themselves in general.🤔

    • @APersonOnYouTubeX
      @APersonOnYouTubeX Před 3 lety +29

      @@ericreckless541 the ‘nazis’ we’re the same as the allied troops
      They were the Wehrmacht, drafted or just participants (typically loyal to state and not Hitler)

    • @jacquesstrapp3219
      @jacquesstrapp3219 Před 3 lety +68

      @@ericreckless541 Suggesting that all German soldiers were the same as the Dirlewanger Brigade reveals astounding ignorance.

  • @wazkangz955
    @wazkangz955 Před 3 lety +372

    You know, most of the time I always look forward towards Mark’s history lessons, but while horrific, shying away from history does no one any good.

    • @vortigan9068
      @vortigan9068 Před 3 lety +5

      fax i would teach my kids this stuff ngl

    • @neilwilson5785
      @neilwilson5785 Před 3 lety +6

      We need to see, so that we can understand. It can be hard to watch sometimes.

    • @alansturgess1324
      @alansturgess1324 Před 3 lety +5

      Nor do all the wokes and PC prawns who want to rewrite it.

    • @dakoderii4221
      @dakoderii4221 Před 3 lety +1

      Seems to be repeating itself.

    • @davecoffey977
      @davecoffey977 Před 3 lety +2

      China doing same thing now when will people learn from past

  • @keithpace6597
    @keithpace6597 Před 3 lety +66

    I can't believe it took so long for Mark to get to Dirlewanger. This is one of the most bazaar corps in the whole of WW2.

    • @jussim.konttinen4981
      @jussim.konttinen4981 Před 3 lety +5

      This unit was never a full division. Peak strength 4000 men. Finland's demobilized army had 12,000 men in Western Lapland. Erik Heinrichs commanded 100,000 men. Franz Böhme had about 200,000 men in Norway.

    • @themobseat
      @themobseat Před 2 lety +9

      bizarre?

    • @karstenseterbakken3617
      @karstenseterbakken3617 Před 2 lety

      nope

    • @coimbralaw
      @coimbralaw Před rokem +1

      *Bizarre, nincompoop.

  • @NJSC_Railfan
    @NJSC_Railfan Před 2 lety +53

    Dirlewanger makes Reinhard Heydrich look like a saint in comparison. And that says a lot.

    • @Fernandaa2006
      @Fernandaa2006 Před rokem

      And Otto Moll makes Dirlewanger look like a saint in Comparision...

    • @EliteBadFrog
      @EliteBadFrog Před rokem

      @@Fernandaa2006 and Josef Mengele

    • @paparoach007
      @paparoach007 Před rokem +1

      @@EliteBadFrog and Boris Johnson

    • @Prizrak131
      @Prizrak131 Před 2 měsíci +2

      ​@@paparoach007 And Kamala Harris

  • @andrewdurand339
    @andrewdurand339 Před 3 lety +671

    Dirlewanger's Brigade sounds like the typical Imperial Japanese Army platoon in WWII.

    • @jowaksh6627
      @jowaksh6627 Před 3 lety +47

      That's really not an accurate comparison to the average Japanese platoon. The Japanese had more theatres of war than just Naiking

    • @Rayman1971
      @Rayman1971 Před 3 lety +220

      @@jowaksh6627 In each theater, the Japanese were still very sadistic..

    • @andrewdurand339
      @andrewdurand339 Před 3 lety +61

      @@jowaksh6627 The Empire of Japan, from 1931 to 45, killed more than either Nazi Germany or the Stalinist USSR by some estimates. Not only did many die directly at the hands of the Japanese through brutality and enslavement, many also died indirectly through starvation and/or disease caused by Japan's wars of aggression and Japan's economic exploitation.

    • @SomeoneFromBeijing
      @SomeoneFromBeijing Před 3 lety +60

      @@jowaksh6627 There are many more war crimes than the Nanking Massacre. Unit 731, for instance, was notorious for their tortures and human experiments. Many smaller scale massacres also happened in China (including the Japanese-occupied Taiwan and Manchuria), Myanmar, Japanese-occupied Korea, Pacific islands, and Southeast Asia. There's also the "Three Alls Policy"-- "kill all, burn all, loot all". Millions of Chinese CIVILIANS were raped, mordered, or harmed by the Japanese forces. And many POWs were murdered for fun or in killing "trainings" or even killing competitions.
      So yes, this is an incredibly accurate description.

    • @NemoBlank
      @NemoBlank Před 3 lety +62

      Funny how Germans readily admit the truth but modern Japanese think that WW2 started with them being attacked if they know what it was at all. Guess you won't see Sony Pictures making any realistic war films about Japanese soldiers.

  • @juanandresgomezortega7274
    @juanandresgomezortega7274 Před 3 lety +196

    "He died of strange circumstances, supposedly beaten to death by poles", that is not a strange nor a surprising way of dieing for that fellah

    • @jonhunter8737
      @jonhunter8737 Před 3 lety +12

      Beaten to death by Poles, or with Poles??

    • @BrownsTown
      @BrownsTown Před 3 lety +41

      By Poles with poles.

    • @codrignher
      @codrignher Před 2 lety +12

      It is said that he has been recognized by Polish sentries, who had been earlier soldiers of a Home Army in Warsaw, thus veterans of Warsaw Uprising 1944.

    • @paulrockatansky77
      @paulrockatansky77 Před 2 lety +16

      Considering what his unit was responsible for in Warsaw in 1944, I hope his passing was slow and agonizing. Look up the massacres of the people of Wola and Ochota.

    • @toddwebb7521
      @toddwebb7521 Před 2 lety +3

      Clearly fell down some stairs

  • @2randomblackmen
    @2randomblackmen Před 2 lety +206

    Just saying, the Home Army also caused this Unit heavy casualties during the Warsaw Uprising. I believe the number was 315% Casualty Rate from when the Uprising started (where it had about 850 men total) to when they got 2500 more Military convicts during the beginning of the uprising, and they lost over 2730 men during the three months of fighting. So, once they fought Poles that could fight back, they got their asses handed to them.

    • @nikolakaravida9670
      @nikolakaravida9670 Před 2 lety +46

      Exactly that. The Dirlewanger brigade literally lost every engagement against actual soldiers, Poles and Soviets.

    • @karstenseterbakken3617
      @karstenseterbakken3617 Před rokem +4

      Last time i looked up the uprising then the poles completely lost that struggle

    • @lepusistlich6930
      @lepusistlich6930 Před rokem +6

      @@karstenseterbakken3617 They lost but still managed to kill many Dirlewanger's soldiers. I don't understand how this is supposed to be mutually exclusive.

    • @karstenseterbakken3617
      @karstenseterbakken3617 Před rokem +3

      @@lepusistlich6930 where is the real proof that they managed to smoke so much of them?

    • @jancyraniak4739
      @jancyraniak4739 Před rokem +3

      @@karstenseterbakken3617 Seems that in 2 sources, stars to get past algorythms:
      1) Mats Olson, Chris Webb, & Carmelo Lisciotto, Oskar Dir***anger Ho***aust Education & Archive Research Team.
      2) Gordon Williamson, Stephen Andrew (20 March 2012), The Wa**en-*S: 24. to 38. Divisions, & Volunteer Legions Osprey Publishing 2004, pp. 16, 36. ISBN 1-78096-577-X.
      Took me literally 60 seconds to find it using Google. Maybe you could try it one day?

  • @ericmcquiston9473
    @ericmcquiston9473 Před 3 lety +7

    You can’t get any worse than that, another outstanding video Mark ! Keep up the great work.

  • @maverick4177
    @maverick4177 Před 3 lety +418

    You know you have created a monster when even the SS are disturbed by their actions!

    • @TheRealSpeedWolf
      @TheRealSpeedWolf Před 3 lety +7

      Indeed as that part with the daycare where they use their bayonet and the butt of their rifle had my jaw dropped in utter shock and disgust. Unfortunately human being such as that still exists today and this is why it is very important to never censor such things or dumb it down.
      Because in doing so give the appearance that it was not as bad as people say it was, that gives the rise to far-right racist ideas till this day under the illusion that you're protecting your own nation and your own race.
      If history was told in its truest form such racist attitudes and ideas or ideology wouldn't have a leg to stand on under the disguise of freedom of expression.

    • @ballisticdan9135
      @ballisticdan9135 Před 3 lety

      @@TheRealSpeedWolf Great comment.

    • @scrull81
      @scrull81 Před 2 lety +3

      I don't know what's worse.. the industrialised "cold" killing of people by the SS (and others) or those guys, who even enjoyed it.

    • @ballisticdan9135
      @ballisticdan9135 Před 2 lety +2

      @@scrull81 Equally despicable.

  • @SnoopyDoofie
    @SnoopyDoofie Před 3 lety +143

    9:14 Dirlewanger died at the age of 49, yet he looked like an 80 year old.

    • @heretic192
      @heretic192 Před 3 lety +87

      He was wounded several times in WW1, fought in Spain, was again wounded several times in Russia.. while also being an extreme alcoholic and most likely took some of those meth-pills as well. Not exactly the most healthy lifestyle if you'd ask me.

    • @djmech3871
      @djmech3871 Před 3 lety +7

      @@heretic192 He was wounded 12 times. That evil bastard was lucky.

    • @ismayonaiseaninstrumentno7105
      @ismayonaiseaninstrumentno7105 Před 3 lety +10

      @@piotrekmajkowski5422 hold up we all know satan gonna be like: "Why you looking at me for? I ain't gonna deal with him!"

    • @simunooi5306
      @simunooi5306 Před 3 lety +7

      Wonder how many poor animals he abused growing up. He probably looked 49 when he was 12.

    • @jaybee9269
      @jaybee9269 Před 3 lety +1

      I think the word is “dissipated”, or perhaps it’s too mild for him.

  • @AtomicFire1972
    @AtomicFire1972 Před 3 lety +155

    The Dirlewanger Brigade may have started out as a penal unit, but by 1944 any scumbag or thug who impressed Dirlewanger was recruited. The Dirlewanger Brigade also had Red Army deserters in their ranks by late war. They also used Soviet equipment either captured or bought into the unit by deserters, including T34 tanks. These deserters were just as brutal and ruthless as the violent convicts from the Reich proper, or the RONA volunteers. Not that most "loyal" Soviet troops were any better. Life in the Red Army was harsh and brutal, thus producing soldiers who act like animals when cut loss. These kind of men were prefect for the likes of Oskar Dirlewanger and his merry band of cutthroats.

    • @jacksteel1539
      @jacksteel1539 Před rokem

      ah yes the average Soviet deserter was just as bad as the worst of the Nazi's that killed 100'000s of civilians, I love hearing bullshit like this. I bet your source is "trust me bro" despite the fact there is 0 proof the Soviet soldiers deserted to these guys late in the war when they were heavily winning to join soldiers that hated the Soviets and had just killed 100'000s of Soviet Civilians...

    • @harveywallbanger3123
      @harveywallbanger3123 Před rokem +14

      That was Bronislaw Kaminski's "Kaminski Brigade" you're thinking of - it was composed of equally chaotic evil men like the Dirlewanger Bridage, but they were also all turncoats (and led by a notorious turncoat in Kaminski) and thus suffered even worse from indiscipline. It appeared that most of them had deserted and joined solely to loot, and many tried to desert BACK to the Russians when confronted with German discipline, so if I recall correctly Himmler eventually had Kaminski shot and the whole brigade dispersed.

    • @reinharddenenkral
      @reinharddenenkral Před 9 měsíci

      he was true hero

    • @TheTeodorsoldierabvb
      @TheTeodorsoldierabvb Před 9 měsíci +6

      Ah yes, I love how you seemlessly equate the Red Army soldiers to Dirlewanger, while its your government that recruited SS officers post-war. Typical american :D

    • @upperechelon5692
      @upperechelon5692 Před 8 měsíci

      ​@TheTeodorsoldierabvb Israel and the USSR also recruited ex high ranking nazis too but by all means have fun continuing to get your ass kicked in Ukraine by a bunch of our hand-me-down weaponry.

  • @mariusblazejowsky7230
    @mariusblazejowsky7230 Před 2 lety +1

    Mark You deserve a medal of honor for this movie..thank You so much for it and for History Lessons for everyone..

  • @prebenjaeger
    @prebenjaeger Před 3 lety +762

    The Soviet movie Come and See depicts the actions of the Dirlewanger brigade. At first you'd figure it was Soviet propaganda because surely not even the SS behaved like that, but then you read about Oskar Dirlewanger

    • @Lillithowl
      @Lillithowl Před 3 lety +156

      And the director had to tone down some of what really happened because it was too brutal to show on film.

    • @peterc.1419
      @peterc.1419 Před 3 lety +76

      Why 'surely not'? Just because Thomas the SS treated Brits with respect and love does not mean they treated Slaves well. There is a reason the Germans are still disliked by Poles, Russians, and others in the east.

    • @ColinH1973
      @ColinH1973 Před 3 lety +14

      I have it on dvd. It's the same mentality as Oradour sur Glane.

    • @manupainkiller
      @manupainkiller Před 3 lety +73

      @@peterc.1419 Right...and the poles and russians are in love with each other, right ? You will be surprised, how much they hate each other - far greater than both of them combined, for germans.

    • @petedraper5185
      @petedraper5185 Před 3 lety +61

      @@peterc.1419What on earth makes you think the SS treated the Brits with respect. You are obviously unaware that the SS murdered almost 100 men of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment at Dunkirk.

  • @suspicionofdeceit
    @suspicionofdeceit Před 3 lety +554

    It’s bad when even the SS has to conduct an investigation.

    • @isu3302
      @isu3302 Před 3 lety +30

      I've seen people say that like the ss was bad
      Once you look into them many were just like the men fighting the the army
      People make such stupid things they make them look like beasts
      When in facts they lived regular lives, had kids and a good life
      Once you look at them you realise they're not much different from you or from me
      Now what they did in combat stays in combat whether they committed any war crimes or not its not up to us or to anyone to talk about its part of war humans will do it regardless or their ideology or motives

    • @ericreckless541
      @ericreckless541 Před 3 lety +34

      @@isu3302 Mark Felton's description of their horrifying war crimes suggests you are wrong or perhaps you dispute what Mark Felton says?

    • @isu3302
      @isu3302 Před 3 lety +7

      @@ericreckless541 yt deleted my comment

    • @zzzolll
      @zzzolll Před 3 lety +28

      @@isu3302 You for real? Did you just finish elementary school? Do you know what horrible things SS has done throughout the war? You sound incredibly stupid to say the least. Comparing those animals and their deeds to normal day people.... this has to be the most idiotic thing I've read here so far.

    • @bacon1564
      @bacon1564 Před 3 lety +9

      @@zzzolll What's stupid is your comic book villain framing.

  • @MrSpitfireMustang
    @MrSpitfireMustang Před 3 lety +10

    Another outstanding effort Mark. Thank you.

  • @NastyCupid
    @NastyCupid Před 2 lety +174

    Imagine someone saying: "my granduncle fought in the Dirlewanger brigade, he won medals and was very bra.... oh wait"

    • @franknezevic4385
      @franknezevic4385 Před 2 lety +28

      ...brave. he bravely used his bayonet to stab innocent childred to death to save the bullets which he will later use to shoot Polish civilians, curageosly lit random villagers on fire and not to mention the time when he shot a person on fire as they tried to escape their burning home... oh wait

    • @Definitelynotjewish
      @Definitelynotjewish Před 2 lety +27

      Based If only.

    • @franknezevic4385
      @franknezevic4385 Před 2 lety +5

      @Denis Ryakhovskiy lol yeah you get like so much xp when you stab them instead of shooting them
      (Joke)

    • @MusMasi
      @MusMasi Před 2 lety +1

      send them to warsaw

    • @jillvalentinefan77
      @jillvalentinefan77 Před 2 lety +1

      *Draws 1911* What did you say ?

  • @tomhighway6465
    @tomhighway6465 Před 3 lety +362

    This is like the perfect ingredients for a evil storm.

    • @cornbreadfedkirkpatrick9647
      @cornbreadfedkirkpatrick9647 Před 3 lety +4

      and it develops badly

    • @ohisux9389
      @ohisux9389 Před 3 lety

      ?

    • @bogrunberger
      @bogrunberger Před 3 lety +3

      I saw some videos about Dirlewanger and there were people cheering for him and wishing we had men like him to defend Europe writing in the comments.

    • @Killertiller01
      @Killertiller01 Před 3 lety +3

      @@bogrunberger Animals.

    • @geoffbell166
      @geoffbell166 Před 3 lety +2

      @@Killertiller01 No they are not, Animals are not like these bastards.

  • @warrenmilford1329
    @warrenmilford1329 Před 3 lety +550

    The SS and gestapo also thought at times, that the actions of the ustasha troops of their ally Croatia, were a bit beyond the pale as well. Especially in so called anti-partisan actions, which were basically the mass rape, looting, brutal torture and murder of civilians. Maybe you could do a video about this mob Mark.

    • @MVProfits
      @MVProfits Před 3 lety +55

      They were really bad. And since they were proud of their "work", there are photos of some of their awful deeds, contrary to the Dirlewanger Brigade.

    • @warrenmilford1329
      @warrenmilford1329 Před 3 lety +54

      @@MVProfits Yea, I've seen a few of those photos. Sickening. Some of them show some of the ustasha pricks, grinning at the camera, as they torture some poor bastard who is obviously screaming. They were obviously very proud of their 'work' as you say. I'd reckon they would have regretted having those photos in circulation, once Tito came to power.

    • @z1ll4jr53
      @z1ll4jr53 Před 3 lety +60

      @@warrenmilford1329
      Don’t act like Tito and the commies and Serbian guerillas were even remotely better or different, please.

    • @warrenmilford1329
      @warrenmilford1329 Před 3 lety +35

      @@z1ll4jr53 I wasn't at all. My original comment was in relation to the videos particular content, of the SS being dismayed at Dirlewanger's actions, so I raised the point about their feelings of how the ustasha operated. I know of the atrocities from all sides in the Yugoslav theatre, and I definitely wasn't taking sides.

    • @johnsmith-mq4eq
      @johnsmith-mq4eq Před 3 lety +28

      Similar to the Red Army in Eastern Europe in 1944/5

  • @northwoodcompany8775
    @northwoodcompany8775 Před 2 lety +1

    Amazing !
    The introduction at the beggining is astonishing

  • @jamesagnew929
    @jamesagnew929 Před 2 lety +11

    A sickening story, yet one that needs to be told. Unfortunately the lessons that need to be learned from these such accounts have been forgotten by too many.

  • @alexmason668
    @alexmason668 Před 3 lety +210

    I've been waiting for someone to cover the notorious Oskar Dirlewanger. Good job, Mark!

    • @papawx3
      @papawx3 Před 3 lety +3

      I've been waiting on someone to cover Harris and Lemay, but I guess that isn't going to happen any time soon.

    • @geoffreypiltz271
      @geoffreypiltz271 Před 3 lety +5

      Simon Whistler (Today I Found Out) did this unit 4 months ago.

    • @mgway4661
      @mgway4661 Před 3 lety +4

      @@papawx3 they will be covered in the War Against Humanity Sub series of World War Two

    • @talsamChan
      @talsamChan Před 3 lety +6

      This SS unit also featured in Soviet movie "Come and see"

    • @mesolithicman164
      @mesolithicman164 Před 3 lety +2

      papawx3
      Oh. Were Harris and Lemay on the side that started the war?
      Or were they doing what it took to finish the war?

  • @johnnybgoodeish
    @johnnybgoodeish Před 3 lety +101

    Dirlewanger -that's what Skeletor looked like when he was a young man! :)

  • @MrFrenchteacher1
    @MrFrenchteacher1 Před 3 lety +1

    ‘A 2 week orgy of terror’ yet the war lasted several years.
    One of your best video
    Thank you very much

  • @mitsos306ify
    @mitsos306ify Před 2 lety

    One of your most interesting videos! Thanks for sharing the knowledge!

  • @spenceramey406
    @spenceramey406 Před 3 lety +271

    In the famous Soviet-era Belarus anti-war movie, 1985's "Come and See" by director Elem Klimov. The SS division that was depicted at the end of the film were based on this particular SS division.

    • @flintsky7706
      @flintsky7706 Před 2 lety +25

      Great and disturbing film.

    • @av5958
      @av5958 Před 2 lety +4

      ...were based on what soviet guerillas and soviet troops had made with the civil population in all occupied by them territories

    • @cabbagectrl
      @cabbagectrl Před 2 lety +22

      @@av5958 Keep spouting fantasy

    • @hecunt3633
      @hecunt3633 Před 2 lety +4

      @@av5958 The red army is an objectively evil communist organization!!!!i

    • @RedStarRogue
      @RedStarRogue Před 2 lety +6

      Although in the film there were clearly defected Russians in that squad helping them with the killing. I always assumed they were more based on the einsatzgruppen or the mentioned R.O.N.A.

  • @Willigula
    @Willigula Před 3 lety +133

    Dr..Felton just keeps cranking out stunning history programming. Yes, these are history programs and not just CZcams videos. He is the penultimate source for us now, as there is no more real History Channel. His content is much too detailed and deep, yet concise and effective for broadcast/cable television these days. Let’s all please support his work in whatever way that we can. Subscribe, share, contribute if you can. Thank you, Mark! … from all of us.

    • @kidmohair8151
      @kidmohair8151 Před 3 lety

      may I suggest you look up the TimeGhost channel?
      Since 2014, when they started WW1 week by week, they have branched out to cover
      20th C history in great detail, to the point that the tube of you regularly censors them for
      being...(ahem) "in violation of community standards", in other words using pictures of
      atrocities that are a little too graphic for the history sensitives out there, who think it is time to "move on", and dredging up these gruesome details is counterproductive....(sorry, got carried away there)...but do look them up, it is worth the time

    • @AndyCutright
      @AndyCutright Před 3 lety +2

      @@GunnarMiller Close, but penultimate means second to ultimate in a series of things, the ultimate being the final element in that series. Neither term conveys any information about how that series is ordered, or whether the ultimate is the best or the worst of the series. Colloquially penultimate generally means second place, behind the first. 'Ultimate' is the appropriate term here.

    • @daviswall3319
      @daviswall3319 Před 3 lety

      Irregardlessary of the use of a word, I believe we all get the meaning. Mark Felton gets it and he is trustworthy with the facts and damned interesting if I might add and yes I made up the first word of this reply. Love your work Dr Felton.

    • @malcolmjcullen
      @malcolmjcullen Před 3 lety +1

      @@AndyCutright Talk about splitting hairs!

  • @strive_for_peace
    @strive_for_peace Před 2 lety +24

    My great-uncle served in this unit. The few times he told his experiences from that time still make me shiver. I am grateful that there is documentary like this because it confirms what my great-uncle said. It's strange because I only have good memories of him.
    He never made a secret of the fact that he had killed many people and that he was involved in the "purges" of the Polish civilian population and the Warsaw Ghetto. He came into the unit because he was sentenced to death. He always stressed his innocence and that the charge against him was a fatal mistake. Later he wrote down the circumstances. His childhood and joining the Dirlewanger Brigade are the only remaining pieces of paper. Everything that he had done and experienced in the unit, I only know from his stories. It's terrible what humans can do to humans.

    • @GhostofMrP
      @GhostofMrP Před 7 měsíci

      My grandpa and 2 of his brothers were in this unit and they loved it. Said everyone was really nice, and they had a great time. Maybe your great uncle was just a cry baby sissy

    • @thomasnolan7931
      @thomasnolan7931 Před 6 měsíci

      @@GhostofMrP Idk man, maybe your grandpa and great uncles were a bunch of sick fucks lmao.

    • @deargodwhy9718
      @deargodwhy9718 Před 5 měsíci +4

      ​@@GhostofMrPL

  • @ShamileII
    @ShamileII Před 3 lety +2

    Another impressive anecdote from Mark Felton. I read about the Deliwanger brigade from a waffen ss history book....but as usual, Mark Felton brings it to life.

  • @markchase5323
    @markchase5323 Před 3 lety +74

    What was painfully appalling to me was the epiphany that the actions of the Dirlewanger Brigade's psychopaths, sociopaths and criminals compares to the actions of many "honorable" Japanese servicemen, with the notable exception of cannibalism wasn't mentioned for the psychopaths. Did I miss something?

    • @dalilaberenicepadillaloera5568
      @dalilaberenicepadillaloera5568 Před 3 lety +13

      Yes. Your missed the murderous firebombing of Tokyo and Dresden, where hundreds of thousands of women, children, and elderly were burned alive by the US Air Force and the British RAF. Only for the purpose of "demoralizing" the enemy into surrender.

    • @markchase5323
      @markchase5323 Před 3 lety +19

      @@dalilaberenicepadillaloera5568 Blame that on the Japanese War staff as they were beaten militarily by the time the Allies took the islands where they operated those B-29s. Instead of acting in the best interest of the people of Japan they taught children to sharpen bamboo into spears and employed multiple form of suicidal warfare. They would not have bombed, if the Generals and Admirals had just quit fighting. The Emperor finally called halt to it after Little Boy and Fat Man. Some of the Officers still tried to stop the sensation of fighting by coup.
      The reason LeMay ordered the B-29s to low altitude fire bombing was two fold. War industries were intermixed and the B-29 was ineffective in making a difference at high altitude.
      Dresden was a complete military failure by the NAZIs to protest the civilian population of the city with any kind of adequate air raid defenses or air raid shelters. Goebbels pull a public relations coup by added an order of magnitude to the death toll and screaming the inhumanity of it. So, the V1 &V2 were used against civilian targets as was the Stuka with it's siren to add terror, causing the civilians to jam the roads to prevent the armies from being able to respond to the Blitz.

    • @LtJoker1
      @LtJoker1 Před 2 lety +3

      @@markchase5323 I love how Americans defend the use of atomic bombs. Since beginning of 1944 there were two factions in Japan - warmongers that backed their deeds with some wicked interpretation of Bushido Code and those that wanted to end the war with Allies. After the Fall of Saipan it was certain that Japan won't hold for long and even the Emperor wanted to surrender. The way to begin talks with Washington was through the last available officially neutral diplomatic channel in the person of Jakow Malik. The problem was that Stalin wanted badly to add Far East territories to USSR and West knew that. In February 1945 during Yalta Conference Japan's fate was sealed - Roosevelt promised Stalin these territories if USSR will agree to join the war effort on Pacific Theater in 3 months after the defeat of Germany. Through 1944 till Yalta Malik played the game with Japan, so they won't reach Allies diplomats in any way. If he allowed Japan to surrender that would meant the end of Stalin's plans for Far East conquer. One more thing - US intelligence gained knowledge of indifferences in Japanese government before Yalta. It was US Army top brass that convinced Truman that Japan won't surrender under no circumstances and the use of atomic bombs was necessary. In the late 1944 and beginning of 1945 Japan was already on it's knees due to really well performed marine blockade which completely cut off supply lines. There was no fuel, no ammo, no food, no medical supplies. By August of 1945 atomic bombings were for purely experimental purposes. Nothing else. The project itself was very expensive - how would you explain to the taxpayers what happened to the billions of dollars from the budget?

    • @balrog262
      @balrog262 Před 2 lety

      Not sure I believe that one.

    • @matty6848
      @matty6848 Před rokem

      @@dalilaberenicepadillaloera5568 unfortunately it was a necessary evil in order to end the war. Plus Germany had spent years bombing British cities which killed thousands of civilians including children. They sent incendiary bombs down on British cities with the full intent of setting the cities on fire trying too demoralise the British public. What Hitler didn’t count on is that would make the British even more determined, bred even more anger to get back at Nazi Germany and raze the country too the ground. There’s only one person too blame for German cities being bombed beyond recognition and that was Hitler. Even Churchill said the bombing of Dresden was a pure revenge attack, after what the Luftwaffe had done too big cities like London, Birmingham, Coventry, Manchester, Liverpool etc. after what they did would you just sit back and do nothing or would exact revenge, because I know what I’d do.

  • @Alex-cw3rz
    @Alex-cw3rz Před 3 lety +361

    This unit was the inspiration for the SS soldiers in the war film Come and See, one of the best and most realistic war movies ever.

    • @crimony3054
      @crimony3054 Před 3 lety +3

      czcams.com/video/cRKsOH8MyOg/video.html

    • @leonardomarta8562
      @leonardomarta8562 Před 3 lety +60

      Amazing film . The burning barn scene Is one of the most disturbing and nightmarish scenes in movie history . But also i love that the movie says that revenge in never a good and satisfyng thing , even with people like those butchers .

    • @Alex-cw3rz
      @Alex-cw3rz Před 3 lety +39

      @@leonardomarta8562 yep I totally agree, it's one of the most harrowing scenes ever. It's a movie that sticks with you

    • @Creek_Hunter
      @Creek_Hunter Před 3 lety +13

      It was also described in Sven Hassel's books.

    • @leonardomarta8562
      @leonardomarta8562 Před 3 lety +8

      @@vegitoblue5000 They were similar and highly inspired by Dirlewanger Brigade, but were not the same Brigade .

  • @CringeModeActivated
    @CringeModeActivated Před 2 lety

    That was a great ending to the vid. Thank you for uploading such fascinating content. :)

  • @gw5309
    @gw5309 Před 2 lety +43

    A great scene from "Blazing Saddles" comes to mind:
    "Qualifications"
    "Rape, Murder, Robbery, Rape"
    "You said rape twice"
    "I like rape"

    • @enlightenedone7141
      @enlightenedone7141 Před rokem

      🤣🤣🤣

    • @hellepost1439
      @hellepost1439 Před 9 měsíci

      Paul Schäfer, Hartmut Hopp, Augusto Pinochet. COLONIA DIGNIDAD ☠️☠️☠️☠️

  • @Jarod-te2bi
    @Jarod-te2bi Před 3 lety +376

    The word evil fits this legion perfectly there’s no other word pure evil.

    • @shaunbritton939
      @shaunbritton939 Před 3 lety +5

      Interesting how ppl turn so evil like why what for do you treat your family the same all the questions no answers

    • @irongeneral7861
      @irongeneral7861 Před 3 lety +14

      Mental illness. But as subjective as the word evil is, I agree completely

    • @kamilpotato3764
      @kamilpotato3764 Před 3 lety +2

      Read about Ukrainian nationalist and Wolyn Massacre.

    • @kaboon3489
      @kaboon3489 Před 3 lety +15

      @@kamilpotato3764 what about it? It doesn't change the fact that the nazis got a bunch of convicts to kill people.

    • @tankacebo9128
      @tankacebo9128 Před 3 lety +14

      the word "Evil" can be applied to damn near every Nazi, these guys were something else, something much, much more sinister.

  • @markgrehan3726
    @markgrehan3726 Před 3 lety +406

    You've got to imagine that if the Germans had won there would have been another night of the long knives.

    • @kelzuya
      @kelzuya Před 3 lety +96

      Facists always have to be at war with something. It's an ideology that eats itself eventually.

    • @andyz.5431
      @andyz.5431 Před 3 lety +184

      @@kelzuya Every ideology has to be at war with smth anytime, it's human nature.

    • @ihatekid
      @ihatekid Před 3 lety +23

      @@andyz.5431 this

    • @thanakonpraepanich4284
      @thanakonpraepanich4284 Před 3 lety +14

      Who will be on the 'You have outlived your usefulness' list in the victorious Nazi scenario?

    • @philvigil6128
      @philvigil6128 Před 3 lety +5

      @George Lynch Dixon con servative.
      Con. Against.
      Conservative. Resistive to change

  • @redsquare8256
    @redsquare8256 Před rokem

    This is a fascinating video, I've always enjoyed your videos Mark. This is one of the few times where you are actively routing for military ineptitude for the unit.

  • @anthonyjordan2922
    @anthonyjordan2922 Před 3 lety +1

    Excellent video. The exploits of the Dirlewanger Brigade brings to mind the Soviet movie Idi I Smotri (Come and See), an excellent albeit very harrowing and difficult movie to watch.

  • @FGH9G
    @FGH9G Před 3 lety +27

    Oh God, this guy. This guy was apparently so evil that even the SS tried to have them removed. They even directly inspired the main bad guys from the movie Come and See (1985). And that method of burning villages was their PREFERRED method of reprisals. Absolutely sick.

    • @1977Yakko
      @1977Yakko Před 3 lety +3

      I have that movie on Blu-Ray. It's... different but it's reputation as being a brutal portrayal of the war is deserved to be sure.

  • @carloslennox
    @carloslennox Před 3 lety +70

    I think this was the brigade portrayed in the famous Belarusian WW2 movie "Come and see"

    • @jirkazalabak1514
      @jirkazalabak1514 Před 3 lety +10

      It would seem that way. We can see them herding the people into the church, setting it on fire, and then shooting anyone who tries to escape. I don´t think they were the only unit to do that though.

    • @johntetzler1662
      @johntetzler1662 Před 3 lety +5

      yes, they even included his monkey. very much inspired by the mythos of the dirlewanger brigade.

    • @zillsburyy1
      @zillsburyy1 Před 3 lety +1

      thats a low budget movie

    • @sergeyk6782
      @sergeyk6782 Před 3 lety +1

      @@zillsburyy1 that's 1985 soviet movie ))) what budget expected ?)

    • @averyretodo8159
      @averyretodo8159 Před 3 lety +5

      @@zillsburyy1 Silly, that's what makes soviet movies amazing. They made some good movies with the restrictions they had.

  • @asullivan4047
    @asullivan4047 Před rokem

    Interesting and informative. Excellent photography job makes it easier for viewers to better understand what the orator is describing. Class A research project. Historians did an excellent job of differentiating truth from fiction. Devil's brigade for certain.

  • @Crissy_the_wonder
    @Crissy_the_wonder Před 2 lety +1

    Although these accounts are horrible, it is vital they are remembered, or they will happen again (and they do happen). Reporting today and remembering yesteryear is so important. Great work Mark

  • @Fearless_on_my_Breath
    @Fearless_on_my_Breath Před 3 lety +43

    Those poles must have taken out all of their anger on Dirlewanger.
    And thanks Sir for another great video on a topic unknown to many till today.

    • @jevinliu4658
      @jevinliu4658 Před 3 lety

      Oh good thing you haven't heard of The New Order

    • @Kalleri13
      @Kalleri13 Před 3 lety +3

      That is proof that brutality is contageous. I do understand it. Uit really is amazing that this pandemic of violence coupé be stopped and that the germans survived as a nation. In the Good old days the defeated would just have been eradicated.

    • @mordapl1641
      @mordapl1641 Před 3 lety +3

      @@jevinliu4658 Dengist Dirlewanger

    • @Fearless_on_my_Breath
      @Fearless_on_my_Breath Před 3 lety +3

      @@jevinliu4658 The game? Of course I have heard of it.

    • @krazownik3139
      @krazownik3139 Před 3 lety +1

      D I R E C T R U L E F R O M O R S K

  • @Lupinthe3rd.
    @Lupinthe3rd. Před 3 lety +105

    I remember watching about dierlwanger on biograhics and about this unit. There were even instances of necrophilia committed by some of its members that was mentioned. It shows how sick this unit and its leader where.

    • @plartoota4584
      @plartoota4584 Před 3 lety +18

      @Schlomo Baconberg you’re literally everywhere in the comments claiming this is “over the top” or “propaganda” you wanna just come out and say you’re a Nazi and save everyone some time?

    • @plartoota4584
      @plartoota4584 Před 3 lety +15

      @Schlomo Baconberg if you defend documented nazi actions and claim they are “propaganda” there’s a good chance you are one (meaning you agree with their ideology, not that you’re a card carrying member of the NSDAP, you moron)
      How many fights did I get into? Are you an actual child, basing merit off schoolyard fights? Seriously? And yes, this is the same brigade that beat 500 toddlers to death with the butts of their rifles, is it so hard to accept that some of them were necrophiliacs?

    • @blahblahblahblah2837
      @blahblahblahblah2837 Před 3 lety +12

      Now just think that those 700 men went on to have children after the war and now, with a taste for blood and rape, probably spread trauma to a new generation. Suddenly sadistic psychos like Fritzl make a bit more sense

    • @Lupinthe3rd.
      @Lupinthe3rd. Před 3 lety +8

      @Schlomo Baconberg you forget these people are sociopaths psychopaths mentally deranged people and sexual sadists in a group of several thousand they raped children women and men it is by no stretch of the imagination that necrophilia would be something a few of thier members would do.

    • @andyz.5431
      @andyz.5431 Před 3 lety +1

      I heard they also turned villagers into lampshades and soap and washed their butts with it.

  • @josephmaurina3837
    @josephmaurina3837 Před 2 lety

    Thanks for the knowledge on the issues you talked about.

  • @zaved2008
    @zaved2008 Před 3 lety +65

    Felt good to hear the last line : Beaten to death by Polis Soldiers.

    • @notme3686
      @notme3686 Před 2 lety +2

      You do realize that Poland's army was especially cruel and ruthless to civilians, right?

    • @Blizbor18
      @Blizbor18 Před 2 lety +15

      @@notme3686 Cocaine's one hell of a drug, huh?

    • @notme3686
      @notme3686 Před 2 lety

      @@Blizbor18 if you say so. I guess you know nothing of the amount of non-bolshevik poles that had to flee the country from 1945 until around 1990. They've managed to pull themselves together over the last 30 years and become a country worth something but prior to that it was a hellhole. From 1900ish until 1938 they were terrible. From 1938 until 1945 they reversed polarity but still pretty bad. Americans are really bad at history. Propaganda has ruined its people's minds.

    • @Blizbor18
      @Blizbor18 Před 2 lety +12

      @@notme3686 First of all, I'm not an American - I'm Polish. Second - I'm very curious where did you learn about the supposed cruelty of polish soldiers towards civillians and in which conflicts? Do you have any sources to PROVE your claims? If you claim something YOU need to prove this, otherwise its just an empty statement. So lets hear the details...

    • @notme3686
      @notme3686 Před 2 lety

      @@Blizbor18
      First, i don't need to explain anything to you. Second, I'm relying on experience from a group of friends that happened to be refugees from poland during the 80's

  • @CyBirr
    @CyBirr Před 3 lety +32

    This video made me ill. I can only imagine how unpleasant it was to research it. Thank you for keeping history alive.

    • @mountplusBladeequals
      @mountplusBladeequals Před 3 lety +1

      He didn’t even bring up the bad stuff, he kept it entirely kosher.
      The Dirlewanger bois were a menace to society. In the Warsaw school bit he mentioned, men in the brigade could be found swinging toddlers like clubs so as to smash their skulls against - whatever’s hard enough to crack a skull. Also in Warsaw, in a hospital, they shot their way in, bayoneted and shot all the wounded inside, and then gang raped and murdered something like 80 nurses. Sonderkommando Dirlewanger quite literally invented the “human minesweeper” - if they stumbled across a minefield during a partisan clearing operation, they’d go to the nearest village, round up dozens to hundreds of people, and march them across said minefield to clear a path. Dirlewanger himself had a penchant for shooting his guys for desertion (and/or for just being assholes).
      During their “anti-partisan” activities, they’d kill camps consisting of hundreds to thousands of people, but they’d only recover dozens to hundreds of rifles/pistols/weapons - i.e. most of the people they’d killed were unarmed. Don’t even get me started about the human lampshade rumors that started circling around the SS.

    • @XrayxRich
      @XrayxRich Před 3 lety

      @@mountplusBladeequals - Sounds like the contemporary U.S. Democratic Party.

    • @mountplusBladeequals
      @mountplusBladeequals Před 3 lety +1

      @@XrayxRich uhhh, no? Not at all?
      There’s no moral, ethical, functional equivalence here (though the GOP’s formal greenlighting of pedophilia comes close).

  • @BawlzOfuzz
    @BawlzOfuzz Před 3 lety +76

    Shew that bit about the kids at the preschool hit me hard. I'm a dad and can't wait to hug my baby girl tonight.

    • @dp-sr1fd
      @dp-sr1fd Před 3 lety +4

      On a different topic, assuming it was not a typo you spelled "show" as "shew" This is the correct way, but sadly you don't see it anymore.

    • @williammorse8330
      @williammorse8330 Před 3 lety +5

      hello and yes, children are more precious than we realize.... evil is real.... how many villages in the east did units like this wipe out?

    • @dylanhaugen3739
      @dylanhaugen3739 Před 3 lety +11

      William Morse, ironically many holy books glorify men like this. Moses commanded his army to murder even male in the town of median, even the little boys and infants, along with any female who wasn't a Virgin, so pregnant woman were slaughtered on sight, only the virgin girls were sparred for Moses and his mens own use as breeding stock.

    • @someguysomeone3543
      @someguysomeone3543 Před 3 lety +7

      Just wait till you hear about the child death camps and Jasenovac by the Ustaše

    • @someguysomeone3543
      @someguysomeone3543 Před 3 lety +10

      @@williammorse8330 In Belarus alone at least 5000 villages and settlements were wiped out or were severely damaged.

  • @brandon7482
    @brandon7482 Před 3 lety

    Iam glad you liked my idea sir! Thank you for making the episode.

  • @Joanla1954
    @Joanla1954 Před 3 lety

    Another educational video, thank you Mark!

  • @shinkuroi9261
    @shinkuroi9261 Před 3 lety +43

    Man, Felton is definitely one of the best content creators on the site tbh. Straight to the point, interesting information. Reliable as a hammer.

    • @raygiordano1045
      @raygiordano1045 Před 3 lety +2

      Agreed, too many channels add a ton of filler, even Mark's intro is short.

  • @Ostenjager
    @Ostenjager Před 3 lety +77

    If ever there were a group of men who were prime candidates for some “woodchipper justice”...

    • @ishitrealbad3039
      @ishitrealbad3039 Před 2 lety +3

      In war times i can forgive many things, but straight up rape and stabbing of children is just beyond anything i could tolerate.
      Those people should've been fed to a woodchipper alive....

    • @nowords8097
      @nowords8097 Před rokem

      "the jerma treatment"

  • @danapussyone
    @danapussyone Před 2 lety +8

    The brigade is hard to track, and photos are very rare. There is one reasonable book on the unit based on captured records.

  • @The_Anunnaki
    @The_Anunnaki Před 3 lety

    I learn more about history from your videos than I ever did in the educational system (took A-level history)

  • @EconomicsMate1
    @EconomicsMate1 Před 3 lety +62

    1am here in Australia and no better way to go to bed then watch another great Mark Felton video. Keep it up mate. Love the work

    • @leemichael2154
      @leemichael2154 Před 3 lety +2

      Gday mate or rather gnight!

    • @EconomicsMate1
      @EconomicsMate1 Před 3 lety +2

      @@leemichael2154 haha whether its night or day, we always say Gday

    • @leemichael2154
      @leemichael2154 Před 3 lety

      @@EconomicsMate1 really? Well it's drinking time in Newcastle UK so gday mate! !

    • @comsecone
      @comsecone Před 3 lety +1

      Always top shelf

    • @sparky4878
      @sparky4878 Před 3 lety +1

      Hope you don’t have nightmares after this.

  • @grimtea1715
    @grimtea1715 Před 3 lety +50

    I'd like to see you cover more of their crimes. Same thing with other infamous units from all sides of the war

    • @arsenal-slr9552
      @arsenal-slr9552 Před 3 lety +3

      Read Masters of Death by Richard Rhodes. Might need a bottle of whiskey to go with it

    • @nikdagr33k
      @nikdagr33k Před 3 lety +2

      Now hang on! Mark felton videos on notorious/ celebrated units of the various armies of WW2! That would be cool no? I know he might have done a few but as a concerted series like

  • @peterbehringer63
    @peterbehringer63 Před 2 lety +5

    Great job....this is my second time around (now Feb. 2022) for this story by Mark about this vile figure in the Nazi war machine...so intrigued by the appearance and behavior of Dirlewanger that i and my writing team are considering including a character based loosely on him in a post-Apocalyptic adventure series set in modern-day Venezuela after everything goes "Mad Max" and new powerful warlords emerge for control of resources, people and territory. We see a creepy Dirlewanger-like character as a leader of a violent terror & shock squad for one of the new warlords....a unit that has to be reined in sometimes and kept on a short leash by its superiors..

  • @zosothezephead837
    @zosothezephead837 Před 2 lety

    Very professional, thank you!

  • @johnreynolds6369
    @johnreynolds6369 Před 3 lety +89

    Mark, how about doing videos on “Operation Cherry Blossoms at Night” and “Operation Unthinkable”. I think very little is known about either among the general public, but both are hugely significant.

    • @coimbralaw
      @coimbralaw Před rokem

      Nobody cares about your suggestions.

  • @rudolfyakich6653
    @rudolfyakich6653 Před 3 lety +20

    Dr. Felton this presentation hits home with me as it backs up the stories I was told by my relatives who were subject to such predation. You capture a chaotic time that as a child was hard to contemplate or understand.

  • @charlessedlacek5754
    @charlessedlacek5754 Před 2 lety

    You bring me great enjoyment...I use your videos to fact check the history channel.

  • @piersellis69
    @piersellis69 Před 3 lety

    Been waiting for this for ages

  • @Roller_Ghoster
    @Roller_Ghoster Před 3 lety +74

    Even the SS thought them to be brutal. Who better to tell us this dark episode from WW2 than Dr Felton.

    • @thegunslinger1363
      @thegunslinger1363 Před 3 lety +2

      "If this is the best God can do. I am not impressed!" George Carlin

  • @Artur_M.
    @Artur_M. Před 3 lety +11

    When I saw the notification I felt a mixture of joy that Mark Felton is spreading the knowledge about what the people of Belarus and Poland went through at the hands of those bastards and apprehension to click on it and hear about these atrocities once more.
    The exploits of this despicable unit during the Warsaw Uprising were described in gruesome details by Mathias Schenk. Just 18-years old at that time Wehrmacht soldier, conscripted from the part of Belgium incorporated into Reich, Schenk had the misfortune of being part of a detachment of the assault engineers (Sturmpioniere) assigned to help the Dierlewanger Brigade in urban fighting.

    • @jasonmussett2129
      @jasonmussett2129 Před 2 lety +1

      It makes the blood run cold. Schenk deserted and lived with a Polish family until after the war.

  • @cristianmicu
    @cristianmicu Před 3 lety +2

    this video remembers me with pleasure i might say, a series of books i read when i was young, by an author called sven hassel...

  • @joehenderson8967
    @joehenderson8967 Před 2 lety +16

    My respect for the polish soldiers at the end 📈📈

  • @zamiadams4343
    @zamiadams4343 Před 3 lety +27

    Ever since I read the book "The Cruel Hunters" by French Maclean i've been fascinated by this brigade, a real dark corner of the whole of WW2. Great video Mark!

  • @lordulberthellblaze6509
    @lordulberthellblaze6509 Před 3 lety +11

    A story long overdo for the honor of a Mark Felton production.
    Finally the wait is over.
    Thank you good sir.

  • @Ground0-dn1cv
    @Ground0-dn1cv Před 4 měsíci +2

    The photo at 4:54 shows they were ill trained too. The guy centre of the photo holding the MP40 has his thumb over the open ejector port.I can see the bolt is turned upwards into the recess, so locked on safe, but neverthless someone familiar with an MP40 wouldn't instinctively put their thumb there.. You can learn a lot from a photo.

    • @JessiContingenC
      @JessiContingenC Před 2 měsíci +1

      Wow, good catch with the MP40. These guys weren’t held to much of a standard anyway, as they were essentially a roaming band of militarized highwaymen. Perhaps early on the original poachers who made up the unit could’ve been considered soldiers of some caliber, since they were organized poachers and not murderers or sadists, alongside two months of initial training, but that’s about it.

  • @ericjoniec914
    @ericjoniec914 Před 3 lety +291

    There's a great Polish movie it's about Deliwenger Division. 2013 "Taniec Smierci". Hope you can find it with Eng. Sub. Also " Warsaw 44".

    • @unit4039
      @unit4039 Před 3 lety +12

      The Deliwenger Division, is that the one with the great pastrami bagels?

    • @obadiahsmith2345
      @obadiahsmith2345 Před 3 lety +2

      I'd rather have lox and capers over pastrami .

    • @mikeoz4803
      @mikeoz4803 Před 3 lety +33

      Dirlewanger was on top of the nazi genocidal pyramid scrap heap. A monster in every facet. A convicted pedophile who was once arrested for having sex with a corpse. viva la Germans!

    • @northfolk6991
      @northfolk6991 Před 3 lety +4

      At least we're not speaking German...

    • @yuppy1967
      @yuppy1967 Před 3 lety +5

      @@mikeoz4803 that is a bunch of bull.

  • @andrewl2787
    @andrewl2787 Před 3 lety +23

    Thank you Doctor Felton for continuing the education of many people at no cost. The world needs more selfless people like you.

  • @bepis3966
    @bepis3966 Před 3 lety +16

    I'll add some details that Mark forgot to mention of Dirlewanger's life and legacy
    World War 1:
    He wasn't an ordinary infantryman but a machine gunner in the First World War.
    He was wounded 6 times. (You would think being wounded that many times would teach a mad lad to behave)
    He was promoted to a Leutnant to lead his own machine gunner company.
    At the end of World War 1, the German troops in his area were ordered to be sent to camps in Romania, by the Allieds. Dirlewanger ignored these orders and took his unit back to Germany.
    Inter-War years:
    Got a bullet to his head and survived during his service in the Freikorps.
    I also remember reading that he commanded an armored train to liberate a town from communists, but I only remember reading that story like twice while all the other stories of him have been repeated dozens of times, so I dunno about that.
    After the NSDAP rose to power he was praised as a savior of a town and got an honorary status in the said town. (Could this be related to the armored train adventures?)
    Took part in the Spanish Civil War.
    World War 2:
    I don't think Mark missed much from this period.
    I skipped through the video a bit but I didn't find if Mark mentioned that Dirlewanger's tactics lead to his unit ending up with 300% casualty rate.
    Post War:
    Dirlewanger has been rumored to have been recruited to the French Foreign Legion and fought in the First Indochina War.
    It's rumored that there were still three veterans of the Dirlewanger brigade living in Germany in the 2010s.
    "Dirlewanger", a Swedish music group was formed in 1986.
    The Azov Battalion either has a unit or at least fights alongside a unit called "Dirlewanger skinheads" in the current Donbas War.
    Finnish internet:
    Hikkykostajat (hikikomori avengers) gave Oskar Dirlewanger the title of 'hikkykostaja' (a/the hikikomori avenger) for tormenting normies and his neglect of social norms/morals.
    Hikkykostajat are an unorganized group of radicalized Finnish hikikomoris who take revenge on society by the means of vandalism. Many of the stories of vandalism they share are most likely just make-believe.
    The oldest Dirlewanger memes made by hikikomori avengers seem to be from 2017.
    The term 'hikkykostaja' (a/the hikikomori avenger) can refer to one of them, Oskar Dirlewanger, or really any person behind a case of vandalism of normie property, this makes it possible to read their stories as if Dirlewanger keeps coming back from the dead just to shitpost on a Finnish imageboard and torment innocent people with petty vandalism.
    Known ways of hikkykostaja's taking revenge on the society include: Living on welfare. Losing mental health from lack of socializing, drug use, and being mad at society all the time, which in turn means more welfare money for being a sicko. Dropping a frozen sheet of urine through a normies apartment door's mail hatch. Wiping one's bottom onto a public bathroom's toilet seat after defecating. Leaving poisoned bits of sausage near paths where people walk their dogs. Scratching paint off cars or deflating their tires. Spilling a bucket of fecal/paint/urine mixture (I think this tactic was once used on a social welfare office by a hikky who wasn't happy with the amount of welfare he got.)
    Western internet:
    Hearts of Iron 4 The New order fans seem to have started "memeing" about Dirlewanger around 2018, among many other insane extremists and war criminals that were included in the mod.
    In 2019 a thread about Dirlewanger was posted on 4chan's 'History and Humanities' board and judging by people's reactions this was the first time many of them heard about him. This most likely lead to many people searching for more info about Dirlewanger which lead them to find the Finnish meme images of Dirlewanger which just added to his absurdity.
    The thread mentioned above, lead to more Dirlewanger threads being posted on the 'History and Humanities' and 'Television and Film' boards throughout 2019 and 2020.
    Dirlewanger threads are being made less consistently now, but there still are nearly daily threads about him on 'History and Humanities'.
    The 'Television and Film' threads of Dirlewanger usually began with an image of Dirlewanger in his civilian attire when he was captured and a green text portraying a cheesy cop movie-style scene where Reichsfuhrer-SS Heinrich Himmler takes the role of the stereotypical police chief with lines such as ">Turn over your badge and your gun... and your other gun", ">Your latest stunt in Warsaw got Fuhrer breathing down my neck.", or ">You're a loose cannon Dirlewanger, but damn you're effective.".

  • @kuribayashi84
    @kuribayashi84 Před 2 lety +4

    I don't know who is more monstrous: Dirlewanger for doing all this horrible stuff, or Himmler looking at his exploits and being all like: "Eh, this man is useful."

  • @frankchan4272
    @frankchan4272 Před 3 lety +8

    Thank you Mark for bringing this to light as many people would never know this.