As I was watching and reading Philadelphia's TV Channel 6 Action News today, the Associated Press video on Ukraine showed a picture of a modern Ukrainian Soldier with the WWII Nazi Ukrainian Waffen SS Division Galicia patch (Golden lion standing on its rear legs) on his left sleeve [see below].
The Ukrainian troops retaking portions of Kharkiv region are using vehicles marked with a new white cross - similar to the Nazi cross used in WWII.
Even Ukrainian troops are concerned about such symbolism, but objecting gets you labeled a Russian collaborator or sympathizer.
The use of Nazi symbols and insignia didn't appear overnight in 2022, but started in the spring of 2014 with the "Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO)" against the Donbass (Donetsk & Lugansk) separatists and continued until 2022 both under Ukrainian Presidents Pyotr Poroshenko and Vladimir Zelensky among various military and paramilitary units, including those serving along the armistice line after the 2015 Minsk accords.
Since the Russian "Special Military Operation" started on February 24,
2022, President Zelensky and Ukrainian media have praised Ukrainian
military units and/or soldiers who have adopted or wear Nazi symbols and
patches,
including the infamous Azov Battalion.
Ukraine's Jewish President, Wolodymyr (Vladimir) Zelensky, since his election in 2018 has turned a blind eye on the resurgence of Neo-Nazi and Radical Ukrainian Ultra-Nationalist groups, including in Ukraine's Armed Forces, National Guard, Security Service and National Police.
Could this be a part of the reason why Russia claims it needs to De-Nazify & De-militarize Ukraine, as it considers virulent ant-Russian Neo-Nazism and Radical Ukrainian Nationalism threats to Russian national security?
What's all the unhealthy recent Ukrainian fascination and worship of Nazi ideology and military symbols about?
Have the Ukrainian progeny and supporters of WWII Ukrainian Nazi War criminals and collaborators seized the cultural agenda in Ukraine after 2014?
Do they find it inspirational as they fight Russian forces just like their forefathers or "heroes" fought alongside and under Nazis in WWII?
What do you think?
P. S. FYI, this post is NOT about the "successful" Ukrainian offensive in Kharkov region and the Russian / DNR / LNR "strategic" retreat.
My post is about the apparent spread of Neo-Nazism and Nazi symbol, insignia and hero worship, as evidenced by the numerous Nazi patches, symbols and tattoos seen on Ukrainian troops and military equipment -- and not just of the Azov battalion.
When a country's military starts to glorify and emulate WWII Nazi war criminals (both German and Ukrainian), local Ukrainian collaborators and their symbolology, this mental & spiritual disease will spread to the rest of society with predictable results,
such as
- Radical & Militarized Ultra-Nationalism,
- Racism, Xenophobia, Anti-semitism, Russophobia,
- Religious intolerance and discrimination,
- False sense of Exceptionalism, National Superiority and exclusive Divine selection & protection.
- Persecution and ethnic cleansing of groups & individuals who are considered enemies of the Superior Nation,
- Military and paramilitary actions against groups, ethnicities, regions and countries considered to be enemies or just inferior people who need to be controlled, stripped of resources or removed from lands in question.
Sound familiar?
If so, then how do you think things will end for such a country & its people, it's foreign allies & neighbors?
How do you think the neighboring countries on the receiving end of such Neo-Nazi / Facsist ideology will respond to such a threat -- especially if they have the military, political and economic means?
Will they consider it a threat to theirs national security and take appropriate measures, especially if they've dealt with such a threat before and lost millions of people in the process of fighting it?
Like they say, those who don't learn from History, are bound to get another lesson!
***
Russia announces troop pullback from Ukraine's Kharkiv area.
The move is being made "in order to achieve the stated goals of the special military operation to liberate Donbas."
By KARL RITTER and JOANNA KOZLOWSKA
Associated Press
Saturday, September 10, 2022 10:57AM
Video Caption: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in an exclusive interview with ABC "World News Tonight" anchor David Muir in Kyiv, is accusing the Russian military of using the massive Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant as a "weapon" in Moscow's invasion.
Video link: https://6abc.com/video/embed/?pid=12204116
Main Article:
KYIV, Ukraine -- Russia's Defense Ministry said Saturday that it is pulling back forces from two areas in Ukraine's Kharkiv region where a Ukrainian counter offensive has made significant advances in the past week.
Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said the troops would be regrouped from the Balakliya and Izyum areas to the Donetsk region. Izyum was a major base for Russian forces in the Kharkiv region.
Konashenkov said the move is being made "in order to achieve the stated goals of the special military operation to liberate Donbas,'" one of the eastern Ukraine regions that Russia has declared sovereign.
The claim of pullback to concentrate on Donetsk is similiar to the justification Russia gave for pulling back its forces from the Kyiv region earlier this year.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP's earlier story follows below.
https://6abc.com/ukraine-invasion-kharkiv-volodymyr-zelenskyy-vladimir-putin-russia-war/12219030/
***
4th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Galician)
The 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Galician) (German: 14. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS [galizische Nr. 1];[2] Ukrainian: 14а Гренадерська Дивізія СС (1а галицька)), known as the 14th SS-Volunteer Division "Galicia" (German: 14. SS-Freiwilligen Division "Galizien", Ukrainian: 14а Добровільна Дивізія СС "Галичина") prior to 1944,[1] was a World War II German military formation made up predominantly of military volunteers with a Ukrainian ethnic background from the area of Galicia,[3] later also with some Slovaks.[3][4]
Formed in 1943, it was largely destroyed in the battle of Brody, reformed, and saw action in Slovakia, Yugoslavia, and Austria before being renamed the first division of the Ukrainian National Army and surrendering to the Western Allies by 10 May 1945.
Atrocities
Although the Waffen-SS as a whole was declared to be a criminal organization at the Nuremberg Trials, the Galizien Division has not specifically been found guilty of any war crimes by any war tribunal or commission.
However, numerous accusations of impropriety have been leveled at the division, and at particular members of the division, from a variety of sources. It is difficult to determine the extent of war criminality among members of the division.[39]
If prior service in Nazi police units is a measure of criminality, only a small number were recruited from established police detachments. Among those who had transferred from police detachments, some had been members of a coastal defence unit that had been stationed in France, while others came from two police battalions that had been formed in the spring of 1943, too late to have participated in the murder of Ukraine's Jews.
According to Howard Margolian, there is no evidence that these units participated in anti-partisan operations or reprisals prior to their inclusion into the division. However, before their service within the police battalions, a number of recruits are alleged to have been in Ukrainian irregular formations that are alleged to have committed atrocities against Jews and Communists.
Nevertheless, in their investigations of the division, both the Canadian government and the Canadian Jewish Congress failed to find hard evidence to support the notion that it was rife with criminal elements.[39]
The division did destroy several Polish communities in western Ukraine during the winter and spring of 1944.[40] Specifically, the 4th and 5th SS Police Regiments have been accused of murdering Polish civilians in the course of anti-guerilla activity. At the time of their actions, those units were not yet under Divisional command, but were under German police command.[41]
Yale historian Timothy Snyder noted that the division's role in the Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia was limited, because the murders were primarily carried out by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.
In a speech to the soldiers of the 1st Galician division, Heinrich Himmler stated:
Your homeland has become so much more beautiful since you have lost – on our initiative, I must say – those residents who were so often a dirty blemish on Galicia's good name, namely the Jews ... I know that if I ordered you to liquidate the Poles ... I would be giving you permission to do what you are eager to do anyway.[42]
In June 2013, Associated Press published an article stating that an American, Michael Karkoc, who was alleged to be a former "deputy company commander" in the division, was implicated in war crimes committed before he joined the division in 1945.
According to Associated Press, before joining the Division Karkoc had served as a "lieutenant" of the 2nd Company of the German SS Police-led Ukrainian Self Defense Legion (USDL).[43]
The USDL was a paramilitary police organization in the Schutzmannschaft. Karkoc was found living in Lauderdale, Minnesota. He had arrived in the United States in 1949 and became a naturalized citizen in 1959.[44][45]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/14th_Waffen_Grenadier_Division_of_the_SS_(1st_Galician)
***
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel (SS; also stylized as ᛋᛋ with Armanen runes; German pronunciation: [ˈʃʊtsˌʃtafl̩] (listen); "Protection Squadron") was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II.
The SS was the organization most responsible for the genocidal murder of an estimated 5.5 to 6 million Jews and millions of other victims during the Holocaust.[3] Members of all of its branches committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during World War II (1939–45).
The SS was also involved in commercial enterprises and exploited concentration camp inmates as slave labor. After Nazi Germany's defeat, the SS and the Nazi Party were judged by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg to be criminal organizations.
Ernst Kaltenbrunner, the highest-ranking surviving SS main department chief, was found guilty of crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg trials and hanged in 1946.
Foreign legions and volunteers
See also: Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts
Beginning in 1940, Himmler opened up Waffen-SS recruiting to ethnic Germans that were not German citizens.[340]
In March 1941, the SS Main Office established the Germanische Leitstelle (Germanic Guidance Office) to establish Waffen-SS recruiting offices in Nazi-occupied Europe.[341]
The majority of the resulting foreign Waffen-SS units wore a distinctive national collar patch and preceded their SS rank titles with the prefix Waffen instead of SS.
Volunteers from Scandinavian countries filled the ranks of two divisions, the SS-Wiking and SS-Nordland.[342] Swiss German speakers joined in substantial numbers.[343]
Belgian Flemings joined Dutchmen to form the SS-Nederland legion,[344] and their Walloon compatriots joined the SS-Wallonien.[345]
By the end of 1943 about a quarter of the SS were ethnic Germans from across Europe,[346] and by June 1944, half the Waffen-SS were foreign nationals.[347]
Additional Waffen-SS units were added from the Ukrainians, Albanians from Kosovo, Serbians, Croatians, Turkic, Caucasians, Cossack, and Tatars.
The Ukrainians and Tatars, who had suffered persecution under Stalin, were likely motivated primarily by opposition to the Soviet government rather than ideological agreement with the SS.[348]
The exiled Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Amin al-Husseini was made an SS-Gruppenführer by Himmler in May 1943.[349] He subsequently used antisemitism and anti-Serb racism to recruit a Waffen-SS division of Bosnian Muslims, the SS-Handschar.[350]
The year-long Soviet occupation of the Baltic states at the beginning of World War II resulted in volunteers for Latvian and Estonian Waffen-SS units. The Estonian Legion had 1,280 volunteers under training by the end of 1942.[351]
Approximately 25,000 men served in the Estonian SS division, with thousands more conscripted into Police Front battalions and border guard units.[352] Most of the Estonians were fighting primarily to regain their independence and as many as 15,000 of them died fighting alongside the Germans.[353]
In early 1944, Himmler even contacted Pohl to suggest releasing Muslim prisoners from concentration camps to supplement his SS troops.[354]
The Indian Legion was a Wehrmacht unit formed in August 1942 chiefly from disaffected Indian soldiers of the British Indian Army captured in the North African Campaign.
In August 1944 it was transferred to the auspices of the Waffen-SS as the Indische Freiwilligen-Legion der Waffen-SS.[355]
There was also a French volunteer division, SS-Charlemagne, which was formed in 1944 mainly from the remnants of the Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism and French Sturmbrigade.[356]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schutzstaffel#Foreign_legions_and_volunteers
...
War in the east
On 22 June 1941, Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union.[148] The expanding war and the need to control occupied territories provided the conditions for Himmler to further consolidate the police and military organs of the SS.[149] Rapid acquisition of vast territories in the East placed considerable strain on the SS police organizations as they struggled to adjust to the changing security challenges.[150]
The 1st and 2nd SS Infantry Brigades, which had been formed from surplus concentration camp guards of the SS-TV, and the SS Cavalry Brigade moved into the Soviet Union behind the advancing armies. At first, they fought Soviet partisans, but by the autumn of 1941, they left the anti-partisan role to other units and actively took part in the Holocaust. While assisting the Einsatzgruppen, they formed firing parties that participated in the liquidation of the Jewish population of the Soviet Union.[151][152]
On 31 July 1941, Göring gave Heydrich written authorization to ensure the cooperation of administrative leaders of various government departments to undertake genocide of the Jews in territories under German control.[153]
Heydrich was instrumental in carrying out these exterminations, as the Gestapo was ready to organize deportations in the West and his Einsatzgruppen were already conducting extensive murder operations in the East.[154] On 20 January 1942, Heydrich chaired a meeting, called the Wannsee Conference, to discuss the implementation of the plan.[155]
During battles in the Soviet Union during 1941 and 1942, the Waffen-SS suffered enormous casualties. The LSSAH and Das Reich lost over half their troops to illness and combat casualties.[156] In need of recruits, Himmler began to accept soldiers that did not fit the original SS racial profile.[157] In early 1942, SS-Leibstandarte, SS-Totenkopf, and SS-Das Reich were withdrawn to the West to refit and were converted to Panzergrenadier divisions.[158] The SS-Panzer Corps returned to the Soviet Union in 1943 and participated in the Third Battle of Kharkov in February and March.[159]
The Holocaust
Einsatzgruppen murder Jews in Ivanhorod, Ukraine, 1942
The SS was built on a culture of violence, which was exhibited in its most extreme form by the mass murder of civilians and prisoners of war on the Eastern Front.[160] Augmented by personnel from the Kripo, Orpo (Order Police), and Waffen-SS,[161] the Einsatzgruppen reached a total strength of 3,000 men.
Einsatzgruppen A, B, and C were attached to Army Groups North, Centre, and South; Einsatzgruppe D was assigned to the 11th Army. The Einsatzgruppe for Special Purposes operated in eastern Poland starting in July 1941.[162]
The historian Richard Rhodes describes them as being "outside the bounds of morality"; they were "judge, jury and executioner all in one", with the authority to kill anyone at their discretion.
[163] Following Operation Barbarossa, these Einsatzgruppen units, together with the Waffen-SS and Order Police as well as with assistance from the Wehrmacht, engaged in the mass murder of the Jewish population in occupied eastern Poland and the Soviet Union.[163][164][165] The greatest extent of Einsatzgruppen action occurred in 1941 and 1942 in Ukraine and Russia.[166]
Before the invasion there were five million registered Jews throughout the Soviet Union, with three million of those residing in the territories occupied by the Germans; by the time the war ended, over two million of these had been murdered.[167]
The extermination activities of the Einsatzgruppen generally followed a standard procedure, with the Einsatzgruppen chief contacting the nearest Wehrmacht unit commander to inform him of the impending action; this was done so they could coordinate and control access to the execution grounds.[168]
Initially, the victims were shot, but this method proved impracticable for an operation of this scale.[169] Also, after Himmler observed the shooting of 100 Jews at Minsk in August 1941, he grew concerned about the impact such actions were having on the mental health of his SS men.
He decided that alternate methods of murder should be found, which led to the introduction of gas vans.[170][171] However, these were not popular with the men, because removing the dead bodies from the van and burying them was a horrible ordeal.
Prisoners or auxiliaries were often assigned to do this task so as to spare the SS men the trauma.[172]
Anti-partisan operations
Further information: Bandenbekämpfung
In response to the army's difficulties in dealing with Soviet partisans, Hitler decided in July 1942 to transfer anti-partisan operations to the police. This placed the matter under Himmler's purview.[173][174]
As Hitler had ordered on 8 July 1941 that all Jews were to be regarded as partisans, the term "anti-partisan operations" was used as a euphemism for the murder of Jews as well as actual combat against resistance elements.[175][176]
In July 1942 Himmler ordered that the term "partisan" should no longer be used; instead resisters to Nazi rule would be described as "bandits".[177]
Himmler set the SS and SD to work on developing additional anti-partisan tactics and launched a propaganda campaign.[178]
Sometime in June 1943, Himmler issued the Bandenbekämpfung (bandit fighting) order, simultaneously announcing the existence of the Bandenkampfverbände (bandit fighting formations), with SS-Obergruppenführer Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski as its chief.
Employing troops primarily from the SS police and Waffen-SS, the Bandenkampfverbände had four principal operational components: propaganda, centralized control and coordination of security operations, training of troops, and battle operations.[179]
Once the Wehrmacht had secured territorial objectives, the Bandenkampfverbände first secured communications facilities, roads, railways, and waterways. Thereafter, they secured rural communities and economic installations such as factories and administrative buildings.
An additional priority was securing agricultural and forestry resources. The SS oversaw the collection of the harvest, which was deemed critical to strategic operations.[180] Any Jews in the area were rounded up and killed. Communists and people of Asiatic descent were killed presumptively under the assumption that they were Soviet agents.[181]
Death camps
Jews from Carpathian Ruthenia arriving at Auschwitz concentration camp, 1944
After the start of the war, Himmler intensified the activity of the SS within Germany and in Nazi-occupied Europe. Increasing numbers of Jews and German citizens deemed politically suspect or social outsiders were arrested.[182] As the Nazi regime became more oppressive, the concentration camp system grew in size and lethal operation, and grew in scope as the economic ambitions of the SS intensified.[183]
Intensification of the killing operations took place in late 1941 when the SS began construction of stationary gassing facilities to replace the use of Einsatzgruppen for mass murders.[184][185]
Victims at these new extermination camps were killed with the use of carbon monoxide gas from automobile engines.186]
During Operation Reinhard, run by officers from the Totenkopfverbände, who were sworn to secrecy, three extermination camps were built in occupied Poland: Bełżec (operational by March 1942), Sobibór (operational by May 1942), and Treblinka (operational by July 1942),[187]
with squads of Trawniki men (Eastern European collaborators) overseeing hundreds of Sonderkommando prisoners,[b] who were forced to work in the gas chambers and crematoria before being murdered themselves.[188]
On Himmler's orders, by early 1942 the concentration camp at Auschwitz was greatly expanded to include the addition of gas chambers, where victims were killed using the pesticide Zyklon B.[189][190]
For administrative reasons, all concentration camp guards and administrative staff became full members of the Waffen-SS in 1942.
The concentration camps were placed under the command of the SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt (SS Main Economic and Administrative Office; WVHA) under Oswald Pohl.[191] Richard Glücks served as the Inspector of Concentration Camps, which in 1942 became office "D" under the WVHA.[192][193]
Exploitation and extermination became a balancing act as the military situation deteriorated. The labor needs of the war economy, especially for skilled workers, meant that some Jews escaped the genocide.[194]
On 30 October 1942, due to severe labor shortages in Germany, Himmler ordered that large numbers of able-bodied people in Nazi-occupied Soviet territories be taken prisoner and sent to Germany as forced labor.[195]
By 1944, the SS-TV had been organized into three divisions: staff of the concentration camps in Germany and Austria, in the occupied territories, and of the extermination camps in Poland. By 1944, it became standard practice to rotate SS members in and out of the camps, partly based on manpower needs, but also to provide easier assignments to wounded Waffen-SS members.[196]
This rotation of personnel meant that nearly the entire SS knew what was going on inside the concentration camps, making the entire organization liable for war crimes and crimes against humanity.[197]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schutzstaffel#War_in_the_east
***
Waffen-SS
The Waffen-SS (German: [ˈvafn̩ʔɛsˌʔɛs], transl. Armed SS) was the combat branch of the Nazi Party's Schutzstaffel (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with volunteers and conscripts from both occupied and unoccupied lands.[2]
The Waffen-SS grew from three regiments to over 38 divisions during World War II, and served alongside the German Army (Heer), Ordnungspolizei (uniformed police) and other security units. Originally, it was under the control of the SS Führungshauptamt (SS operational command office) beneath Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS. With the start of World War II, tactical control was exercised by the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW, "High Command of the Armed Forces"),[3] with some units being subordinated to Kommandostab Reichsführer-SS (Command Staff Reichsführer-SS) directly under Himmler's control.[4]
Initially, in keeping with the racial policy of Nazi Germany, membership was open only to people of Germanic origin (so-called "Aryan ancestry").[5] The rules were partially relaxed in 1940,[6][7] and after the Operation Barbarossa invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Nazi propaganda claimed that the war was a "European crusade against Bolshevism" and subsequently units consisting largely or solely of foreign volunteers and conscripts were also raised.[8] These Waffen-SS units were made up of men mainly from among the nationals of Nazi-occupied Europe. Despite relaxation of the rules, the Waffen-SS was still based on the racist ideology of Nazism, and ethnic Poles (who were viewed as subhumans) were specifically barred from the formations.[9][10][11]
Members of the Waffen-SS were involved in numerous atrocities.[12] At the post-war Nuremberg Trials, the Waffen-SS was judged to be a criminal organisation due to its connection to the Nazi Party and direct involvement in numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity. Former Waffen-SS members, with the exception of conscripts, who comprised about one third of the membership, were denied many of the rights afforded to military veterans.[13][14][15]
...
Criminality
Many Waffen-SS members and units were responsible for war crimes against civilians and allied servicemen.[181] After the war the SS organisation as a whole was held to be a criminal organisation by the post-war German government. Formations such as the Dirlewanger and Kaminski Brigades were singled out, and many others participated in large-scale massacres or smaller-scale killings such as murder of 34 captured allied servicemen ordered by Josef Kieffer during Operation Bulbasket in 1944, the Houtman affair,[182] or murders perpetrated by Heinrich Boere. The listed Waffen-SS units were responsible for the following massacres:
Wormhoudt massacre by SS Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, 1940, France[58]
Le Paradis massacre by SS Division Totenkopf, 1940, France[183]
Pripyat swamps (punitive operation) by the SS Cavalry Brigade, 1941, USSR[184]
Ascq massacre by 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend, 1944, France
Tulle massacre by SS Division Das Reich, 1944, France[185]
Oradour-sur-Glane massacre by SS Division Das Reich, 1944, France[186]
Ochota massacre by SS Kaminski Brigade, 1944, Poland
Wola massacre by SS-Sturmbrigade Dirlewanger, 1944, Poland
Huta Pieniacka massacre by SS Division Galicia 1944, Poland
Graignes Massacre by SS Division Götz von Berlichingen, 1944, France
Maillé massacre, also by SS Division Götz von Berlichingen, 1944, France
Marzabotto massacre by 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division Reichsführer-SS, 1944, Italy
Malmedy massacre by Kampfgruppe Peiper, part of 1st SS Panzer Division, 1944, Belgium[187]
Wereth 11 massacre by 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, 1944, Belgium
Ardeatine massacre by two SS officers, 1944, Italy
Distomo massacre by 4th SS Polizei Division, 1944, Greece[186]
Sant'Anna di Stazzema massacre by 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division Reichsführer-SS, 1944, Italy
Ardenne Abbey massacre by 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend, 1944, France
The linking of the SS-VT with the SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV) in 1938 raised important questions about Waffen-SS criminality,[32] since the SS-TV were already responsible for the imprisonment, torture, and murder of Jews and other political opponents through providing the personnel for manning the concentration camps. Their leader, Theodor Eicke, who was the commandant of Dachau, inspector of the camps, and murderer of Ernst Röhm, later became the commander of the 3rd SS Totenkopf Division.[29] With the invasion of Poland, the Totenkopfverbände troops were called on to carry out so-called "police and security measures" in rear areas. What these measures entailed is demonstrated by the record of SS Totenkopf Standarte Brandenburg. It arrived in Włocławek on 22 September 1939 and embarked on a four-day "Jewish action" that included the burning of synagogues and the execution en masse of the leaders of the Jewish community. On 29 September the Standarte travelled to Bydgoszcz to conduct an "intelligentsia action". Approximately 800 Polish civilians and what the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) termed "potential resistance leaders" were killed. Later the formation became the 3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf, but from the start they were among the first executors of a policy of systematic extermination.
Belgian civilians killed by German units during the Battle of the Bulge
Waffen-SS formations were found guilty of war crimes, especially in the opening and closing phases of the war.[188] In addition to documented atrocities, Waffen-SS units assisted in rounding up Eastern European Jews for deportation and utilised scorched earth tactics during rear security operations. Some Waffen-SS personnel convalesced at concentration camps, from which they were drawn, by serving guard duties. Other members of the Waffen-SS were more directly involved in genocide.[citation needed]
The end of the war saw a number of war crime trials, including the Malmedy massacre trial. The counts of indictment related to the massacre of more than 300 American prisoners in the vicinity of Malmedy, between 16 December 1944 and 13 January 1945, and the massacre of 100 Belgian civilians mainly in the vicinity of Stavelot.[189][full citation needed]
During the Nuremberg Trials, the Waffen-SS was declared a criminal organisation for its major involvement in war crimes and for being an "integral part" of the SS.[190][188] An exception was made for conscripts who were not given a choice in joining the ranks, and had not committed "such crimes". They were determined to be exempt.[191]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waffen-SS
***
The Special Operations Detachment "Azov" (Ukrainian: Окремий загін спеціального призначення «Азов», romanized: Okremyi zahin spetsialnoho pryznachennia "Azov"), also known as the Azov Regiment (Ukrainian: Полк «Азов», romanized: Polk "Azov") and formerly the Azov Battalion[a] (Ukrainian: батальйон «Азов», romanized: Batalion "Azov"), is a unit of the National Guard of Ukraine formerly based in Mariupol, in the coastal region of the Sea of Azov, from which it derives its name.[10] The unit was founded in May 2014 as a volunteer paramilitary militia under the command of Andriy Biletsky to fight pro-Russian forces in the Donbas War, and was formally incorporated into the National Guard on 11 November 2014.[11][12]
The group has drawn controversy over its early and allegedly continuing association with far-right groups and neo-Nazi ideology,[13] its use of controversial symbols linked to Nazism, and early allegations that members of the group participated in torture and war crimes.[14][15][16][17][18] Some experts are critical of the regiment's role within the larger Azov Movement, a political umbrella group made up of veterans and organizations linked to Azov, and its possible far-right political ambitions, despite claims of the regiment's depoliticization.[19][9] Others argue that the regiment has evolved beyond its origins as street militia, tempering its neo-Nazi and far-right underpinnings as it became part of the National Guard.[20][21][11] Since 2014, criticism of the Azov Regiment has been a recurring theme of Russian politics.[22]
The regiment's size was estimated 900 to 2,500 combatants in 2017–2022.[23][3] Most of the unit members are Russian speakers and come from the Russian-speaking regions of Ukraine. It also includes members from other countries.[11][24]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azov_Regiment
***
Selected photos (Courtesy of Wikipedia, can be accessed via the cited Wikipedia pages) :
The crypt at Wewelsburg was repurposed by Himmler as a place to memorialize dead SS members.[39] Artwork commemorating the Holocaust hangs on the walls.
Reinhard Heydrich (right) was Himmler's protégé and a leading SS figure until his assassination in 1942.
Einsatzgruppe shoot civilians in Kórnik, Poland (1939)
SS murders in Zboriv, 1941. A teenage boy is brought to view his dead family before being shot himself.
(Einsatzgruppen members at a murder site of Jews in the village of Zboriv, Ukraine, 1941)
Himmler inspecting Sturmgeschütz III of the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler in Metz, France, September 1940
Jews from Carpathian Ruthenia arriving at Auschwitz concentration camp, 1944
Extermination through labor. At Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp, inmates were forced to carry heavy granite blocks out of the quarry on the "Stairs of Death".
Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Heinrich Himmler, August Eigruber, and other SS officials visit Mauthausen concentration camp, 1941
American POWs murdered by SS forces led by Joachim Peiper in the Malmedy massacre during the Battle of the Bulge (December 1944)
Aftermath of the Malmedy Massacre
Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini greeting Bosniak SS volunteers before their departure to the Eastern Front, 1943
Bundesarchiv Bild 101III-Wiegand-117-02, Russland, Kradschütze, Beiwagenkrad
Remembrance day of the Latvian [SS] legionnaires, 16 March 2008
German tanks at Kharkov, 1943
Stroop Report original caption: "The leader of the grand operation." SS-Brigadeführer Jürgen Stroop (center) watches housing blocks burn
Photo taken by the Polish Underground showing the bodies of women and children murdered by SS troops in Warsaw Uprising, August 1944
***
Ukraine's Nazi problem is real, even if Putin's 'denazification' claim isn't
Not acknowledging this threat means that little is being done to guard against it.
***
Commentary: Ukraine’s neo-Nazi problem
By Josh Cohen, Commentary
March 19, 2018 6:27 PM Updated 4 years ago
The Nazis Of Ukraine
April 1, 2022 C.B. Forde
There is an inconvenient truth that those beating the war-drum against Russia love to ignore—namely, the Nazis of Ukraine.
We are told that this is all somehow “Russian disinformation/misinformation,” or that Putin loves to call people whom he doesn’t like, “Nazis” (notice, this is what actually is done in the West against opponents of the elite).
Of course, no real evidence is ever given to back up these claims, as has now become a sad habit, any self-righteous assertion is considered “truth.”
Here are the facts about Nazis in Ukraine. The drumbeaters have yet to disprove any of them.
https://www.thepostil.com/the-nazis-of-ukraine/
***
The Truth About Ukrainian Nationalism and Claims It's Tainted by Nazism
In light of Russian propaganda, Haaretz is delving into the concept of Ukrainian nationalism, to better understand its historical and contemporary meaning, and find out where the Azov Battalion fits in.
***
