The Schutzstaffel (SS): Waffen-SS, Gestapo & Einsatzgruppen
SS Brigade Commander Behind Atrocities: Mass Murderer Oskar Dirlewanger
17m
From the invasion of Poland to the ruins of Warsaw, Nazi Germany unleashed one of the most brutal formations in the history of the Waffen-SS — a unit built not from soldiers, but from convicted criminals, rapists, and murderers.
At its center stood Oskar Dirlewanger, a decorated First World War veteran turned sadist and war criminal. Backed by powerful patrons within the SS, he commanded a brigade that terrorized occupied Europe, leaving tens of thousands of civilians dead in Poland, Belarus, Slovakia, and the streets of Warsaw.
His men burned villages, executed prisoners, used civilians as human shields, and carried out mass killings during the Warsaw Uprising and the Slovak National Uprising — crimes so extreme that even Nazi officials demanded his removal.
This documentary traces Dirlewanger’s rise, the creation of his criminal army, and his violent end in 1945 — a story of how ideology, power, and brutality fused into one of the darkest chapters of the Second World War.
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