The Execution Of The WWII Knights Cross Winner Kugelblitz
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- Опубліковано 12 кві 2024
- At the end of the Second World War, an SS commander was forced to face his firing squad on the edge of an anti-tank ditch. Paul Maitla was a Knights Cross winner inside of the German Army and he had previously fought for the Red Army as he was Estonian. But after his capture he defected to the Waffen-SS and he was a brave leader in combat, however at the hands of the Czech resistance he met his execution.
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Living between Germany and the USSR was a real sheet-sandwich.
Estonia was subject to russification already in the Czar empire. Like the whole Baltic region. Still today Russia sees the region as their own. They hold the exclave of Königsberg/ Kaliningrad. It fits in the idea to reduce the number of people resisting. Especially the German or germanised ethnic groups. On the other side Germany supported the establishing of their nation states from Finland to Prussia. Also you have the same pressure with no Germany involved if you look at Hungary, Romania (Moldova), Afghanistan or Central Asia.
Poland was invaded by both. No chance.
I knew a Latvian man who was in a similar situation. He was an officer in the Latvian Army, then inducted into the Red Army, then captured by the Germans and ended up in the Waffen SS, one of the Latvian divisions. He was awarded the Iron Cross and later captured by the British, thank God. The Latvians, Lithuanians and Estonians were all innocent souls caught up in a bad situation.
I need a good laugh " Innocent Souls " please that is a rather blind statement, Latvians and Lithuanians were involved in TERRIBLE War Crimes and the Estonians also in the Balkans. Were they innocent there to Women and Children!
@@Garwfechan-ry5lk yes
... they murdered all their Jews ....
@@Garwfechan-ry5lk I joined the US Army at age 17 during the war in Vietnam, does that make me responsible for the My Lai Massacre?
@@Bumper776 No but this man is known for War Crimes.
I was in Estonia 15 years ago. You could buy wermach t-shits and SS coffe cups in some souvenir stores in Reval. The nazis where seen as liberators compared to the Soviets.
I was there 30 years' ago where you could buy the originals.
@@MS-in3sl LOL
Once you were in the Baltics you should have visited the so called Occupation Museum in Riga to see how history can be turned upside down. Collaboration with those who killed Jews is put in a positive light. History goes strange ways.
Revsl? In ehich century do you live?
@@henryseidel5469 Once you were in Minsk, you could see the museum where exhibits were tagged with the names of the entities that funded it. Jews -- especially american ones -- can't resist putting their names on everything.
He did not choose to fight for the Nazi but used them to clear and keep clear Estonia from the Soviets (the Finnish also did the same thing.) That said he was like many Estonians caught between a rock and a hard stone. They are now Independent and will fight to the last man to stay so.
President Putin has the Baltic states in his crosshairs after Ukraine.
@@douglaswilkinson5700You are correct. Why others can’t see and appreciate this danger is a mystery to me. Crimea, Georgia, Ukraine . . . The Soviet Union is being reconstituted.
@@CAROLUSPRIMAI believe that they are members of NATO. If invaded they can invoke article V of the treaty requiring a massive NATO response ...
@@douglaswilkinson5700 Of course you are correct. But in today’s environment with all the Putin lovers in the US I’m sure that Estonians aren’t feeling all that sanguine.
Central Europe at the time (including Germany) was a bunch of client states serving the major powers at the time waiting for a USSR invasion. The war was Germany fighting this order and this is the reason why so many people supported Germany and joined the army.
Unfortunately people today just learn the post war propaganda to demonize the defeated side.
Amazing that new facts keep emerging even after 80 years
Good day, and Thank You again for all of your Research, Time, and Effort that goes into every video.🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
'Traitor?' No, an Estonian patriot. He finally had a chance to fight for his country's independence, something impossible under Soviet rule, as it was and would be for so many countries.
baltic TIGERS. They are now Independent pupets for brussel
@@eliotness4029 Go there and ask them if they are puppets. I'm afraid they won't share this opinion.
@@renemagritte8237 no one real puppet will never tell you truth. because he is puppet. he don't have own brain.
@@renemagritte8237 to be eu puppet is good. they have a lot of euro. they will feed you. and you need to bark. as a guard dog. untill they will send u in meatgrinder. as ukainians
@@renemagritte8237 so funny. they deleting my messages. so you won
Maitla is the 1st man on the left in photograph at 7:16 - his rank [SS-Sturmbannfuhrer/Major] and a patch with Estonian flag on his left arm are clearly visible.
Tragic and unjustly executed. A stellar soldier who made the best of a bad situation. RIP
a Nazi, fighting for Hitler
The russian call him a traitor and a nazi. There is some truth in that, waffen ss and history in soviet army....
He chose the Nazi side and the SS parts.
So screw him...
baltic TIGERS. They are now Independent pupets for brussel
@@eliotness4029 they have the freedom to be puppets
You don't win medals, you earn them...
👏👏👏👏👏👏
He was murdered. He was not a war criminal
ALL SS were murderers.
He was a traitor
@@virummundi2119traitor to the dictatorship of Stalin!
...WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO ABOUT IT?!!
All Nazis were war criminals.
There are seven soldiers in the photo at 6:56. On the left side of the photo, there are two men in uniform with their hands raised. These would be the two missing from the group on back of the truck. It looks as though they have just arrived, and are getting down out of the truck, and are about to be led to the anti-tank ditch.
Have you seen all the Photo's off this action,. it shows people many of whom suffered at Klooga where this great " Band of Brothers" really assisted the Germans in the Final Solution not only for Jews but also Russian Citizens Russian POW's and ESTONIAN CIVILIANS as well. Klooga was bloody despicable nobody knows how many were murdered there the evidence was covered up! NUREMBURG READ THE DEPOSITIONS!
Paul Maitla was executed for the crime(?) of taking up arms against the Soviet Union, and for being a proud Estonian!
That is stupid. You cannot separate selective actions of today's 'favourites' from the entire political circumstances of that period. That's simply anachronism!
The same is true for today's fairy tales of Ukrainean 'patriotism'. Didn't those Banderas help the Germans deport and shoot Jewish people ?
History is not a tale of the good and the evil - but goes strange ways.
Was he really a traitor though? USSR annexed Estonia and conscripted him into service, then the Germans invaded not Estonia because technically it didn't exist anymore, but the USSR. 🤷
baltic TIGERS. They are now Independent pupets for brussel
USSR were and are today the overall murder s .
End off
Many partisans across Europe were actually Communists. A fair trial by rule of law is infamously worldwide violated by Communists
If anybody doubt's the above statement, please read Sisley Huddleston's reports on how the Communists and Jews murdered 1 to 2 hundred thousand French civilians following the "liberation of France"
But at least the communists tried to make a just distribution of wealth. Not just a mixture of some billionaires and a tremendous number of beggars.
So what ? The Soviets had to defend themselves on a huge territory with all their civilians between the front lines. In the US they were watching their heroes on TV while the magnolias were blossoming in front of the kitchen windows.
Russia had twenty seven million dead corpses lying on their fields.
@@henryseidel5469stalin killed as many of his own people as he did foreign soldiers.. We helped our future enemies.. the commie soviets.
Patton said: we have defeated the wrong enemy.. Seeing the world at this point.. I think he may have been correct. Not that I condone hitlers actions. I think the true perception of reality was lost after WWII.
@@henryseidel5469 Wrong. Soviet Union had twenty seven million casualties. And it means a honest body count should contain all Belarusians, Ukrainians, Poles forced to fight alongside Soviets, and many, many other nations like Georgians, Armenians and so on. Wrong narrative making all of them Russians.
My father, in the Estonian SS was captured by the Czechoslovakians and released with his mean at the end of the war. Wearing only their underwear they were marching toward the American units, also being abused by the Czech women spitting and throwing turds. He also fought to try to release Esonia from the Soviets (Russians) As a training officer he may have know Paul.
I can understand the Estonians wanting to be free of Stalin's Russia. It is like the Ukrainians of today, they do not want to live under Putin's murderous regime.
My grand-grandfather, a Finn, was fighting against russians in Estonia 1919. He was in Ekströms first freecorps. Another relative was in the wiking division.
did he kill many Jewish kids and women? Or did he never talk about it?
@@KK-rg1wz No. Here in Finland we like Jews. I have Jewish friends. In ww2 Finnish Jews were even servind alongside Germans and were awarded Iron crosses. Thanks for asking so politely.
@@petrisyrja-kokkila7103 ... "wir haben es nicht gewüsst" ... was it translated in Finnish? Your grand-grand father never told about what he did, when fighting for Hitler against the "Uentermenschen" ?
he was screwed either way.....
Narva was the most internationally-represented battle in the war. Germans, Estonians, Belgians, Scandinavians, etc.
That's why it's called a "Battle of European SS".
I'd say the battle of el Alamein. British, Australian,new Zealand,south African,Indian,french,greek and Arab units aswell as individual soldiers from all corners of the British empire.
Czechs did a lot of really nasty things at the end of Ww2.
Only country in central/eastern europe to end the war with a bigger population than when they started. Then they murdered and deported millions just to bring themselves in line with everyone else. Czech crimes should be talked about more.
At Usti nad Labem they threw the children and babies of German refugees from a bridge they had to cross into River Elbe rather than letting all those civilians simply leave the country - which was bad enough.
@@henryseidel5469 it was even a Czech that told me how horrible they were.
Maitla was an Estonian patriot.
Ein estnischer Patriot, der auf deutscher Seite für die Befreiung seines Vaterlandes gekämpft hat.
baltic TIGERS. They are now Independent pupets for brussel
Des einen Terrorist ist des anderen Freiheitskämpfer. Hoffentlich hat er nicht mit der SS jüdische Menschen eingesammelt und erschossen. So wie die ukrainischen Bandera-Helden in Babyn Jar !
So refreshing and enjoyable having a history video without loud, bland, monotonous, distracting, background music!
I have read that the job of carrying out atrocities against civilians in areas conquered and occupied by the Nazis, was given to these Baltic countries' SS Units, rather than to German SS Units. (Bad for moral). Were these atrocities war crimes?
It was 10th of may so basically after the war which means it was a brutal murder by Czechs
baltic TIGERS. They are now Independent pupets for brussel
Yes karma is a bitch
Russian special forces executed Maitla, with his own gun. Soviets just posed as Czechs and Maitla did surrender to them. Then those fake Czechs executed him.
I know, because my great uncle unit did not surrender to those same thugs and pressed on, even fighting if necessary, until they meet US army, and surrender there. He lived happily in Canada, and died in his own house, surrounded by big family in 1998.
On his way through the Czech Republic, he saw all kinds of horrors - sawmills where German female soldiers were cut in half lengthwise or where local Germans were nailed to trees by their genitals. There were pieces of people everywhere. But the only difference with Maitla was that they did not give up their weapons when "Czech officials" demanded it. All German units that did not surrender their weapons reached the Americans.
I'm Estonian.
P.S. Estonia was de jure US allay in WWII, but as now Ukrainians, we were left to the russians to pillage as war spoils.
Excellent insights. Thanks. My grand-grandfather was fighting the russians in Estonia in finnish Ekströms first freecorps 1919 and another relative served in Wiking division Nordland 1941-1943. Both survived.
Well, this is a WAR CRIME from the Czech resistance... They were terrorist and war criminals.
A freedom fighter is not a traitor.
Classic reply..however it depends on the viewer or believer. Rules of war and International Law are what counts here. This man was clearly murdered having not been given a trial. Fact
But to Kill Women and Children is a War Crime!
It depends on whose 'freedom' it is and what is understood by 'freedom'
@@henryseidel5469 In the case of an Estonian, of course, about an Estonian freedom fighter.
@@exactormortis7433 The one party's freedom fighter is the opposite party's terrorist ! So I am not quite sure.
God Bless All of the Innocent Victims, Survivors, and Those that Fought for Them.🥀🥀🥀🥀🙏🙏🙏🙏💔💔💔💔🕊️🕊️🕊️🕊️ Rest In Peace 🙏🕊️🙏🕊️🙏🕊️ Prayers the Survivors were able to find Peace 🙏🕊️🙏🕊️🙏🕊️💔💔💔💔
It may surprise many but to fight for the Waffen SS especially in Estonia was to be seen as fighting against evil, as at the time the Red Army was seen as such.
Very true
He was found out at a Czeck point....
I don’t get it , the Czechs did a lot of bad things after the wars end , yet they seemed to suffer the least of those German occupied countries ! What were they hiding from?
...COME BACK WHEN YOU KNOW WHAT THE HELL YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT!!!
THE CZECHS WERE CONSIDERED RACIALLY INFERIOR BY THE NAZIS- AND THE CZECHS SUFFERED A HECK OF A LOT UNDER NAZIS OPPRESSION!!!
EVER HEARD OF "LIDICE"?!!
AFTER WW2, THE CZECHS EXPELLED THE SUDETENLAND GERMANS FROM CZECHOSLOVAKIA- AND I CAN TOTALLY UNDERSTAND WHY...
Carrying favour...with Communist fighters and to parry favour with their new "liberators"...the Soviets
baltic TIGERS. They are now Independent pupets for brussel
@@robertchubb5602 Thayt is the point ! Britain and France had guaranteed Poland's safety, but poor Polish has to wait for Stalin's soldiers for over six years to get rid of the Nasties.
America won the war in Hollywood, Britain won the war in Parliament speeches - and the Soviets won the war on the battlefields between River Volga and Berlin. And even when fighting and defeating the Japanese after Hiroshima and Nagasaky.....
History and Historiography are two entirely different issues.
Its so sad that people fight and kill each other, why cant we all live in peace together. 💔Rest in Peace💔
ask russians, they invaded Estonia in 1940, same week, when Paris fell.
Keep taking your magic mushrooms and dream. The real world will always be in conflict as long as man wants to rule over others. Putin is an example of authority complex and will continue to invade free independent countries to steal their resources and manpower.
@@marttoom5903...YOU MIGHT ALSO ASK THE GERMANS: THEY STARTED WW1 AND WW2 IN EUROPE...
@@daleburrell6273 Russians started WWI and WWII. Just WWII was started together with Germans. This Molotov Ribbentrop .was actually act of starting WWII.
WWI was started by Russia alone, with no help from others - it was the Russian intelligence agency that assassinated the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary.
The reason was the desire of the Russian oligarchs to make huge profits from the war, as it happened in 1905 during the Russo-Japanese war.
The initiator of WWII was communist Russia, because Stalin wanted to conquer all of Europe, and for that it was necessary to lure the cretin Hitler into the war. And so a pact was made between Germany and the Soviet Empire that if Germany invades Poland, Russia will help conquer Poland and will also get Finland, the Baltics and most of Poland. Moldova invaded Russia without any agreement in order to gain a strategic position to capture the Ploiesti oil fields. But it was a mistake, because the Germans realized what Stalin was planning and attacked the Soviet empire first. They managed to launch an attack on the Soviet empire 3-4 days before the beginning of the operation "liberation of Europe" ordered by Stalin.
@@daleburrell6273blurred lines re ww1, it was going to happen come what may.
It was the SS insignia that doomed him; he may only have been an anti-Soviet Waffen SS Estonian soldier but the Allgemeine SS record against civilians throughout Europe meant that symbolic any connection with it put the individual at risk.
Not exicuted. He was Murdered by cowards.
You do not have a slightest clue about the situation at that time in Bohemia , so your silly comment is utterly rubbish - there was an uprising against NAZI Germany from 5 May 1945 in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (approx 3000 dead) - and some SS units executed civilians (in one particular town over 40 civilians were shot dead at the railway station ) and from that time any SS man caught in the SS uniform was shot dead by Czechs promptly, they did not differentiate - a SS man was the SS man - an Estonian or not an Estonian- the last fight with the SS group was in Bohemia on 11 May 1945 ( 3 days after the unconditional capitulation of the Nazi Germany was signed in Europe) as they were not allowed to cross to US Army which was in Pilsner where the demarcation line was - and as such they were destroyed by Russians. Even if these SS man were handed to Russians they would be shot dead - Etonians especially as they were considered as the traitors by Russians. The good SS man was the dead SS man at that time :). Russians were searching for SS men even in hospitals and if they were found there were taken out and shot dead and rightly so. Pity so many of them escaped to the US army zone ....
@@ferdomrkvicka1247 Nazi Germany no longer posed a threat to ordinary Czechs in the Protectorate on May 5, 1945 because the German Army was already in complete withdrawal mode by then. They were leaving, not oppressing, and the only reason people got killed in the last 3-4 days of the war was because a bunch of Communist fanatics and self-styled heroes decided it met some political agenda to open pointless hostilities rather than wait for the capitulation which was clearly imminent. The only thing a fair-minded person needs to know in order to conclude that this was a clear act of murder is that it happened after the war was already over.
@@JoeLukes You have no clue what retribution is, do you... Germans in general and SS members in particular had a lot to answer for in most Slavic countries.
@@gratius1394 Really? So your definition of “retribution” includes murder?
@@JoeLukes It's not "my" definition, ask anyone who had experienced real war and all of the cruelty and destruction associated with it what kind of emotional response such events can cause and how will regular people deal with it. If you don't know what I'm talking about,, watch a certain scene in episode 6 of Masters of the Air series for reference.
Ultimately he was loyal to his own I can’t fault him for that. The Soviets were arguably worse than the German Army
The true story of 1944/45 in Eastern Europe has still yet to come out, all Eastern bloc had similar same problems
That was MURDER
Why is it not one of these channels talk about the most famous defender of Normandy von luck
Somehow missed the actual execution footage. Is that censored too?
Kugel means bullet. Kugelblitz is therefore "lightning bullet"
Is that your real accent or is this an AI voice?
It was a disgrace what happened to so many of these innocent soldiers just like it was a disgrace what happened to so many innocent civillians. Most non German SS members were not so much NAZI's as severly anti communists and wanted to stop the Soviets.
But the Germans turned out to be at least as barbaric as the Soviets, that's why so many Baltic, Georgian and Ukrainian people changed their minds on who they were supporting mid-war. They had embraced the Germans as liberators in 1941 but soon learned that they had not been liberated but that there had just been a change of management. I suppose it is quite understandable that these Estonian civvies wanted to kill any countrymen who fought for the Germans and especially those in the Waffen SS.
All SS members swore allegiance to Hitler.
Innocent? He invaded, murdered, stole ... he had nothing to search in a Nazi uniform.
Are these the same "innocent soldiers" who in 1940, massacred 90 innocent British soldiers in Le Paradis outside Dunkirk ?
They had committed the unforgiveable crime of resisting SS troops, delaying their advance and inflicting very heavy casualties on the Germans. Running out of ammunition, they surrendered and were imprisoned in a barn, which was then torched. Those trying to escape were machine gunned.
As always, there were a couple of lucky survivors whose horrific story, the British Army, was initially reluctant to believe.
After all, the Germans were civilised decent people.
The SS were fanatic Nazi's, thinking they were "Uebermenschen", "Herrenvolk", fighting against "lower people" (Uentermenschen). It was scum. Fighting for Hitler ... They had nothing to search outside Germany. Not in Norway, Denmark, Poland, Belgium, The Netherlands, Yugoslavia, Greece, Czechia....
He was another victim of the terrible war.
...not executed...no court martial, thus murdered...
Just like all the Jews the Nazis killed eh
So correct, still, would be nice to see the names of the Six "M"
Rest In Peace.
Could you translate these ranks ? Sturmbanfurher means little to us uneducated British.
Major
@@454FatJack Danke
fun fact, a well decorated SS commander founded NATO
Fun fact, a Nazi covered in Nazi tattoos founded Wagner.
@@hurdygurdyman1905 that has been debunked
@@tucker2074 It's hard to debunk Nazi tattoos. Inconvenient as well for a regime claiming to fight a Nazi state.
Given he was 'Estonian,' he would not be regarded as a traitor by anyone but the Soviets who occupied Estonia in 1940. There is a lot missing here. After Stalin's occupation of Estonia in 1940 Estonian military personnel were disarmed and put in brutal Soviet prison camps where many perished. After Germany attacked the Soviet Union in 1941 the survivors were pulled out and told they would fight for the Red Army. No wonder they defected to the German side en masse. The Red Army then pulled the Estonian units out of the line while the Germans recruited these Estonian defectors who were eager to prevent the soviets from reoccupying Estonia. These Soviet Estonian units were then largely reconstituted with Soviet citizens of Estonian descent and Estonians communists who resided in the Soviet Union. These Soviet Estonian units were less Estonian than Soviet from then on. Estonians serving the Germans were all transferred to the Waffen SS as were all foreign volunteers, whether they liked it or not. Even the Western Allies recognized these men weren't really SS and after WWII many were recruited by the Western Allies to work security at their installations and the Nuremberg trials were their former nazi superiors were put on trial. If you think you are seeing US MPs in the photos of this trial you are likely wrong. The Estonian guards wore US MP uniforms and helmets, only the uniforms were dyed blue. Look it up. These men are not regarded as nazis or traitors in Estonia today. Also, you may want to mention that this execution was a Czech war crime, because it was.
That was in all the occupied countries, the civilians took up arms and felt great with their new won power. The Germans would face them unarmed or in surrender and often be executed or just beaten and plundered. Allied troops also felt a right to treat Germans at will, as the Germans had felt in Russia. The propaganda against the Germans was similar to that of the Germans against the Russians.
Is it because he received a medal that a soldier did not commit crimes?
It has always amazed me that the Germans and for that matter the Japanese were ever forgiven for the butchery they both committed. My dad fought in the South Pacific and forever hated the Japanese.
Probably by people who had read Matthew 7, 1-5 and feared that their nations be measured the same way and with the same result.
Butchery was committed by all sides during WW2. The Allies got to write theirs off because they won - and the winners get to write the narrative.
The Germans have done A LOT to show they are sorry for what happened. They should be forgiven. The Japanese, however, still deny they did anything wrong
Kugelblitz means Ball-lightning in German. Good name for a band.
They could be a Metal band bro!
@@jamesgreenldn Yup.
@@jamesgreenldn
Heavy heavy metal band of brothers???
Estonia was had happend to Poland. Hitler-Stalin split east Poland and Baltic state’s also 🇫🇮.
Stay alive and fight for home.
Harper’s ferry 1861 Who is Who ❤ federals are takeing your land’s
👍👍👍
I suggest anyone interested in these subjects to find archives of pictures of the german campaigns from the actual units in Russia. Then compare those pictures with stuff like this, and countless other footage of what the soviets and 'allies', led by the Rothschild banking empire did to ALL people. Every picture I saw of germans in russian and ukrainian villages were all smiles, kindness, professionalism and adventure. Soldiers happy, population happy. Can't even make this stuff up. The footage of the soviets, partisans, idiot allies: always destruction. Flattened towns, starving population, unhappy, massive casualties, aloof americans and evil russians delivering massacre on everything. Murdering POW's en masse, raping village women, torturing people for fun. Stories always the same - wounded russians sent to mainland germany, medical treatment, etc. German pow's - murdered, sent to die in gulags etc. Bolsheviks would covertly attack the german units and the eastern villages would take the blame as partisan activity. That was the extent of the 'atrocities' committed by the SS: a rule based approach to persistent partisan issue. The whole 'official' narrative is a SHAM. A great dishonor to history, and the people of Europe.
Oh well shit happens.
As he were not considered an "aryan", his rank title would be Waffen-Hauptsturmführer rather than SS-Hauptsturmführer. The SS- prefix were only used for aryans (i.e. Germans or people of Germanic decent.
So you're saying his Knights Cross award document is wrong??? It says "SS-Hauptsturmführer Paul Maitla".
The real title was Waffen hauptsturmfuhrer der SS...it's an autumn 1944 appelation when the Waffen SS Hauptamt
became the staff of all volunteers units including those who were before part of the Wehrmacht.
Before this date German SS were called SS + grade, foreign volunteers were called SS Freiw(illige) + grade.
As an exemple a swedish volunteer captain of the Wiking division would have been called SS Freiw. Hauptsturmfuhrer.
If race could play a role in the appelation the degree of ideological formation was also important.
As an exemple French volunteer of the SS Brigade Frankreich were SS Freiw + grade ( Just as scandinavian volunteer) .
French SS of the Frankreich went through the whole SS formation including SS ideology.
On the other hand French SS of the Charlemagne division were Waffen +grade der SS.
A quarter to a third of the Charlemagne division were former Frankreich members.
The Charlemagne division never had an ideological formation just military training.
@@BFOP15 This is a somewhat messy matter, as the distinctions varied greatly between various grups. E.g. the Flemish were "aryans" whilst the Waloons were not, despite they wwere from the same nation (Belgium). All this because of Himmler and his fantasies and racial dreams.
@@sirjohndough8575 : Walloons were considered "Germanic" of French Language and were Freiwillige just as Flemish.
Belgians divisions are:
27. SS Freiwilligen Grenadier Division "Langemarck"
28. SS Freiwilligen Panzergrenadier Division "Wallonien "
You'll notice that the German choose to transform the French speaking Walloon as a Panzergrenadier ( Mechanised Division) whereas the Flemish remained a traditional Infantery unit.
Léon Degrelle is one of the nine non German decorated Iron class knight with diamond.
" Aryan" is a classification which didn't exist in the SS except maybe in the Ahnenerbe.
Even Hitler never used this term to classify people nor did he use the terms latin or slavic.( For him the Aryan race was a myth that may have existed thousands of years ago- even in Mein Kampf he doesn't write that Aryan were the ancestors of Germans)
I suggest you to forget about nazi racial classifications you were told in high school because most of what you were told is nonsense.
So if an English officer defected to the SS being a Anglo-Saxon he would have the same rank as a German officer ?
?
A captain is not a senior commander
He was senior to a Captain, at the time of his death.
WW2 was the most cruel war in history. So many fought, suffered and died simply because they were from little countries caught between great powers. Dear Jesus - Please return to this broken world soon and set it right.
And IF not for hitler... tens of millions..lives would have been saved... simple
Another good reason not to visit Czech. Crazy people there
They were unlucky in Eastern Europe. You could side with the communists or Nazis . There were no democrat alternatives.
As I read more history, one of the more peculiar historical truths which I've been introduced to was the odd German nobility of the Baltic states through the Teutonic knights of the 11th century raids. Those Germans and their ancestry remained in the Baltic states as 'overlords' to the Baltic Slavic population. This continued all the way up until World War 1. It's interesting that this dude in the video is one of those ancient German nobles from the Baltics. Crazy really. So many Nazis are comprised from this Baltic German group, tons of anti-Semitism came from the Baltic Germans...
Baltics are not Slavics. Estonians are Fenno-Ugrians and Letts and Lithonians are Baltic tribes.
@@KristelSitz Incorrect my friend, they are indeed included in the slavic peoples...do a bit, A BIT, of research...Thank you.
@@rotfogel en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_languages
Die Geschichte bezeugt, dass die Deutschen unbestrittene Meister waren
...in der Vernichtung unschuldiger Menschen.
"DerTod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland." Paul Celan
Si, Claro, cuando tenian a Gerd Muellar, Karl Rumminege
ja ja, schön van Zyclon B gehört?
🇪🇪SS was used as POW guard at the Nürnberg war crime tribunal. Then US gun’s and uniform’s❤
Ridiculous and unsupported by fact.
@@danwallach8826true actually. Well documented..
You have a very strange accent.
Sounds like an English accent,quite normal to me.
Estonia and Finland should not have attacked the Soviets in 1918 when they were weak - they didn`t STAY weak. BTW: this was NOT an execution - it was MURDER.
You are mistaken. Soviet russia attacked Finland together with their Finnish henchmen the "reds" in January 1918. The lenin's russians agitated, armed and led the Finnish reds, as well as fought with them. Luckily they lost.
The russian bolsheviks tried to destroy the Estonian Independence too. Luckily - with some Finnish help - the russians lost also there.
The state of war between Estonia and soviet russia lasted until February 1920, while the state of war between Finland and soviet russia lasted until October 1920.
Why do you talk that waaaaaaaaay?
what a shame
The pronunciation of artificial computer language is disgusting.
It is also disgusting when someone starts a reply with “Stupid !” to a comment he didn’t understand.
@@JoeLukes Maybe he understood it in a way that you didn't ! Brains are different !
Just remember, all the Estonian and Wehrmacht fan boys here, Estonia was the first country to declare itself "Judenfrei". Worked with many Estonians and the glorification of their Nazi collaboration past still runs deep within them.
Estonia didn't declare anything. The declaration was made by the occupying Germans.
As Estonia was under the occupation of both Germany and the ussr, the Estonians could clearly see with their own eyes, that while the Germans were bad, the russians were way, way worse.
In 1943 the Estonians were conscripted to the Waffen-SS. The "choice" was either that, or being sent to work battalions, which was a very bad option.
In German military the Estonians were at least able to defend their homeland. The Estonians today naturally appreciate their sacrifice for the nation.
"Judenfrei" communities have happened through many centuries in Europe.
Almost all jews murdered in Estonia were murdered by estonians. Under german command, mostly, but still. The estonian police batallions were massively used in murders of jews and other civilians in Belarus and Ukraine.
Your lack of nuance in this is quite disturbing. Perhaps learn some history of the Baltic states under Soviet oppression before you bandy words such as traitor. He was only a traitor to the Soviets.
This makes me proud to be Czech.
Folks. He did the right thing. He did right by Estonia. But, he did commit treason against the Soviet Union. He took up arms against men who were once his comrades in arms. That is treason. I understand, he was between a rock and a hard spot. This is such a sad story.
I’m curious as to how you figure he owed any allegiance to the Soviet Union?
Sorry but this Canuck 🇨🇦has no wish to fight the Russian bear to help the woke EU or for woke trudeau either.
What a loss for the woke EU.
You can not blame the Czechs, he was SS who had murdered thousands of men, women and children. He got the same justice he and his SS buddies had given to others, the were no good SS men.
I wonder if he did any work with an Einsatzgruppen. In any case, he apparently excelled as a GERMAN officer. The Germans were fighting the Soviets. The Germans committed innumerable atrocities in the "Great Patriotic War", both impulsively, and as a matter of policy. This execution strikes me as a "You lie down with dogs, you get fleas"; guilt by association. I make no comment about the morality of the execution, just speculating as to the reasons behind it.
What a weasel he was. The fact that was promoted so often within the German ranks shows that he was a true traitor. There were many chances for him to escape but he never choose to do so until the very end.
Ukrainian and Estonian SS were most cruel in WWII. They killed many Polish, Russian, and Jewish citizens.
War Criminal.
Soldier.
@@MrShenyang1234 War Criminal
Based on what, though? I'm not needling you, I'm just curious if you have documented information that links him to known war crimes. If so, I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd be interested in learning more.
@@user-to2de3sp3m He took Part in Anti Partisan Operations in Estonia and Belarus where the Brigade he was with were known to have committed War Crimes on a large scale, including the Burning of Villages and the people with it, he was mentioned as a WANTED participant in Nuremburg through the murder of Jewish Women being marched from Camps in the East also being part of the SS makes anyone who participated within the SS in WW2 a War Criminal in that it was a CRIMINAL organisation under the Geneva Convention on War Crimes. People think that these participants were Clean and Warriors, but the fact is they were COLD blooded murderers of Men Women and Children.
My Father was an SOE agent in WW2 , there were Estonian and Latvian SS involved in Partisan mop ups in the Balkans where my Father was behind Enemy lines from 1941 till late 1944 with the Partisans, he also had the rather gruesome task of trying to find SOE agents and British Commando's who were taken to various Camps to be given " Special Treatment " in Auschwitz for instance a few were disected and placed in Glass Jars that was in Majdanek also , in Mauthausen a large number were murdered on the Stairs to Heaven or Death whiver you like the best, others in Sachsenhausen , Natzweiler , Ravensbruck , Buchenwald, Dachau and two in Stutthof where they were Boiled alive, he worked with Soviet officers on SS lists and the Eastern Camps, he also gave evidence at Nuremburg about War Crimes and atrocities that were done with the most vicious cruelty one could imagine in the Balkans, do not worry , I can prove it. He was involved and many others like him!
Yes, they tortured imprisoned Germans to get false confessions.
It doesnt matter that these SS members were fighting the Soviets who were US ,UK' allies although thats bad enough what matters is the SS murdered thousands civilian of Jews and Slavs and the Baltic members were the most enthusiastic about it . Their children and grandchildren are in denial about their horrendous crimes .
Really stupid to say that his longing for Estonian independence showed was a nazi he was. He also would've been killed if he didn't join the red army, the Germans liberated him. I'm disappointed with the nonsense in this video!
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Any SS soldier who fell into the hands of Czechs after the SS's crimes in Czechoslovakia was going to be in trouble.