Imagine trying to explain that on your resume. “What was your last job?” Oh I was a guard at the Nuremberg trials. “Oh that’s good. And before that?” I was in the Waffen SS. “Right......”
whats so strange about it? There is a Waffen SS soldier buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Lauri Allan Törni was a Finnish soldier who fought under three flags: as a Finnish Army Second Lieutenant of the Fourth Independent Jäger Infantry Battalion against the Soviets in the Winter War. as a German Army Captain (under the alias Larry Lane) of the Finnish Volunteer Battalion of the Waffen-SS when he fought the Soviets on the Eastern Front in World War II;. and as a United States Army Captain (under the alias "Larry Thorne") when he served in the U.S. Army Special Forces in the Vietnam War. Törni died in a helicopter crash during the Vietnam War and he was promoted to rank of Major posthumously. His remains were located three decades later and then buried in Arlington National Cemetery; he is the only former member of the Waffen SS to be interred there.
Hess was kind of an idiot, when he got caught he was barely able to think for himself. There are some people who claim that in the second half of his imprisonment he did change and even called Neonazies who demonstrated suport for him "stupid". I don't know if that is true, but I hope so, because it means that even somebody like him can actually change.
"Found themselves surrendering to the US troops" is a bit incorrect. "Actively fought to surrender to the Western Allies rather than face almost certain death by the Soviets" might be more accurate.
@Lex Bright Raven you do realize the soviets war crime were as severe as the nazis right? There are more records of the red armies war crimes that were never punished then the nazis, ever heard of the mass rape that happened AFTER the war of the civilians of Germany? Almost all girls in Germany were raped by the red army, ages from 8-80.
Andy c - had the same thought once I heard they were actually guarding the prisoners, but I could’ve sworn that I heard an American soldier had been in charge of guarding Goering. Still... this part of the history of the Nuremberg Trials I had never read about before.
Shout, Lauri Törni's name A soldier of three armies knows the game Keeps their echo from the past Rise from beyond your grave Son of Finland and the Green Beret May you rest in peace at last Lauri Allan Törni
To me, the truth (as I’ve come to see it after a few years of research) made me sick. I felt awful with the cognitive dissonance I experienced. I would have to walk away and only take it in small doses. We’ll probably never know the real truth / facts of it all, but I am comfortable in saying the “truth” as we’ve been told it, isn’t.
The scary thing is that because of the way our brains work, the less you can talk about something the more willingly you'll accept what others tell you. Orwell was ahead of his time.
I remember picking up some nice old books wrote by a British minister in the 30’s. Oh dear! Was someone wanting to build a war machine to take on a particular European country before the man with the little moustache was elected?
German citizens: "Oh look a lot of american guards at the nuremberg trials" American soldiers : speaks in latvian and lithuanian German citizens: visible confusion
@@ricomuru9486 as the r/balticstates subreddit has discovered they only recently learned speech, man that subreddit is fun to look at sometimes tho estonians are always called slow and Latvians poor
@@Tecumseh4-k2z Its true after the war the Americans realized their potential they gave them a bargain specially the Nazi Engineers and Rocket scientist to work for them, They gave them American citizenship in exchange for their knowledge some of them work in aviation and later on they formed NASA, others did serve in the military since they're american citizen already. The Russian did the same thing too and that's the beginning of the Cold War.
@@Tecumseh4-k2z The US military also recruited several Finnish officers who fled Communist persecution, at least one of whom also served briefly in the Waffen-SS. He eventually became an officer in the US Army Special Forces and fought in Vietnam.
Hilarious amirite, but then again Nuremberg trials were a kangoroo court were confessions were extracted by torture. Theres a reason a lot of former German soldiers had to take testosterone syringes for the rest of their life.
Cant wait to watch the latest Dr Felton history lesson on "fantastic things you never knew about ww2"!Yep imagine him teaching history when you were in High school!
As an Estonian myself I can confirm this. My grandfather was in the Legion. He never retreated to Germany, as far as I know he was a partisan until he managed to come back home and live something of a normal life once Stalin died and the Soviets eased up a bit. But he always told me that none of his friends and the guys he knew back there had any loyalty for Hitler's cause. They pretty much joined up to get guns and equipment, and since the Germans were fighting the Soviets as well, it was a logical thing to do. The only other way would've been to escape to Finland and join the Finnish army, but this was risky and difficult and the Finns did give us out to Soviets later on to save themselves. Other than that, you could wait around until the Soviets showed up and either stole everything on your farm and forced you into their army or shot you on the spot if you seemed like too much trouble. I get how people in the West don't really understand why we fought for the Germans back then, but I hope I have explained it well enough that you'll see we didn't really have other options.
As a Finn I am sorry to about the cases of giving Estonians to Soviets, but I assure you that we Finns had to give our own too (inkeriläiset/ingrians). A lot of them were sent to gulags, and today the place where they once lived (which is located between Estonia and St. Petersburg) is nowadays completely Russian. The price of freedom was truly horrible and we're not proud of the deportations, I hope you don't see us in a bad way.
When I was a young man in the mid 70's I worked with a gentleman who was a member of the Estonian Waffen SS. He name was Walter Luik and was in his early 60's at the time. Heck of a nice man. Walter was much like an uncle to me. He hated the Soviets with a passion, and often with tears in his eyes. Prior to the Soviet invasion of Estonia he was a State Policeman. Immediately the Soviets began executing the police and military. Walter and his fellow policemen had to flee to the forest to escape the Soviets. Unfortunately, the Soviets slaughtered the policemen's' families in retaliation. Once the Germans arrived, all the former Policemen were eager to join the Waffen SS so they could kill Soviets. After the war, he as a displaced Estonian with no family to return to, was offered a to join the US Army and was posted throughout war torn Germany. Ultimately Walter emigrated to the USA in the early 50's where he married an American woman and raised a family. Walter passed in the mid 80's. RIP Walter!
На уроке истории в датской школе учитель провел тест-выборы. Описал трех кандидатов, не называя их имен, и попросил выбрать одного из них для руководства страной. Первый кандидат парализован ниже пояса, к тому же гипертоник. У него анемия и целый букет других неприятных заболеваний. Он врет, когда ему это нужно, и советуется в политических вопросах с астрологами. Изменяет супруге. Много курит и злоупотребляет Мартини. У второго кандидата ожирение. Он трижды проигрывал выборы. Страдал от сильной депрессии и перенес два инфаркта. И еще у него невыносимый характер. Он курит сигары без остановки и напивается каждую ночь перед сном - шампанское, коньяк, виски + две таблетки снотворного. Третий кандидат - герой войны, орденоносец. К женщинам относится с уважением. Не курит. Из алкоголя пьет только пиво, и то крайне редко. На импровизированных выборах единогласно победил третий кандидат - Адольф Гитлер. Ему проиграли Рузвельт с Черчиллем.
Whether conscript or not, all Waffenn SS - especially in Eastern Europe - participated in the genocide of Jewish and Roma peoples, as well as persecuting homosexuals, anarchists, Socialists, etc. Walter was not a nice man.
I hope Walter is in hell cause all of Hitler's soldiers raped, killed, massacred, invaded..... Germans were so evil that they even tortured and massacred millions and millions of children.
My great grandfather was volunteered to fight in he Estonian army in 1919 when Estonia fought for it's independence against Soviet Russia. He did not get to combat though, because after he finished basic training and was waiting for weeks for proper gear at the barracks, the war was over. In 1940, he wasn't conscripted at first to the Soviet Army when they occupied Estonia, because he worked as a railroad man (an essential job), but when Germany attacked in 1941, and the Soviets were starting to evacuate, they still conscripted him to take him to Russia. But at the first possibility, my great-grandfather deserted and went back to his family (he had 3 children by that time - including my grandmother). But in 1944, the Germans conscripted him again for Base defence units of some sort and wanted to take him with, when they were pulling out of Estonia. My great-grandfather deserted again... But was caught near his home by advancing Soviet Army. He was convicted on the spot for being a nazi soldier. My great-grandmother (who was one hell-of-a force-to-be-reckoned-with lady) heard that her husband was seen with the Soviets heading to a forest and she borrowed the neighbour's horse and headed over. She convinced the soldiers to let my great-grandfather go and gave her gold wedding ring in exchange for my great-grandfathers life. It worked. They had 6 more children... He died in 1997. He did have some hassle during the later years for his service in the German army, but because he was still a railroad man (essential) and my grandmother finished school and started working for the communist party, he didn't not have many troubles. But also, they were terribly poor as a big family so the Soviet system did not really need to get rid of him...
@BULL SCHEIST Thanks. There is a lot of controversy about those anti-communists though. Some of them, indeed, were ideological, but some also just criminals. But the history about them is terribly interesting (full of betrayal, heroism and barbarism) and almost everyone has a relative who fled to the forrests and put up a fight one way or the other. The last forest-brother (as we call them) August Sabbe died while escaping capture in 1978). But indeed, most of the resistance died out after the death of Stalin - people were pardoned if they put down their weapons etc.
@@luxembourgishempire2826 Yep, and Luxembourgh is basically just Belgium... or France... But yeah, your statement could not be farther from truth mate...
@@midakassi I don't know about Luxembourgh. I am from a country called Luxembourg and unlike Estonia we actually have history whereas you guys basically were just Russians influenced by Germans and Swedes. There! That's a summary of Estonian history.
Indeed! I look forward to seeing a UA-cam email for Mark Felton Productions. Most of it is WWII, which for us of 80 years later is a horrific, yet interesting subject with so many stories to be explained, but Mark also throws in the odd curveball with Post-WWII tales and (IIRC) even something on the Titanic, which was rusting away at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean before Hitler tried to get into that Austrian art academy!
And where is your knowledge retrieved if not from Books? I have read far more books of my choosing than any I have ever been assigned. All history is what someone wants you to know, even autobiographies, unless you were there yourself you have no choice but to trust but verify.
@@ИванИванов-ц9э7ы Я прочитал одну, «Курская битва: спорные и забытые аспекты», Валерий Замулин, потрясающая, also I apologize if that comes off poorly google translate is awful
One small point: 20th panzer grenadiers (estonians) were the highest decorated non Germans in the axis armies. These were fully battle hardened troops from the Russian front that served under the most gruelling of conditions. The Nuremberg guards 4221 was not a random collection of displaced troops.
Такое пишут украинцы, бельгийцы, французы и т.д. про тех кто убивал мирное население в России This is written by Ukrainians, Belgians, French, etc. about those who killed civilians in Russia
@@terrypresnell9100 we;re all from Africa, no one is indigenous to north America. the people you call Indians took it from someone else before it got taken from them.
"Waffen-SS Soldiers Guarded the Nuremberg Trials", who else but Monty Python would have come up with a title like that? Well, who? Mark Felton, of course, who else; and it's all *real* and *spectacular.*
Absolutely. Note they were lightly armed. Not really equipped for a combat role. They are mentioned in several texts and seemed to have been well thought of. Important to note they had little contact, by design, with hard core USA combat units.
@@mikeromadin8744 Because many other countries had camps like this (for example laogai in China) in English we say gulag when we refer specifically to the Soviet ones
I talked to an old lawyer who served in Vietnam and he said he was asked to do a mission to see if a path could be found for a river mission. He decided that the mission would not work and reported that to his superiors. While he was there it was early in the war and the French foreign legion was there. He said many of them had been German soldiers during the war. I would be interested if you would report on this. Thanks for all your excellent work.
Very interesting! Yes, there were lots of former nazi soldiers out there, in the years after the war, still in the business. One of them even killed Ernesto Guevara.
yes indeed , they had no choice , Frenches need soldiers for Indochina's war, either they enlisted to the Legion either they were fired . It is funny to say that Vietminh 's propaganda aimed at them and a few of them went to the Vietminh's side.
Fascinating and informative Mark. My brother's in-laws were from Estonia, and managed to get to the UK after the war. His father-in-law was happy to serve in the Wehrmacht because although he despised Germany, he absolutely hated the Russians. He was not particularly proud of his service, but happy to have fought against the Russians. War makes for strange bedfellows.
For many, they faced that impossible dilemma of fighting for the Nazis or capitulating to the soviets. Like Finland, I don't think I can hold it against those who chose the Nazis over the soviets.
At 70 years of age and having read and seen almost everything about WWll, I am flabbergasted. I am Swedish and during my schoolyears I had many Baltic friends whos parents fled to Sweden (mostly Estonians) and one of my best friends told me about his father having been a Nazi officer and hunted by the Soviets. But this documentary by Mark Felton surprises even me and I can only salute him as being the best in the field of digging up interesting and thrilling stories from the big war. Keep it up Mark!
like Patton said...hey it's nothing more than Democrats & Republicans here in the States...talking bout the political parties of Germany...now that caused a stink...but he was in the long run right.
This event actually came up in the debate in the early 2000s when, after combat operations in the Iraq War ended and the occupation phase began, the US chose to disband the Iraqi military rather than utilize them. Several people at that time brought up that historically, defeated militaries are repurposed rather than cast aside to be recruited by other, bad actors. For the average guy in the ranks of any army from any era, he's likely not very political anyway. He's just a normal guy wanting to provide for his family in his chosen occupation.
The issue probably was that after WW2 they recognized the German Military and Paramilitary forces as a well organized and reliable force that could be reporpoused unlike Saddam Military of the early 2000 that was, to put it in raw terms, a mess. They concluded it was probably better to kick the house down and rebuild it back up. Not saying the results were that good but that's a whole other story.
Yup, It was dumb to disband the Iraqi Army when they there are the only real means to preserve the rule of law in Iraq. Recall that shortly after the Iraqi Army was disbanded, everything got looted & the rise of insurgents.
@Oskar Dirlewanger The us already left Iraq once and is practically gone now. Nonsense. The Us only went back in because of ISIS and spent blood and capital to destroy them. The Iraq war was one of the biggest blunders in US history, they want that whole thing behind them as fast as possible. Plus they have actual Communists to deal with now
@Oskar Dirlewanger Iraq and Syria are nothing more than just provinces of Iran. Tell me, did an Iranian soldier ever fire a bullet against Israel? The answer is no, only Arab proxies did, and they were only skirmishes, nothing more. Both Iran and Israel occupy Arab lands. Both of them are actively killing Arabs. Both share a strong history of friendship. The war between Iran and Israel has been nothing but words, they will never truly hurt each other.
Your choice is fighting with Germany, who started WW2, to try and get your homeland out of Soviet hands. Or aid the Soviets, who forcefully took over your homeland. It was a very shitty time. Just ask the Finns.
I remember my history teacher 45 years ago telling us how Japanese Americans were recruited to guard German prisoners in Massachusetts during WWII. I always thought that was a bit ironic.
@@matthewnunya8483 it was also used as a type of psychological warfare by making it seem that their ally was defeated and and would affect the German war effort . there was also the 442nd infantry regiment composed of nearly entirely 2nd generation Japanse-American citizens which fought through Italy.
My father (who is 94 and living with me right now with Covid) was guarding Goring when he committed suicide. My father said he watched Goring come outside to smoke often. I have a picture of him from 46 in his army uniform and gear. He looked like Rambo.
Very interesting posts. How did the lethal Drug get to the second greatest monster in recent human history and save him his due desserts on the scaffold?
I've always wondered how the leadership in countries like this don't see how awful their system of government is. I mean they must have friends and family
We were getting the message that you were occupied countries seized by communists and led by traitors during communist occupation along with the rest of Eastern Europe
those of us who were paying attention remember very well that it was the Baltic states that brought down the Soviet Union. Congratulations and Well Done.
Here in the U.S. documentaries are a mixed bag. I've seen the "Germany was drivin by hatred and bigotry and were all Nazis" documentaries but also really balanced and more honest ones that explain why so many eastern europeans sided with germany against the soviets and how most Germans were not ideological Nazis. Strangely the History Channel has some of the more realistic balanced ones which I find sort of strange because it's a main stream media channel.
the key element here is that Lavtians and Estonians werent really in league with Nazi ideals, to them it was a fight for survival and independence against communists and since Germany had mostly been friendly when they showed up in Latvia and Estonia (huge part of this is due to the reception they got thanks to the previous communist occupation) these small nations were alot more sympathetic towards Germany and they were towards the soviets and this goes for most of the scandivanian countries with the exception of Norway and Denmark to quote a popular phrase among Estonian nationalists "the Germans were generally nice to us and never really mistreated us but the Soviets did, Soviets are really bad" these people evidently despised the soviets more than anyone else even to this day and they still feel somewhat hostile even towards Russians in particular so whatever Stalin and his commies did while occupying Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia it must have been pretty nasty, just need to take a look at Poland to get a good idea of how nasty Stalin and his popovs could get
Some were, some weren't. I do not feel comfortable with discounting the extreme nationalist and anti-Semitic elements that our forces had - e.g. Araja Kommando.
i always understood the Estonians and the rest of baltikum to be like Finland. Not nazi, but axis by default because of the Soviet Union. I tink you would find that Norway supplied more soldiers to Finland and the axis cause than to the allied cause because of ant-i communism.
Same as with the majority of the 13th SS Handžar Division made up mostly of local ethnic Bosniaks from Eastern Bosnia, who were being killed by the thousands, by Chetniks(Serbian fascist ultranationalist movement that wanted Greater Serbia on what is today, Bosnia, Montenegro and the majority of Croatia). Also, you would get a gun to properly defend yourself, which couldn't be said about the other factions. During training some soldiers(of that division) raised a mutiny in a small Mediterranean French town(I forgot the name) in 1942(due to not being to fond of Nazis and their ideology), it became the only free town in Europe(excluding Russian towns near Moscow) for the few days the mutiny endured. The local Frenchmen still celebrate that day. The Germans planned the division to stay in France and fight elsewhere if needed, but due to the soldiers being unhappy about leaving their families unprotected in Bosnia and due to fear of another mutiny, the Germans sent them to suppress the guerillas in Bosnia.(both Chetniks and Partisans) After about a year in the field, most of those soldiers defected to Tito's Partisans, a small part left with the Germans for Hungary(by that time(late 1944) the majority of personel was Hungarian). Some defected even sooner like the grandfather of a guy I know in 1943. All in all, they were in a very similar situation like the people from the Baltics.(not to say that they were the good guys, but not your regular SS either)
@@perisdahl569 Depends on if you mean supplied as in army personnel, or if you include resistance fighters as well. I'm not really sure of the numbers, but I do believe they would've had more fighting for the Allies if you include resistance fighters as well
He said, "Nein", which is German for "no". However, apparently the word at the time at WW2 aftermath was used as a label for Nazis' who denied being Nazis'. The term coming from the frequency with which Hitler used the term.
Victor, our next door neighbor in Van Nuys, CA, 1983-89, had fled Latvia in 1940 ahead of invading Soviet troops and made his way to Peru. There he met and married his wife, Dora. In 1942 they emigrated to the USA and Victor volunteered to serve in the American army. He landed in Normandy in 1944, fought his way across Western Europe, and was there when Nazi Germany surrendered in 1945. After the war, he returned to the States, became an aeronautical engineer specializing in liquid-fueled rocket engines, and ultimately worked on the Apollo Saturn 5 and Space Shuttle programs. Victor's brother chose to remain in Latvia and wound up being conscripted into the Soviet Army. His unit retreated to Russia when the German's occupied Latvia in 1941. The tide of battle would eventually turn: Victor's brother and his Russian comrades would make Latvia and Poland "free" for Communism and occupy eastern zone of Germany per the Allied Nation's Yalta Agreement. Before the war, Victor and his brother had been very close. Circumstances during WWII made sending and receiving letters understandably difficult. But, during the ensuing Cold War years, and especially given Victor's sensitive position in the US Space Program, communication became impossible. We left California in the summer of 1989, before the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Soviet Union dissolved, and the Baltic Republics were finally able to democratically declare their independence from Russia and the Communist Bloc. I wish I knew whether Victor and his brother were able to track one another down and reconnect. I'd like to think their story had a happy ending.
Go read serious history. The Latvians were illegally conscripted by Germans at the threat of reprisal, Russia did likewise (so bother was fighting brother), only fought against Russians all the way back to Berlin.
And my dad said *Ohhh so your watching that History guy too? Me: * Who?Mark?* Dad: *Yes,That guy Really has some quality history that we can learn,Go ahead keep watching his vid* Btw *my dad asked me if im watching mark because he heard the entry song*
My father was an Estonian who fled to Finland at age 17 to fight against the soviets in the Finnish winter war, then ended up fighting for the Germans against the soviets before being in the 4221 company. I can categorically state that he was not a Nazi he hated what they stood for but he hated the Soviets invading his homeland and eventually sending his sister to a Gulag in Siberia even more. Her crime was feeding her school friends who were hiding in the forest. His sole motivation was to fight the communists nothing more or less.
My mother was born in Tallinn, Estonia January 26, 1926. Her father was a White Russian that served in the Czarist government civil service. After 1917 he fled with his wife to Estonia knowing full well that his name was surly on a list. While in Estonia he lectured in the Universities on Natural Sciences. There is a display of his work in the Natural Science Museum, (Paul Wasmuth). Then the Russians invaded Estonia and he with his wife and two daughters fled to Germany. They were called Baltic Germans and welcomed into Germany. Mom continued her education until she and her classmates were taken to a munition’s factory because all the men were put in uniform. One day her supervisor told his section that the Russians were three days from the border and to head West. She and her girlfriend found a horse and buggy and fled to a frame in Bavaria. The farmer found them hiding in his barn but took them in and hide them from the retreating German Army. After the end of the war she was in a DP Camp in Stuttgart. The US Army wanted to get the German economy moving and hired Germans with skills. My mother spoke four languages fluently to include Russian. She was hired by the Army as an interpreter and secretary. Her desk was just outside of my dad’s office, he was serving in the Occupation. As the story goes here I am, Sep 14, 1948. Mom is now 94 and in perfect health.
After the war, my grandfather was stationed in Kaiserslautern and formed a volleyball league with Latvian players . They made him a thank you and farewell plaque in 1961 that I still have to this day
Forced to choose between Stalin and Hitler : During the thirties and the forties, how many individuals were condemned to that choice, just trying to survive ? And finally, were they the most unlucky, compared with the too many who had no chance to make a choice, because they were condemned to no other option than to serve the butcher that commanded their destiny ?
@Thomas Wilson As a matter of fact, all butchers have their hands stained by blood. However, I don't remember that Stalin have massacred on racial supremacy grounds. Sill Butchery is the work of Butchers, and Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, etc., are burning in hell.
@@shivamurti6481 today’s leftists only bash nazis but turn a blind eye to soviet atrocities because either they are communists themselves or they believe that their enemy’s enemy is (was) their friend.
@@philsman3694 Today, western intelligentsias are mainly composed of leftist minded people who impose in many of our countries a political correctness affecting our freedom of speech and the way we can access to history and news. That is the way I think and the reason why I thumbed up your post Phil. Best regards.
Natalija Djokic I agree. It briefly and accurately tells us what the topic is, respecting the viewer to lets us decide if we want to watch it, instead of drawing us in (or trying) with clickbait.
My grandfather was from Riga in Latvia and he moved the U.K. just after the soviets took control. He was tortured by the soviets In front of his mother, he had all of his fingernails ripped out and he was electrocuted many times. He was a lovely man who always had a sad lost look in his eyes. He would tend his plants and u would see him staring off into the distance as if looking to someone. I never knew about the torture etc until a few years before he died when my grandmother told me the full story and it was very emotional but it all made sense then, his sad eyes, his lost vacant staring all made sense. His brother was tortured n killed by the soviets and he lost lots of his family,
There's the option to enter the French Foreign Legion. Many former German Army troops fought for the French in the Indo China ,Vietnam War of the 1950s.
Many Germans were forced into the French Army, to serve in Indochina, after WW2, because so many Frenchmen refused to serve there. The Germans were threatened with being handed over to the Russians.
There was a youtube video about a soldier who just didn't know when to quit. He fought for the Germans in ww2. When that ended, he wound up fighting for France. When they ended his tenure, he finally came to the US and fought in Vietnam. Damn, that's a long career. I wish I could remember his name...
As an estonian I had never heard about this, extremely intresting. My own grand-grandfather managed to get back to Estonia, however he lived the rest of his life in hiding until he was caught.
Funfact: One of the crimes they wanted to trial Donitz for was not rescuing suviving sailors in U-Boat-Attacts. Donitz lawyer asked when the American Navy leadership in the Pacific would be trialed and the matter was dropped for some reason.
He was going to have ADMs Nimitz and King subpoenaed to comment on USN policies and procedures for rescuing Japanese merchantmen after American subs torpedoed THEM. The chief prosecutor, Supreme Court Justice Jackson, dropped the charge after realizing the US Navy would proverbially have egg on its face.
Its true the charge was dropped when news of the US Sub policy surfaced. Doenitz got ten years I believe, as head of the Kreigsmarine. He was a fervent Nazi. He accepted the position as Nazi Germany head of state on April 30, and did not surrender immediately, nor collapse the German government to the allied powers. He got away lightly, and he is lucky that the Russians did not demand his execution
@@glennpickard2239 Well other than disrupting western shipping to Murmansk the Kriegsmarine didn't really create a grudge with the Soviets. In contrast the Wehrmacht were despised by them for obvious reasons...
@@glennpickard2239 Oh, but they DID want him sentenced to death. The other judges on the tribunal felt that unreasonable. Donitz, along with most other German functionaries, along with HIMMLER, had unrealistic expectations that they'd be heading a post-war German government, albeit under Allied occupation and supervision. When the Flensburg government was dissolved and its members arrested on May 23, 1945 (also when Himmler either committed suicide or was summarily executed, accounts differ), there were still a few diehard holdouts, mostly in the Soviet sector, and the post-war "Reconstruction" of Germany hadn't been finalized by the Allied powers. That would be settled later in July, 1945, at Potsdam. As to whether Donitz got away "lightly", I would disagree. He was the head of the Kriegsmarine, and to the extent that the Germany Navy under his command committed crimes against humanity and/or war crimes, he'd certainly bear "Command" repsonsiblity (aka the "Yamashita principle, of course, Gen. Yamashita was hanged as a war criminal in Manila in 1946). There is little evidence that the German Navy conducted operations any different than did the Royal Navy or the USN, and certainly not any worse than what the Soviet Navy did. I never saw any call for the commander of the Soviet submarine S-13, Kaptain "3rd Rank" (equivalent to a USN LCDR), Alexander Mariinseko, nor the C-in-C of the Soviet Baltic Fleet, nor the head of the Soviet Navy, to be tried for the sinkings of the Wilhelm Gustloff or the Von Stueben, taking over 10,000 civilian lives, in Jan and Feb of 1945, respectively, to be tried as "war criminals". War crimes trials are the hypocrisy of the victors and their sense of "justice", which shouldn't even be needed, as what burden is upon the victor in wartime to be "just" at all?
Your last comment about their future home was the one piece of information I was hoping for. Australia could use a million or so hard men of such character right now.
The Soviets did but the Western Allies recognized these soldiers as citizens of their Baltic Republics not the Soviet Union. The Embassies of these Republics existed throughout the Cold War.
Mark, not to be that guy but the US gaurds weren't the only US soldiers to have worn swastikas on their uniforms. Prior to that the US 45th division has used a red square on angle with a yellow swastika on horizontal as their emblem into the 1930s... It was due to the division being from the American Southwest it had strong native American roots with the swastika having been part of that culture.
Quite true. The 45th was a National Guard outfit from the southwest which used the swastika because it was a native American symbol. However, when the Nazis came to power and began rampaging throughout Europe, the division changed its insignia even before the US entered the war. Since Mark said the guard force was the only 'allied' unit to use the swastika he was correct, since the 45th quit using the swastika before the US officially became a part of the 'allied' forces. The 45th Infantry Division Museum in Oklahoma City has a display regarding their use of the swastika prior to the war.
I had a cat which was proved to be a direct descendant of Göering’s Manx. If you do a google image search, there’s a lot of pictures of him with that cat. When he was held for the trials, his cat was placed under the care of an Army captain; my grandfather. :)
@@TheMasterTelevision that’s cute how you did the (x) thing. Ha ha ha I’m going to give you your first ‘like’ on that comment. You got your funny hat on today !!
Another interesting topic about Estonians to cover would be "Finnish Boys" ( _soomepoisid_ ) - Estonian volunteers in the Winter War and in the Continuation War.
Many volunteers were just anti-russian as well. The ironic part is anti-german sentiment in estonia and latvia was much higher than anti-russian sentiment until 1940. From early 11th century to 1860s, ethnic germans in estonia and latvia owned most of the land and most estonians and latvians as serfs. In lithuania anti-polish and anti-german sentiments were much higher due to polish imperial ambitions in lithuania, lithuanians' resentment over wilno and germans in memel(now klaipeda) who wished to join germany.
@greendreamteam11 and before that more than 50 thousands ( with family members 100 000 ) of latvians joined the secret police of bolsheviks in 1918 and became Trozky and Lenin personal guards, then in kgb.Their motivation was a high salary, plunder and power
@@torabora500 they wanted to have their own state. What salary, plunder, and power? How high are you? There was no such thing as a Latvia, Estonia, Litva, Finnland until Lenin gave them independence.
@@luckabuse Nobody "gave" them independence. They won it over fair and square in a war against the Bolsheviks. Lithuania was also the only Baltic state that refused to form a Waffen SS legion.
Far simpler than that: they hated ALL minorities, all alien tribesmen. Quasi-tribal dictator Ulmanis used to close down German, Russian, Polish, Jiddish and other ALIEN schools - as well as persecuting Latgalian language and culture in sake of "Latvianness" (a weird mish-mash of mostly Baltic identity with strong Finno-Ugor admixture) in Latvia, in Estonia there was a "name-changing" craze (to force all folks to appear as solely Fennic) etc. etc. Clumsy excuses do NOT apply: being adamantly anti-German and remover of Baltic Germans, you do NOT turn into a Germanophyliac overnight, just because uncle Hitler knocked your door.
@Brian Haney You're crazy, he tied up 5 different armies in East Africa during WWI. ...and living off the land while doing so...greatly respected leader by German and African troops alike....
I'm constantly amazed on the quality of the content of your channel, sir. Lots of video clips and photographs and stories I haven't seen before. Bravo!
One of my grandpa’s friends who was in the Korean War apparently met an Estonian in the US Army who formerly served in the Waffen-SS and as a member of the mentioned unit here while he was about to go home to the Philippines.
@@OOOUZ lots of Estonians (I would say majority) had some or more relatives fighting in that war, on either or even both sides. We lost third of our population to that war.. For example: younger brother of my maternal grandmother died back in 1944 (Waffen SS infantry panzergrenadier). Her husband survived the war (Waffen SS artilleryman) and follow-up Siberia.
@@OOOUZ I mean, it makes sense that Baltic people with family who fought would watch this video and comment about their experiences. It’s selective bias.
Thank you Mark, for the detailed video. There is a great movie called "1944". It's Estonian made and it explains the situation that the Estonians had to face when the Germans were retreating and the Soviets were coming to occupy Estonia again. In some cases, you had Estonians fighting in the Soviet army vs. Estonians fighting in the German army. All they ever wanted to was a free and independent country. I'd advise anyone who is interested in that sort of thing to check the movie out. Elagu Eesti! Long live Estonia!
@@RedClover1987 There were occasions where units had to be shuffled around because they would refuse to fight each other, yes. But those were rare. Both sides usually were too smart to risk any such situation.
@@psilvakimo So he specializes in doing British people's nails? Or maybe he specializes in sorting and storing British documents? Perhaps you meant anglophile? ;)
I love these videos, so informative. I wish Mark Felton had been my history teacher. Especially like this one outlining Estonia’s part in the war as I recently moved here from the UK and as a parent to a half Estonian child I know where he will be learning about his past from. 👏🏻
I did not know any of this, and my Grandfather WAS a Latvian who fought for the Germans. This was fascinating to know. My grandfather spoke Latvian, German, Russian, English, French, Latin and some Swedish. Thank you for this informative video.
It's not uncommon for Latvians to speak several languages as we are a small nation and Latvian is only really spoken in Latvia. That's very impressive list of languages though.
What happened to your grandfather after the war ended? Had he managed to retreat to the American / English occupation zone or had he been taken prisoner of war by the Russians?
@Gabriel Kruize Because of the variety of languages he spoke, some Wehrmacht boys "elected" him to represent them. He walked ahead of them, all of them having discarded their uniforms, and depending upon whom he met, he used the "appropriate" language and either claimed to be Eastern workers returning home, German, or whatever seemed to fit the moment. After the German left him, my grandfather alternatively walked and rode a bicycle back to Latvia. He would often pick up cigarette butts and roll himself a smoke once he accumulated enough tobacco. My family had been rather well to do in Latvia pre-war; my Great Grandfather was an importer/exporter, landowner and as such he was good friends with Latvia's politicos at the time. After the war, however, as all Latvians suffered, our lands and assets were seized by the Soviets (we got much of it back in the 90's, and my father visits Latvia annually) and the family was "displaced" and worked and stayed with friends until emigrating to America in the 50's. My father, aunt, grandfather, grandmother (who had been a concert pianist pre-war and during the war for the Germans) as well as my grandfather's mother and my grandmother's father (who served in the Czar's guard, ironically...my grandfather was a boy and observed some of the fires of the Soviet Revolution.) They entered America through Boston...my grandfather (who had been an accountant and inherited the family business) worked in an aluminum factory for a time. He was a brilliant and kind man but not overly ambitious. My grandmother (the family Matron) made him get a job in accounting in NYC where he retired in his 70's. He died in 1996 at the age of 90. A lot of rambling...but that's my family history.
@William Stuart Your great grandfather - as well as his other relatives - must have been a lucky one, not already being deported by the NKVD to Siberia in 1941, during the first Soviet occupation of Latvia, because of his position as a landowner in a wealthy family - the Soviets considered wealthy people - rich farmers, landowners, businessmen, politicians, clergy and intellectuals - as bourgeoise, kulaks or 'state enemies'. Besides, from which part of Latvia did your great grandfather came from, did he live in the countryside or the city (Riga, Daugavpils, Liepaja etc?) After all, hopefully your family survived this evil part of the history and continued to live a joyful life.
@@williamstuart368 "...until emigrating to America in the 50's..." The entire family? Just like that, "emigrating?" Who the hell did they backstb and betray to be let through the Iron Curtain? Nobody just "emigrated" from the USSR.
You find a lot of interesting history content. Wish the American History Channel was like this, actually showing history documentaries, not reality things or crap about aliens.
There was an American paratrooper who was captured on D-Day, spent time as a POW, escaped and joined up with a Russian tank unit and fought with them til the end of the war, he was wounded during service with the Red Army and introduced to U.S. army officers by Marshal Zhukov. Talk about a unbelievable war experience.
From 1961 through 1963 I was stationed at Spangdahlem Air Force Base in Germany. I was quartered in Barracks 126, much of the ground floor of which was divided into large rooms which housed male DPs from the Baltic States who were in uniformed service units. I remember that they had shoulder patches which designated their country of origin: Lithuania, Estonia, or Latvia. I believe they did maintenance tasks around the base to aid the roads and grounds unit. They kept to themselves, drank a lot on weekends, and seemed to be a desperately unhappy group of people. I have often wondered if any of them survived to be repatriated after the fall of communism.
Mark thanks again for a great video. My father was a lithuanian who worked with the German army from 41 to 44 in Vilnius.He fled when the Russians came back in 44. He wound up in Stuttgart , at 17 yrs old, met my mom, and emigrate to the states in the early 50s.Keep up the good work, your videos would make any network proud!!
Very interesting. I used to work with a guy that his parents immigrated to the US from Latvia after the war. He had a lot of interesting stories from his parents. Thank you mr Felton, another great video.
As a Latvian this was a hard part of history. We didn't want communism but most of us didn't want to go genocide way. There were of course fanatics but it shouldn't make all of people accountable for crimes. Some people like to do that.
which is against the geneva convention to use prisoners for such purposes also why did eisenhower re classify the pow's as dec's? prison of war to disarmed enemy combatants? lawyer speak to get around the geneva convention and what happened to all those DEC? hmmmm comeon felton fess up
The Baltic situation was very sad, you had conscripted Estonians in the German army vs conscripted Estonians in the Red army and the same for Latvia and Lithuania. There were many volunteers but many were conscripts forced to kill their fellow countrymen by evil foreign ideologies of Nazism and Communism.
And capitalism, and regionalism, and any other -ism. It's ridiculous to watch you people engage in mental gymnastics to rationalize the lack of objectivity in your assessment. No such thing as being forced to do anything; you won't ever in your life force me to commit genocide, I'd rather be dead than get busy exterminating countless ethnic groups just because it's either me personally, or them collectively. If someone enlists in the communist ranks, he's a communist, if it's nazis - he's a nazi; if it's capitalist - you're a capitalist; if it's all of the above - you're just a tool of murder and nothing more.
@@caxaptt6514 You sound exactly like someone who would've been a Nazi, judging by your obvious communist tendencies. You're controlled and don't realize it.
I didn't get to West Germany until 1960. I arrived as a teenaged American Army brat -- the son of an American officer. But I heard so many stories about the early Occupation from my parents' friends, this video seems almost like a memory to me. It was a good time to be an American kid overseas, both in Europe and the Far East -- the best time of my life. Thanks for this, Mr. Felton.
"So Rasmus, what did you do during the war?" "I served in the German then American militaries." "Oh yeah? What branches did you serve in?" "The SS and the Army, respectively." "Oh...what did you do in the US Army?" "Guarded Nazi officials"
You could say the allies used what was at Hand. And for a working post-war Germany the Allies put a lot of former small time Nazis into Administration positions.
@Alien Alien Just wanted to point out that the Allies needed experienced people and they weren't so blinded by "Make Germany Nazi-free" despite all their rhetoric beforehand
I must say, being an Estonian, I had heard of it (my grandfather was among Waffen-SS conscripts) but not in particular detail. Thanks for the video. And you are correct: men who served in Waffen-SS generally went to Siberia after Soviets got their hands on them.
Temujin in Gulag a person can make suicide anytime. Life is precious, nobody wants to die. And, after all, many prisoners eventually returned to their home
@@TemujinTheKhan Not really. Gulag is simply a labor camp. My great grandfather spent 10 years there. A lot of German POWs actually died on the way to the Gulags because they suffered from malnutrition and diseases, especially those that were captured at Stalingrad. The Soviet soldiers escorting them barely had any food for themselves and they had to share it with the German prisoners. Anyway, people always talk about the thousands of German POWs who never returned home, nobody remembers that 10 times more Soviet prisoners died while in German custody however.
The teams have been auto-balanced.
After one side stacked on the other for two consecutive matches.
Well Finland did.
@@thunberbolttwo3953 what do you mean?
Battlefield has NEVER known how team balancing works
@@camjam8367 Twas a TF2 joke.
Imagine trying to explain that on your resume. “What was your last job?” Oh I was a guard at the Nuremberg trials. “Oh that’s good. And before that?” I was in the Waffen SS. “Right......”
Exactly!
They just couldnt resist those smart,new uniforms.I’m thinkin like Barney Fife here...
We brought 30,000 scientists and engineers over after the war moron
You're hired!
whats so strange about it? There is a Waffen SS soldier buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Lauri Allan Törni was a Finnish soldier who fought under three flags: as a Finnish Army Second Lieutenant of the Fourth Independent Jäger Infantry Battalion against the Soviets in the Winter War. as a German Army Captain (under the alias Larry Lane) of the Finnish Volunteer Battalion of the Waffen-SS when he fought the Soviets on the Eastern Front in World War II;. and as a United States Army Captain (under the alias "Larry Thorne") when he served in the U.S. Army Special Forces in the Vietnam War.
Törni died in a helicopter crash during the Vietnam War and he was promoted to rank of Major posthumously. His remains were located three decades later and then buried in Arlington National Cemetery; he is the only former member of the Waffen SS to be interred there.
Göring: has a normal answer.
Hess: NEIN
Hess was kind of an idiot, when he got caught he was barely able to think for himself. There are some people who claim that in the second half of his imprisonment he did change and even called Neonazies who demonstrated suport for him "stupid". I don't know if that is true, but I hope so, because it means that even somebody like him can actually change.
@@MyRegardsToTheDodo sounds a bit like the desperate hope of getting released earlier from prison
@@kibbz_ So you could claim insanity?
Lol
@M.Z. Lol I got the movie reference.
"Found themselves surrendering to the US troops" is a bit incorrect. "Actively fought to surrender to the Western Allies rather than face almost certain death by the Soviets" might be more accurate.
Ehh still surrendered. 😂😂😂😂😂
@@justine1836 eh, the soviets were more brutal than americans so if i remember they focused most of their forces at the eastern front
Сс на медицинские эксперименты израсходованы были
@Paca Attack dont get what youre saying here
@Lex Bright Raven you do realize the soviets war crime were as severe as the nazis right? There are more records of the red armies war crimes that were never punished then the nazis, ever heard of the mass rape that happened AFTER the war of the civilians of Germany? Almost all girls in Germany were raped by the red army, ages from 8-80.
Well, that is... unexpected, to say the least.
Add this to 101 weird WW2 facts.
I saw the title and thought the very same thing "WHAAAA?????"
Andy c - had the same thought once I heard they were actually guarding the prisoners, but I could’ve sworn that I heard an American soldier had been in charge of guarding Goering. Still... this part of the history of the Nuremberg Trials I had never read about before.
This was the first I have ever heard of this. Wow!
@Andy c Android or Apple..? 😂
Imagine saying " I served in the war... on both sides".
Larry Thorne: Served in the war.. in three sides.
Went to fight in Vietnam, because WW2 east front was not enough fighting.
Nürnberg nicht Nuremberg😆
Damn
Shout, Lauri Törni's name
A soldier of three armies knows the game
Keeps their echo from the past
Rise from beyond your grave
Son of Finland and the Green Beret
May you rest in peace at last
Lauri Allan Törni
Bimbo Bimboo It’s Nuremberg in English...
The closer you look, the more complicated it all gets.
To me, the truth (as I’ve come to see it after a few years of research) made me sick. I felt awful with the cognitive dissonance I experienced. I would have to walk away and only take it in small doses. We’ll probably never know the real truth / facts of it all, but I am comfortable in saying the “truth” as we’ve been told it, isn’t.
@Alien Alien
It's terrifying but at least people are waking up
The scary thing is that because of the way our brains work, the less you can talk about something the more willingly you'll accept what others tell you. Orwell was ahead of his time.
I remember picking up some nice old books wrote by a British minister in the 30’s.
Oh dear!
Was someone wanting to build a war machine to take on a particular European country before the man with the little moustache was elected?
nothing is black and white, even guilt, or lack or it.
German citizens: "Oh look a lot of american guards at the nuremberg trials"
American soldiers : speaks in latvian and lithuanian
German citizens: visible confusion
Dont forget estonians
@@ricomuru9486 as the r/balticstates subreddit has discovered they only recently learned speech, man that subreddit is fun to look at sometimes tho estonians are always called slow and Latvians poor
@@caws3767 nothing like casual hatred for poor white people! Am I right?!
@@caws3767 And the goblins in the south, or as I like to call them "family and friends", are alcoholics.
@@physsnake only the richest and most advanced baltic state but ok
I am a Latvian. Some of these former Latvian legion grenadiers later volunteered to serve in USA military during the Korea war.
Indy:
Is that a fact? Really, kinda hard to believe
@@Tecumseh4-k2z Its true after the war the Americans realized their potential they gave them a bargain specially the Nazi Engineers and Rocket scientist to work for them, They gave them American citizenship in exchange for their knowledge some of them work in aviation and later on they formed NASA, others did serve in the military since they're american citizen already.
The Russian did the same thing too and that's the beginning of the Cold War.
I guess they were very anti communist.
The most anti communist people seem to be those who lived under communism.
@@Tecumseh4-k2z your IQ is showing again
@@Tecumseh4-k2z The US military also recruited several Finnish officers who fled Communist persecution, at least one of whom also served briefly in the Waffen-SS. He eventually became an officer in the US Army Special Forces and fought in Vietnam.
Lol, Hess not even saying not guilty, just goes there, "NO" and leaves again.
Hilarious amirite, but then again Nuremberg trials were a kangoroo court were confessions were extracted by torture.
Theres a reason a lot of former German soldiers had to take testosterone syringes for the rest of their life.
@@AyataHiragi can you give a source for the testosterone thing?
@@AyataHiragi thanks for the answer its an interesting topic.
@Germaine Jones Thank you! For this bold claim without any backing.
What is this, kindergarden?
@@AyataHiragi thank you for your info... I have some more but UA-cam is like "Hebrew patrol" as all my comments get deleted
“The SS also guarded the YMCA.”
The Village People: “Wut.”
I'm not gonna lie. Your comment made be snort-laugh.
that's very clever
Hahaha!
Nutz!
Hah! That's a good one!
"Oh hello again boss, long time no see. If you'll just step onto these gallows for me sir..."
Must have been so weird for the guards
🤣🤣🤣
🤣😂😅😂🤣
"Hans, are we the goodies?" - SS member in 1946.
Yes
"I mean, we're wearing black uniforms with swastikas on the sleeves...again."
none of these replies has anything to do with the comment you made.. I suspect they have no idea who the Goodies were. RIP Tim :)
"We've got skulls on our hats, why skulls?"
"Yes, Friedrich. We are the goodies now." - Hans, the other SS member in 1946
Cant wait to watch the latest Dr Felton history lesson on "fantastic things you never knew about ww2"!Yep imagine him teaching history when you were in High school!
wireless one I definitely wouldn’t have wagged school haha
When I was at school, our history lesson consisted of episodes of world at war and kiss Soviet ass...lefty teacher grrr
Well he is not bias as far I can see so he will no be a good teacher for allies countries lol
I'd much rather enroll in a college course taught by him.
Would the anthem play whenever he entered or left the room?
As an Estonian myself I can confirm this. My grandfather was in the Legion. He never retreated to Germany, as far as I know he was a partisan until he managed to come back home and live something of a normal life once Stalin died and the Soviets eased up a bit. But he always told me that none of his friends and the guys he knew back there had any loyalty for Hitler's cause. They pretty much joined up to get guns and equipment, and since the Germans were fighting the Soviets as well, it was a logical thing to do. The only other way would've been to escape to Finland and join the Finnish army, but this was risky and difficult and the Finns did give us out to Soviets later on to save themselves. Other than that, you could wait around until the Soviets showed up and either stole everything on your farm and forced you into their army or shot you on the spot if you seemed like too much trouble. I get how people in the West don't really understand why we fought for the Germans back then, but I hope I have explained it well enough that you'll see we didn't really have other options.
Yes, can certainly understand where you're coming from... limited options, go with the lesser of two evils.
Germany was protecting all of Europe from the bolsheviks, nothing strange to fight with them.
People in the west are very prone to ignorance and fear
@Arku Your grandfather fought in the Battle of Narva and the Battle of the Tannenberg Line, didn't he? That must have been two terrible battles.
As a Finn I am sorry to about the cases of giving Estonians to Soviets, but I assure you that we Finns had to give our own too (inkeriläiset/ingrians). A lot of them were sent to gulags, and today the place where they once lived (which is located between Estonia and St. Petersburg) is nowadays completely Russian. The price of freedom was truly horrible and we're not proud of the deportations, I hope you don't see us in a bad way.
When I was a young man in the mid 70's I worked with a gentleman who was a member of the Estonian Waffen SS. He name was Walter Luik and was in his early 60's at the time. Heck of a nice man. Walter was much like an uncle to me. He hated the Soviets with a passion, and often with tears in his eyes. Prior to the Soviet invasion of Estonia he was a State Policeman. Immediately the Soviets began executing the police and military. Walter and his fellow policemen had to flee to the forest to escape the Soviets. Unfortunately, the Soviets slaughtered the policemen's' families in retaliation. Once the Germans arrived, all the former Policemen were eager to join the Waffen SS so they could kill Soviets. After the war, he as a displaced Estonian with no family to return to, was offered a to join the US Army and was posted throughout war torn Germany. Ultimately Walter emigrated to the USA in the early 50's where he married an American woman and raised a family. Walter passed in the mid 80's. RIP Walter!
На уроке истории в датской школе учитель провел тест-выборы. Описал трех кандидатов, не называя их имен, и попросил выбрать одного из них для руководства страной.
Первый кандидат парализован ниже пояса, к тому же гипертоник. У него анемия и целый букет других неприятных заболеваний. Он врет, когда ему это нужно, и советуется в политических вопросах с астрологами. Изменяет супруге. Много курит и злоупотребляет Мартини.
У второго кандидата ожирение. Он трижды проигрывал выборы. Страдал от сильной депрессии и перенес два инфаркта. И еще у него невыносимый характер. Он курит сигары без остановки и напивается каждую ночь перед сном - шампанское, коньяк, виски + две таблетки снотворного.
Третий кандидат - герой войны, орденоносец. К женщинам относится с уважением. Не курит. Из алкоголя пьет только пиво, и то крайне редко.
На импровизированных выборах единогласно победил третий кандидат - Адольф Гитлер.
Ему проиграли Рузвельт с Черчиллем.
@@БогданСташинский-в5с Most educated Russian 😂
@@БогданСташинский-в5с ebani terrorussian-zachem fludish, tema serioznaja.zalko kommunistov ne sudili kak nyrenberge nazikov
Whether conscript or not, all Waffenn SS - especially in Eastern Europe - participated in the genocide of Jewish and Roma peoples, as well as persecuting homosexuals, anarchists, Socialists, etc. Walter was not a nice man.
I hope Walter is in hell cause all of Hitler's soldiers raped, killed, massacred, invaded..... Germans were so evil that they even tortured and massacred millions and millions of children.
My great grandfather was volunteered to fight in he Estonian army in 1919 when Estonia fought for it's independence against Soviet Russia. He did not get to combat though, because after he finished basic training and was waiting for weeks for proper gear at the barracks, the war was over. In 1940, he wasn't conscripted at first to the Soviet Army when they occupied Estonia, because he worked as a railroad man (an essential job), but when Germany attacked in 1941, and the Soviets were starting to evacuate, they still conscripted him to take him to Russia. But at the first possibility, my great-grandfather deserted and went back to his family (he had 3 children by that time - including my grandmother). But in 1944, the Germans conscripted him again for Base defence units of some sort and wanted to take him with, when they were pulling out of Estonia. My great-grandfather deserted again... But was caught near his home by advancing Soviet Army. He was convicted on the spot for being a nazi soldier. My great-grandmother (who was one hell-of-a force-to-be-reckoned-with lady) heard that her husband was seen with the Soviets heading to a forest and she borrowed the neighbour's horse and headed over. She convinced the soldiers to let my great-grandfather go and gave her gold wedding ring in exchange for my great-grandfathers life. It worked. They had 6 more children... He died in 1997. He did have some hassle during the later years for his service in the German army, but because he was still a railroad man (essential) and my grandmother finished school and started working for the communist party, he didn't not have many troubles. But also, they were terribly poor as a big family so the Soviet system did not really need to get rid of him...
Tbf though Estonia is basically just Russia tbh the Soviets should have held onto them.
@anonymous opinions thank you for the kind words!
@BULL SCHEIST Thanks. There is a lot of controversy about those anti-communists though. Some of them, indeed, were ideological, but some also just criminals. But the history about them is terribly interesting (full of betrayal, heroism and barbarism) and almost everyone has a relative who fled to the forrests and put up a fight one way or the other. The last forest-brother (as we call them) August Sabbe died while escaping capture in 1978). But indeed, most of the resistance died out after the death of Stalin - people were pardoned if they put down their weapons etc.
@@luxembourgishempire2826 Yep, and Luxembourgh is basically just Belgium... or France... But yeah, your statement could not be farther from truth mate...
@@midakassi I don't know about Luxembourgh. I am from a country called Luxembourg and unlike Estonia we actually have history whereas you guys basically were just Russians influenced by Germans and Swedes. There! That's a summary of Estonian history.
The amount of amazing content you pump out almost every day genuinely amazes me
Indeed! I look forward to seeing a UA-cam email for Mark Felton Productions. Most of it is WWII, which for us of 80 years later is a horrific, yet interesting subject with so many stories to be explained, but Mark also throws in the odd curveball with Post-WWII tales and (IIRC) even something on the Titanic, which was rusting away at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean before Hitler tried to get into that Austrian art academy!
As ever, I learn more history from one of Mark’s 12 minute documentaries than I learn from 15 years of “The History Channel.” Amazing stuff!
The History Channel....
Isn't.
History channel...
Owned by Disney, that pretty much sums it up.
@@Snaakie83 Once upon a time, it was a real treat to watch the history channel, then...nothing but flashy, over-dramatized fluff with no substance.
@@tremedar the Grant miniseries was apparently good, but ancient aliens really destroyed the channel
@drew pedersen yeah like american pickers and pawn stars
After a lifetime of reading and watching content about WW2 , I am still routinely surprised by something new , it is truly amazing
Billions involved. The stories will outlast anyone’s lifetime of interest.
Yeah reading and watching what they want you to know.
And where is your knowledge retrieved if not from Books? I have read far more books of my choosing than any I have ever been assigned. All history is what someone wants you to know, even autobiographies, unless you were there yourself you have no choice but to trust but verify.
Почитай историю из советских книг
@@ИванИванов-ц9э7ы Я прочитал одну, «Курская битва: спорные и забытые аспекты», Валерий Замулин, потрясающая, also I apologize if that comes off poorly google translate is awful
One small point: 20th panzer grenadiers (estonians) were the highest decorated non Germans in the axis armies. These were fully battle hardened troops from the Russian front that served under the most gruelling of conditions. The Nuremberg guards 4221 was not a random collection of displaced troops.
yes my grandfather told me
...you wrong...higest decorated non Germans in the axis armies was latvian 19th panzer grenadiers...
@@freedom8946 Wrong...
Такое пишут украинцы, бельгийцы, французы и т.д. про тех кто убивал мирное население в России
This is written by Ukrainians, Belgians, French, etc. about those who killed civilians in Russia
@@БогданСташинский-в5с ti pra shto tut ?
Citizen: "The Americans are doing a good job guarding this palace!"
W-SS Guard: "....Americans?"
Who were the Americans anyway? People who had emigrated from Europe.
@Alien Alien if there are no Americans then what the hell do you call Native American Indians?
@@terrypresnell9100 we;re all from Africa, no one is indigenous to north America. the people you call Indians took it from someone else before it got taken from them.
@Alien Alien in that case, there are no such things as Asians, Europeans, Americans, Australians; we're all African. what brilliant logic.
@Alien Alien but there are many unifying features in America
"Waffen-SS Soldiers Guarded the Nuremberg Trials", who else but Monty Python would have come up with a title like that? Well, who? Mark Felton, of course, who else; and it's all *real* and *spectacular.*
Why?
@@m.asquino7403 Well, to be quite honest, Sarge, I'd... rather be at home with the wife and kids.
Spam spam spam spam spam...
@@jussim.konttinen4981 Right, off you go then.
Seinfield 🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂
I as Latvian am astonished. Nothing of this was taught in my history class. Keep up the REAL history.
Not something that would be covered in a regular curriculum, more of a interesting tidbit.
Fascinating. Would love to hear testimonies from some of the men who immigrated to the US.
Me too!
Yes, Mark do you know of any testimonials written by these troops?
My grandfather never immigrated. He stayed in Estonia and fought against the red menace as a forest brother.
Robert Klein why, honorable men fighting against a dishonorable menace? What isn’t there to tell.
@@IndianaGoy yes, it's a no win situation. If they'd fought for Communists, they'd have no relationship with the West for decades.
That's just a way to survive. Instead of being killed or exiled to Gulag by the Red Army, it's better to be a prison guard.
Absolutely. Note they were lightly armed. Not really equipped for a combat role. They are mentioned in several texts and seemed to have been well thought of. Important to note they had little contact, by design, with hard core USA combat units.
@@mikeromadin8744 Because many other countries had camps like this (for example laogai in China) in English we say gulag when we refer specifically to the Soviet ones
y'Think? :-/
As a Estonian I thank you Mark. It's nice that you explained the story of our countrymen.
I talked to an old lawyer who served in Vietnam and he said he was asked to do a mission to see if a path could be found for a river mission. He decided that the mission would not work and reported that to his superiors. While he was there it was early in the war and the French foreign legion was there. He said many of them had been German soldiers during the war. I would be interested if you would report on this. Thanks for all your excellent work.
Very interesting!
Yes, there were lots of former nazi soldiers out there, in the years after the war, still in the business. One of them even killed Ernesto Guevara.
yes indeed , they had no choice , Frenches need soldiers for Indochina's war, either they enlisted to the Legion either they were fired . It is funny to say that Vietminh 's propaganda aimed at them and a few of them went to the Vietminh's side.
Read a book named devils guard, great read on the subject
@@cranedriver5467 Thanks for the tip, I downloaded it
@@kabardino1337Is that true about the killer of ernesto guevara?
Fascinating and informative Mark. My brother's in-laws were from Estonia, and managed to get to the UK after the war. His father-in-law was happy to serve in the Wehrmacht because although he despised Germany, he absolutely hated the Russians. He was not particularly proud of his service, but happy to have fought against the Russians. War makes for strange bedfellows.
"My enemy's enemy is my friend."
For many, they faced that impossible dilemma of fighting for the Nazis or capitulating to the soviets. Like Finland, I don't think I can hold it against those who chose the Nazis over the soviets.
@@SteveandLizDonaldson I think you mean: The enemy of my enemy is my friend. What you said does not make much sense to me.
NeoSovrnson it means literally the same
@@NeoSovrnson Those both mean the same thing. "John's house" is the same as "The house of John"
At 70 years of age and having read and seen almost everything about WWll, I am flabbergasted. I am Swedish and during my schoolyears I had many Baltic friends whos parents fled to Sweden (mostly Estonians) and one of my best friends told me about his father having been a Nazi officer and hunted by the Soviets. But this documentary by Mark Felton surprises even me and I can only salute him as being the best in the field of digging up interesting and thrilling stories from the big war. Keep it up Mark!
Why would you be surprised? Swedes them selfs had similar opportunities in the past, but turned em down. See Swedish extradiction of Baltic soldiers.
To say you're Swedish, your English is perfect, especially you using the word "flabbergasted" that's some high level English right there, well done
Hej jag är svensk född 👍
sweden pay roll is sending 2 regiment equipment to estonia, this is way to predict war
Estonians aren't Baltic people though.
Me at title: “say what now?”
Masada1911 FiRsT cOmMeNt HaHa
@Masada1911: Gibberish!
Amazing how one pointless comment gets 1.3 k likes
Modern society
@@properjob79 It's 1.4 now, just 16 min later...
like Patton said...hey it's nothing more than Democrats & Republicans here in the States...talking bout the political parties of Germany...now that caused a stink...but he was in the long run right.
And when I thought I heard almost everything about WW2 and post-WW2, this video comes along. An absolutely astonishing story.
I wish my ww2 curricullum had been written by Mark Felton. The amount of care to present history in a fair manner is astonishing
I agree.
For real.
History these days: dem da good guyz, dem da bad guys.
Shame it's not taught this way.
I agree 100%. I had history teachers who loved history and tried to impart that to us. It's all in the presentation.
Gay
@@lrc9304 how
This Channel is pure Gold mate keep up the Good work! :)
Thanks, will do!
This event actually came up in the debate in the early 2000s when, after combat operations in the Iraq War ended and the occupation phase began, the US chose to disband the Iraqi military rather than utilize them. Several people at that time brought up that historically, defeated militaries are repurposed rather than cast aside to be recruited by other, bad actors. For the average guy in the ranks of any army from any era, he's likely not very political anyway. He's just a normal guy wanting to provide for his family in his chosen occupation.
I'd definitely relate, tho not all will see it that way
The issue probably was that after WW2 they recognized the German Military and Paramilitary forces as a well organized and reliable force that could be reporpoused unlike Saddam Military of the early 2000 that was, to put it in raw terms, a mess. They concluded it was probably better to kick the house down and rebuild it back up.
Not saying the results were that good but that's a whole other story.
Yup, It was dumb to disband the Iraqi Army when they there are the only real means to preserve the rule of law in Iraq. Recall that shortly after the Iraqi Army was disbanded, everything got looted & the rise of insurgents.
@Oskar Dirlewanger The us already left Iraq once and is practically gone now. Nonsense. The Us only went back in because of ISIS and spent blood and capital to destroy them. The Iraq war was one of the biggest blunders in US history, they want that whole thing behind them as fast as possible. Plus they have actual Communists to deal with now
@Oskar Dirlewanger Iraq and Syria are nothing more than just provinces of Iran. Tell me, did an Iranian soldier ever fire a bullet against Israel? The answer is no, only Arab proxies did, and they were only skirmishes, nothing more.
Both Iran and Israel occupy Arab lands.
Both of them are actively killing Arabs.
Both share a strong history of friendship.
The war between Iran and Israel has been nothing but words, they will never truly hurt each other.
"We were bad, but now we're good"
~Them S.S (probably)
Sadly its the other way around.
Moving into your neighborhood
@@JanPatatoesgood and evil are actually concepts. I’m pretty sure both sides thought the other was evil.
@@idonotcarekek That's the only way to get the sides to shoot eachother. Demonize the enemy.
Your choice is fighting with Germany, who started WW2, to try and get your homeland out of Soviet hands. Or aid the Soviets, who forcefully took over your homeland. It was a very shitty time. Just ask the Finns.
I remember my history teacher 45 years ago telling us how Japanese Americans were recruited to guard German prisoners in Massachusetts during WWII. I always thought that was a bit ironic.
Not really. It would make sense to shift Japanese americans to european duties to avoid conflicted loyalties and the same with german americans.
Those Japanese Americans who were in US military service.
While their own families were kept in internment camps themselves.
The most decorated American unit in the European theater was comprised of Japanese Americans, just to throw even more irony into the mix.
@@matthewnunya8483 it was also used as a type of psychological warfare by making it seem that their ally was defeated and and would affect the German war effort . there was also the 442nd infantry regiment composed of nearly entirely 2nd generation Japanse-American citizens which fought through Italy.
allalone go for broke!
I served in Iraq along side Latvian Troops they were excellent soldiers and people you want as an ally. History rhymes.
@sym That, Sir was crude and uncalled for.
@@BELCAN57 thats reality
@@onetokatman7293 If you haven't been in combat, you know nothing of that reality.
@@onetokatman7293 No it's not
Before there is more people come here and replies.
I want to say that it ok to be anti-war but it not ok to be anti-soldier.
Another bizarre twist of history revealed.
I always thought those were Americans or British lads guarding the Nazis...
why they cant fight the muslims now?
Me 2...that is why Mark’s videos are so good!
look up Articles 19 and 21.
basically says that no forensic evidence shall supersede any testimony......
Yup.
TokenBlackGuy so did I... You learn something new every day.
My father (who is 94 and living with me right now with Covid) was guarding Goring when he committed suicide. My father said he watched Goring come outside to smoke often. I have a picture of him from 46 in his army uniform and gear. He looked like Rambo.
@@smeggiamagarwine my father was guarding outside behind the cell.
Very interesting posts. How did the lethal Drug get to the second greatest monster in recent human history and save him his due desserts on the scaffold?
How is he now?
@@anartistnamedmatthew1849 he passed away last year at 95. He was the best person in the world. Thanks for asking.
Thank You. As a Latvian, this matters a lot to me.
Yay Latvia!
Izlasot video nosaukumu, zinaju ka runās arī par latviešiem.😀
As an Estonian same here but that story was well known fact
Biju dzirdējis tikai par latviešu sargiem Nirnbergā, bet redz, ka arī igauņi bija
Pēc karoga iekš avatara un piesekotajiem kanāliem nepateiksi, ka esi latvietis...
I'm From Estonia And I'm happy that finally someone sees what We were living in until 1991.
I've always wondered how the leadership in countries like this don't see how awful their system of government is. I mean they must have friends and family
We were getting the message that you were occupied countries seized by communists and led by traitors during communist occupation along with the rest of Eastern Europe
I have a class mate that thinks Soviet rule was good, as they gained territory and nothing else
And that you fought with soviet soldiers on barricades in 1991, people dying on both sides. Not so peacefull as 1989 in the eastern block.
those of us who were paying attention remember very well that it was the Baltic states that brought down the Soviet Union. Congratulations and Well Done.
My son is in high school and he watches all these videos then tells his history teacher what really happened.
big brain son
but if he wants to learn everything he's gotta watch ww2 documantaries and these are also good
@@The_last_prime They are biased, with speech framing, at least in germany.
Here in the U.S. documentaries are a mixed bag. I've seen the "Germany was drivin by hatred and bigotry and were all Nazis" documentaries but also really balanced and more honest ones that explain why so many eastern europeans sided with germany against the soviets and how most Germans were not ideological Nazis. Strangely the History Channel has some of the more realistic balanced ones which I find sort of strange because it's a main stream media channel.
@@k-man8284 Everyone ignore this unhappy troll and dont respond to him.
"Hey sir, remember when you gave Hans the wine but not me?"
These types of documentaries are what I grew up on. This is one of many things Mark Felton has talked about I never knew.
the key element here is that Lavtians and Estonians werent really in league with Nazi ideals, to them it was a fight for survival and independence against communists and since Germany had mostly been friendly when they showed up in Latvia and Estonia (huge part of this is due to the reception they got thanks to the previous communist occupation) these small nations were alot more sympathetic towards Germany and they were towards the soviets and this goes for most of the scandivanian countries with the exception of Norway and Denmark
to quote a popular phrase among Estonian nationalists "the Germans were generally nice to us and never really mistreated us but the Soviets did, Soviets are really bad"
these people evidently despised the soviets more than anyone else even to this day and they still feel somewhat hostile even towards Russians in particular so whatever Stalin and his commies did while occupying Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia it must have been pretty nasty, just need to take a look at Poland to get a good idea of how nasty Stalin and his popovs could get
Some were, some weren't. I do not feel comfortable with discounting the extreme nationalist and anti-Semitic elements that our forces had - e.g. Araja Kommando.
i always understood the Estonians and the rest of baltikum to be like Finland. Not nazi, but axis by default because of the Soviet Union. I tink you would find that Norway supplied more soldiers to Finland and the axis cause than to the allied cause because of ant-i communism.
Same as with the majority of the 13th SS Handžar Division made up mostly of local ethnic Bosniaks from Eastern Bosnia, who were being killed by the thousands, by Chetniks(Serbian fascist ultranationalist movement that wanted Greater Serbia on what is today, Bosnia, Montenegro and the majority of Croatia). Also, you would get a gun to properly defend yourself, which couldn't be said about the other factions.
During training some soldiers(of that division) raised a mutiny in a small Mediterranean French town(I forgot the name) in 1942(due to not being to fond of Nazis and their ideology), it became the only free town in Europe(excluding Russian towns near Moscow) for the few days the mutiny endured. The local Frenchmen still celebrate that day. The Germans planned the division to stay in France and fight elsewhere if needed, but due to the soldiers being unhappy about leaving their families unprotected in Bosnia and due to fear of another mutiny, the Germans sent them to suppress the guerillas in Bosnia.(both Chetniks and Partisans)
After about a year in the field, most of those soldiers defected to Tito's Partisans, a small part left with the Germans for Hungary(by that time(late 1944) the majority of personel was Hungarian). Some defected even sooner like the grandfather of a guy I know in 1943.
All in all, they were in a very similar situation like the people from the Baltics.(not to say that they were the good guys, but not your regular SS either)
@@nielscarp Good for them
@@perisdahl569 Depends on if you mean supplied as in army personnel, or if you include resistance fighters as well. I'm not really sure of the numbers, but I do believe they would've had more fighting for the Allies if you include resistance fighters as well
Nobody:
Rudolf Hess when he was answering the charges:
*N E I N*
He said, "Nein", which is German for "no". However, apparently the word at the time at WW2 aftermath was used
as a label for Nazis' who denied being Nazis'. The term coming from the frequency with which Hitler used the
term.
@@jdove6883 Interesting.
es wäre das Wort niemand
Michael Grossmann was wäre niemand? Die erwartete Antwort war „nicht schuldig“
Maybe, in his complicated case, they gave him nine alternative ways to plead, and asked him which one he chose. ;)
Wow, I found my history channel.
I bet these guys made great Americans after immigration.
Victor, our next door neighbor in Van Nuys, CA, 1983-89, had fled Latvia in 1940 ahead of invading Soviet troops and made his way to Peru. There he met and married his wife, Dora. In 1942 they emigrated to the USA and Victor volunteered to serve in the American army. He landed in Normandy in 1944, fought his way across Western Europe, and was there when Nazi Germany surrendered in 1945. After the war, he returned to the States, became an aeronautical engineer specializing in liquid-fueled rocket engines, and ultimately worked on the Apollo Saturn 5 and Space Shuttle programs.
Victor's brother chose to remain in Latvia and wound up being conscripted into the Soviet Army. His unit retreated to Russia when the German's occupied Latvia in 1941. The tide of battle would eventually turn: Victor's brother and his Russian comrades would make Latvia and Poland "free" for Communism and occupy eastern zone of Germany per the Allied Nation's Yalta Agreement.
Before the war, Victor and his brother had been very close. Circumstances during WWII made sending and receiving letters understandably difficult. But, during the ensuing Cold War years, and especially given Victor's sensitive position in the US Space Program, communication became impossible. We left California in the summer of 1989, before the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Soviet Union dissolved, and the Baltic Republics were finally able to democratically declare their independence from Russia and the Communist Bloc. I wish I knew whether Victor and his brother were able to track one another down and reconnect. I'd like to think their story had a happy ending.
@@ronforeman2556 wow, heck of a story! thanks for sharing
why not. Great soldiers and most importantly, anti redscum
Go read serious history. The Latvians were illegally conscripted by Germans at the threat of reprisal, Russia did likewise (so bother was fighting brother), only fought against Russians all the way back to Berlin.
@@ronforeman2556 true story must be likr this
And my dad said
*Ohhh so your watching that History guy too?
Me: * Who?Mark?*
Dad: *Yes,That guy Really has some quality history that we can learn,Go ahead keep watching his vid*
Btw *my dad asked me if im watching mark because he heard the entry song*
That's some High quality dad here
When I played Mark's videos my dad noticed the intro music and asked the same.
You shouldn't be dead?
Cyanide is not very healthy and tasty.
My father was an Estonian who fled to Finland at age 17 to fight against the soviets in the Finnish winter war, then ended up fighting for the Germans against the soviets before being in the 4221 company. I can categorically state that he was not a Nazi he hated what they stood for but he hated the Soviets invading his homeland and eventually sending his sister to a Gulag in Siberia even more. Her crime was feeding her school friends who were hiding in the forest. His sole motivation was to fight the communists nothing more or less.
My mother was born in Tallinn, Estonia January 26, 1926. Her father was a White Russian that served in the Czarist government civil service. After 1917 he fled with his wife to Estonia knowing full well that his name was surly on a list. While in Estonia he lectured in the Universities on Natural Sciences. There is a display of his work in the Natural Science Museum, (Paul Wasmuth). Then the Russians invaded Estonia and he with his wife and two daughters fled to Germany. They were called Baltic Germans and welcomed into Germany. Mom continued her education until she and her classmates were taken to a munition’s factory because all the men were put in uniform. One day her supervisor told his section that the Russians were three days from the border and to head West. She and her girlfriend found a horse and buggy and fled to a frame in Bavaria. The farmer found them hiding in his barn but took them in and hide them from the retreating German Army. After the end of the war she was in a DP Camp in Stuttgart. The US Army wanted to get the German economy moving and hired Germans with skills. My mother spoke four languages fluently to include Russian. She was hired by the Army as an interpreter and secretary. Her desk was just outside of my dad’s office, he was serving in the Occupation. As the story goes here I am, Sep 14, 1948. Mom is now 94 and in perfect health.
Mu onu tegi ennast 2 aastat vanemaks ja läks 16 aastaselt 1943 20. diviisi. Polnud ka nats. Jäi sõtta.
@@Marka2401 Fantastic story! Glad your parents made it through the war together and did well for themselves.
So why did they kill the Jews then?
@@nikolaykrotov8673 he didn’t.
After the war, my grandfather was stationed in Kaiserslautern and formed a volleyball league with Latvian players . They made him a thank you and farewell plaque in 1961 that I still have to this day
The saying "War makes for strange bedfellows" was never more true.
Forced to choose between Stalin and Hitler : During the thirties and the forties, how many individuals were condemned to that choice, just trying to survive ?
And finally, were they the most unlucky, compared with the too many who had no chance to make a choice, because they were condemned to no other option than to serve the butcher that commanded their destiny ?
There was no choosing, at least for baltic states. Russians or Germans was just going to homes and either you join or get bullet in the head....
@@ExternalHDD-Reviews Thank you for sharing and the information. Best regards.
@Thomas Wilson As a matter of fact, all butchers have their hands stained by blood. However, I don't remember that Stalin have massacred on racial supremacy grounds. Sill Butchery is the work of Butchers, and Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, etc., are burning in hell.
@@shivamurti6481 today’s leftists only bash nazis but turn a blind eye to soviet atrocities because either they are communists themselves or they believe that their enemy’s enemy is (was) their friend.
@@philsman3694 Today, western intelligentsias are mainly composed of leftist minded people who impose in many of our countries a political correctness affecting our freedom of speech and the way we can access to history and news.
That is the way I think and the reason why I thumbed up your post Phil.
Best regards.
I love how the title is just
"The Waffen SS guarded the Nuremberg trials" like it's not even "who guarded the Nuremberg trials"
Eh, you’re right and you’re wrong.
If it was the second one less people would click because they would just think americans or other alied soldiers would guard it
Gledas istoriju ?
Natalija Djokic I agree. It briefly and accurately tells us what the topic is, respecting the viewer to lets us decide if we want to watch it, instead of drawing us in (or trying) with clickbait.
UA-camrish alternative: "YoU wOn'T bElIeVe WhO guarded the Nuremberg trials!!! OUTRAGEOUS!!" 🙃
My grandfather was from Riga in Latvia and he moved the U.K. just after the soviets took control. He was tortured by the soviets In front of his mother, he had all of his fingernails ripped out and he was electrocuted many times. He was a lovely man who always had a sad lost look in his eyes. He would tend his plants and u would see him staring off into the distance as if looking to someone. I never knew about the torture etc until a few years before he died when my grandmother told me the full story and it was very emotional but it all made sense then, his sad eyes, his lost vacant staring all made sense. His brother was tortured n killed by the soviets and he lost lots of his family,
There's the option to enter the French Foreign Legion. Many former German Army troops fought for the French in the Indo China ,Vietnam War of the 1950s.
or join the CIA ...
Oh! What a shame!!
Many Germans were forced into the French Army, to serve in Indochina, after WW2, because so many Frenchmen refused to serve there. The Germans were threatened with being handed over to the Russians.
There was a youtube video about a soldier who just didn't know when to quit. He fought for the Germans in ww2. When that ended, he wound up fighting for France. When they ended his tenure, he finally came to the US and fought in Vietnam. Damn, that's a long career. I wish I could remember his name...
@@largol33t1 Sounds bit like Larry Thorne, but he went straight to USA and did some special forces stuff.
As an estonian I had never heard about this, extremely intresting. My own grand-grandfather managed to get back to Estonia, however he lived the rest of his life in hiding until he was caught.
I would say this story is relatively well known in Estonia though.
TheLaualamp what happened when he was caught?
@@temsedgwick9494 prolly gulag.
Heres a video on this topic:
ua-cam.com/video/ub82Xb1C8os/v-deo.html
Kui rohkem tahad teada siis vaata doki erri arhiivist: Mehed unustatud armeest/ Men from the forgotten army.
@@eksiarvamus Same in Latvia.
Thank you again, Mark. This is another unexpected vignette showing how complex WWII really was.
The more you look into history, the more you find nuances and complexities. Goes to show how it’s shades of grey.
I had an MP GI Joe in the early 60s. I never would have imagined him as a Latvian or Estonian!
Funfact: One of the crimes they wanted to trial Donitz for was not rescuing suviving sailors in U-Boat-Attacts.
Donitz lawyer asked when the American Navy leadership in the Pacific would be trialed and the matter was dropped for some reason.
He was going to have ADMs Nimitz and King subpoenaed to comment on USN policies and procedures for rescuing Japanese merchantmen after American subs torpedoed THEM. The chief prosecutor, Supreme Court Justice Jackson, dropped the charge after realizing the US Navy would proverbially have egg on its face.
Its true the charge was dropped when news of the US Sub policy surfaced. Doenitz got ten years I believe, as head of the Kreigsmarine. He was a fervent Nazi. He accepted the position as Nazi Germany head of state on April 30, and did not surrender immediately, nor collapse the German government to the allied powers. He got away lightly, and he is lucky that the Russians did not demand his execution
@@glennpickard2239 Well other than disrupting western shipping to Murmansk the Kriegsmarine didn't really create a grudge with the Soviets. In contrast the Wehrmacht were despised by them for obvious reasons...
@@glennpickard2239 Oh, but they DID want him sentenced to death. The other judges on the tribunal felt that unreasonable. Donitz, along with most other German functionaries, along with HIMMLER, had unrealistic expectations that they'd be heading a post-war German government, albeit under Allied occupation and supervision. When the Flensburg government was dissolved and its members arrested on May 23, 1945 (also when Himmler either committed suicide or was summarily executed, accounts differ), there were still a few diehard holdouts, mostly in the Soviet sector, and the post-war "Reconstruction" of Germany hadn't been finalized by the Allied powers. That would be settled later in July, 1945, at Potsdam.
As to whether Donitz got away "lightly", I would disagree. He was the head of the Kriegsmarine, and to the extent that the Germany Navy under his command committed crimes against humanity and/or war crimes, he'd certainly bear "Command" repsonsiblity (aka the "Yamashita principle, of course, Gen. Yamashita was hanged as a war criminal in Manila in 1946). There is little evidence that the German Navy conducted operations any different than did the Royal Navy or the USN, and certainly not any worse than what the Soviet Navy did. I never saw any call for the commander of the Soviet submarine S-13, Kaptain "3rd Rank" (equivalent to a USN LCDR), Alexander Mariinseko, nor the C-in-C of the Soviet Baltic Fleet, nor the head of the Soviet Navy, to be tried for the sinkings of the Wilhelm Gustloff or the Von Stueben, taking over 10,000 civilian lives, in Jan and Feb of 1945, respectively, to be tried as "war criminals". War crimes trials are the hypocrisy of the victors and their sense of "justice", which shouldn't even be needed, as what burden is upon the victor in wartime to be "just" at all?
There's always more stories about WW2. That's why it's so endlessly fascinating. Thank you for bringing more amazing stories to light.
Your last comment about their future home was the one piece of information I was hoping for. Australia could use a million or so hard men of such character right now.
Amazed the Soviets didn't kick up a fuss about this.
Me too
Or the allies. Bizarre to say the least that they would even consider this. I wonder if Eisenhower knew about this?
@@MarkFeltonProductions They were probably actively recruiting using any family as leverage. They did that regularly with Ukrainians.
@Alien Alien According to Joseph Stalin the Russian soldiers only gave the women a peck on the cheek.
The Soviets did but the Western Allies recognized these soldiers as citizens of their Baltic Republics not the Soviet Union. The Embassies of these Republics existed throughout the Cold War.
Mark, not to be that guy but the US gaurds weren't the only US soldiers to have worn swastikas on their uniforms. Prior to that the US 45th division has used a red square on angle with a yellow swastika on horizontal as their emblem into the 1930s... It was due to the division being from the American Southwest it had strong native American roots with the swastika having been part of that culture.
Quite true. The 45th was a National Guard outfit from the southwest which used the swastika because it was a native American symbol. However, when the Nazis came to power and began rampaging throughout Europe, the division changed its insignia even before the US entered the war. Since Mark said the guard force was the only 'allied' unit to use the swastika he was correct, since the 45th quit using the swastika before the US officially became a part of the 'allied' forces. The 45th Infantry Division Museum in Oklahoma City has a display regarding their use of the swastika prior to the war.
@@tomjustis7237 semantics but I gotcha
@@tomjustis7237
Interesting. The 45th Division Thunderbird insignia is quite nice.
Mr Dirigible. You beat me to it. I was going to post, but checked to see if it was already posted.
Yup they were headquartered here in Oklahoma, my great grandfather was in the 45th Thunderbird Division after they activated the National Guard
I had a cat which was proved to be a direct descendant of Göering’s Manx. If you do a google image search, there’s a lot of pictures of him with that cat. When he was held for the trials, his cat was placed under the care of an Army captain; my grandfather. :)
So pleased HG’s cat was taken care of, amidst all of this.
@@MorganHayes_Composer.Pianist it wasn’t the cat’s fault whatsoever.
@@deoglemnaco7025 very true :)
@@deoglemnaco7025 (X) Doubt
@@TheMasterTelevision that’s cute how you did the (x) thing. Ha ha ha I’m going to give you your first ‘like’ on that comment. You got your funny hat on today !!
Being Waffen SS troops still on paid duty after 1945 is like winning the biggest game of fortnite style battle Royale ever played.
I wish that my school would use your channal when we have History
Unfortunately Mark Felton reports candidly on the nuances and reality of history, not something any modern school likes to admit exists
Another interesting topic about Estonians to cover would be "Finnish Boys" ( _soomepoisid_ ) - Estonian volunteers in the Winter War and in the Continuation War.
Yup, i think we don't recognize their sacrifice enough here in Finland
Во время они закончили воевать с Россией
@@ИванИванов-ц9э7ы Mida sa selle all mõtled?
@@eksiarvamus mitä tuli sodasta 44 vuoden aikana
Many volunteers were just anti-russian as well. The ironic part is anti-german sentiment in estonia and latvia was much higher than anti-russian sentiment until 1940.
From early 11th century to 1860s, ethnic germans in estonia and latvia owned most of the land and most estonians and latvians as serfs.
In lithuania anti-polish and anti-german sentiments were much higher due to polish imperial ambitions in lithuania, lithuanians' resentment over wilno and germans in memel(now klaipeda) who wished to join germany.
@greendreamteam11 and before that more than 50 thousands ( with family members 100 000 ) of latvians joined the secret police of bolsheviks in 1918 and became Trozky and Lenin personal guards, then in kgb.Their motivation was a high salary, plunder and power
@@torabora500 they wanted to have their own state. What salary, plunder, and power? How high are you?
There was no such thing as a Latvia, Estonia, Litva, Finnland until Lenin gave them independence.
@@luckabuse Nobody "gave" them independence. They won it over fair and square in a war against the Bolsheviks.
Lithuania was also the only Baltic state that refused to form a Waffen SS legion.
This is just another of theyre genious foreign poklicy :D In couple of decades they will wonder why ukrainians are so hostile towards them.
Far simpler than that: they hated ALL minorities, all alien tribesmen. Quasi-tribal dictator Ulmanis used to close down German, Russian, Polish, Jiddish and other ALIEN schools - as well as persecuting Latgalian language and culture in sake of "Latvianness" (a weird mish-mash of mostly Baltic identity with strong Finno-Ugor admixture) in Latvia, in Estonia there was a "name-changing" craze (to force all folks to appear as solely Fennic) etc. etc. Clumsy excuses do NOT apply: being adamantly anti-German and remover of Baltic Germans, you do NOT turn into a Germanophyliac overnight, just because uncle Hitler knocked your door.
Boy oh boy I learn something new from Mark every day. Thanks for these. Great historian and commentator. Excellent quality production.👍
How about a video on Germanic Hero, Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck.....
His guerrilla-warfare campaign remains unmatched!
If I remember right, his bad axx exploits couldn't be rivaled by a Hollywood script.
@Cheryl Graham You are thinking of Skorzeny.
@@drgwhatsthetruth3783
The good General makes "Lawrence of Arabia" look like a cub scout....
@Brian Haney
You're crazy, he tied up 5 different armies in East Africa during WWI.
...and living off the land while doing so...greatly respected leader by German and African troops alike....
Don't ya realise he only makes ww2?
You have the perfect “ narrator” voice! Always interesting to watch your content!
I'm constantly amazed on the quality of the content of your channel, sir. Lots of video clips and photographs and stories I haven't seen before. Bravo!
One of my grandpa’s friends who was in the Korean War apparently met an Estonian in the US Army who formerly served in the Waffen-SS and as a member of the mentioned unit here while he was about to go home to the Philippines.
I did not know that Kaiser Wilhelm's grandpa served in the Korean war, I will pjt that question in my next quiz night,
Apparently every single one who comments here had a grand father was a soldier during ww2😂
@@OOOUZ lots of Estonians (I would say majority) had some or more relatives fighting in that war, on either or even both sides.
We lost third of our population to that war..
For example: younger brother of my maternal grandmother died back in 1944 (Waffen SS infantry panzergrenadier). Her husband survived the war (Waffen SS artilleryman) and follow-up Siberia.
@@unitrx5535 my great grandfather fought in finland for the finnish and then later moved to the US.
@@OOOUZ I mean, it makes sense that Baltic people with family who fought would watch this video and comment about their experiences. It’s selective bias.
Thank you Mark, for the detailed video. There is a great movie called "1944". It's Estonian made and it explains the situation that the Estonians had to face when the Germans were retreating and the Soviets were coming to occupy Estonia again. In some cases, you had Estonians fighting in the Soviet army vs. Estonians fighting in the German army. All they ever wanted to was a free and independent country. I'd advise anyone who is interested in that sort of thing to check the movie out.
Elagu Eesti! Long live Estonia!
Snoofy • Estland fuer die Estlaender! 👍🤗
I have heard that when the Baltic people’s were facing each other on the battlefield, they were very reluctant to shoot at one another.
@@RedClover1987 There were occasions where units had to be shuffled around because they would refuse to fight each other, yes. But those were rare. Both sides usually were too smart to risk any such situation.
Not only Estonians or Lithuanians i guess people from all eastern Europe got caught in that situation.
т.е. нацистская Германия освободила эстонцев и эстонцы воевали добровольно на стороне нацистской Германии?
Me: I'm no longer astonished with what Mark Felton can unearth.
Mark: Hold my beer!
Mark Felton does tend to be an anglo-file. Nothing wrong with that. It's still better than white guilt.
@@psilvakimo So he specializes in doing British people's nails? Or maybe he specializes in sorting and storing British documents?
Perhaps you meant anglophile? ;)
@@Jagabot 🤣
😂
@J Thorsson Rankine...
I love these videos, so informative. I wish Mark Felton had been my history teacher. Especially like this one outlining Estonia’s part in the war as I recently moved here from the UK and as a parent to a half Estonian child I know where he will be learning about his past from. 👏🏻
I did not know any of this, and my Grandfather WAS a Latvian who fought for the Germans. This was fascinating to know. My grandfather spoke Latvian, German, Russian, English, French, Latin and some Swedish. Thank you for this informative video.
It's not uncommon for Latvians to speak several languages as we are a small nation and Latvian is only really spoken in Latvia. That's very impressive list of languages though.
What happened to your grandfather after the war ended? Had he managed to retreat to the American / English occupation zone or had he been taken prisoner of war by the Russians?
@Gabriel Kruize Because of the variety of languages he spoke, some Wehrmacht boys "elected" him to represent them. He walked ahead of them, all of them having discarded their uniforms, and depending upon whom he met, he used the "appropriate" language and either claimed to be Eastern workers returning home, German, or whatever seemed to fit the moment. After the German left him, my grandfather alternatively walked and rode a bicycle back to Latvia. He would often pick up cigarette butts and roll himself a smoke once he accumulated enough tobacco. My family had been rather well to do in Latvia pre-war; my Great Grandfather was an importer/exporter, landowner and as such he was good friends with Latvia's politicos at the time. After the war, however, as all Latvians suffered, our lands and assets were seized by the Soviets (we got much of it back in the 90's, and my father visits Latvia annually) and the family was "displaced" and worked and stayed with friends until emigrating to America in the 50's. My father, aunt, grandfather, grandmother (who had been a concert pianist pre-war and during the war for the Germans) as well as my grandfather's mother and my grandmother's father (who served in the Czar's guard, ironically...my grandfather was a boy and observed some of the fires of the Soviet Revolution.) They entered America through Boston...my grandfather (who had been an accountant and inherited the family business) worked in an aluminum factory for a time. He was a brilliant and kind man but not overly ambitious. My grandmother (the family Matron) made him get a job in accounting in NYC where he retired in his 70's. He died in 1996 at the age of 90. A lot of rambling...but that's my family history.
@William Stuart Your great grandfather - as well as his other relatives - must have been a lucky one, not already being deported by the NKVD to Siberia in 1941, during the first Soviet occupation of Latvia, because of his position as a landowner in a wealthy family - the Soviets considered wealthy people - rich farmers, landowners, businessmen,
politicians, clergy and intellectuals - as bourgeoise, kulaks or 'state enemies'. Besides, from which part of Latvia did your great grandfather came from, did he live in the countryside or the city (Riga, Daugavpils, Liepaja etc?) After all, hopefully your family survived this evil part of the history and continued to live a joyful life.
@@williamstuart368 "...until emigrating to America in the 50's..." The entire family? Just like that, "emigrating?" Who the hell did they backstb and betray to be let through the Iron Curtain? Nobody just "emigrated" from the USSR.
You find a lot of interesting history content. Wish the American History Channel was like this, actually showing history documentaries, not reality things or crap about aliens.
My pleasure!
@Oskar Dirlewanger
Not to forget fictional stories about the Vikings.
Hey I almost got a degree in Alien history from southwest central state university.
He has mastered the skill of googling and finding low quality footage, no doubt
Well, aliens are at least a bit more interesting than individuals living in swamps, running pawn shops and finding antiques in people's junk sheds.
527k views in 16 hours. Jesus Christ Mark! Lol
Oh hi mat
@Ryan Knox yeah
Ryan Knox Shhh... Mark is fine with us calling him his first name.
@Ryan Knox i hope youre not serious
@Lucas Nederlandse Patriot tool
There was an American paratrooper who was captured on D-Day, spent time as a POW, escaped and joined up with a Russian tank unit and fought with them til the end of the war, he was wounded during service with the Red Army and introduced to U.S. army officers by Marshal Zhukov. Talk about a unbelievable war experience.
His son became the US ambassador to Russia.
From 1961 through 1963 I was stationed at Spangdahlem Air Force Base in Germany. I was quartered in Barracks 126, much of the ground floor of which was divided into large rooms which housed male DPs from the Baltic States who were in uniformed service units. I remember that they had shoulder patches which designated their country of origin: Lithuania, Estonia, or Latvia. I believe they did maintenance tasks around the base to aid the roads and grounds unit. They kept to themselves, drank a lot on weekends, and seemed to be a desperately unhappy group of people. I have often wondered if any of them survived to be repatriated after the fall of communism.
I highly recommend the movie "1944". It's an Estonian WWII movie.
Have you got an IMDB link for us?
@@Simonsvids You just go on IMDb and type ''1944'' in the search bar.
Mark thanks again for a great video. My father was a lithuanian who worked with the German army from 41 to 44 in Vilnius.He fled when the Russians came back in 44. He wound up in Stuttgart , at 17 yrs old, met my mom, and emigrate to the states in the early 50s.Keep up the good work, your videos would make any network proud!!
Son you always hit it out of the park every time.
A 71yrs old Feltonite
Keep educating us who are probably not worth it
Very interesting. I used to work with a guy that his parents immigrated to the US from Latvia after the war. He had a lot of interesting stories from his parents. Thank you mr Felton, another great video.
As a Latvian this was a hard part of history. We didn't want communism but most of us didn't want to go genocide way. There were of course fanatics but it shouldn't make all of people accountable for crimes. Some people like to do that.
Yet another fascinating aspect of the post WW2 period.
"You have guard duty at 3 and your trial starts at 6"
Thx for that. They also had Wehrmacht and Kriegsmarine units in service for mine clearance after the war. And of cource Feldjäger (MPs).
he did a video on that
ua-cam.com/video/JX298Aoxdus/v-deo.html
That Dutch movie of kids clearing that beach minefield? That was raw.
which is against the geneva convention to use prisoners for such purposes also why did eisenhower re classify the pow's as dec's? prison of war to disarmed enemy combatants? lawyer speak to get around the geneva convention and what happened to all those DEC? hmmmm comeon felton fess up
Often with very little equipment though, so casualties were quite high
@@Seatux Land of Mine is the English title, good movie
The Baltic situation was very sad, you had conscripted Estonians in the German army vs conscripted Estonians in the Red army and the same for Latvia and Lithuania. There were many volunteers but many were conscripts forced to kill their fellow countrymen by evil foreign ideologies of Nazism and Communism.
And capitalism, and regionalism, and any other -ism. It's ridiculous to watch you people engage in mental gymnastics to rationalize the lack of objectivity in your assessment. No such thing as being forced to do anything; you won't ever in your life force me to commit genocide, I'd rather be dead than get busy exterminating countless ethnic groups just because it's either me personally, or them collectively. If someone enlists in the communist ranks, he's a communist, if it's nazis - he's a nazi; if it's capitalist - you're a capitalist; if it's all of the above - you're just a tool of murder and nothing more.
@@caxaptt6514 mad commie is mad
@@caxaptt6514 You sound exactly like someone who would've been a Nazi, judging by your obvious communist tendencies. You're controlled and don't realize it.
@@reizayin You sound like someone that spends all day on social media, trying to be the moral judge of people that dont care about you.
@@doggie7602 and you sound butthurt on another persons behalf
I didn't get to West Germany until 1960. I arrived as a teenaged American Army brat -- the son of an American officer. But I heard so many stories about the early Occupation from my parents' friends, this video seems almost like a memory to me. It was a good time to be an American kid overseas, both in Europe and the Far East -- the best time of my life. Thanks for this, Mr. Felton.
Another great video, thanks Mark👍
4:31 that's one lucky guy right there
Ya... he needs his own documentary lol. I wonder if he found that helmet? Or was he just lucky
"So Rasmus, what did you do during the war?"
"I served in the German then American militaries."
"Oh yeah? What branches did you serve in?"
"The SS and the Army, respectively."
"Oh...what did you do in the US Army?"
"Guarded Nazi officials"
@@Clancy192 pense!
@@Clancy192 ...not to forget the large numbers of SS and SD that went on to create the CIA out of the OSS
@@TheWolfsnack operation paperclip.
@@TheWolfsnack Or the large numbers that went to serve in the foreign legion later on ;)
“I guarded the YMCA swimming pool.”
The old adage comes to mind: The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
dakota Also the adage:”Honor amongst thieves”
You could say the allies used what was at Hand. And for a working post-war Germany the Allies put a lot of former small time Nazis into Administration positions.
Athrun82 good point🤔👍
@Alien Alien Just wanted to point out that the Allies needed experienced people and they weren't so blinded by "Make Germany Nazi-free" despite all their rhetoric beforehand
@@Athrun82 Estonians were not Nazis though :)
I have never been disappointed in the least with any of your productions, Mr. Felton. This was another fantastic video!
I must say, being an Estonian, I had heard of it (my grandfather was among Waffen-SS conscripts) but not in particular detail. Thanks for the video. And you are correct: men who served in Waffen-SS generally went to Siberia after Soviets got their hands on them.
Sounds reasonable to me. I mean sending to Gulag is a very merciful, taking into account what ss have done to USSR
@@Gedd84 Getting shot by a fire squad is more merciful than being sent to a Gulag.
Temujin in Gulag a person can make suicide anytime. Life is precious, nobody wants to die. And, after all, many prisoners eventually returned to their home
@@Gedd84 never mind taking into account what the USSR did to Germany.
@@TemujinTheKhan Not really. Gulag is simply a labor camp. My great grandfather spent 10 years there. A lot of German POWs actually died on the way to the Gulags because they suffered from malnutrition and diseases, especially those that were captured at Stalingrad. The Soviet soldiers escorting them barely had any food for themselves and they had to share it with the German prisoners. Anyway, people always talk about the thousands of German POWs who never returned home, nobody remembers that 10 times more Soviet prisoners died while in German custody however.