We all know that not only Germans fought in the Waffen-SS: it had Dutch, Danish, Norwegian,
Flemish and later also Walloon and French volunteers.
But did you know also Russians fought in the ranks of the Waffen-SS?
I've talked about Russian collaboration in WW2 and now it's time to study a specific
unit: the infamous SS RONA, also known as the Kaminski Brigade.
They were so brutal that even the SS distanced itself from it. Keep watching.
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On 22 June 1941, 3.6 million German and Axis soldiers invaded the USSR.
Despite severe losses against fierce Soviet resistance the Germans captured much ground
and also millions of Soviet POWs.
No preparations were made to accommodate that many prisoners.
Most were simply left to starve behind barbed wire.
“[T]ragic was the fate of the overwhelming majority of Russians who were willing to fight
on the side of the Germans.
They were by far the greatest potential resource that Hitler – under other circumstances
– could have mobilized in his war against Stalinism.
Instead, until 1942, they were classified as ‘subhumans’, the last vestiges of discrimination
not being lifted until the spring of 1945, with the Red Army already outside Berlin.”
Hitler forbade the use of Soviet labour and assistance in conquering the East.
Nevertheless, soon the first auxiliary volunteers were mobilized.
This happened in secret though, since Hitler was firmly against it.
The decision to recruit Soviet volunteers for the German cause was the result of a discussion
between nazi ideologists and pragmatists.
The Slavs and especially the Russians were seen as inferiour.
However: the Germans captured larged grounds and these
had to be pacified. These had to be brought under German control and also cleared of resistance activities.
As the war in the east demanded more manpower.
The first recruits were drawn mostly from non-Russian nationalities, mostly those of
the Caucasus and Turkestan.
Later Ukrainians and Cossacks were also recruited.
And eventually also Russians were able to join.
According to historian Richard Overy anound one million Soviet people joined the
the ranks of the Germans.
Several hundreds of thousands were Russian.
Perhaps even half a million, so that makes it a larger number of Russian collaborators
than there were Ukrainian collaborators.
The first Russian volunteers were called Hiwis, which stands for Hilswillige: auxiliary volunteers.
These were recruited out of military and logistical necessity.
Russian POW's could serve as interpreter, wagon and lorry drivers, cooks, medical orderlies,
messengers and ammunition carriers.
From August 1941 the Germans also established so-called Security Units (Sicherungsverbände).
Apart from Russians, some Ukrainians and Belorussians also served in these formations.
Their job was to patrol the rear area and clear these of partisan activities
In the meanwhile the SS raised local militia to do this job.
One of the volunteers was Bronislav Kaminski.
He would make a career in the branch of Russian collaborators
Late 1941 the 2nd Panzer Army conducted an experiment on its own initiative in the Bryansk
region.
During the autumn of 1941 in the small town of Lokot in Orel Province local anti-Soviet
militias were taking shape spontaneously.
As Soviet authority had vanished from the area.
Early October the first German reconaissance troops arrived in the region.
Technical-school teacher Konstantin Voskoboynik was seen by his students as an
gifted orater and welcomed them.
He delivered a speech at a local hospital where he declared:
“For 24 years we have not had the right to speak the truth, and it is only now, after
we have cast off the unendurable fetters of slavery and lies, that we can deliver a curse
on the scoundrel Stalin, who has drowned Russia in blood.”
A local administration was founded: Konstantin Voskoboynik became the mayor and his deputy
was Bronislav Kaminski.
Their armed squad was named the 'people's militia' and they made use of
Soviet weaponry.
By the end of the year small self-defence groups were set up to guard villages.
Voskoboynik was determined to fight partisans mercilessly.
They also made use of a local printshop to facilitate propaganda.
A twelve point program was issued, half of the points were devoted to land ownership.
Rank-and-file communist party members were allowed to go free as long as they hadn't committed
crimes against the local population.
The leaders of the Lokot Autonomous Region viewed their ideology as a varient
of Russian national socialism.
Voskoboynik was able to expand his rule.
The Germans weren't too keen on his political influence and setting up a political party, but hey,
they were happy that Voskoboynik wanted to fight against the partisans.
Several co-ordinated attacks by partisans on the Lokot leadership were undertaken.
In January 1942 Voskoboynik was killed in battle. He was succeeded by
his deputy Kaminsky. He was half-Polish, half-German. He from now on ran the Lokot.
I read different accounts on how he ran things.
Here is what Richard Overy wrote:
“Backed by 10,000 men and thousands of camp followers, Kaminsky was left to pacify the
region as he saw fit.
His forces became part of the pretentiously titled Russian National Army of Liberation,
though they liberated little save other people’s possessions.”
Another historians wrote the following:
“Schools and cultural facilities flourished, and a cleverly contrived tax system rewarded
anti-Communist activities.
Kaminski gained particular popularity by abolishing the hated kolkhoz system.
He doled out land to merited anti-partisans who then farmed these lands as ‘soldier-peasants’
(Wehrbauer), so to speak, generating surpluses – in stark contrast to German economic and
occupation policy in the rest of occupied Russia.”
So perhaps we can argue living conditions in the Lokot were better than elsewhere in the German-occupied
Russia but that doesn't say much, since life in the occupied USSR was already terrible enough.
If you have more information on how things were ran in the Lokot Region, let us know
in the comments.
So Kaminski's militia was named the Russian Liberation National Army (RONA).
It should not be confused with ROA: Russian Liberation Army of Andrey Vlasov.
I covered that in another video, see the link in the top right corner.
One year later the RONA had around 10,000 men and I read that also Russian Jews
served in this unit.
Most of his men were deserters from the partisans or came from the German POW camps.
Their equipment and uniforms were a hotchpotch of Soviet and German weaponry and uniforms.
If you look to this photo for example you see there is no standardization at all.
The situation changed in 1943 when the Germans began to withdraw.
In August 6,000 soldiers of the Kaminski Brigade and 25,000 civilians were evacuated to Byelorussia.
They now found themselves as an occupying army in a hostile environnement where powerful
partisan groups attacked them regularly.
One RONA unit defected to the partisans.
It was in the summer of 1944 that Himmler converted the demoralized unit into a regular
division of the Waffen-SS.
Now the SS RONA was born, also known as the 29th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (Russian
No. 1) with Kaminski as SS Brigadeführer.
In August 1944 they were directed to Warsaw to suppress the Polish uprising against the Germans.
Now here they built up a fearful reputation.
Their behaviour was appalling. They marauded their way through the city.
They slaughtered thousands of Polish civilians that left some ordinary SS men bewildered.
Their cruelty can be matched with the notorious Dirlewanger Brigade.
Because of their reckless and uncontrollable behaviour, as well as lack of military results,
commander Kaminski was shot on German orders.
“In the eyes of the Nazis, he was a low-grade Slav who had overstayed his welcome in the
ranks of his German masters.
The decision to dispose of him was taken at the end of August.
He was out of Warsaw on leave.
A fake car accident was staged near Lodz either to kill him or to cover the traces of his
earlier execution.”
The remnants of Kaminski's brigade would serve under General Vlasov in the 600th Infantry
Division (Russian), 1st Division of the KONR as Vlasov's Army was now called.
Early 1945 Vlasov's formation became nominally an ally of the German Reich.
The reality was more sober, as this example shows:
“[A]t Nuremberg Central Station, a Russian captain from Vlasov’s bodyguard was shot
on the spot by a sergeant from the station patrol during an altercation with German Luftwaffe
officers who refused to give him a proper seat.
The perpetrator went unpunished.”
As the war came to an end they moved west and surrendered to the Western Allies. However, shortly after most of these men were repatriated.
Many of them were executed and others served years in the Gulag prison system.
I read that a female executioner who worked for the Lokot Autonomy, named Antonina Makarova, escaped justice
but was arrested, put on trial and executed in the late 1970s.