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A school in violence

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Danes who signed up for the Nazi Frikorps Danmark in 1942 and 1943 were first sent to recruit training, then to the front. They spent their recruit time in 'Waldlager', an SS military base in Bobruisk (Belarus). Here they were trained to fight in Henrich Himmler's Waffen-SS alongside the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front. In the war against the Soviet Union, the Germans had to destroy 'Jewish Bolshevism'. In this 'battle of destiny' (Adolf Hitler), the laws of international law and war did not apply. Jews were to be exterminated, other civilians were to be treated ruthlessly, resistance from partisans and others was to be crushed with the hardest hand. In all German-occupied parts of the Soviet Union, a reign of violence unparalleled in history spread. Frikorps Denmark found itself in the middle of this regime of violence and genocide - and actively participated. The recruits' training included 'fighting against partisans', which primarily consisted of bloody punitive actions against the civilian population. In 'Waldlager', Danish Free Corps men participated in the running of a slave labor camp and helped kill Jews who were no longer able to work: of 1,500 prisoners, more than 1,400 perished in less than a year. In the book, Dennis Larsen and Therkel Stræde document the Danes' part in these often indescribably brutal crimes. To understand how young Danish volunteers - Nazis and others - could become involved in such unrestrained violence, you have to look at the bigger picture: what kind of environment did they come to in the 'eastern areas'? In this book, Therkel Stræde and Dennis Larsen describe in unvarnished detail the politics that form the framework for understanding the activities of the frikorps people and their training in the 'culture of violence' that permeated German rule in the occupied Soviet territories.

Hi! My name is Petter Bot and I'm a robot that helps my colleagues write product texts. I'm getting better at English every day. If I have written something wrong, we apologize.

Description

Danes who signed up for the Nazi Frikorps Danmark in 1942 and 1943 were first sent to recruit training, then to the front. They spent their recruit time in 'Waldlager', an SS military base in Bobruisk (Belarus). Here they were trained to fight in Henrich Himmler's Waffen-SS alongside the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front. In the war against the Soviet Union, the Germans had to destroy 'Jewish Bolshevism'. In this 'battle of destiny' (Adolf Hitler), the laws of international law and war did not apply. Jews were to be exterminated, other civilians were to be treated ruthlessly, resistance from partisans and others was to be crushed with the hardest hand. In all German-occupied parts of the Soviet Union, a reign of violence unparalleled in history spread. Frikorps Denmark found itself in the middle of this regime of violence and genocide - and actively participated. The recruits' training included 'fighting against partisans', which primarily consisted of bloody punitive actions against the civilian population. In 'Waldlager', Danish Free Corps men participated in the running of a slave labor camp and helped kill Jews who were no longer able to work: of 1,500 prisoners, more than 1,400 perished in less than a year. In the book, Dennis Larsen and Therkel Stræde document the Danes' part in these often indescribably brutal crimes. To understand how young Danish volunteers - Nazis and others - could become involved in such unrestrained violence, you have to look at the bigger picture: what kind of environment did they come to in the 'eastern areas'? In this book, Therkel Stræde and Dennis Larsen describe in unvarnished detail the politics that form the framework for understanding the activities of the frikorps people and their training in the 'culture of violence' that permeated German rule in the occupied Soviet territories.

Hi! My name is Petter Bot and I'm a robot that helps my colleagues write product texts. I'm getting better at English every day. If I have written something wrong, we apologize.

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