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The Tatar Legions were auxiliary units of the Waffen-SS formed after the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.
It included:
The Waffen-SS was the military branch of the Nazi Party's SS organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with volunteers and conscripts from both occupied and unoccupied lands.
The British Free Corps was a unit of the Waffen-SS of Nazi Germany during World War II, made up of British and Dominion prisoners of war who had been recruited by Germany. The unit was originally known as the Legion of St George. Research by British historian Adrian Weale has identified 54 men who belonged to this unit at one time or another, some for only a few days. At no time did it reach more than 27 men in strength.
The Waffen Grenadier Brigade of the SS Charlemagne was a unit of the Waffen-SS formed in September 1944 from French collaborationists many of whom were already serving in various other German units. Named after the 9th-century Frankish king, it superseded the existing Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism formed in 1941 within the German Army (Wehrmacht) and the SS-Volunteer Sturmbrigade France formed in July 1943, both of which were disbanded the same month. It also drafted in French recruits from other German military and paramilitary formations and Miliciens who had fled ahead of the Allied Liberation of France.
Gottlob Christian Berger was a senior German Nazi official who held the rank of SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS and was the chief of the SS Main Office responsible for Schutzstaffel (SS) recruiting during World War II. After the war, he was convicted as a war criminal and spent six and a half years in prison. While serving in the German Army during World War I, he was wounded four times and awarded the Iron Cross First Class. Immediately after the war, he was a leader of the Einwohnerwehr militia in his native North Württemberg. He joined the Nazi Party in 1922 but lost interest in right-wing politics during the 1920s, training and working as a physical education teacher.
The 11th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division Nordland was a Waffen-SS division recruited from foreign volunteers and conscripts. It saw action, as part of Army Group North, in the Independent State of Croatia and on the Eastern Front during World War II.
Non-Germans in the German armed forces during World War II were volunteers, conscripts and those otherwise induced to join who served in Nazi Germany's armed forces during World War II. In German war-time propaganda those who volunteered for service were referred to as Freiwillige ("volunteers"). At the same time, many non-Germans in the German armed forces were conscripts or recruited from prisoner-of-war camps.
The Flemish Legion was a collaborationist military formation recruited among Dutch-speaking volunteers from German-occupied Belgium, notably from Flanders, during World War II. It was formed in the aftermath of the German invasion of the Soviet Union and fought on the Eastern Front in the Waffen SS alongside similar formations from other parts of German-occupied Western Europe.
The 20th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS was a foreign infantry division of the Waffen-SS, an armed branch of the German Nazi Party that served alongside but was never formally part of the Wehrmacht during World War II. According to some sources, the division was under Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler's overall command but was not an integral part of the Schutzstaffel (SS). It was officially activated on 24 January 1944, and many of its soldiers had been members of the Estonian Legion and/or the 3rd Estonian SS Volunteer Brigade, which had been fighting as part of German forces since August 1942 and October 1943 respectively. Both of the preceding formations drew their personnel from German-occupied Estonia. Shortly after its official activation, widespread conscription within Estonia was announced by the German occupying authorities. The division was formed in Estonia around a cadre comprising the 3rd Estonian SS Volunteer Brigade, and was initially known as the 20th Estonian SS Volunteer Division.
Azerbaijani SS volunteer formations were recruited from prisoners of war, mainly from the Soviet Union and from the countries annexed by it after 1939. They were organised to fight against the Soviet Union on the side of Nazi Germany.
The Latvian Legion was a formation of the German Waffen-SS during World War II. Created in 1943, it consisted primarily of ethnic Latvian personnel. The legion consisted of two divisions of the Waffen-SS: the 15th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, and the 19th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS. The 15th Division was administratively subordinated to the VI SS Corps, but operationally it was in reserve or at the disposal of the XXXXIII Army Corps, 16th Army, Army Group North. The 19th Division held out in the Courland Pocket until May 1945, the close of World War II, when it was among the last of Nazi Germany's forces to surrender.
The 29th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS also Legione SS Italiana was an SS formation of Nazi Germany during World War II. It was originally created in the puppet Italian Social Republic in 1943 as the Italian Legion, later renamed to a brigade. The unit was upgraded to division status on 10 February 1945.
The Azerbaijani Legion was one of the foreign units of the Wehrmacht. It was formed in December 1941 on the Eastern Front as the Kaukasische-Mohammedanische Legion and was re-designated 1942 into two separate legions, the North Caucasian legion and the Azerbaijani legion. It was made up mainly of former Azerbaijani POW volunteers but also volunteers from other peoples in the area. It was part of the Ostlegionen. It was used to form the 162nd (Turkistan) Infanterie-Division of the Wehrmacht in 1943. Later, some of these Azerbaijanis joined the Azeri Waffen SS Volunteer Formations.
The Estonian Legion was a military unit within the Combat Support Forces of the Waffen SS during World War II, mainly consisting of Estonian soldiers.
The 2nd SS Infantry Brigade (mot.) was formed on the 15 May 1941, under the command of Karl Fischer von Treuenfeld with the 4th and 5th SS Infantry Regiments and began its operational service in September in the Army Group North Rear Area, under which command it would spend its entire existence. It gradually began to incorporate foreign legions of the SS under its operational control. After the western legions departed for refit, it began operating with Latvian volunteer formations and eventually was redesignated the 2nd Latvian SS Infantry Brigade and on the 18 May 1943, and used as the cadre in the formation of the Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS in January 1944.
During World War II, the Waffen-SS recruited significant numbers of non-Germans, both as volunteers and conscripts. In total some 500,000 non-Germans and ethnic Germans from outside Germany, mostly from German-occupied Europe, were recruited between 1940 and 1945. The units were under the control of the SS Führungshauptamt beneath Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler. Upon mobilization, the units' tactical control was given to the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht.
During World War II, many military units formed of non-Russian volunteers were engaged on the Axis side on the Eastern Front and other theatres. These units were often under the command of German officers and some published their own propaganda newssheets.
Harun el-Raschid Bey, born Wilhelm Hintersatz was a German officer and SS Standartenführer, born in Senftenberg, Brandenburg. During World War II, he commanded the Osttürkischer Waffenverband division of the SS.
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