Today I'll show a Soldbuch I recently acquired, it is a bit of a special one but before I go the personal story of the soldier I will tell the story of the unit he served in, Hitler's strangest division.
Like in most armies around the world, those with criminal records are excluded of army service, Nazi Germany wasn't any different but in April 1942 the German army was desperately searching for men, the "Blitzkrieg" against the Soviet Union had not only failed, the army also had suffered terrible losses and it was clear the war wasn't going to be over soon.
And it was during this desperate search that the German government changed their conscription laws, from now one all those that had served/or were serving a prison sentence of less then six years could be called up for army service but not only petty criminals could now be called up to serve, also those detained in concentration camps under the protective custody laws and those declared morally unfit to serve in the army by the Gestapo became potential conscripts.
The local draft offices went to work immediately and between October 1942 and April 1943 11.800 men that previously were found morally unfit entered military service, enough to form an entirely new division.
About 2/3 of these men were common criminals such as thieves, black marketers,...etc the other 1/3 were those that were under scrutiny of the Gestapo: members of the communist party, former members of the international brigades that fought in the Spanish civil war, ex French foreign legionnaires,...etc.
It was also decided that these men should be kept together in one unit with officers and NCO's that had good military records; because the large amount of communists in their ranks the army didn't see it as a good idea to sent this newly created unit to the eastern front, where it was easy for them to desert and join their fellow communists in the partisan army, thus it was decided to sent them to Africa and so the 999th Light Africa Division was born.
At the end of October 1942 training of the new recruits started in Heuberg; to train and motivate these inmates the carrot and stick method was used, the carrot being that a promise was made that if they served honourably on the front for six months they would have their criminal records erased.
Not many took the carrot, 1/3 of them had seen Gestapo prisons and concentration camps from the inside and they knew perfectly well what the Nazi regime was capable of and they were far from willing to risk their lives in combat for Nazi Germany.
The stick was that all those that tried to desert or wouldn't cooperate would be executed; already in December 1942 the first soldiers were shot by a firing squad in front of the ranks (the CO of ASR962 filmed one of these executions with his pocket camera).
In January 1943 they transferred to Belgium to a barrack camp near Antwerp to complete their infantry training, there another seven soldiers were executed by firing squad, another four were guillotined in Brandenburg prison because they refused to serve because of religious reasons.
Mid February 1943 they were transferred to Southern France, here they came in to contact with the French communist resistance, the so called maquis, now the communist could work together with their French party members and organize desertion and sabotage, this of course let to more executions.
At the end of March 1943 parts of the 999th Division were transferred to Tunisia were they were put in the frontline in Kairouan, Heidous and Djebel Dardyss; despite that some units fought indeed well, their were also reports of soldiers (mainly communists) deserting to the allies. The communist resistance wasn't capable of organizing mass desertions but growing number of individual desertions made the German HQ issuing orders to take harsh measures to prevent further desertions: in case of desertion to the enemy one of every tenth soldier should be executed, also they got serious doubts about the usefulness of this type of penal unit in combat, as a result the remainder of the 999th Division after the capitulation of the DAK in May 1943 was transferred to the Greek islands were an allied landing was expected.
In Greece more soldiers deserted and joined the local partisan units, eventually in October 1943 the politically unreliable +/- 2.000 men were removed from the unit and transferred to non armed units of the OT and used as labourers.
Kurt Gläser (°1916) a lathe operator from Chemnitz, was a small guy 5ft1 that had lost two fingers of his left hand, he was one of the first members of the 999th Division in November 1942.
After a short stay with the staff company of I/Afrika Schützen Regiment 961, he joined the 8th company of ASR962.
Mid February 1943, when his unit arrives in Southern France he is issued a rifle, bayonet, spade and a MG cleaning kit and on April 14 1943 he lands in Tunisia, where he will end up in allied hands.
Their is a Russian army stamp of 1946 in his Soldbuch so I presume that after the war he returns to the Soviet occupied zone.
Not much entries in this Soldbuch but once you know the history of his unit it makes it a very special one.
A nice detail in his Soldbuch is the page glued on the inside cover, it explains how he must report himself in case he lost his unit and not only does he need to report back asap he also needs to account for every day he was lost with a written statement made by an officer or senior NCO that explains his absence.
Like in most armies around the world, those with criminal records are excluded of army service, Nazi Germany wasn't any different but in April 1942 the German army was desperately searching for men, the "Blitzkrieg" against the Soviet Union had not only failed, the army also had suffered terrible losses and it was clear the war wasn't going to be over soon.
And it was during this desperate search that the German government changed their conscription laws, from now one all those that had served/or were serving a prison sentence of less then six years could be called up for army service but not only petty criminals could now be called up to serve, also those detained in concentration camps under the protective custody laws and those declared morally unfit to serve in the army by the Gestapo became potential conscripts.
The local draft offices went to work immediately and between October 1942 and April 1943 11.800 men that previously were found morally unfit entered military service, enough to form an entirely new division.
About 2/3 of these men were common criminals such as thieves, black marketers,...etc the other 1/3 were those that were under scrutiny of the Gestapo: members of the communist party, former members of the international brigades that fought in the Spanish civil war, ex French foreign legionnaires,...etc.
It was also decided that these men should be kept together in one unit with officers and NCO's that had good military records; because the large amount of communists in their ranks the army didn't see it as a good idea to sent this newly created unit to the eastern front, where it was easy for them to desert and join their fellow communists in the partisan army, thus it was decided to sent them to Africa and so the 999th Light Africa Division was born.
At the end of October 1942 training of the new recruits started in Heuberg; to train and motivate these inmates the carrot and stick method was used, the carrot being that a promise was made that if they served honourably on the front for six months they would have their criminal records erased.
Not many took the carrot, 1/3 of them had seen Gestapo prisons and concentration camps from the inside and they knew perfectly well what the Nazi regime was capable of and they were far from willing to risk their lives in combat for Nazi Germany.
The stick was that all those that tried to desert or wouldn't cooperate would be executed; already in December 1942 the first soldiers were shot by a firing squad in front of the ranks (the CO of ASR962 filmed one of these executions with his pocket camera).
In January 1943 they transferred to Belgium to a barrack camp near Antwerp to complete their infantry training, there another seven soldiers were executed by firing squad, another four were guillotined in Brandenburg prison because they refused to serve because of religious reasons.
Mid February 1943 they were transferred to Southern France, here they came in to contact with the French communist resistance, the so called maquis, now the communist could work together with their French party members and organize desertion and sabotage, this of course let to more executions.
At the end of March 1943 parts of the 999th Division were transferred to Tunisia were they were put in the frontline in Kairouan, Heidous and Djebel Dardyss; despite that some units fought indeed well, their were also reports of soldiers (mainly communists) deserting to the allies. The communist resistance wasn't capable of organizing mass desertions but growing number of individual desertions made the German HQ issuing orders to take harsh measures to prevent further desertions: in case of desertion to the enemy one of every tenth soldier should be executed, also they got serious doubts about the usefulness of this type of penal unit in combat, as a result the remainder of the 999th Division after the capitulation of the DAK in May 1943 was transferred to the Greek islands were an allied landing was expected.
In Greece more soldiers deserted and joined the local partisan units, eventually in October 1943 the politically unreliable +/- 2.000 men were removed from the unit and transferred to non armed units of the OT and used as labourers.
Kurt Gläser (°1916) a lathe operator from Chemnitz, was a small guy 5ft1 that had lost two fingers of his left hand, he was one of the first members of the 999th Division in November 1942.
After a short stay with the staff company of I/Afrika Schützen Regiment 961, he joined the 8th company of ASR962.
Mid February 1943, when his unit arrives in Southern France he is issued a rifle, bayonet, spade and a MG cleaning kit and on April 14 1943 he lands in Tunisia, where he will end up in allied hands.
Their is a Russian army stamp of 1946 in his Soldbuch so I presume that after the war he returns to the Soviet occupied zone.
Not much entries in this Soldbuch but once you know the history of his unit it makes it a very special one.
A nice detail in his Soldbuch is the page glued on the inside cover, it explains how he must report himself in case he lost his unit and not only does he need to report back asap he also needs to account for every day he was lost with a written statement made by an officer or senior NCO that explains his absence.
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