The Dirlewanger Brigade, also known as the SS-Sturmbrigade Dirlewanger (1944), or the 36th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, or The Black Hunters, was a unit of the Waffen-SS during World War II. The unit, named after its commander Oskar Dirlewanger, consisted of convicted criminals. Originally formed from convicted poachers in 1940 and first deployed for counter-insurgency duties against the Polish resistance movement, the brigade saw service in German-occupied Eastern Europe, with an especially active role in the anti-partisan operations in Belarus. The unit is regarded as the single most brutal and notorious Waffen-SS unit, with its soldiers described as the "ideal genocidal killers who neither gave nor expected quarter".
Oskar Dirlewanger in 1944
Members of the SS-Sturmbrigade "Dirlewanger" in central Warsaw in 1944.
Polish civilians murdered in the Wola massacre in Warsaw, August 1944
Photograph depicting Polish civilians murdered by SS forces during the Warsaw Uprising in the Wola district, August 1944
Oskar Dirlewanger was a German SS commander and habitual offender, convicted of rape and other crimes, he is known for committing numerous war crimes in German-occupied territories during World War II. Dirlewanger was the founder and commander of the SS penal unit, the Dirlewanger Brigade, considered to be the most brutal and notorious Waffen-SS unit. He advocated for the terrorist warfare of the SS in its most brutal form and is regarded as being perhaps the Nazi regime's "most extreme executioner".
Dirlewanger in 1944
Polish civilians murdered in the Wola massacre by Dirlewanger's men. Warsaw, August 1944
Dirlewanger's men in central Warsaw in 1944