Lithuanian units.

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Paulkd
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Joined: Thu Oct 30, 2008 7:54 pm

Lithuanian units.

Post by Paulkd »

A MOP at Horndean was talking bikes with me an he mentioned that his grandad had served with the Germans in WW2, he was Lithuanian. Can anyone tell me what role Lithuanian volounteers had in the german forces?


http://www.feldgrau.com/lith.html

This is interesting, the chaps grandad when pressed says he cant remember what unit he served with, might be unwise for him to remember!
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Brigardefuhrer
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Re: Lithuanian units.

Post by Brigardefuhrer »

Hi Paul,
There were also 'special security police units'. :oops: giving you wrong info before about ss divs (Himmler would not allow Lithuanians in the SS on the grounds they were politically unreliable and racially inferior.) read the book wrong,getting my Latts mixed up my Liths.
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warlord
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Re: Lithuanian units.

Post by warlord »

Himmler had nothing to do with Lithuania not having a waffen ss legion/ division, in february 1943 the idea to form a Lithuanian waffen ss legion came around but the Lithuanian political leaders refused to support the idea because of allocating more man power to the German forces, so the Germans dropped the idea on the 17th of march. Hope this helps
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Jooooonas
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Re: Lithuanian units.

Post by Jooooonas »

This is summary of my Bachelor. I hope it will help you a little. Sorry for my english. Anyway, if you have more questions, I think I'm able to answer them.

P.s. there were also Lithuanian Police battalions (Schuma).

Summary
Mobilization Campaigns of the Nazi Occupational Government in Lithuania (1942-1944)
This bachelor thesis focuses on the mobilization campaigns of Nazi Occupation Government in Lithuania 1942-1944. The main object of this work is to find out where, for which purposes and under which circumstances Lithuanians were mobilized. The following questions will be answered: how the mobilization campaigns were performed, while Lithuania was under the Nazi occupation regime? How Germans succeeded to mobilize Lithuanians? What is the Lithuanian self-administration contribution in mobilizing people? Which tools were used by the Germans to mobilize Lithuanian people for their aims; which repressions were used, when they failed?
Lithuanians were mobilized almost the entire occupation period. There were two different types of mobilization campaigns. Sometimes Lithuanians were mobilized to work in German industrial plants. The second kind of mobilizations were into military units, in which Lithuanians were asked to fight on the Eastern front or against Soviet partisans in the eastern Lithuania. In the beginning registration was voluntary and Lithuanians gladly went to Germany. Later, when their realized, that Germans are the same occupants as the Soviets were, they began to boycott the mobilizations. Germans were forced to use repressive measures, because the working labour was desperately needed. About 60 000 people were settled into Germany, only about 20 000 went as volunteers. The rest were taken through a number of repressive measures. Lithuanians were also mobilized to Reich Labour Service, transport support units and construction battalions. When the Germans have failed to mobilize people on a voluntary basis, they tried to do it by the hands of Lithuanian self-administration. But Lithuanians tried to allocate quotas between the regions, where many Poles and Byelorussian’s lived. About 16 000 people were mobilized into military units. The biggest attempts of mobilization campaigns were into Lithuanian SS legion and Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force (Lithuanian: Lietuvos Vietinė rinktinė, German: Litauische Sonderverbände). Germans failed to organize Lithuanian SS legion, mobilization was boycotted, while the formation of the Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force was soon completed. The success of the fast formation was resulted by the fact, that this unit had to act only in the territory of Lithuania, and had to be led by Lithuanian officers. However, when German’s deceit turned out, Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force was disbanded. In many cases, after the failure of mobilizations, Germans started repressions against Lithuanian people. After the failure to organize SS legion, Germans took some of Lithuanian intellectuals to concentration camps, Lithuanian universities and high schools were closed. After the dissolution of Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force some of its soldiers were taken into concentration camps, some were shot and the other were deported to Germany, where they had to serve the anti-aircraft defense service.
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