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From April 1940 forward, Himmler began recruiting men for the Waffen-SS from among the West and Northern European people of Norway and the Low Countries. [1] In 1941, the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking composed of Flemish, Dutch, Danish, and Norwegian volunteers was formed and placed under German command. [ 2 ]
After Germany invaded the Soviet Union during Operation Barbarossa, recruits from France, Spain, Belgium, the territory of occupied Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and the Balkans were signed on. [16] By February 1942, Waffen-SS recruitment in south-east Europe turned into compulsory conscription for all German minorities of military age. [17]
The military training area was established in 1907 by clearing at least 58 smaller villages, [3] and used to train troops for the III Royal Bavarian Corps. [1] [4] Undergoing a major expansion from 96 to 230 square kilometres (37 to 89 square miles) in 1938 and forcibly evicting more than 3,500 people from their villages, [3] the base was used by the Wehrmacht to practice blitzkrieg tactics.
The Nazis also operated concentration camps, some of which provided free forced labor for industrial and other jobs while others existed purely for the extermination of their inmates. A notable example is Mittelbau-Dora labor camp complex that serviced the production of the V-2 rocket. See List of German concentration camps for more.
In June 1945, the camp was appropriated by the US Army administration of postwar Germany's American sector, for the purpose of housing international refugees. The camp's initial population comprised refugees of Jewish, Yugoslavian, Hungarian, and Baltic origin.
The Trawniki training camp was dismantled in July 1944 because of the approaching frontline. [1] The last 1,000 Hiwis forming the SS Battalion Streibel led by Karl Streibel himself, [23] were transported west to still functioning death camps. [1] The Jews of the adjacent Trawniki labor camp were massacred in November 1943 during Aktion Erntefest.
British prisoners were held in separate camps all over Germany. [ citation needed ] Part of the facilities were used as Oflag XIII-A for officers. In this camp during August 1940, prisoners of war celebrated a "special Olympics" called International Prisoner-of-War Olympic Games where prisoners of Belgium, France, Great Britain, Norway, Poland ...
No camps were built on the territory of Germany's allies that enjoyed even nominal independence. [95] Each camp housed either men, women, or a mixed population. Women's camps were mostly for armaments production and located primarily in northern Germany, Thuringia, or the Sudetenland, while men's camps had a wider geographical distribution. Sex ...