Waffen-SS Soldiers Guarded the Nuremberg Trials

[Music] between November 1945 and April 1949 a series of war crimes trials were convened in the bomb ravaged German city of Nuremberg the most famous was the first trial that concluded on the 1st of October 1946 of the top German leaders taken prisoner at the end of the war including Hermann Goering head of the Luftwaffe and Hitler's successor since 1941 academicians inner dragon iterated not guilty Calder Nets head of the Navy and the man Hitler appointed his successor after Goering x' fall from grace and rudolf hess Hitler's deputy until he flew to Scotland on an alleged peace mission in 1941 Rudolf here in all 24 former leaders were tried to committed suicide in prison and 10 were executed by hanging how most of the others received long prison sentences further trials of numeron burg were conducted by the u.s. 12 trials of high-level German officials of the Nazi government military and SS as well as medical professionals and leading industrialists 199 people in total were triad at numeron Berg's Palace of Justice a hundred and sixty-one were convicted and 37 received the death penalty but you may be interested to know that guarding these war crime suspects was largely in the hands of former SS soldiers and not American troops this is the extraordinary story of the SS who guarded the numeron burg trials the Palace of Justice was one of the few remaining relatively intact buildings in nuuma burg in 1945 when the city fell to advancing US forces it was decided to hold the International Military Tribunal in the city because it was the symbolic home of Nazism where the great pre-war rallies to him held the building was large enough to host such a massive trial and handily had its own prison to the rear to house the accused security would be paramount both around and inside the court and to prevent the accused from committing suicide or escaping regular US troops were assigned to guard the Palace of Justice drawn from the 26th Infantry Regiment other units were military police all men wore a special shoulder patch that incorporated the only swastika to appear on allied uniforms showing the swastika being symbolically weighed on the scales of justice however a new unit was to be added to the numeron burg trials guard detail to help the US Army's secure not only the Palace of Justice but a whole series of buildings throughout the city connected with the trials incredibly this unit was raised from the remnants of a vivan SS unit in 1940 the Soviet Union had invaded and occupied the three Baltic states of Latvia Lithuania and Estonia Stalin imposed full communist rule upon them as well as the full force of the Soviet police state carrying out mass deportations in 1941 of quote enemies of the people unquote unsurprisingly many of the citizens of these nations wanted independence and when the Germans conquered the Baltics later in 1941 they were greeted by many as liberators [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the Botha Germans did not grant independence many Baltic state citizens were virulent ly anti-communist and collaborated actively with the Nazis in the summer of 1942 the waffen-ss raised the Estonian Legion which by March 1943 had a strength of 970 men it was progressively expanded to a brigade and then a division partially recruited by conscription as a division it fought on the Eastern Front against the Soviets from February to September 1944 in the meantime in August 1941 onwards the Germans had recruited Latvians into the chutes Mannschaft an auxiliary police battalions which by 1944 numbered over 40 in February 1943 Hitler ordered the formation of the Latvian volunteer Legion and subsequently two waffen-ss divisions the 15th and 19th waffen-ss Grenadier divisions each of 15,000 men were founded fast-forwarding to the end of the war in May 1945 the remnants of these Latvian and Estonian SS units found themselves surrendering to American and British troops they became DPS or displaced persons has to return to the Baltic States then under Soviet occupation again would have meant deportation to Siberia or even execution but there was no home for them in Western Europe either they lived in shabby camps or in woods and barely subsisted a group of Estonian SS officers decided to approach the Americans with an offer the Americans were happy to accept and enthusiastically use Estonians and other Baltic citizens why well immediately after the war huge numbers of US servicemen were demobilized under the point system and sent stateside the army reducing massively in size it was also busy concluding military operations in the occupation zones of Germany and guarding against a future Soviet invasion of Western Europe the US Army officially declared that recruiting former waffen-ss from the Baltic States was okay because although the SS were an outlawed paramilitary organization the u.s. understood that Estonian and Latvian soldiers had served in it as conscripts and not as ideological volunteers which is partly true though a hard core of anti-communist had volunteered to fight for the Germans the Estonians and Latvians were in a terrible position unable to return home but unable to survive as displaced persons so volunteering was the one way out of this terrible situation the u.s. already had polish and other Eastern European units in its civilian labor corps but not former SS the first Estonian unit consisted of only 17 men who guarded the numeron burg u.s. army canteen and headquarters American officers was so impressed by the Estonians that permission was granted to form a full guard company 300 Estonians 92% of whom were former waffen-ss soldiers were sent to Mannheim for two months training in US military drill weapons and practices on Christmas Eve 1946 the Estonian guard company for two-to-one was officially founded commanded by former ss-hauptsturmführer V tre the company was formed of six armed platoons and a staff platoon each 40-man guard platoon consisted of four squads and the 30-man staff platoon consisted of medics drivers supply clark's cooks carpenters and mechanics standard uniform were black Eisenhower jackets with a white belt and a blue m1 helmet liner a special badge with the Estonian national colours was worn primary armament was the u.s. m1 carbine latvian guard company was also formed along the same lines again with almost exclusively former waffen-ss grenadiers the Estonian and Latvian troops were nearly all fluent in English and German making them particularly useful in guarding the numeron burg trials and they were based in the former Horrocks party barracks behind the old Nazi Party rally grounds in the city US soldiers from the 26th Infantry Regiment manned the security checkpoints into the Palace of Justice and also provided guards in the courtroom and the prison and escorted the prisoners to and from their cells and mounted suicide watch on them Estonian guard companies six two-to-one guarded the exterior of the courthouse and patrolled the perimeter they also guarded the attache prison and various storage depots for petrol coal ammunition and food guarded the YMCA and the swimming pools and residences used by US and allied prosecutors judges and senior US officers at the numeron burg trials many had day-to-day contact with Nazi prisoners which seems extraordinary considering the Estonians background but us officers consistently reported on the company in the highest possible terms during the Berlin Airlift when Stalin tried to force the Americans British and French to give up their occupation zones in West Berlin by cutting off food and fuel to the millions of Germans living there the Estonian company was transferred to the forest near the border between the main US occupation zone in western Germany and the Soviet zone where they secured the most important field storage centers of the US Army before transferring to Stuttgart to guard the local US Corps headquarters thereafter the members of the Estonian guard company left US service and many emigrated to the u.s. Canada Belgium Sweden and Australia thanks for watching please subscribe and share and also visit my other youtube channel war stories with mark Felton you can also help support both of my channels at PayPal and patreon details in the description box below [Music]

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 3,539,661

Rating: 4.9243007 out of 5

Keywords: Mark Felton Productions, Waffen-SS, Nuremberg Trials

Id: _qcEFnGeZ6A

Length: 10min 28sec (628 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 29 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/cuntdstryer42069]

The Video is about Estonian SS Volunteers, who would have been dead if they'll would get back to estonia due to the ussr. They'll volunteerd to the americans and were guards in the trials.

[u/jimboslice29]

Cool video just subscribed to the YouTube channel.

[u/Praetorian709]

Before I clicked on the video, I was thinking hmm this seems like something that would be on Mark Feltons channel.

[u/arjundiwaker]

Mark Felton is the best ww2 youtuber hands down

[u/kenyuu666]

marks the goat

[u/roachcasper]

Very interesting thanks for sharing 👍

[u/the_ultimate_Lada]

Thanks for this upload, great video about what happened to the Baltic SS. Can anyone help me figure out the Latvian Labor service company at 7.33? I see the 4221 Estonian, but all I can see of the other is _820 labor service, Latvian

[u/Dimitrije336]

Mark is great!
His videos have some old vibe to it. They are simple, straight to the point-just as we like 'em.

[u/Guru_Woodman]

Mark Felton is my hero. His uploads are incredible.