Oskar Paul Dirlewanger 26 September β c. Dirlewanger was the commander of the SS penal unit known as the Dirlewanger Brigade , [ 1 ] considered to be the most brutal and notorious Waffen-SS unit. Dirlewanger had an impressive career as a junior officer during World War I. Serving mostly in Poland and Belarus , he has been closely linked to many atrocities, being responsible for the deaths of at least tens of thousands. The Dirlewanger family was of Swabian origin. He completed his Abitur in Dirlewanger never married and he stood 1.
He received the Iron Cross 2nd Class and 1st Class, having been wounded six times, and finished the war with the rank of lieutenant, in charge of a company on the Eastern Front in southern Russia and Romania. By the end of World War I, Dirlewanger was described in one police report as "a mentally unstable, violent fanatic and alcoholic, who had the habit of erupting into violence under the influence of drugs". The fact that he had succeeded, even after the ceasefire, in fighting his way back from the front in Romania to Germany with his men became for him the defining experience.
Henceforth he adopted an unrestrained mode of life, characterized by contempt for the laws and rules of civil society. He participated in the suppression of the German Revolution of β19 with the Freikorps in multiple German cities in and On Easter Sunday , Dirlewanger commanded an armoured train that moved towards Sangerhausen , which had been occupied by the Communist Party of Germany militia group of Max Hoelz in one of their raids intended to inspire worker uprisings.
After the latter was reinforced by pro-government troops during the night, the Communists withdrew from the town. During this operation, Dirlewanger was grazed on the head by a gunshot.
After the Nazi Party gained power, Dirlewanger was celebrated as the town's "liberator from the Red terrorists" and received its honorary citizenship in Between his militant forays, he studied at the Goethe University Frankfurt , and in , obtained a doctorate in political science Dr.
