SS Heimwehr Danzig

Описание

Nazi German newsreels at the end of August 1939 in the build up to war show the SS Heimwehr Danzig and according to this propaganda film here it is preparing to defend the city against the Poles. Ironically enough, this unit did not start life as the Heimwehr Danzig but was created by Heinrich Himmler in October 1938 and recruits initially came from the Adlersheim district of Berlin. At that time it was the III Batalion 4. Company of the SS-Totenkopfstandarte Ostmark. In charge was SS-Obersturmbannführer Hans-Friedemann Goetze.

In January 1939 the Nazi controlled Senate of the Free City of Danzig voted to supplement its defence forces and launched a recruiting campaign which attracted some 3,000 men, approximately 500 of whom were accepted. They were to later form the nucleus of the ss Heimwehr Danzig. In June 1939, the III Batalion of the aforementioned 4. Company of the SS-Totenkopfstandarte Ostmark was smuggled into the Free State from Koenigsburg and Elbling with the men in civilian clothes. The unit got the name SS Heimwehr Danzig in July 1939 and became part of the SS-Totenkopfstandarte Ostmark with units stationed in Bischofsbergkaserne barracks and a school in Danzig. After receiving anti tank and anti aircraft unit reinforcements from Germany it reached full strength of around 1,550 soldiers on 18 August 1939 when it openly paraded in the Free City saluted by Gauleiter Albert Forster as can be seen in this weekly newsreel originally first broadcast on 23 August 1939.

On 1 September 1939 in the aggression against Poland, most of the unit was sent south to Tczew in the attempt to capture the Vistula bridges. However units also attacked the Polish Post Office in the Free City. The defenders of the Polish Post Office, armed only with armed with pistols, rifles, light machine guns and grenades held out for 15 hours even though the attackers were able to call on ADGZ armoured cars as well as 75mm and 105mm artillery.
Some men participated in the attack on the Westerplatte where four were killed. The unit arrived too late in Tczew to take part in the fighting with contradictory orders being sent, recalling them to the centre of Danzig in order to take part in the attack on the Post Office. It held a victory march in the now Nazi German occupied Danzig on 3 September 1939. Later it took part in the battle for Gdynia before moving in a southerly direction.

It participated in a number of crimes, the most serious being on 8 September 1939 when between 33 and 130 people living in the village of Książki were murdered.

The unit was disbanded on 29 September 1939 and the following day it was incorporated into the 3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf, forming the cadre of its artillery regiment. The commanding officer Goetze was killed in action aged 42 near Le Paradis in France on 27 May 1940, the death of whom was followed by the murder of British POWs.

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