WARNING: this is an info-parody and NOT meant to be funny at all. It deals with the darkest side of Nazi cruelty and yet is not very well-known. Besides the regular SS (Allgemeine) that ran the death camps, there was also the Waffen SS armed elite units that committed war crimes in the field. But few know of the SSDB which was the SS Dirlewanger Brigade that was initially formed out of German prisoners that were poachers. To combat rising partisan activity, the poachers were thought to have the skills necessary to fight the partisans on equal terms. So out of 88 original men, 55 were accepted for training and were armed- let loose with no rules to kill and kill and kill. Soon afterwards, as word spread of their release, OTHER prisoners of all types wanted training too. So, the SS allowed convicted murderers, rapists, sadists, thieves, and violent psychopaths loose to do the same thing. The numbers then grew to hundreds and eventually thousands. Amazingly, desertion was not overwhelming. it seems this group turned loose to kill thrived on violence. In Russia they were responsible for destroying over 200 villages and killing 120,000. In the 1944 Warsaw Uprising they killed 35,000 men, women, and children in one day! Towards the end of the war their numbers started to decrease and so they were integrated into the Waffen SS as 36th SS Grenadier Division. It is said that the military SS hated these troops with a passion b/c they did not have to follow any real orders and could not be properly disciplined for transgressions. The leader Oskar Dirlewanger himself was a convicted rapist and alcoholic! This group went far beyond the concentration camp torture and field war crimes of the Waffen SS. They even put the dreaded Einsatzkommando that hunted Jews to shame for barbarity. Many of them deserted in the chaos of 1945 or became trapped inside Soviet lines. Some were put to death, but most of them blended back into the broken nations of Eastern Europe or escaped to the south and west. When on trial, they claimed they were a strict anti-partisan group... which was a lie. Their enduring symbol was two grenades crossed which Neo-Nazis still use.

http://www.thedarkpaladin.com/Oskar%20Dirlewanger_files/ss-dirlewanger_maski.jpg http://www.ww2incolor.com/d/144910-2/dirl%23 http://www.adl.org/hate_symbols/processed_new_images/crossed_grenades_150.gif