The “thousand-man-action”

Found this in “Der Freiwillige”, the monthly magazine for members of the H.I.A.G., (Heft 1 (Januar), 1995, p. 15) and translated it for the forum. Hope it interests someone.

The “thousand-man-action”
A documentation about the first volunteers of the Waffen-SS from Romania

In early 1940 an agreement between the German government and the royal Romanian government commandeered 1000 youths from German descent to go to Germany for “professional and scholarly education”, in reality for military training: yet the Romanian government didn’t dare to openly declare that on grounds of her neutrality. The “thousand-man-action” was the first recruitment from Germans in Romania in service of the Waffen-SS; she was organised and overseen by the German “Volksgruppenführung” and was the premier of all recruitment actions under the “Volksdeutsche” from south-eastern Europe.

The first “Volksdeutsche” volunteers from Romania came from the Donau-Boat “Uranus” to Vienna. After a new mustering they were divided into various troop parts from the Waffen-SS; the largest part of them came to Prague-Rusin to the 16. SS-Totenkopf-Standarte. In the process of enlargement of the Waffen-SS it happened that volunteers from the “thousand-man-action” rose to be officers and non-commissioned officers who went on to serve in almost every Waffen-SS division.

There exists a 50-page work on this topic by Emil Hennig; “Die Tausend-Mann-Aktion”, which has been made by former volunteers of the action.

Yes, interesting indeed. But does anyone fnow the exact number of Romanian Waffen SS ? I read somewhere that they were about two batallions...

And another thing, didn't the legionnaires (romanian pro-nazi organization) join the waffen SS after the front switch of 1944, a bit like the french Vichy Milicia?

Romanian Waffen SS - article which was supposed to be published on Feldgrau.com

The ethnic German community was very numerous and lived mostly in Transylvania and the Banat. Even after North-Western Transylvania was ceded to Hungary in 1940, there were still 542,000 Germans in Romania.

Seeking to enlarge the recruitment pool for his organization, Himmler naturally paid a lot of attention to the German ethnics in Transylvania. Thus, during the winter 1940/41, he launched the "1,000 Mann Aktion", through which he managed to recruit a first wave of one thousand volunteers, who were all incorporated in the "Das Reich" Division.

This, however, created some problems, because the Romanian law did not allow Romanian citizens to serve in other armies. Those who did risked to be treated like deserters or lose their citizenship. The main recruitment "tactic" was to invite groups of young German ethnics to Germany, where they joined the Waffen SS or other organizations.

But the number of volunteers was not very high, so an SS division was created especially for them: the 7th SS "Prinz Eugen" Mountain Division. This was put under the command of Arthur Phelps, a former vanatori de munte general in the Romanian army. In this unit served the majority of volunteers from the Romanian and Serbian Banat.

The losses of the 1942 campaign forced Berlin to pressure the Romanian government to allow the German ethnics to join the German military formations. During his meeting with Hitler in 1943, Antonescu agreed to allow them to serve in the Waffen-SS, without suffering any legal consequences. However, in the treaty signed in May 1943, the German ethnics already incorporated in the Romanian army that were officers or NCOs or trained specialists, were forbidden to do so.

By the end of 1943, an estimate of 60,000 Romanian citizens joined the Waffen-SS and another 15,000 the Wehrmacht and Organization Todt. The superior equipment and pay, plus the fact that their nationalist feelings made many Germans prefer these forces to the Romanian army. They served, mostly in the 7th SS "Prinz Eugen" Division and 8th SS "Florian Geyer" Division, but also in 11th SS "Nordland" Division, 17th SS "Götz von Berlichigen" Division and 18th SS "Horst Wessel" Division.

Another category of Romanian citizens that served in the Waffen-SS, were Romanian ethnics themselves. After the coup on 23 August 1944, a "government in exile" was established at Vienna, under the leadership of Horia Sima. In November 1944, Himmler decided to create the "Romanian National Army" from members of the Iron Guard (aka the Legion of the Archangel Michael) that had fled to Germany. However, these were too few: 120 were assigned for the new "government", 200 were sent to saboteur schools (see below) and only about 70-80 men remained. So they had to enlist POWs (most from the 4th Infantry Division), Romanians that were studying in Germany in August 1944 and were arrested afterwards, and deserters. Not all men joined because of their anti-communist beliefs. In fact the majority had to choose between starving in German camps and the German army. Frictions between the Iron Guard and Antonescu sympathizers among the "National Army" were frequent.

At the beginning of 1945, two regiments (each with two battalions) were ready for action. Horia Sima managed to convince the Germans not to use them against Romanian troops. The 3,000 men of the Waffen SS Grenadier Regiment Rumänische Nr. 1 saw action in Pomerania, north of Stettin, where they were almost completely wiped out. The second regiment was transformed into an AT regiment: Waffen SS Panzer-Zerstörer Regiment Rumänische Nr. 2. Despite the name, it was equipped with ... bicycles. They were all taken prisoners by the Western Allies in May 1945. A third regiment began training, but because the end was near, they were used mainly as work teams.

Alongside these regular units several commando groups were trained. One of them, consisting of 70 men, was trained in guerilla warfare at Korneuberg. Another one was trained by the Abwehr and then parachuted behind Soviet lines, where they carried out sabotage missions. The most important of these groups was the one subordinated to Skorzeny's SS Jagdverbände Sudost. They were suppose to take part in the March offensive in Hungary, which never actually took place. They participated, however, in several missions until the end of the war.

The majority of the Romanians fighting in the Waffen SS surrendered to the Western Allies, but some were sent back to Romania, where the new pro-Communist government would take care of them.

Bibliography:
1. Cornel I. Scafes, Horia V. Serbanescu, Ioan I. Scafes, Cornel Andonie, Ioan Danila, Romeo Avram: "Armata Romana 1941-1945", Bucharest 1995
2. Miroslav Techjman: "Voluntari romani in unitatile SS", Magazin Istoric 5/2000

I found the picture of Arthur Phelps, the Romanian Waffen SS Commander "Gruppenführer" or "Generalmajor der Waffen SS".


I see that his name is spelled "Phleps" here and not Phelps, perhaps it is a mistake on the Croatian web-page where this picture is posted.

:arrow:

Victor,

Any reason why this article was not published on Feldgrau.com? That was a really fascinating article.

Also, do you have more info about the Battle in north of Stettin in Pomerania about those Romanian Waffen-SS who were completely wiped out?

Regards

Weary nice article I am weary interesting about the
Romanian waffen ss because of that my grandfather father
Were in the waffen ss so always looking for info about that
here is a photo on him



This post has been edited by metalviking on June 04, 2006 05:57 pm

I have a friend whose father was Romanian (we are not sure yet what language he spoke). He was drafted into the Wehrmacht, fought at Monte Casino where he was captured by the British. My friend seems to think that his was a Romanian speaker and if so, he was clearly recruited before the formation of the units under Horia Sima and, if my memory serves me correct, the Waffen SS did not fight at Monte Casino anyway. Does anyone have any more information about Romanian speakers who fought in the Wehrmacht? Of course, it is possible that my friend is wrong and that his father was Suebian. I was very surprised when he told me that his father had been captured in Italy because I believed that Marshal Antonescu insisted to the Germans that men born in Romania should not face the western allies.

Arthur Phleps - born in 1880. He was from Transilvania. He enter in the romanian army after the first world war, he fights against hungarian communists of Bela Kun.
Volunteer in Waffen SS in 1941 as a Volkdeutsche. He is the founder of Prinz Eugen division and Corpul 5 de munte SS(I dont know the translation).He is made prisoner and executed on 21 september 1944, not far from his natal village.
Source: Waffen SS - Henri Landemer

This post has been edited by maiortitulescu on October 11, 2008 07:50 am

That's nonsense. The most bitter fights fought by Rumanian airmen were against the Americans.

Gen. Dénes

In "Waffen SS" by Henri Landemer it is written that in Waffen SS where 5.000 romanians

The author probably considers 'Rumanians' the ethnic Germans (Saxons) from Transylvania - a common error done by Western authors.

Gen. Dénes

This post has been edited by Dénes on October 11, 2008 11:41 am

no, he knows the difference between romanians and volksdeutschen who were as you wrote "ethnic germans from Transylvania"
volksdeutchen are ethnic germans who are all over the world

There were more than 5000 Saxons in the Waffen SS. See my post from 5 years ago.

There were more than 5000 Saxons in the Waffen SS. See my post from 5 years ago.

the same author wrote that in Waffen SS were 300.000 volksdeutchen from Banat,Slovacia,Polonia,Ungaria,Romania,Serbia,Croatia,Bulgaria,Soviet Union(Volga),Boemia-Moravia,etc.

This post has been edited by maiortitulescu on November 01, 2008 03:51 pm

From "Magazin istoric"



http://www.itcnet.ro/history/archive/mi200...rent11/mi75.htm