SS Heimwehr "Danzig" was an SS unit established in the

Free City of Danzig The Free City of Danzig (; ) was a city-state under the protection and oversight of the League of Nations between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) and nearly 200 other small localities in the surrou ...

(today Gdańsk and environs,

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

) before the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. It fought with the

German Army The German Army (, 'army') is the land component of the armed forces of Federal Republic of Germany, Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German together with the German Navy, ''Marine'' (G ...

against the Polish Army during the

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...

, and some of its members committed a massacre of Polish civilians. After this it became part of the 3rd SS ''Totenkopf'' Division and ceased to exist as an independent unit. Also known as Heimwehr Danzig (Danzig Home Defense), it was officially established on 20 June 1939, when the Danzig senate under Albert Forster decided to set up its own armed force; a cadre of this new unit primarily formed the Danzig SS Wachsturmbann "Eimann".

History

Reichsführer-SS (, ) was a special title and rank that existed between the years of 1925 and 1945 for the commander of the (SS). ''Reichsführer-SS'' was a title from 1925 to 1933, and from 1934 to 1945 it was the highest Uniforms and insignia of the Schut ...

Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician and military leader who was the 4th of the (Protection Squadron; SS), a leading member of the Nazi Party, and one of the most powerful p ...

supported this project and sent SS-'' Obersturmbannführer'' Hans Friedemann Götze to Danzig. Goetze was the commander of the III. Sturmbann (Battalion) of the 4th ''SS-Totenkopfstandarte'' "Ostmark", established in October 1938 in Berlin-Adlersheim. The III. Sturmbann was strengthened with the help of anti-tank defense forces (the Panzerabwehr-Lehrsturm of the ''SS- Totenkopfstandarten'') as well as about 500 additional volunteers from Danzig who named their new unit SS Sturmbann "Goetze". It was formed to conduct police actions in and around Danzig.Stein (1984), p. 27 The Danzig SS-men had been members a special SS troop established in July 1939 - the Wachsturmbann "Eimann" - and at the beginning of August this self-named Sturmbann "Goetze" reached the peninsula at the mouth of the Vistula called the Danzig Westerplatte. There it hid on German ships, including the naval training ship . The

Volksdeutsche In Nazi Germany, Nazi German terminology, () were "people whose language and culture had Germans, German origins but who did not hold German citizenship." The term is the nominalised plural of ''wikt:volksdeutsch, volksdeutsch'', with denoting ...

(ethnic Germans) in Danzig founded the 1,550-man strong Heimwehr Danzig. On 1 September 1939, German troops attacked Poland. The Heimwehr Danzig took part in the capture of the Polish post office after fifteen hours; an event which

Günter Grass Günter Wilhelm Grass (; 16 October 1927 – 13 April 2015) was a German novelist, poet, playwright, illustrator, graphic artist, sculptor, and recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature. He was born in the Free City of Danzig (now Gda ...

dedicated a chapter of his novel ''

The Tin Drum ''The Tin Drum'' (, ) is a 1959 novel by Günter Grass, the first book of his Danzig Trilogy. It was adapted into a 1979 film, which won both the 1979 Palme d'Or and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1980. To "beat a ti ...

'' to. During the attacks, the German forces used ADGZ armoured cars, 75mm and 105mm artillery and flamethrowers against illegal Polish forces within the Post Office armed with pistols, rifles, light machine guns and grenades. The SS-Heimwehr Danzig also participated in the attack on the Danzig Westerplatte, an illegal Polish-occupied part of the Free City Territory and already was considered a part of the 3rd SS ''Totenkopf'' Division then forming under

Theodor Eicke Theodor Eicke (17 October 1892 – 26 February 1943) was both a senior SS functionary and a Waffen-SS divisional commander in Nazi Germany. He was a key figure in the development of Nazi concentration camps. Eicke served as the second com ...

. Later, it provided coast guard services in Danzig. On 8 September members of the SS Heimwehr Danzig killed 33 Polish civilians in the village of Książki.Sydnor (1990), p. 44 Other such militias were also involved in war crimes perpetrated on Polish civilians. On 30 September 1939, the Heimwehr became part of the 3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf, forming the cadre of its artillery regiment.

Commanders

* SS-''Obersturmbannführer'' Hans Friedemann Götze

Battle formation

* Military staff (SS-''Obersturmbannführer'' Hans Friedemann Goetze; III./4. SS-Totenkopfstandarte "Ostmark") * I. Rifle company (SS-'' Hauptsturmführer'' Karl Thier; 2. SS-Totenkopfstandarte "Brandenburg") * II. Rifle company (SS-''

Obersturmführer __NOTOC__ (, ; short: ''Ostuf'') was a Nazi Germany paramilitary ranks, Nazi Germany paramilitary rank that was used in several Nazi organisations, such as the Sturmabteilung, SA, Schutzstaffel, SS, National Socialist Motor Corps, NSKK and the ...

'' Willy Bredemeier; 2. SS-Totenkopfstandarte "Brandenburg") * III. Rifle company (SS-''Hauptsturmführer'' George Braun; 2. SS-Totenkopfstandarte "Brandenburg") * IV. Rifle company (SS-''Hauptsturmführer'' Erich Urbanietz; 3. Totenkopfstandarte "Thüringen") * V. Rifle company (SS-''Hauptsturmführer'' Otto Baier, 6. SS-Standarte of the

Allgemeine SS The ''Allgemeine SS'' (; "General SS") was a major branch of the '' Schutzstaffel'' (SS) paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany; it was managed by the SS Main Office (''SS-Hauptamt''). The ''Allgemeine SS'' was officially established in the autu ...

) * 13. Infantry company (SS-''Hauptsturmführer'' Walter Schulz; Stammabteilung 6 from the

) * 14. Antitank defense company (SS-''Hauptsturmführer'' Josef Steiner; SD Main office) * 15. Antitank defense company (SS-''Obersturmführer'' Otto Leiner; 10. Standarte of the Allgemeine SS)

The SS Wachsturmbann "Eimann"

The SS Wachsturmbann "Eimann" was set up in early June 1939 in Danzig by then SS-''Sturmbannführer'' Kurt Eimann and was considered as an armed reserve of the Danzig SS-Standarte 36. It was used also in the

(ethnic Germans) areas of the pre-war Polish

Pomeranian Voivodeship Pomeranian Voivodeship ( ; ) is a Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship, or province, in northwestern Poland. The provincial capital is Gdańsk. The voivodeship was established on January 1, 1999, out of the former voivodeships of Gdańsk Voivo ...

, in order to induce ethnic Germans to join the SS, particularly the ''Totenkopfverbände''. The SS Wachsturmbann Eimann committed a number of

massacres A massacre is an event of killing people who are not engaged in hostilities or are defenseless. It is generally used to describe a targeted killing of civilians en masse by an armed group or person. The word is a loan of a French term for "b ...

in the region between Kartuzy and

Wejherowo Wejherowo (; formerly ) is a city in Gdańsk Pomerania, northern Poland, with 48,735 inhabitants (2021). It has been the capital of Wejherowo County in Pomeranian Voivodeship since 1999; previously, it was a city in Gdańsk Voivodeship (1975–199 ...

from 13 September 1939. Most of the people murdered were Jews. The SS Wachsturmbann Eimann was disbanded in January 1940, with its members being transferred to the ''Totenkopf'' division.

Commanders

* SS-''

Sturmbannführer __NOTOC__ ''Sturmbannführer'' (; ) was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank equivalent to Major (rank), major that was used in several Nazi organizations, such as the Sturmabteilung, SA, Schutzstaffel, SS, and the National Socialist Flyers Corps, NSFK ...

'' Kurt Eimann

Battle formation

* Command * I. Squadron (one hundred men) * II. Squadron * III. Squadron * IV. Squadron * Truck squadron After the "reunification of Danzig with the German Reich," the Wachsturmbann "Eimann" provided the staff for the newly established concentration camp Stutthof near Danzig. The Nazi government also employed it for "special police tasks" in the new Reichsgau Danzig-Westpreußen, which means it was used to persecute and imprison Polish Jews.

References

Bibliography

* * {{Authority control Military history of Germany during World War II Military units and formations of the Waffen-SS Military units and formations established in 1939 Military units and formations disestablished in 1940 Free City of Danzig War crimes of the Waffen-SS Danzig in World War II