Non-white troops in the Wehrmacht & SS

There were some black Hiwis in Northern Africa, e.g among the men of an Arab brigade were some black soldiers, too. I heard that Joachim marseille had an black assistant, who, after marseille's death was commanded to France and even served as sergeant. I have unfortunately no source for it.

In the KTB (war diaries) are documents, that the 715th division and the military chief west asked for permission to use black french POW as supply troops. It seems this was granted by the OKW.

BTW B.M. Riggs, an US historian had shown, that as well up to 150,000 Jews served in the Wehrmacht. The former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt e.g. was a quarter-jew and served as officer in the Wehrmacht.

I know BTW of a single Korean soldier of the Wehrmacht, too.

And of course there was the Indische Legion where Indian soldiers fought for the Germans.

And on Jews in the wehrmacht, here is an interesting short story:
Shlomo Perel tells an extraordinary tale of how he survived the Nazi Holocaust. After escaping the German occupation of Poland by fleeing to the Russian side, he was later captured by the Germans as they advanced into Russia. Once captured, he pretended to be German and was recruited as a German soldier. The commander of his unit liked him so much that he was sent to a prestigious Hitler Youth program, keeping his identity secret until the end of the war. It is a tale of survival at the cost of disowning one’s own heritage and of helping those who ultimately persecute your relatives

There were some Indian battalions attached to the Wehrmacht. They were mostly volunteer soldiers who joined the Germans in the hopes of Hitler supporting India's independence from Britain.

beorna said:

I know BTW of a single Korean soldier of the Wehrmacht, too.

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I have heard that he had a pretty good adventure.

EDIT: Oops. Didn't see Bartie's post

The Imperial said:

I have heard that he had a pretty good adventure.

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Conscripted into the Japanese army, captured by the Russians at Khalkin Gol, captured by the Germans during Barbarossa and then eventually forced to work on the Atlantic Wall, if my memory serves. A fascinating character indeed!

Crimean and Volga Tatars, Azeri, Turkmen and several ethnic groups from the Caucasus region served in the Wermacht(they were part of the so called Ostlegionen)

German8ter said:

Were the Ost legion troops all put into the same units or were they separated by what language they spoke and ethnicity? For example a Korean battalion or a company of Tartars.

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As much as they could, they were in seperate units as far as I know.

German8ter said:

Were the Ost legion troops all put into the same units or were they separated by what language they spoke and ethnicity? For example a Korean battalion or a company of Tartars.

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Belloc is right, they were usually separated according to ethnicity and/or religion, with small sized unit(or "sub-ethnic groups") organized inside bigger formations
Example: a company of Ingushes inside a Chechen batallion inside the Causasian Muslim Legion

German8ter said:

I know about the foreign conscripts and volunteers in Germany's armed forces from predominantly white countries in Europe and even America but how many troops did they get from other ethnicities?

Where did they come from?

How where they treated?

Were men like this man volunteers fighting to free their countries from British or French imperialism or were they mostly conscripts?

Did they come from former Imperial German colonies?

Did black soldiers have a separate battalions like the Hiwis or were their numbers so insignificant that they were put into regular units?

If anyone knows of a site or book on the subject I would appreciate it if you could post a link or give the name of the book, thank you

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IF black germans could get into Wehrmacht units they were simply german soldiers and went were they were sent in regular units. The population of black germans were mostly descended from soldiers and civil servants serving in the german colonies and as such were german citizens. Many of them volunteered to prove their rights as citizens, how they got on with that depended on the rascism or desperation of the recruiting officer. There wsant any particular nazi policy for or against them because they were such a small minority it didnt need one.

The odd characters tend to come up with the Charlemagne division of the SS.

Lucien Kemerat was a colonial French volunteer who 'returned' to France and served with the LVF then attempted to transfer to the Charlemagne who wouldnt have him because he was half French and half Thai and therefore obviously not aryan. He fought the decision, got to serve in the SS and ended up getting wounded in Pomerania.

Anybody wanting to guess why a half Thai man wanting to prove his French nationality ended up serving in the SS and getting shot by Russians in Germany is going to have a tough job.

Similarly theres supposed to be a couple of Indonesians ended up in the SS through service with the Landsturm Nederland.

Although intriguing these guys were a notable exception to the general rule.

It took me a while to find where i filed it.

Lucien Kemerath French colonial volunteer to the LVF and SS Charlemagne

RE Jews in the Wehrmacht- before we all get dewy eyed with admiration for the viciously racist Nazis ersatz and opportunistic mult-racialism the vast majority of Jews who served in the Wehrmacht were called ''Mischlings ''and research shows that by 1944 the majority of all of them had been sent to camps to suffer the fate of their co-religioniststheir attempts to serve the Reich militarily notwithstanding
There was also a First World War Jewish officer , twice winner of the Iron Cross- who was saved from the camps by Abwehr boss Admiral Canaris because Canaris considered him useful to himself-but once Canaris ended up dangling from a meat hook with a piano wire noose around his neck post -July 20 1944 I doubt if this Jewish officer survived too.
Anne Frank's father Otto had a distinguished World War One record as an officer in the Imperial German Army but that didn't save him from being sent to Auschwitz in 1944 or his wife being murdered there or his famous daughter Anne and her sister dying from neglect in Belsen-their only ''crime'' being German Jews.
Stalin and the Soviets were infinitely more intelligent than Hitler and the crummy Nazis were in dealing with their Jewish population during W.W. 2.
100 Jewish Generals served with the Red Army in World War Two and were awarded the highest military decorations -you won't be able to name me 100 Jewish Generals who served in the Nazi Wehrmacht in World War Two or were awarded the Ritterkreuz because they don't exist.
Attempts to represent the Nazi Wehrmacht's opportunistic and insincere use of non- Caucasian troops as proof of a committment to racial equality by the Nazis are totally fraudulent.
Had the Nazis won the war these ethnics troops would have gone the same way as the majority of the ''Mischlings''--to the nearest K.Z. Gas chambers.
Go also study how the Afro children of Afro -American Rhineland occupation troops left behind in Germany by the US Army post- 1923 (German mothers/Afro American Dads) wre treated under Nazi racial laws and you will see the reality of Nazi ideas about ethnicity.