Oskar Dirlewanger

Oskar Paul Dirlewanger (26 September 1895 – c. 7 June 1945) was a German military officer, convicted child molester, and war criminal. He is best known for commanding the Dirlewanger Brigade, a penal military unit of the Waffen-SS which served in World War II. Dirlewanger's unit is often considered the most notorious Waffen-SS unit, committing some of the conflict's most infamous atrocities, with Dirlewanger himself regarded as perhaps Nazi Germany's "most extreme executioner", engaging in constant acts of violence, rape, and murder. He died after the war while in Allied custody.

Dirlewanger had an impressive career as a junior officer during World War I. He fought in the post-World War I conflicts in Germany as a minor commander in the Freikorps militia movement, with the troops he led then also characterized by excessive violence, and participated in the Spanish Civil War. Through his service with the Condor Legion during the Spanish Civil War, he was politically rehabilitated despite his criminal record, allowing his return to favor within the Nazi Party. He was a habitual offender, convicted in interwar Germany for illegal weapons possession and child molestation. During World War II, he was appointed and headed a special Waffen-SS unit that was officially named after him and was composed for the most part of conscripted convicts and other prisoners.

Serving mostly in Poland and Belarus, he has been closely linked to many atrocities, being responsible for the deaths of at least tens of thousands. In Belarus alone, Dirlewanger may be responsible for around 120,000 killed and 200 villages destroyed. In Warsaw, Dirlewanger is responsible for up to 30,000 killed, most of them non-combatants. His methods included rape and torture, and he personally kept numerous women as his sex slaves. He also repeatedly engaged in systematic looting, amassing stolen property for personal use. His unit is noted to have committed the worst crimes of the bloody suppression of the Warsaw Uprising, alongside the Kaminski Brigade, though Timothy Snyder described the behavior of Dirlewanger as being even worse. His brutality was not limited to just civilians and captured enemy combatants, as he was ruthless to his men, whom he would beat and kill if they displeased him. His unit is further regarded as the war's most infamous in Belarus, as well as Poland, and arguably the worst military force in modern European history based in terms of criminality and cruelty.

Dirlewanger deserted in April 1945, before being captured thereafter by French authorities in June and then died shortly afterward while in Allied custody. Although postwar rumors claimed that he had survived and fled abroad, most notably to Egypt, these were later disproven following the exhumation and forensic identification of his remains in 1960, which confirmed that he died in 1945.