Americans in the Waffen SS

[Paul D]

Here is a list of Americans who fought with the Waffen SS , many Americans of German descent fought for the States but here are some who returned to their original roots.


Charles MacDonald (certainly SS and reportedly SS-Ustuf) born 7 May 1922 Buffalo/NY and KIA 14 Mar 44 near Johvi/Estonia.

Charles Braschwitz (SS/Polizei Wachtmeister) born 17 Aug 1911 New Jersey and KIA 7 May 45 at Laibach, Slovenia.

Raymond George Rommelspacher (SS-Grenadier) born 30 May 1926 in Chicago, KIA 6 Oct 44 in Normandy/France.

Edwin/Erwin Peter (SS-Oberscharfuhrer) born 12 Mar 1918 in New York, KIA 2 Jul 1941 in Latvia.

Andreas Hauser (SS-Sturmann) born 30 Aug 1893 Los Angeles and KIA 18 Jan 1945, Welikij in Ukraine.

Lucas Diel (SS-Rottenfuhrer) born 28 Dec 1912 New York and died 9 Dec 1944 in Hungary.

Andy Beneschan (SS-Uscha) born 1 Sep 1918 New York and KIA 16 April 1945 in Bosnia.

[Nick VR]

Hi Paul


Your forgot the most famous one:

Martin James Monti - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Greetz

Nick VR

[Dirt Detective]

very interesting..Nice post.

[Paul D]

There is also beleived to have been one British man a friend of Macdonald who was also KIA in Estonia fighting with the Estonian SS Division.

Aside from the traitorous bunch from the British Free Korps.

[Paul D]

Forgot to add these name have been confirmed via research at the Federal Archives.

With the names of these guys, not so much traitors but guys who for whatever reason were pulled back to their original roots.

[Paul D]

Yep no excuses for the BFK guys , Will have a look at the cup mate

[history-buff1944]

Hi Gents, when I was visiting R. Schrijnen in his home back in 2000-translated by the friend I was travelling with-I was told that there were several Americans serving in his unit alone-but he did not mention any names.

[Paul D]

Carl,

Not sure about Americans but Remy definately mentioned coming across members of the Britische Frei Korps in Pomerania in 1945.

[history-buff1944]

Hi Paul, Remy coming across the BFC--was quite a thing ;-)) I wish I could remember details of what he told Susanne though about Americans in SB Langemarck. I lost contact with Susanne about 6 years ago because she moved to Hamburg and was wanting to go to College to become a Vetrinarian.

I'll check my "Germany Trip" diary that I kept about daily events and such and see if I wrote anything in it about Amis in the 27th SS.

[OKW]

As most things are its probably a bit more complex than straight traitorism. If Germans had emigrated to the U.S between the wars as a large number did seeing no prospects in the Weimar era, and then tended to live in the established German-American comunities already flourishing from earlier periods of immigration then these people may have felt themselves more German than American. The T.R had a specific movement, home to the Reich, throw in some of Goebbels propaganda and bearing in mind Hitlers Germany was admired by lots in the U.S and Gt Britain at the time, Lindenberg the flyer was a great fan of Nazism. The Bund rallies in the U.S were heavily attended so there was a ground swell of support in some sectors of U.S society for the Nazis. Same in Britain with Mosleys blackshirts, the rallies were heavily attended so some must have believed. The options really were fascist or communist, the established political establishment being seen as largely a failure presiding over the great depression and having been responsible for the slaughter of ww1. Interestingly enough we may be moving into similar times now if the recession bites deeply enough, then we'll see if we learn't anything from ww2.