Armenian role in World War 2

[Guest]

Does anybody what role/part we took in defending the Soviet Union and our homeland of Armenia??

[Guest]

You may find some information here http://www.armenianhighland.com/yerevan/ch...ronicle208.html

[Guest]

If I can remember correctly , 200000 Armenians lost their lives fighting for the Soviet Union.

The Armenian soldiers were great soldiers and were one of the first to occupy Berlin.

 

There is also a great Armenian Soviet Marshal , whose name I cannot recal now.

[Guest]

What do you mean you can't remember his name???

Marshall Bagramyan!!!

Don't forget the heros of our nations...

[Guest]

Thanks Garo

[Guest]

I still personally think that Marshal Bagramyan is the best hero of our times out of all Armenians in the world:

 

His highest decorations: The Hero of the Soviet Union (1944) - For the , The Medal of Lenin (awarded 6 times) The Medal of the October Revolution, The Medal of the Red Banner, Medal of Souvorov - First Class, Medal of Koutouzov - First Class.

[Guest]

Is the Order of lenin the highest.. I can be proud my armenian greatgrandfather got that for his sacrifices in the military during "Velikaya Otechestvenaya Voina"

[Guest]

One of the organizators of antinazi resistance in France was Missak Manouchian.

http://www.cie.fr/urdf/cnrd98/cnrd/manouc.htm

 

And there was an Armenian Legeon in Nazi Germany.

[Guest]

Garo jan that is great... But are there any non french versions??

 

Oh, and off the subject - if i didnt already say so, thank you for the changes you made on the forum! And taking on some of my suggestions on board!

[Guest]

quote:

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Originally posted by Kazza:
Garo jan that is great... But are there any non french versions??

Oh, and off the subject - if i didnt already say so, thank you for the changes you made on the forum! And taking on some of my suggestions on board!

---

Kazza try to use this link. This will automatically translate that page into English. This is Altavista's service.

Translated version

[Guest]

My uncles, Martin Antaramian and Armenkety Mardoian fought in the United States Army against the Nazis.

[Guest]

Hey, I heard one famous Nazi general was of Armenian descent? Forgot the name.

[Guest]

Commander of German armoured forces General Guderian.

[Guest]

Barj are you sure he his? I can't find his bio. The only thing is that Heinz Guderian is a son of prussian general.

[Guest]

Garo,

I have read about this somewhere. I don't have the source handy now. It was either "Hitler and Stalin" or the trilogy of WW2 by Viktor Souvorov.

Guderian's being of Armenian descent was mentioned very slightly. There was also some info about the Armenians fighting with the Russian mensheviks from the German side.

I'll look for further info.

[Aratta-Kingdom]

over 350,000 Armenians from Soviet Union lost their lives in World War II.

 

Armenians were among the first to enter Berlin and Dance their Kochari

 

 

Armenians Dancing Kochari in Berlin 1945

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v823PJBhrfM

[hetanos]

over 350,000 Armenians from Soviet Union lost their lives in World War II.

 

Armenians were among the first to enter Berlin and Dance their Kochari

 

 

Armenians Dancing Kochari in Berlin 1945

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v823PJBhrfM

yes. Tamanyan Division is very famous even today. Also, several heroes of Soviet Union. Marshall Baghramyan, General Army Babajanyan, Nelson Stepanyan, Hunan

Avetisyan, Admiral Isakov, and so on. Marsahal Baghramyan

Edited May 29, 2008 by hetanos

[hetanos]

yes. Tamanyan Division is very famous even today. Also, several heroes of Soviet Union. Marshall Baghramyan, General Army Babajanyan, Nelson Stepanyan, Hunan

Avetisyan, Admiral Isakov, and so on. Marsahal Baghramyan

 

Here is Armenian hero, pilot, Nelson Stepanyan.

 

Nelson Gevorkovich Stepanyan (1913-1944), - fought as a dive bomber pilot during the second World War in the Soviet Red Air Force. He was twice awarded with the military title of the Hero of the Soviet Union, the highest title in the former USSR.

 

Stepanyan was born in Shusha, Elisabethpol Governorate in 1913, but moved with his family to Yerevan, Erivan Governorate at an early age. During the war lieutenant-colonel Stepanyan fought on the Baltic Sea front. He carried out 229 flights, and was reported to having destroyed 78 German trucks, 67 tanks, 63 anti-aircraft guns, 19 mortars, 36 railroad cars, 20 merchantmen and warships (including a naval destroyer) 13 fuel tankers, twelve armored cars, seven long-range guns, five ammunition dumps, five bridges.[1] Although shot down over enemy lines, friendly guerilla fighters aided him to reach back Soviet lines. Stepanyan was called "Storm Petrel of the Baltic Sea" and was awarded twice with the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, the latter posthumously. On his final mission sortie, when wounded and with a damaged plane, he rammed his own plane into a German naval warship.

 

There was three statues dedicated to him: one in Yerevan, second in Liepāja and the last in his home town of Shusha, however, the last one was destroyed. The statue from Liepāja was going to be destroyed too by the order of the new independent Latvian authorities, but it was rescued by the Russian Navy, located in Liepāja until mid-1990es and it was transported to Kaliningrad and now it's placed near the Baltic Fleet Naval Aviation headquaters in Kaliningrad, Russia.[2]

 

 

 

Hovhanness Stepanee Isakov (Armenian: Հովհաննես Սթեփանի Իսակով, Russian: Иван Степанович Исаков) (22 August [O.S. August 10] 1894 - October 11, 1967) was a Soviet Armenian military commander, chief of staff and Admiral of the Fleet in the Soviet Navy. He played a crucial role in shaping the Soviet navy, particularly the Baltic and Black Sea flotillas during the Second World War. Asides from his military career, Isakov became a member and writer of the oceanographic committee of the Soviet Union Academy of Sciences in 1958 and in 1967, became an honorary member of that of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic's Academy of Sciences.

 

 

 

Isakov was born in the family of an Armenian railway worker in the village of Hadjikhend in the Kars Oblast in the Russian Empire (currently the Kars vilayet of Turkey). He went to Tiflis, Georgia where he studied and graduated in mathematical and science studies in 1913.

 

 

 

 

In 1917, Isakov traveled to Petrograd, Russia and entered the guardmarineskee of the Imperial Russian Navy and graduated as a warrant officer in March of that year. He continued his service after the Russian Revolution in the Baltic Sea fleet where he served on several warships including the Izyaslav, the Riga, the Kobchik and the Korshun. In 1918, he took part in several battles against the German Imperial Navy until the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which effectively ended the war between Russia and Germany, granting the Baltic Sea to the latter. In March 1918, Isakov participated in the Ice Cruise of the Baltic Fleet from the naval base at Helsingfors where Russian warships and icebreakers were transferred from the Baltic to the naval base in Krondstadt near Petrograd.

 

In 1920, Isakov was transferred and served on the destroyer Deyatelnee which patrolled from the Volga River down to the Caspian Sea and later shelled the positions of Allied interventionist forces in the midst of the Russian Civil War. Noted for his distinction during the battles, in 1921 he was made the gun battery commander of the destroyer Izyaslav. From 1922 to 1927, he served as a shtap operative, or a member of the deputy chief of staff, of naval forces in the Black Sea Fleet. In 1928, Isakov completed advanced courses on senior officer training from the Leningrad Naval Academy.

 

[edit] World War II

 

In 1932, Isakov became the professor and the overall art department head of the Soviet Naval Military Academyand taught as a professor for five years until being promoted commander of the Baltic Fleet. In 1938, he was made a podpolkovnik or lieutenant colonel and chief of main naval headquarters. During the Winter War, he coordinated not only the movement of naval warships in the Baltic Sea but also the Red Army in the Soviet war against Finland.

 

With the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the Soviet Navy's manpower decreased substantially due to a need of men needed to help stave off advances made by Nazi Germany. Nevertheless, Isakov temporarily served in the Soviet Red Banner Northern Fleet until 1942 where he became a commander in the North Caucasus front where German forces were attempting to penetrate the oil fields of Baku. There, he was a member of the North-Caucasian Directive, a military council which planned operations and directed naval forces defending in the region. He was responsible for the successful naval landing by Soviet forces on the Kerch peninsula, then held by German forces. On October 4, 1942, Isakov was injured in a German bombing raid in Tuapse and had his foot amputated, spending the remainder of the war in a field hospital.

 

 

 

On May 31, 1944, Isakov was promoted to the service rank of admiral of the flotilla.

 

Edited May 29, 2008 by hetanos

[hetanos]

I could not find personal photo of Hamazasp Babajanyan. He was marshall of Tank armored forces of Soviet Union. His Army fought against Guderian at

Kursk if I'm not mistaken.

 

 

Second from the right.

Edited May 29, 2008 by hetanos

[Harut]

andzrev kugar churra churra...

indz ugharkin hetaxuyz...

yes gnatsi kuzekuz...

mek el dems yelan

yerku tsmpor germanatsi...

hratsans qashetsi

mekin prtsutsi...

en myusn asav,

aman, [hu]rruss...

asi, de sus, de sus...

dzerqn u votq@ kapetsi...

gndapetin handznetsi...

merrnem hena karmir droshin...

esqan medal sharin doshis...

[akhper]

I still personally think that Marshal Bagramyan is the best hero of our times out of all Armenians in the world:

 

His highest decorations: The Hero of the Soviet Union (1944) - For the , The Medal of Lenin (awarded 6 times) The Medal of the October Revolution, The Medal of the Red Banner, Medal of Souvorov - First Class, Medal of Koutouzov - First Class.

 

There were in all 3 marshals 1 admiral of the fleet, equivalent to marshal that were Armenian in the USSR, and another 60 generals.

[gamavor]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gb4ee7Gapk

[Ashot]

76th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)

 

The Soviet 76th "K. E. Voroshilov" Division known also as the 76th Armenian Mountain Division, was a Soviet infantry fighting unit of the Red Army that fought on the Eastern Front during the Second World War. The 76th was made up primarily of Armenians from the newly established Soviet Socialist Republic of Armenia but also included recruits from several different nationalities. The division was officially created on September 5, 1922 at the near end of the Russian military conquests of the southern Caucasus republics, which had Sovietized the democratic republics of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia two years earlier.

 

Establishment

 

The 76th was initially formed as a brigade sized unit and led by several non-Armenian commanders including Major Generals S. V. Chernikov, E. F. Pryakhin, K. E. Goryunov, N. E. Kaladzen, N. T. Tavarkeeladzen (the latter two ethnic Georgians), Colonel G. G. Voronin, and subordinate commanders A. P. Melik-Shahnazaryan, H. T. Atoyan (the last two being Armenians). It published several military newspapers and newsletters, including The Red Soldier and The Red Fighting Man in the Armenian language and the Voroshilovets in Russian named after Soviet Central Committee member and later Marshal of the Soviet Union, Kliment Voroshilov.

 

In 1935, the division was officially named after Voroshilov and two years later was decorated with the Order of the Red Banner. In 1938, the division was brought up to full size and stationed in the Armenian SSR. Attempts by the Soviet High Command to change the number, alter the division's military traditions, and even the decorations it had been bestowed upon were met with protestations by the commanders who successfully argued in favor of retaining them.

 

The Second World War

 

Iran

In the summer of 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union and drove spearheads into the large landmass of Russia and Ukraine on three fronts. The southernmost sought to invade the Caucasus in hopes of capturing vital petroleum fields and reserves in Baku, Azerbaijan. By autumn, the German Wehrmacht had pushed far into the regions and was nearing the outlet of the northern Caucasus. Bordering Armenia and Azerbaijan was the country of Iran, led by Reza Shah Pahlavi. The western Allied Powers, including the United States and Great Britain, expressed fear that if German forces were successful in capturing Baku, Iran, which was harboring pro-Axis sympathies would thereafter join them. A decision was made and agreed to by the Allies to invade the country and thus, prevent Iran from becoming another Axis ally. The 76th Division, as part of the 47th Army of the Transcaucasian Front was one of the units ordered to invade Iran and did so in August, crossing the Araks River and entering through the border town of Julfa, Nakhichevan and finally establishing control in the northern Iranian city of Tabriz.

 

Ukraine, Stalingrad, Don: 1942

Iran largely relented to British and Soviet forces, freeing the division to be sent back northwards to Ukraine in September as part of the 38th Army. It took part in major fighting in Poltava, Kharkiv and Vovchansk during the First Battle of Kharkov. In February 1942, the division advanced westward and was reassigned and integrated into the 21st Red Army. In May 1942, the Voroshilov division took part in the attack and recapturing of the Ukrainian city of Belgorod.

 

With the capture of several other cities, it moved up north and crossed the Donets river, confronting the entrenched German Army Group South. Despite suffering heavy casualties, the division was able to cross the riverbank, and in effect retake the towns of Grasovka, Nekhotevka, Shameeno and Arkhangelskoye. In June 1942, it took part with the 21st Army to halt two splintering counter-offensives in Surkovo, Yam and Pesyanoye. In July 1942, the division was sent to Stalingrad. After taking part in fighting there until October, it was ordered to sever Army Group South's supply lines in Russia, near the Don River. It decimated the German force holding and protecting Kletskaya, a key industrial city with numerous metal works factories. For its successful action, the division was promoted to Guards status on November 23, 1942 and became known as the 51st Guards Rifle Division.

 

The division's final titles were 76th Kirovograd Bratislava Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky Infantry Division.

 

Engagements/First Battle of Kharkov, Battle of Stalingrad, Operation Uranus, Battle of Kursk, Belorussian Offensive, Battle of the Baltic (1944)

Decorations/Order of the Red Banner (1937), Red Army Guard (November 23, 1942), Order of Lenin (June 19, 1943)

Battle honours/K. Y. Voroshilov, Vitebsk, 51st Guards Rifle Division

Edited January 15, 2011 by Ashot

[Ashot]

89th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)

 

The 89th Tamanskaya(Tamamyan) Rifle Division was a distinguished division in the Soviet Red Army during the Second World War. The division was primarily remembered for its second formation, composed primarily of ethnic Armenians and fought in numerous battles during the war.

 

It gained fame for participating in the battle for Berlin in April 1945, occupying the Berlin suburb of Rosenthal at war's end. A small contingent of the division arrived at the river Elbe after the war in a famous meeting between Red Army soldiers and the United States army forces from the west.

 

First Formation

The Division was established at Kursk prior to June 1941. On 22 June 1941 it was part of 33rd Rifle Corps in the interior Orel Military District. Fighting as part of the 19th Army, it was wiped out at Vyazma in October 1941.

 

Second Formation

The division was re-formed in December 1941 in the capital of the Armenian SSR, Yerevan after the outset of the German invasion of the Soviet Union. It was a redesignation of the 474th Rifle Division, which was formed on 14 December 1941 and renumbered the 89th Rifle Division on 26 December 1941. The company commander was S. Zakyan and his subordinates were A. Vasilyan and major-general Nver Safaryan. It published a weekly newspaper in Armenian called the Red Soldier. In October 1942, the division finally set out to fight against Nazi Germany's forces; recapturing the city of Grozny and the outlying areas.

 

Early Fighting

It met fierce fighting at the Russian cities of Eleqotov, Malgobek and Voznesenskaya; effectively halting the advances made by the German Wehrmacht and its ambitions to capture the oil fields of the Caucasus. On 21 January 1943 they advanced 30-40 kilometers past Malgobek and Khamedan towards the Azov Sea. On 9 February, Vasilyan was killed while fighting in the city of Novojereelka. In September 1943, the division moved to the southern front and reached the Taman Peninsula in the Ukraine.

 

On 6 September the division attacked the German-held Russian city of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea and during the fighting, senior sergeants Hunan Avetisyan and S. Arakelyan both earned the rank of Hero of the Soviet Union. Avetisyan was awarded posthumously after he threw himself in the line of fire of a German pillbox, killing him, but allowing his squad to take advantage to outflank the pillbox which had been delaying their advance.

 

On 3 October 1943 the division captured Taman and was awarded with the title "Tamanskaya". The 89th was soon sent to Baksi and Hajimoushka, on 21 November, holding both cities against German attacks for over five months; on 24 April 1944 the division was awarded the Order of the Red Star for its efforts. In May 1944, the division participated in the liberation of Sevastopol and was subsequently awarded the Order of the Red Banner and honored by the city of Sevastopol itself. Senior lieutenants S. Bagdasaryan and L. Khachaturyan, and senior sergeants A. Haroutyunyan and M. H. Mkhirtichyan were awarded with the Order of the Hero of Soviet Union.

 

The Belorussian Front

In October–September 1944, the division was transferred to the 1st Baltic Front under the command of the Soviet marshal Hovhannes Bagramyan, entering Poland in 12 January 1945. As the division raced towards Berlin on its trek towards the German capital, the unit was recorded to have liberated a total of 900 cities, towns, and villages in Poland and Czechoslovakia. It finally entered eastern Germany in April, capturing the bordertown city of Frankfurt (Oder) near Brandenburg, about 70 kilometers east of Berlin.

 

The march towards Berlin

As the division neared the capital, commanders in the Red Army initially rejected the unit participating in the capture of the city. Protestations made by "Taman" commanders, however, argued that since they had sustained such heavy losses and advanced such long distances, they deserved to participate in the war's final and most climatic battle. Red Army commanders relented and on 16 April, the division entered Berlin and fought in a month long battle to capture the city. Along with the elements of the Red Army's 3rd Guards Army, the division participated in capturing Wedding, Reinickendorf and seven other districts. It also captured a defensive position held by the Germans at Humboldthain park.

 

For its achievements in Berlin, the "Taman" division was awarded the Order of Kutuzov 2nd Class. The "Taman" division advanced a total of 3,700 kilometers since its original introduction into combat in the Caucasus with 7,333 of its members receiving commendations and awards, nine, including its commander, Colonel Major H. Babayan, being decorated with the award of the Hero of the Soviet Union.

 

Postwar and service in Georgia

Until 1957, the Division remained the 89th Rifle Division, when it became the 145th Mountain Rifle Division; 1965 145th Mtn Rifle Div; 1989 145th MRD. It was based in Batumi, Adjara, Georgia, for most of the postwar period as part of the Transcaucasian Military District's 9th Army. It comprised the 35th, 87th, 90th, 1358th MRRs and 114th Independent Tank Battalion in 1989-90.

 

The division's installations lined the main roads of Khelvachauri, with at least two barracks blocks, military family housing, and what appears to be a vehicle park or ammunition storage facility which has been hollowed out of gently rolling terrain and camouflaged. There is also a military training area on the coast at Akhalsopeli just south of the Batumi airport.

 

It was renamed the 12th Military Base on 15 May 1992 according to the Collective Security Treaty. In late 1999, the base had 1,790 personnel and included the 35th (Batumi) and the 90th (Khelvachauri) motor rifle regiments; the 809th artillery regiment (Batumi); the 122nd communications battalion (Medjinistzqali); the 61st artillery detachment (Batumi); and the 773rd reconnaissance battalion (Medjinistzqali). An unnamed Russian Defence Ministry official, speaking to Iter-Tass on 29 March 2004, said that the two bases had reduced their personnel – ‘if there were over 2,000 servicemen at each Russian base at the beginning of 2003, now there are at least 1,000 servicemen.’ The reorganization had also meant the disbandment of units at the bases that did not carry out direct combat missions.

 

Following several years of tense negotiations, Russia agreed, in March 2005, to complete the withdrawal of the base from Batumi before the end of 2008. However, the base was officially handed over to Georgia on 13 November 2007, ahead of planned schedule.

 

Honorifics are Tamanskaya Krasnozamennaya, of Order of Kutuzov and Order of the Red Star.

 

Engagements/Battle of the Caucasus, Battle of the Crimea (1944), Battle of the Baltic (1944), Vistula-Oder Offensive, Battle of Berlin

Decorations/Order of Kutuzov 2nd Class, Order of the Red Banner, Order of the Red Star

Battle honors/Taman

[Ashot]

Bergmann Battalion

 

The Special Group Bergmann or the Bergmann Battalion (German: Sonderverband Bergmann, meaning "highlander") was a military unit of the German Abwehr during World War II, composed of five German-officered companies of the Caucasian volunteers.

 

History

The Bergmann battalion was formed of the émigrés and Soviet POWs from the Caucasian republics at Neuhammer in October 1941. Subordinated to the German commando battalion Bau-Lehr-Bataillons z.b.V. 800 and placed under the command of Oberleutnant Theodor Oberländer, the unit received training at Neuhammer and Mittenwald. Later a special 130-men-strong Georgian contingent of Abwehr codenamed “Tamara-II” was incorporated into Bergmann. By March 1942, there were five companies of some 300 Germans and 900 Caucasians:

 

1. Georgian-German

2. North Caucasian

3. Azerbaijan-German

4. Georgian-Armenian

5. Staff company, composed of 30 Caucasian émigrés

 

In August 1942, Bergmann went to the Eastern Front, where it saw its first action in the North Caucasus campaign in August 1942. The unit engaged in anti-partisan actions in the Mozdok-Nalchik-Mineralnye Vody area and conducted reconnaissance and subversion in the Grozny area. At the end of 1942, Bergmann conducted a successful sortie through the Soviet lines, bringing with them some 300 Red Army defectors, and covered the German retreat from the Caucasus. Bergmann went through a series of hard-fought engagements with the Soviet partisans and regular forces in the Crimea in February 1943 and was dissolved – like other Ostlegionen units – at the end of 1943. The significantly shrunken ex-Bergmann companies were dispatched to conduct police functions in Greece and Poland.

 

The Bergmann group used as insignia a traditional Caucasian dagger (kindzhal) with curving blade, worn on the left side of the cap. Made of yellow metal, it was 7 cm long.

 

Armenian Legion

 

The Armenian Legion was the name given to the 812th Armenian Battalion, which was a foreign unit of the Nazi Germany during World War II, comprised largely POW Armenians of the Red Army, under the leadership of Drastamat Kanayan. Their established aim was the restoration of Armenia’s independence from the Soviet Union.

 

The Armenian and Georgian battalions were ultimately sent to the Netherlands as a result of Adolf Hitler's distrust for them, and due further to low morale and poor training, many them deserted, defected or revolted. The legion, like other Turkic and Caucasian forces formed by the Germans, has been described by one military historian as "poorly armed, trained, and motivated," and was "unreliable and next to useless." The Israeli scholar Yair Auron has noted that Turkish nationalist efforts to thwart recognition of the Armenian Genocide have resulted in the dissemination of various Turkish propaganda publications in regards to the Armenian Legion.

 

Background

The majority of the soldiers in the legion were former Soviet Red Army POWs, who had opted to fight for German forces rather than face the "genocidal conditions" of the Nazi POW camps. Some Berlin-based representatives of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF, Dashnaks), though repudiated by the official party organs, made an agreement with the Nazis in 1942 to support the Germans against the Soviet Union.

 

A number of veterans of Armenians who had escaped to the US after World War I came back to Europe and created the Armenian Legion.[6] General Drastamat "Dro" Kanayan (a one-time leader of the Democratic Republic of Armenia) led the legion, and fought on the Eastern front. French genocide scholar Yves Ternon, who has studied the battalion, suggested that while there were no "substantial" fascistic inclinations among the Armenians in general, Kanayan was an exception; Ternon characterized "Dro" as possessive of substantial "fascist deviation."

 

Size

According to Joris Versteeg, the total number of Armenians serving in the German armed forces during the war was 18,000: 11,000 were placed in field battalions, while 7,000 were placed in logistic and non-combat units. Ailsby puts the number at 11,600.

 

Activities

The short-lived Democratic Republic of Armenia established in 1918 in the Southern Caucasus by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (The Dashnaks) was conquered by the Russian Bolsheviks in 1920, and ceased to exist. During WWII, some of the Dashnaks saw an opportunity in the collaboration with the Germans to regain those territories. The legion participated in the occupation of the Crimean Peninsula and the Caucasus.

 

Several Jewish soldiers serving in the Red Army and captured as POWs were saved by some of the Armenians in the Legion. Josef Moisevich Kogan, a Jewish Red Army soldier captured by German forces, noted the help he received by an Armenian doctor in the 812th when he was sneaked into the battalion itself and later escaped with the help of Dutch underground resistance members. Other instances included Jews being sent inside the battalion to evade detection by the Nazis. Hans Houterman reported that a battalion in Holland where the legion was stationed even revolted.

 

Toulon, Southern France, 1944

One part of the Armenian Legion formed the 4th Battalion of the 918th Grenadier Regiment, 242 Infanterie-Division, one of the few Eastern Legion units to be given German insignia after March 18, 1944. The battalion was destroyed in the defense of Toulon. At the end of the war, the remaining members in the battalion surrendered to the Western Allied forces. If not detained by them, they were turned over to Soviet authorities who, under an order enacted by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, were sent to camps in Siberia as punishment for surrendering to Axis forces and "allowing themselves to be captured," a fate suffered by nearly all of the former Soviet prisoners of the war.

 

Nazi perspective

Alfred Rosenberg, Hitler's Minister of the Occupied Territories, declared that the Armenians were Indo-European, or Aryans, and thus they were immediately subject to conscription. According to Versteeg, however, "Although Armenians officially were considered 'Aryans', the notion of them being 'Levantine traders', not unlike the Jews, was deep-seated in Nazi circles, and racial 'purists' along with Hitler himself were prone to look upon the Armenians as 'non-Aryans.'"

 

Hitler himself expressed his doubts on the Armenian and other Soviet battalions. Speaking about military units from Soviet peoples, Hitler said: "I don't know about these Georgians. They do not belong to the Turkic peoples...I consider only the moslims to be reliable...All others I deem unreliable. For the time being I consider the formation of these battalions of purely Caucasian peoples very risky, while I don't see any danger in the establishment of purely Moslim units...In spite of all declarations from Rosenberg and the military, I don't trust the Armenians either."