Oskar Dirlewanger

Oskar Dirlewanger

Oskar Dirlewanger (26 September 1895 – c. 7 June 1945) was a German military officer (SS-Oberführer) and convicted rapist known for committing numerous war crimes. He played a significant role as the founder and commander of the SS penal unit known as the "Dirlewanger" during World War II. While serving in Poland and Belarus, Dirlewanger has been closely linked to many atrocities, being considered one of the most cruel and brutal individuals throughout the course of the Second World War, with his unit being responsible for the deaths of at least "tens of thousands" in Poland and the Soviet Union. He also fought in World War I, the post-World War I conflicts, and the Spanish Civil War. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Oskar Dirlewanger has received more than 2,896,851 page views. His biography is available in 29 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 27 in 2019). Oskar Dirlewanger is the 178th most popular military personnel (up from 192nd in 2019), the 427th most popular biography from Germany (up from 449th in 2019) and the 43rd most popular German Military Personnel.

Oskar Dirlewanger was a Nazi officer in the SS who is most famous for his command of the SS-Sonderkommando Dirlewanger, a unit of the Waffen-SS that was responsible for mass killings, punitive expeditions, and the destruction of Warsaw.