Dutch Waffen-SS Veterans in Indonesia and Korea 

PLAYLIST Dutch Waffen-SS: ru-vid.com/group/PL_bcNuRxKtpH80zEWzRuvOVAc2C0M7C1V&si=adegz1u6rM4PB00h

A family member of mine had a former Panzergrenadier as a platoon sergeant in vietnam 1967-1968. He had knocked out a couple Sherman tanks in 1944-1945.

My old dentist was Romanian and after the German invasion was "drafted" by the Germans to fight the USSR. He did willingly. Eventually was captured by the USSR and offered the choice to go to prison or fight the Germans. He fought the Germans willingly. He ended up in Berlin at the end of war and defected before US/USSR relations went south.Eventually ended up in the US and became a dentist again. Which is what he did in Romania before the war.

The French foreign legion also recruited soldiers of the Waffen-SS. I figured that that was not the only organization doing this. Also, many top-ranking nazis worked for the Americans, British and French after the war.

I'm sorry to hear this is your last video about Dutch SS. As a Dutchman your videos are so insightful

I have read a book called "Devil's Guard" and it's about an SS soldier that after the war joined the foreign legion and fought in Indochina, truly a very interesting book that was like watching a movie and i recommend it to everyone that wants to learn about the subject.. Keep on the interesting and accurate content my friend I don't lose any of your videos, greetings from northern Greece..

A little fun fact: S.Koreans used to wear SS camo uniforms during the Korean war. They were issued from the UN/US warehouse. It freaked out the soviets, but they couldn't really do much about it

Interesting subject! In the 'bataljon Friesland', that consisted mainly of Frisian resitance fighters that volunteered "to free Indonesia", volunteers were specifically screened to see who had shown "bad" behavior during the war. These would mainly be thrown out of the batallion before they departed to Indonesia. It could be that during this volunteer phase other battalions weren't as rigorous in their screening and had former SS personnel in their midst. Or it could be that during the conscription phase because of personnel shortages former SS'ers were conscripted. I bet it's the latter. Guess i will found out tomorrow :)

Zeer, zeer verhelderend, Stefan. Dit geeft meteen stof tot nadenken over het immer grijze veld van beoordeling van dergelijke voormalige SS vrijwilligers, en hoe hun acties door volgende generaties te laten beoordelen.

When I was doing my stint in the conscription army, I once had the chance to talk to Korea veterans. Within their group there were some whom were rumoured to have fought in the Waffen-SS. The "good" guys were constantly needling the SS men about their past with "good-humoured banter". This stopped when one of them lost his cool and wanted to fight but then chose to just leave the reunion party.

There were lots of GERMAN SS people working in Viet Nam. They joined the French Foreign Legion.

I've read that France recruited former SS members to fight for them in Viet Nam as well.

Great video. Thank you!

I knew that some Waffen SS vets had served in Indonesia, but not that they did in Korea, as well. Thank you for the video.

I like the longer videos, especially when it's about a fairly complicated subject. You always do a great job, thanks.

Very impressive Stefan, the king of forgotten WW2 battles I'd never know about without this channel

Thanks a lot for this.

This reminds me of “De Oost”, a movie about a Dutch soldier who was deployed to East Indies (Indonesia). In the movie it was revealed that his father was a Nazi collaborator.

Very interesting and informative! Thanks you Stephan

Great content as always

A number of former German SS soldiers apparently served in the French Foreign Legion in Indochina. I wonder if some of the Dutch SS did as well.

Je behandelt altijd de meest unieke onderwerpen!

another well informed, balanced important and timely video. I remember reading Sven Hassells books as a young man and they are still on my bookshelves, totally falling apart paperbacks, they were given to me as a youngster in the Republic of Ireland by an elderly man as he knew i loved anything military. know that I have knowledge of just how many SS men fled to Ireland as its a great place to hide, Anti British, very remote areas, protection given by the P.I.R.A. it makes me wonder exactly who that man was....I do know that the head of the Irish Schoolbook Publishers "Folens" was an interesting character....

very intresting totally unknown subject for me thx keep up the great work

Altijd interessant. Bedankt !

Ontzettend gave video! Zou je misschien een video kunnen doen over Nederlandse vrijwilligers in de Spaanse burgeroorlog en hun strijd voor rehabilitatie in de jaren er na? Keep em coming! Ben fan!😊

Great episode ... very interesting subject. Thanks for your hard work putting it together and posting.

A very useful and detailed post script to the Dutch WW2 story. Pity there are so few accounts by the SS men themselves about this post war period but the historical accounts that you draw on give this episode particular depth.

Mooi gemaakt Stefan. Ik ben benieuwd wat de toekomst weer brengt. Succes met het maken van een nieuwe serie.

Great video about an intersting and not well known topic. I love how you present the facts without bias.!

hallo Stefan, zoals altijd weer genoten van je kennis!!! Keep up te good work. Gr. Werner

One if the best channels on RU-vid!

Very interesting piece of NL military history.Many thanks.

Great video today thanks for what you do and keep them coming 👍

Mijn opa heeft gediend bij de ss, en is in 1945/1946 opgeleid bij korps mariniers om tegen de japaners te vechten, maar toen opleiding klaar was, was de oorlog over, hij is toen naar Indonesië gestuurd en heeft daar paar jaar gevochten en later nog in nieuw Gunea, Tijdens gevechten in Indonesië is hij nog gewond geraakt, en hij is tot zijn pensioen bij de korps mariniers gebleven en als sergeant marjoor geëindigd. Pas na de dood van opa en oma vonden we fotos van hem in duits uniform, dus helaas nooit wat kunnen vragen erover. Me vader heeft zijn medailes thuis in de vitrine kast liggen. Bedankt voor de documentaire, wist niet dat er veel meer bij Nederlandse krijgsmacht diende

Ye this is a very interesting topic. Helpful video stefan!

this is i wanna hear bec i m trying to find this solid thanks bro kudos to u bro

Not to mention the Dutch SS volunteers were able to adapt to extreme environment. From the frozen Eastern Front to the hot & humidity of Indonesia.

Great video as always 👍 never knew about this

Very interesting topic. Thank you!

Thank you That was interesting.

It was another great episode shared by an excellent ( History Hustle) channel.... wonderful introduced by respectful Sir Stefan. This matter is rarely labeled by other historical sources of WW2....thank you for sharing...good luck and best wishes for your channel, and you

Uitstekende video. Dank voor het "uploaden' .

Good episode. Thanks for this. I wonder if it is worth doing one on the Dutch UN experience in Korea? I was not aware of them being there but it would be interesting to know how it went, unless they ended up guarding supplies in Panmunjom. Still, might be worth a look.

I did know! But thank you for bringing this interesting subject to light.

It was prudent and common sense to allow former Dutch SS / whermacht soldiers serve in indo and korea, veterans and good soldiers, would add some extra bite to the dutch forces - great vid , thanks for posting

Thank you for this interesting information!

Interesting and well done. Thank you

Goed man!

I knew of a former US Army First Sergeant, who had been in the Wehrmacht during WWII fighting against Americans during the Battle of the Bulge!

This was a very informative video. Thank you for producing it.

Great Video!!!!!

Very interesting!!!

thousands of former german army and Waffen SS soldiers served with France, nobody cared what they were before, as long as they could fight. There are also enough former german soldiers serving in the US Army after the war. People with military training were needed, the germans had lots of them after the war, and they needed work/money. Easy answer.

The Story of indonesia - dutch - japan war from 1942 to 1949 is fascinating and i wish someday someone could make a series about it. I heard some japanese and indian sided with nationalist while some local indonesia sided with nederlands.

Biak Island got a mention! My uncle was killed in action there in May 1944.

Thanks!

DANKU VOOR VIDEO EN INFO

Duidelijk weer gegeven in details goed gadaan

My great grandfather somehow survived from 41 to 45 on the eastern front. in 45 he was in the battlegroup that broke out west to the US army, the others went to the latvian SS group and got destroyed in the halbe pocket, i respect my grandfather, He got jailed by the US for little over 1 year, Then the netherlands gave him 5 years jail, that turned into 18 months. He went to work as a militairy trainer after jail, never went to indonesia or korea due to injuries on his legs, but stayed with the dutch army untill 56 or 57. He told me nobody wanted war so nobody asked why he was training, and the few that knew only respected his veterancy. In the 80's some people from our home town took initiative to get him prosecuted for war crimes, his older brother was part of the dutch SS police and got beaten to death in 45, my great grandfather was a very happy man and people did not like that. He was a sargeant( scharfuhrer i think? ) and the higher officers mostly got executed or jailed for life, so they found it unfair, since they felt the under officers actually did the crimes. luckily the government did not see anything criminal he was not already sentenced for. His stories he told me, are great! he fought with Gerard Mooyman, the dutch soldier who eliminated 23 russian tanks around leningrad, they stayed friends until gerard died in 87, I also know the war crime stories, yes they did some, but if possible, they just told yes against the officers that ordered villages cleaned out, they never went back to check, since the russians where always couple hours off their positions. Russia also did war crimes and it was just one big hell if you ask me, each crime fueled the other side to commit more crimes. ( the general staff that is ) One of the crimes he told me is that near leningrad, 30 russians came out of a hole in the ground in their line, they surrendered but they where ordered to shoot them, my grandfather was designated to the firing squad and he had nightmares about that untill he died in 98. Later on when retreating they where ordered to do ''scorched earth'' tactics, but they felt like it didnt do anything against 5 million russians and tenthousand tanks, so they did not bother. Eventually they ran into a SS general, that ordered them to the halbe pocket to reeinforce the others, and my grandfathers group said nope we are going home.

If I were Dutch at that period of time, I would go to jail for a couple of years rather than fight in Indonesia in such conditions, surrounded by partisans...

Great video and very interesting.

Thanks for the additional history considering former members of the SS.

good content as always

11:01 at o.25 speed An Indonesia SS volunteers officer looking the tripod binoculars has a Luger pistol holster in his belt and the one in the back with helmet probably just a soldier.

there is folktale in West Java that Hitler actually escaped to Indonesia disguised as doctor and died by old age in Garut.

Quite alot of WW2 combatants became mercenaries and fought all over the world particularly in Africa.

There are only two Irishman, that we know of that join the Waffen, SS Their story is pretty legendary

Great video Uncle Stefan!, i'm an indonesian student who loved history lesson, and watching your videos, gave me an insight of the Indonesian war of independence from the other side, truly remarkable explanation, thank you, and keep up the good work

About 30 years ago a worked in a company whose owner was a senior Dutch man. I got to know him reasonably well and one day he said that he fought during the war. I asked him which country he fought for and he said "For Germany". He said that he later fought in Indonesia. After a while I put 2 and 2 together and realised he was Waffen SS. He talked about how in Europe "Tousands and tousands of bullets were fired, and maybe one man killed", and later how he k**led a man running away with a sub machine gun by firing into the ground and following the bullet hits up until he got him.

Excelente. que buena producción . muy buen video. Saludos desde Punta del Este. Uruguay

Once again you know how to cover an underexposed, or even unexposed, interesting subject Stefan 👍 Greets from Grun', T.

There was a Finnish man (I forget his name) but he foght the Soviets in the Winter War as a Finnish Soldier, grew to hate communism so much that he continued to fight them in WWII as a Finnish Soldier, then when thebFinns dropped out of the war he joined the SS amd continued fighting communists, then when the War wnded he went to America, joined the US Army, fought in Korean War against communists, then became a founding memeber of the Green Berrets and did multiple deployments fighting them there. I believe he was evem in the John Wayne movie about them. Amazing story.

Bedankt

🎉🎉🎉 Your videos are great materials for conducting a proper research. Keep it up. Also please focus on the danish resistance. 💞💞💞

the allies called them war criminals and traitors and now when they fighting communism they want the former waffen ss volunteers help aint that a kick the head

The enemy of my greater enemy is my friend. that was the philosophy and that is why the denazification was just for the show because otherwise most of the European countries would collapse. Also it came to a point where Hagana in Israel, the Foreign Legion, and the militaries of latin american countries and arabic country etc were packed with former Waffen SS members no matter is they were German or other origin. Great video stefan

Indonesian war of independence was truly a messy business for both side. For the allies, the revolutionaries were traitors and puppet of Japan while on Dutch side you got these former waffen ss members.

Man, war lore is crazy!

Haj Steef! Wederom een mooi stukje research van je; ik waardeer je steeds meer! Maar ben je poncke prinsen vergeten? of zit die in een andere aflevering?

I knew one day someone would cover this topic

Great piece. Thanks. BZ Did you see the 2014,Korean war exhibition in Rotterdam?

SS vets fought in many different armies ..because they are "good" soldiers..even high ranking SSers made it in the Bundesweer to the top /NATO. Nazi's also worked for the US ..just like that Finnish soldier Tori who was a ex SS become a US green beret and fought in Vietnam

I have read the novel ‘Monteyn’ wich is the lifestory of a Dutch Waffen SS soldier who went to fight in the Korean war. It’s a good read!

paráda. spousta fotek a film záběrů které jsem ještě neviděl

Hi Stefan. Your videos are great and accurate. However, I found one little mistake in this one. At 7.11 you speak about Prince Bernhard, the German born husband of Queen Wilhelmina. He was the Son in law of Queen Wilhelmine and married to her Daughter Juliana. As we now know Bernhard was a member of the NSDAP before he came to the Netherlands to marry Juliana. But back in the days during WW2 this rumor was already going. Even Winston Churchill did not trust him. During the Indo conflict he was wearing the Dutch uniforms as well which was, with the knowledge we have now, not correct but it shows the chaos then. Did you know we were almost at war with the US for going to Indonesia? Most of the World were against our move but Wilhelmina insisted to go on. One of the main reasons the US were against it was that our Marines were trained at Camp Lejeune during WW2 and we were equipped with US armor. Anyway, that's something for a later story I guess. Keep up the good work

Thanks for the Insight, didn't know until today that founding fathers had to face off against experienced former Waffen-SS troops, not just chaotic post-WW2 conscripted occupation force... Another interesting trivia is, the founder/1st commander of Indonesian SF(Kopassus) was former Dutch military man....was he a former dutch collaborator too?, considering he didn't went back to Dutch/Nederland after the Independence day was over.

I had a half uncle (now almost certainly deceased) who joined the fight with the Germans against the Soviets. He was either Waffen SS or the Netherlands Legion. My father and another uncle tell different stories. I know he fought in the Eastern Europe. He did not adjust well to post-war Netherlands and this meant he was shunned by his family. My father moved to Canada and lost contact with him. He was probably part of the reason my Grandmother wanted to take her family out of the Netherlands, as he was an embarrassment. So I never met him or heard his stories. His father, whose family raised him, was from a wealthy industrialist family that collaborated with the Germans through their business. He probably got very bored with his life in war time Netherlands. Not sure if he ever went to Indonesia, but he was born there, as my Grandmother was from a colonial family. It was interesting to hear how some of the Church were anti-communist enough to advocate for former SS members. I did not know that.

Some volunteered, because they were just hungry. Have you forgotten the Dutch hunger winter in 1944 ?

Prince Bernhard was married to Juliana not Wilhelmina, Wilhelmina was marrried to Prince Hendrik who had already died in 1934. Juliana became queen of the Netherlands in September 1948. (time stamp 7:09)

Lots of SS and Wehrmacht later joined the French Foreign Legion. I've met several at Puyloubier.....the Legionaries old soldiers/veterans home/hostel, where if you served in the Legion you have a right to retire to.

The redemption factor for former Dutch Waffen SS in the Korean War is poignant and fascinating...

At a 10,000 person attended gunshow in 1994 i was talking with guy who had a table with lotz of ww2 erc memorabilia..intrigued by a unit patch which had german werhmacht overtones..he said it was from mostly german unit of french legion which served in Vietnam 1947-1953

Interesting 🤔

I never knew.

Wow thanks for the info history nice if people would do research good job thanks👍🍻

Easy...my Mom remembers German (ex-wehrmacht OR SS?) soldiers serving in the French Foreign Legion at Madagascar when she was a kid, patrolling the streets of Tananarive and Antsirabé during the uprising, singing marching songs in German (!)

I bet many Dutchmen like former Soviets who served in the Waffen SS Legions and thousands of former German soldiers and SS guys went to the French Foreign Legion either to start over or gotten used to combat from WWII.

My grandfather is japanese imperial soldier who become indonesian citizen after war but he say his origin is from formosa

A little information, German SS troops or more precisely troops from the German SS headquarters in Indonesia, they took part in Indonesian independence, for example by lending typewriters to Soekarno and Hatta, and also providing security from the Japanese Army, because at that time only those who were pro-Indonesian independence German SS and also Japanese Navy