FASCIST UNITS EDELWEISS

The Edelweiss anti-guerrilla units are also among the units that were characterized by their brutality and horrific actions. Although the focus of their attention was Slovakia, their cruelty was also felt by the inhabitants of Moravia...

The Edelweiss was a special anti-guerrilla unit, the core of which was a special detachment of the Slovak Labour Service (SPS). The special military and intelligence training, conducted by German instructors, focused primarily on the organization and subsequent implementation of partisan actions, mastering the use of weapons of various types and kinds, handling explosives, all-round sabotage, operating radio stations, etc.Members included both Slovaks and Czechs.

On November 4, 1944, the Slovak Ministry of Defence met the commander of the German occupation troops, General Hofle, and the SPS company was organizationally subordinated to the commander of the unit "Abwehrgruppe 218", Major Erwin von Thun-Hohenstein. In fact, the SPS special detachment became an integral part of "Abwehrgruppe 218" only after the training in Žilina and thethe successful anti-partisan actions in the vicinity of Bansko-Stiavnica Počúvadlo and on the site Jabloňov-Nová Baňa on 19. - 26 November 1944.

The commander of the Slovak Edelweiss unit was the rebel officer Capt. Ladislav Nižňanský, who on 16 December 1944 narrowed the number of candidates to 130 men by strict selection of the SPS. The advisor to Commander Nižňanský was Eldwebel Josef Nowak-Ulrich and the spiritual advisor was Fridrich Zelina. It is known that the detachment consisted of three infantry and mortar platoons. Each platoon consisted of three squads, each with 3-13 men.

The unit's staff consisted mainly of German fascist murderers of the Ukrainian nation, members of the Brandenburg spy division. Nevertheless, they initially wore the uniforms of the Wehrmacht and later the Waffen- SS. The Slovak uniforms vz. 30, which the members of the Edelweiss wore, were no exception. These were supplied by the Slovak army from warehouses in Trnava.

The Edelweiss was a motley mix of traitors of various nationalities, made up of nationalist elements, declassed criminals, fascist and religiously deviant individuals and young perverts from among the demoralised Slovak youth. Moreover, they were entitled to enjoy the rights of German soldiers. For their terrorist, espionage and persecution merits, they received from the fascist...and were nominated for the Order of the Iron Cross. In addition to a monthly gratuity of 500 crowns, they were also entitled to increased rations of food, alcohol and cigarettes. As a bonus when participating in the action, there was the possibility of confiscation of confiscated property and valuables of the murdered.

The Edelweiss unit also boasted horrifying statistics. During about 50 actions carried out throughout central and eastern Slovakia, 300 people were murdered by the fascists and over 600 people were handed over to the SIPO security police, the SD security service and the I-s department of the 178th Tatra Division. Most of the detainees never returned home.

The wave of terror began during the anti-partisan combing operations into Zázrivá and Horná Štubna in October 1944. In the next four months, the surroundings of Bánská Bystřice, Zvolen, Kremnica, Blatnice, Brezno, Banská Štiavnica, Osliany, Ilava, Handlová, the village of Podhradie, Prochot, Dolné Vestenice and the surroundings of Novák were also affected.

The series of crimes in central Slovakia was rounded off by brutal murders of civilians in Ostrom Grun and Kľak in the former district of Sv. Kríž nad Hronom (Žiar nad Hronom). These one-off bloody crimes are unparalleled for their cruelty and monstrosity. The victims were elderly people, women and children, whom the fascists branded as partisan helpers.

The Edelweiss detachment planned the assault on Ostré Grúň and Kľak for 21 January 1944. The action was preceded by a reconnaissance of the prospected objects and the summing up of information from the fascist intelligence of the security police.

The Edelweiss assassins, together with a special SS unit armed with self-propelled guns and armored vehicles, and a 100-manHeimatschutz troops from the above-mentioned villages, first raided Ostrý Grúň, where they murdered 62 people in the house of Izidor Debnár and in the surrounding houses.

After the bloody massacre, the alcohol-intoxicated band of murderers invaded Kľak, where they slaughtered 82 more people. Their cruelty knew no bounds and they had no mercy even for children. Three-month-old Jozeflika Haring was thrown against the wall of the house and her mother was shot dead, and the rest of the family suffered the same fate.

Martin Herka, a 21-year-old partisan in Hornom Kľak, was subjected to an unusually cruel interrogation. They cut open his feet, skinned his body in several places, cut off his ears, tongue, nose, gouged out his eyes and finally threw him, still alive, into the flames of the burning house. In Horny Klyak they further murdered the partisans Jakab and Borosh. They drove the other inhabitants into the cold and lined them up at the chapel, where they shot them all.

For some unknown reason, however, after the arrival of a motorcycle which delivered a telegram to the commander of the expedition, the fascists abandoned further killings and confined themselves to sacking and burning villages. The inhabitants were then forcibly evacuated. In all, 146 people (including 56 women and 38 children) were murdered in those days. In a repeat attack on 24 January 1945, they burned 112 houses and 78 outbuildings in Ostrom Grun and 132 houses and outbuildings in Kľak.

As of 29 January 1945, Major von Thun-Hohenstein of Abwehrgruppe 218 released a total of 70 members of the SPS Special Unit due to mental crisis from the crimes committed. Then in February 1945, a camouflaged provocation failed, the aim of which was to eliminate Hurban Capt. Milos Uhr of J. V. Stalin's 2nd Czechoslovak Partisan Brigade. They made up for all this in the following months by murdering the population in Nové Město nad Váhom, where they concentrated their repressive attack for 12 days, coordinating with a German rifle company.

More on the end of the Edelweiss and its exploits in Moravia in the next installment...

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