Editing Oskar Dirlewanger (section)

== Second World War ==
Dirlewanger entered the [[Waffen-SS (Nazi Germany)|Waffen-SS]] and commanded the unit later known as the [[Dirlewanger Brigade]]. The unit was formed from convicted criminals and penal personnel. It murdered civilians on a large scale in occupied [[Poland]] and [[Belarus]]. Sexual violence and torture were routine, while Dirlewanger systematically looted property for himself. He also beat or killed members of his own unit who displeased him.

In Belarus, Dirlewanger ordered civilians confined inside barns and burned alive. His men shot people who tried to escape. They also used captives as human shields and forced them to cross minefields. At least 30,000 Belarusian civilians were killed under his orders. Dirlewanger kept adolescent girls as sexual slaves and ordered Jewish victims killed after raping them.

During the suppression of the [[Warsaw Uprising]] in 1944, the brigade participated in the [[Wola massacre]]. Its personnel burned hospital patients alive and killed medical staff. Witness Mathias Schenck stated that Dirlewanger threw a child into a fire and then shot the child's mother. Schenck also testified that Dirlewanger ordered the killing of hundreds of children at an orphanage. Estimates attributed between 12,500 and 30,000 deaths in Warsaw to Dirlewanger and his unit, mostly civilians and captives.

On 15 December 1944, Dirlewanger commanded the brigade during the [[Battle of Ipolyság]] against the [[Red Army]]. His forces held the town and the nearby Ipoly crossing routes before withdrawing toward the German rear. In 1945, Dirlewanger avoided long-term Allied custody and travelled southeast under false papers. He reached Bucharest by mid-June.