What was the difference between the 500th and 999th Penal Companies of the Wehrmacht, and what were they used for?
As early as 1942, an acute shortage of manpower was felt in Germany – in the face of such a large-scale war on a huge territory. It was decided to put aside the propaganda theory that only a dignified, ideologically fit man could wear a military uniform for the time being. And start by replenishing the supply of “cannon fodder” with prisoners. And there were plenty of them in the Third Reich, as in any other totalitarian state.
For this purpose, 999th penal battalions were set up by order of the High Command of the Armed Forces (OKV) of 2 October 1942 (with the note “for the duration of the war”). They were occupied by convicts.
Even before that, in 1941, soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht who had committed crimes were not sent to prisons, but to “penal units”.
And in the Waffen-SS there had been a Sonderkommando Dirlewanger since 1940, which consisted of prisoners. But this was a punishment unit meant for “dirty work”.
“It is not the best who should lose their lives at the front, but the physically and mentally handicapped.”
In the Wehrmacht, however, the 500th and 999th Battalions were typical “cannon fodder”. They were sent to the most difficult sections of the front, where the fighting was associated with heavy losses. And this fact was not concealed, but, on the contrary, propagated.
Germans demobilized mutineers. Still from the film “999th Killing Battalion” (Germany, 1960, based on the novel by Heinz Konsalik)
Dungeon Breaker18+
Here is a quote from the propaganda magazine Military Law:
“It must not be the case that the best at the front lose their lives while the physically and mentally inferior undermine the position of our fatherland. Once again, war must not affect the precious elements of our nation too much. In this situation, natural selection will go the other way.
According to a circular letter to the troops, under wartime conditions, soldiers or officers who had committed a crime could not only be sent to the “Correctional Unit 500” by a court-martial for a specific offense, but also quite simply –
“lazy, negligent, dirty, discontented, stubborn, antisocial and antisocial personalities, soulless (that was the wording), cruel, deceitful, deceitful, cowardly, psychopaths”.
The length of stay in the 500th Penal Battalion was between 3 and 6 months. Those who were lucky were rehabilitated and transferred to regular units, provided they “reformed”.
Those who were transferred from the prisons and camps to the 999th Penal Battalions had even less chance of surviving their rehabilitation. The Nazis were especially suspicious of political prisoners – communists and other dissidents. They rightly expected that they would defect and refuse to accept.
Thus, the ratio between criminals and political prisoners in the penal battalions was 70/30 percent. But towards the end of the war, the shortage of men worsened.
German explosives prisoners.
Military use of Wehrmacht prisons
The Wehrmacht staff was responsible for the combat power and military leadership of the corps and included specially selected Wehrmacht officers, non-commissioned officers, and even enlisted men (Wehrmacht soldiers who were responsible for caring for corps members were called “teams” in such units).
The 999th Battalion was originally intended for use in the African theater of war, where it was very hot in all respects at the time. And there wasn’t much to overrun from – it was desert and Europe was far beyond the Mediterranean.
In fact, several penal battalions, grouped together in the “999th Light African Brigade”, were transferred to Tunisia in March 1943 and from there directly to the front. By May of the same year, they had already capitulated, along with the entire German Afrika Korps.
The new 999 battalions were sent to Greece, where they were used as occupying troops alongside regular Wehrmacht units. In 1944, some of the 999s were sent to the Eastern Front.
Since some of the three 999s did not behave in an exemplary manner, the German military command decided to disarm the three 999s in one place and use them only for defensive purposes.
It is not known how many people passed through the Wehrmacht’s penal battalions before 1945. According to various studies, there were between 28,000 and 37,000 people.