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It has been suggested that this article be merged into Armenische Legion. (Discuss)

During the World War II considerable number of Armenians Cooperated with Nazis to regain the territories lost to Soviet Union.

Background

The short-lived Democratic Republic of Armenia established in 1918 in the Southern Caucasus by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation was conquered by the Russian Bolsheviks in 1920, and ceased to exist. During World War II, some of the Dashnaks saw an opportunity in the collaboration with the Germans to regain those territories.

On 15 December 1942, an Armenian National Council was granted official recognition by Alfred Rosenberg, the German minister of the occupied areas. The president of Council was Professor Ardasher Abeghian, its vice-president Abraham Guilkhandanian and it numbered among its members Garegin Njdeh (A national hero of Armenia) and Vahan Papazian. Until the end of 1944 it published a weekly journal, Armenian, edited by Viken Shantn who also broadcast on Radio Berlin with the aid of Dr. Paul Rohrbach.

Nazi perspective

Alfred Rosenberg, Hitler's Minister of the Occupied Territories, declared that the Armenians were Indo-European, or Aryans. One of Nazis' major projects demostrated that Jesus had been born Armenian, not Jewish, parents.

Armenische Legion

The Armenian Legion was the name given to the 812th Armenian Battalion, was a foreign unit of the Nazi Germany during World War II, comprised largely POW Armenians of the Red Army, under the leadership of Drastamat Kanayan. The total number of Armenians was 8000; this number later grew to 20,000.

Activities

The legion participated in the occupation of the Crimean Peninsula and the Caucasus. One part of the Armenian Legion formed the 4th Battalion of the 918th Grenadier Regiment, 242 Infanterie-Division, one of the few Eastern Legion units to be given German insignia after March 18, 1944. The battalion was destroyed in the defense of Toulon. At the end of the war, the remaining members in the battalion surrendered to the Western Allied forces. If not detained by them, they were turned over to Soviet authorities who, under an order enacted by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, were sent to camps in Siberia as punishment for surrendering to Axis forces and "allowing themselves to be captured," a fate suffered by nearly all of the former Soviet prisoners of the war.

Hairenik

Hairenik which was an Armenian language weekly newspaper published in Watertown, Massachusetts in the United States supported Adolf Hitler and his racial policies; and the party's “Race Worship Society” marched in Boston before and during World War II.

References

1. Christopher J. Walker's "Armenia —The Survival of a Nation," page 357
2. Claudia Koonz. , The Nazi conscience,p. 213, Jesus had been born Armenian, not Jewish, parents.
3. Auron. The Banality of Denial, p. 238.
4. The banality of denial: Israel and the Armenian genocide, Yair Auron, p. 238
5. Thomas, Nigel (2000). The German Army 1939-45 (5). Stephen Andrew. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. pp. 43–44. ISBN 1-8553-2797-X.
6. This Land Was Your Land, This Land Was My Land

• Foreign volunteer units of the Wehrmacht
• Collaboration during World War II