HIAG

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HIAG (German: Hilfsgemeinschaft auf Gegenseitigkeit der Angehörigen der ehemaligen Waffen-SS, literally "Mutual Help Association of Former Waffen-SS Members") was an organization founded in 1951 by former members of the Waffen-SS.

The main aims of the organisation were to provide assistance to veterans, and campaign for the rehabilitation of their legal status with respect to veterans' pensions. Unlike soldiers of the regular Wehrmacht, pensions had been denied to members of the Waffen-SS as a result of that organisation having been declared criminal in the aftermath of the Second World War.

At its height in the 1960s around 70,000 of the approximately 250,000 former Waffen-SS members living in West Germany were members of HIAG. During the 1980s, political antagonism towards the organisation grew and it was finally disbanded in 1992.

[edit] External links

• University of Bielefeld research project (German)