| 15th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Latvian) | |
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Insignia of 15th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Latvian) |
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| Active | 1943 - 1945 |
| Country | Nazi Germany |
| Branch | Waffen SS |
| Size | Division |
| Part of | VI SS Army Corps (Latvian) |
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| Identification symbol |
Latvian legionnaires Armshield |
The 15th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Latvian) was formed in the Waffen SS's drive for manpower in the wake of Operation Barbarossa; Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. After a successful recruitment drive in the Reichskommissariat Ostland (Baltic states) for the Nazi anti-partisan brigades, Heinrich Himmler formed Baltic legions by late August 1942, including the Lettische SS-Freiwilligen-Legion, the nucleus of the later 15th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS.
However the small scale of these Legions were inadequate for widespread Russia and soon merged into divisions with the Lettische SS-Freiwilligen-Legion renamed as the SS-Freiwilligen-Division, with the numerical designation of 15 soon added. To bolster the numbers, Himmler enforced compulsory military service in the Ostland in age groups 1915-24 in 1943 then 1904-14 and 1925-26 in 1944. These Latvian conscripts would form the renamed 15th Waffen-Grenadier-Division of the SS (note 'Voluntary' title dropped) in time for the Soviet attack of 1944. The 15th SS was swept up in the chaos of the collapse of the Eastern Front and lost much of its spirit after the Soviet re-occupation of their homelands. It was soon trapped and decimated in their hopeless defence of Pomerania.
The Division fought on the Pomeranian Wall defences. At Podgaje, on 2 February 1945, men of the division performed a war crime on Polish prisoners of war, burning in a barn 32 soldiers from the 4th Company, 3rd Infantry Regiment of the Polish First Army's 1st Infantry Division who were tied up in barbed wire.[1][2][3]
However, out of fear of Russian revenge, it fought well in the last months of the war, with a surviving Füsilier battalion in the last defence of Berlin in mid-1945. Other remnants under Waffen-Standartenführer Vilis Janums surrendered to the advancing Americans at Güterglück near the Elbe River.
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