German prosecutors ask police to trace Nazi atrocities unit

Ludwigsburg, Germany - German war-crimes prosecutors have asked police to begin a hunt for surviving ex-servicemen from a 7,500-man Nazi military unit accused of some of the worst atrocities of the Second World War in Poland. The national office on war crimes at Ludwigsburg in western Germany said Friday it had commissioned the state police of Baden-Wuerttemberg to check out new clues obtained from Red Cross archives in Munich that list names and addresses of ex-soldiers. The most violent unit of the Nazi Party private army, the SS, was commanded by Oskar Dirlewanger and formed of ex-criminals. Poland has asked Germany to assist with an inquiry into a massacre of 40,000 civilians in August 1944 in the Wola district of Warsaw. The Dirlewanger Brigade is believed to have led the bestial violence as a reprisal for the Warsaw... [read full story]