Many officers of the Cossacks in the Wehrmacht were of Baltic German origin that could speak Russian. Later in the war Cossack officers living in Yugoslavia, France, Germany, and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia were later accepted. Also many…
Many officers of the Cossacks in the Wehrmacht were of Baltic German origin that could speak Russian. Later in the war Cossack officers living in Yugoslavia, France, Germany, and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia were later accepted. Also many Austrians were officers of the Cossacks as it was felt that they were more capable of dealing with Slavs rather than Prussians. The Cossacks mostly dealt with anti-partisan operations and were known to be brutal. They had also fought the Soviets on numerous occasions. Towards the end of the war they were later transferred to the SS.
After the end of WW2 many Cossacks retreated to Austria and surrendered to British troops. They were promised safety until they were betrayed and forcibly sent back to the USSR. The scene of the Cossacks upon hearing of that they were going to be sent back to the USSR was described as the following "The first to commit suicide, by hanging, was the Cossack editor Evgenij Tarruski. The second was General Silkin, who shot himself...The Cossacks refused to board the trucks. British soldiers [armed] with pistols and clubs began using their clubs, aiming at the heads of the prisoners. They first dragged the men out of the crowd, and threw them into the trucks. The men jumped out. They beat them again, and threw them onto the floor of the trucks. Again, they jumped out. The British then hit them with rifle butts until they lay unconscious, and threw them, like sacks of potatoes, in the trucks."
Those who did not escape were sent to the Gulags and their leaders were sentenced to death in Moscow of early 1947. Those were were still alive were released after Stalin's death in 1953.
