ϟϟ-Division „Leibstandarte ϟϟ Adolf Hitler“

Soviet political commissar captured by men of the Leibstandarte SS

Leibstandarte SS officers and NCOs in Ukraine

Leibstandarte SS troops welcomed as liberators by Ukrainians

During Operation Barbarossa, the SS-Division Leibstandarte SS had penetrated 960 kilometres into Soviet territory. It spent the winter 1941-1942 fighting ferocious defensive battles on the front of Heeresgruppe Süd in temperatures of down to −40 °C with minimal winter clothing and only 150 grams of rations per man per day. Despite this, the division held. After the spring rasputitsa had cleared, the exhausted division joined in Operation Case Blue, participating in the fighting to retake Rostov-on-Don, which was recaptured in late July 1942. The Leibstandarte SS alone took over 10,000 Red Army POWs during the first assault on Rostov-on-Don. Many Ukrainians welcomed German troops as liberators and welcomed them with flowers or the traditional Ukrainian bread and salt of hospitality and friendship. In occupying Ukraine the Germans were particularly concerned to exploit the country's agriculture and raw materials for the war effort. Under such conditions Ukrainian political activity, predicated originally on cooperation with the Germans, increasingly turned to underground organizational work and resistance. Top image: a captured Soviet commissar who is most likely to be shot. The Commissar Order was an order issued by the German High Command on June 6 1941 before Barbarossa. It instructed the Wehrmacht that any Soviet Political Commissar identified among captured troops be summarily executed. These commissars were not to be recognized as soldiers. Photo taken by the Leibstandarte war correspondent SS-KB Paul Augustin who served with the division from at least 1940 until March 1943. Middle image: officers and NCOs of the Leibstandarte SS during a lull in the fighting somewhere in Ukraine. The standing soldier is wearing the SS Palmenmuster smock whereas the others are wearing the well known Platanentarn smocks. Photo by Paul Augustin. Credit: Karl Mensburg. U.S. National Archives. Bottom image: Leibstandarte SS greeted by a Ukrainian woman. The divisional insignia seen on the mudguard was a skeleton key, in honor of its commander Josef Sepp Dietrich. Commons: Bundesarchiv.