Waffen-SS Foreign Volunteers: ϟϟ-Unterscharführer Johansson

SS-Unterscharführer der Waffen-SS Arne Johansson

Original SS-Division Nordland Cuff Title

Before the 11.SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Division Nordland took part in the defense of Berlin it fought fierce defensive battles in Pommern and on the Oder. SS-Unterscharführer Arne Johansson from Göteborg in Sweden was one of many volunteers who fell in those battles. He had served with the Swedish Volunteer Corps during the Soviet aggression against Finland before he joined the Waffen-SS and the Nordland Division. In 1943 Johansson was assigned to the SS-Panzer-Aufklärungs-Abteilung 11 Panzergruppe Saalbach. On several occasions the company commander had to calm down his fighting spirit, which came to fore when things started to get hot, but finally it cost him his life. Arne Johansson was killed in action aged 30 during a counter-attack in Groß Wachlin east of Stettin-Altdamm on March 1 1945, leaving behind a wife and three children in Sweden. SS-Oberscharführer Erik Wallin, recalled the event in his classic postwar account Twilight of the Gods: A man was sent out to aid Arne Johansson after he was wounded by shrapnel. He was killed almost immediately by the Russians. Another group was dispatched and met the same fate. Finally, Johansson was retrieved only to be wounded once again. Seven to eight men fell during this episode. Johansson lingered on a while but died of his wounds. His final words were “I hope I have behaved like a good Swede... The British historian and author Martin Gilbert remarked: All wars end up being reduced to statistics, strategies, debates about their origins and results. These debates about war are important, but not more important than the human story of those who fought in them. Ordinary men conscripted into the Heer, Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine or enlisted men of the Waffen-SS did not fight for the NSDAP (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei). Neither did the hundreds of thousands of European volunteers. There were certainly other values and beliefs involved. Perspectives that may be easily forgotten. Top image: Winter War veteran and SS volunteer Arne Johansson. Priv.coll. FU.