Einsatzgruppen Leaders
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Oskar Dirlewanger was born in Wurzburg on 26 September 1895. During World War One, he reached the rank of lieutenant and won the Iron Cross. Between 1919 and 1921 he was involved in the suppression of communist risings in the Ruhr and Saxony, also serving in the Freikorps in Upper Silesia.
In 1922 he obtained a degree in political science and a year later joined the Nazi Party, and ran a knit-wear factory in Erfurt for a few years before becoming an SA leader in Esslingen in 1932. After serving a two-year sentence in 1934 for molesting a minor, Dirlewanger joined the Condor Legion in 1937, fighting for Franco in the Spanish Civil War.
In July of 1939 Oskar Dirlewanger sent a letter to Himmler requesting admission to the Waffen-SS but was initially denied entrance due to a criminal conviction for “immoral activity with an underage girl. He was sentenced to two years imprisonment and was released in October of 1936.
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