ESTONISCHE 20th Waffen-SS Grenadier Division composed of Estonian Volunteers

The 20th SS Grenadier Division Estonia has its origins in the year 1942 when the Estonian SS Legion was created, initially composed of 800 Estonian volunteers who received military training in the Debica Barracks (Poland). The Estonian people found themselves with strong desires of revenge against communism, after 6% of its population was annihilated during the Soviet occupation of Estonia between the years 1939 and 1940. Finally, in 1941 Germany liberated them from the Soviet yoke as part of the "Operation Barbarroja". In this way a close relationship between the Axis Powers and Estonia begins.

The Panzer Grenadier SS Battalion made up of Estonian Volunteers "Narva" was initially intended to fight the communist partisans. Then, in July 1943 he moved to the border between Ukraine and Russia to fight against the Red Army in obvious numerical disadvantage. However, they managed to take refuge in Poland where they were joined by 15,000 Estonian volunteers, mostly from the German Army and the Finnish Army, thus they managed to become the 20th SS Division of Estonian Grenadiers "Estonische".

The Estonian volunteers fought on the eastern front against the Red Army until the end of the war, in May 1945. Some members left the Division to join the anti-Soviet partisan movement of the Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) called the "Brothers" forest". The rest participated in the Battle of Prague, when Berlin had already announced the surrender of Germany, in order to surrender to the Western forces, led by the United States, instead of capitulating to the Soviet troops as it finally turned out.

Image