SS Cavalry Brigade - Soviet Union

Soviet Union

Further information: Pripyat swamps (punitive operation)

After the German invasion of the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa), the SS cavalry regiments, along with the 1 SS Infantry Brigade were assigned to pacify what was seen as the main trouble spots in the occupied territories. On 17 July 1941, the SS cavalry regiments were transferred to the general command of HSSPF Erich von dem Bach for action in the area of the Pripet marsh, a large area of land that covered parts of Belorussia and the Northern Ukraine. Thereafter the regiments combined to become the SS Cavalry Brigade. They were ordered to perform the "systematic combing of the Pripyat swamps". The SS Cavalry Brigade was assigned because it was more mobile and better able to carry out large-scale operations; the brigade played a pivotal role in the transition from "selective mass murder" to the wholesale extermination of the Jewish population of the occupied part of the Soviet Union.

By 1 August, the SS Cavalry Regiment was responsible for the death of 800 people; five days later, on 6 August, this total had reached 3,000 "Jews and Partisans".

Also on 1 August, after a meeting between Heinrich Himmler, Erich von Bach-Zelewski and Hinrich Lohse, the Brigade received the following order:

Explicit order by RFSS All Jews must be shot. Drive the female Jews into the swamps.

Gustav Lombard, on receiving the order, advised his Battalion that "In future not one male Jew is to remain alive not one family in the villages".

Throughout the next weeks, members of the SS Cavalry Regiment 1, under Lombard's command, murdered an estimated 11,000 Jews and more than 400 dispersed soldiers of the Red Army.

Franz Magill and his men of the SS Cavalry Regiment 2, assisted in the roundup of all the men aged 18 to 55 in the city of Pinsk, where 5,000 to 8,000 men were shot and shortly afterwards, another 2,000 residents including women, children and older men were executed.

General of Infantry Max von Schenckendorff, commander of Army Group Center described their operations the following way:

The SS Cavalry Brigade operates as follows: at dawn, without prior reconnaissance, the troop tasked with the inspection of a village rides into it at full speed and out the other end, occupies the outer edges of the village in a trice, in accordance with an agreed plan, and then gathers the whole population together, including women and children, for inspection. In many cases the skill and experience of the commanding officer, and also of the accompanying SD and GFP groups together with their interpreters, will decide upon the composition of the male inhabitants and their occupation, as well as upon their fate, so that the area is cleared of opposition and pacified.

After the Soviet counterattack in January 1942, the only large formation not already committed was the SS Cavalry Brigade. Launching an attack on 7 January, it was also forced back after only one day's fighting when it had run out of ammunition. One of its Battalions also reported 75% casualties when fighting in the woods north of Rzhev. The Brigade was found to be wanting and not equipped or trained to take on the Soviet Armoured units.

In March 1942, the SS Cavalry Brigade was used as the cadre in the formation of the 8th SS Cavalry Division Florian Geyer.