One of the most notorious yet least understood body of troops that fought for the Third Reich during World War II was the infamous Sondereinheit Dirlewanger, or the -Dirlewanger Special Unit.- Formed initially as a company-sized formation in June 1940 from convicted poachers, it served under the command of SS-Obersturmf-hrer Oskar Dirlewanger, one of the most infamous criminals in military history. First used to guard the Jewish ghetto in Lublin and support security operations carried out in occupied Poland by SS and Police forces, the unit was soon transferred to Belarus to combat the increasingly active Soviet partisan movement. After assisting in putting down the Warsaw Uprising during August-September 1944, by November of that year it had been enlarged and retitled as the 2\. SS-Sturmbrigade Dirlewanger. One month later, it fought one of its most controversial actions near the town of Ipolysag, Hungary, now known by its Slovak name of -ahy, between 13 and 18 December 1944\. As a re
