Azerbaijani SS volunteer formations were recruited from prisoners of war, mainly from the Soviet Union and the countries annexed by it after 1939. Nazi Germany organised them to fight against the Soviet Union.
Origins
In November 1943, Meyer-Mader offered his services to Himmler to help raise and command a Turkic SS unit. Himmler approved the broad plan and then transferred him into the ranks of the Waffen-SS and promoted him to the rank of SS-Obersturmbannführer. Then, on 14 December, a meeting was held in Berlin in the presence of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husseini. The Grand Mufti approved the plan to raise a Turkic-Muslim SS division and to give his "spiritual leadership" to influence the Muslim volunteers.
Ostmuselmanisches SS-Regiment
Between November 1943 and January 1944, there was a series of meetings between Meyer-Mader and Muslim volunteers. As a result of these meetings, on January 4, 1944, it was decided to form the Ostmuselmanisches SS-Regiment. At the same meeting, it was decided to disband the following Wehrmacht battalions who would serve as a basis for a new platform: 450th, 480th, 782nd, 786th, 790th, 791st and I/94th Turkestanische battalions, Aserbeidschanische 818th and Volga Tatar 831st. Unfortunately, many of the volunteers deserted at this time, and the 818th defected to Polish and Ukrainian resistance movements in 1943.
Furthermore, at the same time, Meyer-Mader visited prisoners of war camps and called for volunteers to join the new Muslim SS legion. The recruits were not only Turkestani but also Azerbaijani, Kyrgyz, Uzbek, and Tajik. By the end of January 1944, he was able to recruit three thousand volunteers who were concentrated in Poniatova. To increase the staffing regiment, dozens of German officers and non-commissioned officers were transferred there. Nevertheless, it was a prolonged process, mainly due to a lack of equipment, including uniforms and even shoes. Therefore, by the October 1944 deadline, which Himmler appointed for the deployment of divisions, the regiment had only four thousand people formed into three battalions.
The unit was formed in Trawniki, Poland, before they were transferred to Byelorussia for further training. SS-Obersturmbannführer Andreas Meyer-Mader was appointed as its first commander.
This unit suffered from poor discipline, and poor morale, especially after Meyer-Mader was killed during a skirmish with partisans in Yuratishki, near Minsk, on March 28, 1944. The situation worsened when the replacement commander, SS-Hauptsturmführer Billig, executed 78 unit members for insubordination. This incident angered Himmler, who relieved Billig. In May 1944, the 550 men (Turkestanis, Volga Tatars, Azerbaijanis, Kyrgyz, Uzbeks, and Tajiks) from the Ostmuslemanische SS-Regiment were attached to the SS Dirlewanger brigade.
Warsaw
On January 29, 1944, Heinz Reinefarth was assigned as SS and Police Leader in Reichsgau Wartheland (the pre-war Polish Greater Poland Voivodeship, annexed by Germany in 1939). In this post, he was responsible for the organised repression against Poles and other nationalities deprived of all rights by Germany. After the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising, Reinefarth was ordered to organise a military unit from the 16th Police Company and other smaller security units and head for Warsaw. Upon arrival, his forces were included in the Korpsgruppe Von Dem Bach of General Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski who Himmler ordered to quell the rebellion. From August 5, 1944, Reinefarth's group fought in the Wola area. In several days, his and Dirlewanger's soldiers executed approximately 40,000 civilian inhabitants of Warsaw in what is now known as the Wola massacre. The Wola killings were mostly inflicted by Kampfgruppe Reinefarth that assaulted the area held by the insurgents from the west.
It is hard to determine which specific units are to be held responsible, but the main “cleansing” tasks had been assigned to Angriffsgruppe Dirlewanger with following forces:
2 Grenadier Battalions (I & II) of SS Sonderregiment Dirlewanger, Aserbeidschanisches Feld Bataillon I./111 (com. Hptm. Werner Scharrenberg), Ostmuselmanisches SS Regiment (without Battalion III), II Btl. "Bergmann" – (without 7. Komp.) Ltn. Mertelsmann, Gendermerie Operationsgruppe Walter (2 gendarmerie Komp.), Komp. I & II of Aserb. Feld Btl. I/111, Anti-aircraft battery of 80th Regiment, Sturmpanzer-Kompanie z.b.V. 218 (8x Brummbär) Hptm. Kellmann, a part of machine gun 4. Kompanie of Aserb. Feld Btl. I/111, 1. Platoon of 654. Pioniere Battalion, 1 KRONE flamethrower unit (8x Flammenwerfer 41)