Stefano Di Giusto - Tommaso Chiussi

Globocnik's men in Italy 1943-45

Abteilung R and the SS-Wachmannschaften of the OZAK


English text, 240 pages, size 7" x 10", bound, 402 photos, maps and documents
Schiffer Publishing, December 2016

 

When Odilo Globocnik, SS and police leader in Lublin, Poland, transferred to Italy (in the region then called by the Germans "Operational Zone Adriatic Littoral", in short OZAK, which included north-eastern Italy and parts of present western Slovenia and Croatia) in late 1943, he took with him a group of around 100 men who had run the notorious Aktion Reinhard extermination camps - Belzec, Treblinka, Sobibor - where 1.5 million people (mostly Jews) had been killed.

This book describes the little-known activities of this group, known as Abteilung R, in the OZAK region from 1943 to 1945. Here they not only continued persecuting Jews, but also became involved in the fight against the armed resistance movement, participated in security tasks, anti-partisan operations, retaliation operations including arresting and killing of civilians, and ran the infamous Risiera di San Sabba police camp in Trieste.

One section of the book deals with the Lipa massacre (a village between Trieste in italy and Rjieka in Croatia) of 30 April 1944, where almost 300 civilians were killed, arguing that elements of this unit were responsible for the massacre. The possibility is also analysed that Abteilung R was also responsible for the massacre in Avasinis (a village north of Udine) where 51 civilians were killed on 2 May 1945.

The book also covers the SS-Wachmannschaften (SS guards units) of the OZAK, military units that were formed locally and had links with Abteilung R.

Chapters are included on uniforms and insignia, weapons and vehicles, as well as many photographs related to anti-partisan operations in the region.

List of Contents

Purchase: Schiffer Publishing

Downloadable pdf with list of "errata corrige" (latest update: April 2024)

Downloadable pdf with index of people's names



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