German Forces

Cossack leader.

Unknown author.

Oberst (later Generalleutnant) Helmuth von Pannwitz, a formal studio portrait, presumably made in connection of his receipt of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, 23 December, 1942. Pannwitz, a member of a Prussian aristocratic and military family, followed a strange course for someone of his background. He was centrally instrumental in raising Cossack units for service in the Heer, units which saw extensive action against partisans in the Soviet Union, and later in the Balkans. Pannwitz and his Cossacks had a great mutual affinity; the Wehrmacht Cossacks under his command elected him Ataman (head-Hetman, the honor by which the Tsars of old assumed traditional leadership of the Cossacks). While Pannwitz himself, ostensibly, did not approve, his Cossacks were responsible for a great number of "collective punishments" of civilians in the course of their anti-partisan actions that, by any standards, went well beyond the "proportionate". When the Wehrmacht Cossacks were deported back to the Soviet Union (for execution by the NKVD), Pannwitz refused the option of remaining in western Allied captivity, opting to join his Cossacks in the deportation. He was convicted by a Soviet court of war crimes committed in the Balkans, and his sentence of death was executed in Moscow, January, 1947. Best regards, JR.