German units 999 and 361

A report for Glandulas pow camp 101 records that; "The intake from USA are mostly those captured in Africa in 1943. Amongst them is a high percentage of pows from the units 999 and 361, who were put into Anti-Nazi Camps in the USA."

I know that 999 was a penal battalion - hence them being recorded as Anti-Nazi - but can anyone tell me about 361? I don't think this 'unit' would mean the 361st Infantry regiment as I cannot see why they would be classed as Anti-Nazi.

Thank you.

 

Unit 361 was formed from Germans who had served in the French Foreign Legion, who may have been reluctant to do so. See: Afrika Regiment 361 and Experiences of Germans with recruitment for Foreign Legion - Page 2 - Feldgrau.net (not glanced at) It does refer to a unit Afrika Regiment 361. See: Afrika-Regiment 361 – Wikipedia

 

Thank you !

 

briefly about the background:
Foreign legionnaires were originally not considered unworthy of military service within the meaning of Section 13 of the Military Service Act. However, volunteer registrations by former legionnaires were generally rejected.
Recruited former Foreign Legionnaires who were not in possession of a special licence were to be discharged from the Wehrmacht.
Foreign legionnaires returning home were subject to coercive measures from 1934 onwards and could also lose their German citizenship.

From the end of 1934, they were sent to the Kislau labour camp (‘probation camp’ from 1936), which was also a concentration camp, for several weeks of re-education. After re-education, they were released from the forced labour camp, but were still ‘unworthy of military service’ after the reintroduction of compulsory military service in March 1935 and thus excluded from serving in the Wehrmacht.

From 1941 onwards, however, the Wehrmacht no longer wanted to do without their military knowledge and so the reinforced Afrika Regiment 361 was formed. Although this was not a penal battalion like the 999, it was not considered a fully-fledged Wehrmacht unit either.

It turned out that it was better not to imprison members of such units together with regular Wehrmacht PoWs because there were numerous assaults and murders, which finally led to the separation.

 

Is there any evidence that this was the case? Haven't come across something like this at all.

All the best

Andreas

 

See Posts 14-16 in 2021 in this short thread: French Foreign Legion During World War 2

During my research then I recall after May 1940 as part of the Armistice the German (and Italian) Control Commission in Vichy French Algeria visited Legion posts in an effort to get those serving of either nationality to exit and join their own national armies. The Legion took to hiding such personnel in the remotest, desert posts to avoid the Commission visits.

In an old thread from 2004 there are a few references to this issue and one member states - minus a reference - that the French agreed to German demands. Another remarked some of the Germans in the Legion were Jews and leftists - who had good reason not to exit. See: Foreign Legion In Vietnam

 

The 361 had an interesting hybrid status that lay between the ‘decent’ Wehrmacht and the disgraceful penal or probationary units like the 500 and 999.
They all fell under the general provisions of HDV regarding ‘ Sonderverbände’ (special units)
However, the legionnaires were in turn subordinate to the ‘’Sonderstab F‘’ (Not to be confused with the organisation of the same name for the ill-fated Iraq mission), which gave the soldiers a special disciplinary status within the administrative structure of the Sonderverbände.
For this reason, the regiment was not a probationary unit in the classic sense, but because of its special status it was not a ‘fully-fledged’ (decent) Wermacht unit either