page_title: Operation Hornung
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Operation Hornung / Background
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Oskar Dirlewanger Ritterkreuzträger SS-Obfhr. Oskar Dirlewanger, Kdr. einer SS-Freiw.-Pz.-Gren.-Brigd. SS-PK-A.Ahrens 1384-44B Text:Zentralbild Oskar Dirlewanger SS-Obfhr., Kommandant einer SS-Freiw.-Pz.Gren.-Brigd. Aufn.: Zentralbild [Oskar Dirlewanger in der Uniform eines SS-Oberführers mit Orden (Nahkampfspange, Deutsches Kreuz)] Abgebildete Personen: Dirlewanger, Oskar: SS-Oberführer, Deutschland (GND 123490774) Information added by Wikimedia users. Oskar Paul Dirlewanger
context_page_description: Operation Hornung was an anti-partisan operation during the Occupation of Belarus by Nazi Germany, carried out in February 1943. It was directed against the area Hancewicze-Morocz-Lenin-Łuniniec, a thinly populated area of about 4,000 square kilometers southwest of Słuck on the southern border of the Regional Commissariat White Ruthenia. It came in the sequence of three actions that had taken place in January further to the northeast, in the area of Słuck-Osipowicze; it claimed over 12,000 victims.
context_section_description: The aim of this operation, carried out by Curt von Gottberg, was to prevent any further advance of partisans from the northern Polesie region who had entered the Regional Commissariat White Ruthenia and the Reichskommissariat Ukraine, from the east and to prevent  damage to the Brześć-Homel railway along the Prypeć River; domination of this area was of key importance. According to the reconnaissance reports of the commander of Sicherheitspolizei and SD Minsk, a careful estimate suggested a population of 10,000 people and a number of 'bandits', a total in the order of 34,000 men. Allegedly, there existed a veritable Soviet republic with command offices, centers of recruitment and the military training of young men; also, new sports arenas, churches and schools. The population of the area was from the start saddled with collective liability and its extermination was planned. 'Given the current weather it must be expected that in all villages of the mentioned area the bandits have found shelter', was the feeble justification of the Dirlewanger Special Battalion. Two members of a propaganda company sent as observers, put it rather more clearly: In order to keep the bands from once more gaining a foothold in this area, the order had been issued to turn this area into a no mans land.
caption: Oskar Dirlewanger in 1944.
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