He was born on September 26, 1895, in Würzburg into the family of a commercial agent. He served in the First World War as a machine-gun officer, receiving the Iron Cross of both classes and sustaining several wounds. After the war, he became involved with the Freikorps, suppressing communist uprisings, then joined the NSDAP, graduated from university, and earned a doctorate in political science. Seemingly, a typical Nazi careerist.

However, even then, another side of him was emerging: alcoholism, gambling addiction, thievery, and, most importantly, a pathological attraction to minors. In 1934, he was convicted of the sexual abuse of a minor, stripped of his titles and doctorate, and sentenced to two years in prison. Another similar case followed. A normal society would have long since written him off. But Dirlewanger had an old friend from the Freikorps—Gottlob Berger, who was close to Himmler. Thanks to him, in 1937, he was sent to the Condor Legion in Spain, where he once again distinguished himself through brutality.

In 1940, Berger and Himmler decided to fully utilize his “talents.” Thus, the SS Sonderkommando Dirlewanger was formed—initially composed of convicted poachers (whose skills in the woods and with weapons were deemed useful for anti-partisan operations). Later, they began recruiting all sorts of criminals, rapists, murderers, deserters, and eventually, political and foreign collaborators. The unit grew from a company to a battalion, regiment, assault brigade, and finally, to an entire SS division.

This was not an army but a gang in black uniforms. Their mission was fighting partisans in the occupied territories, primarily in Belarus and Poland. In practice, they carried out mass punitive actions against the civilian population. Khatyn, Borki, Ola, and dozens of other Belarusian hamlets and villages are on their conscience. During the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, the “Dirlewanger men,” alongside the Kaminski Brigade, carried out a massacre in Wola.

Dirlewanger himself encouraged all of this. An alcoholic and a sadist, he personally participated in torture and executions, allowing his subordinates any atrocities. His unit became a symbol of the extreme horror of the Nazi occupation.

Toward the end of the war, the division was crushed in the pocket near Halbe. Dirlewanger himself was wounded for the 12th time and captured by the French in May 1945 (in Althausen, Baden-Württemberg). He was guarded by Polish soldiers serving in the French Corps. Between June 4th and 5th, 1945, he was brutally beaten in the prison with rifle butts to his head and abdomen. Oskar died from the beatings around June 7th at the age of 49. Officially, the cause of death was listed as “natural causes.”

Note: It was the SS Dirlewanger unit that the partisans fought against in the Soviet film “Come and See.”