Abteilung502 1004 FREIES INDIEN LEGION – HISTORIC FIGURE SERIES BUST

The Volunteer Hindu Legion (Ger. Indische Freiwilligen-Legion der Waffen-SS ) is a military unit composed of Hindus and operating within the Waffen-SS structure during World War II. Its formation was closely related to the activity of the Hindu politician, with extremely nationalist views, Subhas Chandra Bose, who in 1942 obtained the consent of Adolf Hitler to recruit British prisoners captured by the Axis troops during the fighting in North Africa. As there were quite a lot of Indians among them, do About 3,000 people were pre-qualified for the Volunteer Legion, but after the selection this number dropped to 300. It is worth adding, however, that at the beginning of 1943 the number of soldiers in the formation was about 2,000. Interestingly, the unit (at the beginning of 1943) was composed of both Muslims and Hindu people, and the command language was English! In 1943, the unit (already known as the 950th Infantry Regiment) was transferred to the Netherlands, and shortly later to France. From June 1944, the unit performed a guard duty on the Atlantic Wall in the Bordeaux region. However, as the Allied armies advanced, the Volunteer Hindu Legion was withdrawn to Germany, where it remained until March 1945. The soldiers of the Legion, in the face of the inevitable defeat of the Third Reich, decided to try to escape to Switzerland, but it failed and were captured by American and French troops. Later, they were handed over to British troops, sent back to India and tried for treason.