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Bronislav Kaminski

Bronislav Kaminski (16 June 1899 – 28 August 1944) was a Brigadefuhrer of the Waffen-SS of Nazi Germany during World War II. Born in Russia to a Polish father and German mother, Kaminski collaborated with the Germans during World War II and led the SS Sturmbrigade RONA until he was court martialled and executed in 1944.

Biography[]

Bronislav Kaminski was born on 16 June 1899 in Vitebsk Governorate, Russian Empire (present-day Polatsk Raion, Vitebsk Region, Belarus) to a Polish father and German mother; he cnsidered himself a Russian. Kaminski served in the Red Army during the Russian Civil War, and from 1937 to 1941 he was imprisoned in the Great Purge for criticizing collective farming. During World War II, Nazi Germany gave him command of collaborator forces, the SS Sturmbrigade RONA, fighting against Soviet Union partisans and Red Army troops. Kaminski executed 10,000 civilians during his campaign of repression against Soviet partisans, and in 1944 he fought in Operation Bagration before crushing the Warsaw Uprising. He executed 10,000 civilians in the Ochota Massacre and authorized his soldiers to loot and plunder houses in Warsaw, and he failed to control his troops. His misconduct led to his arrest and court martial on the orders of Heinrich Himmler, and he was executed by firing squad with his chief-of-staff; the German government stated that he had been killed by the Polish Underground in an ambush and set up a scene to "prove" this.

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