Ernst Jodka (June 22, 1921 – March 17, 1946) was a Waffen-SS Unterscharführer (Junior Squad Leader) who served in the 15th Einsatzkommando Brigade and participated in the Perekhody village massacre.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Ernst Jodka was born on June 22, 1921, in Memel, East Prussia (now Klaipėda, Lithuania), to a poor class German-Lithuanian family. Raised in a staunchly nationalist environment, his abusive father had served in the Imperial German Army during World War I and later became involved in far-right paramilitary movements advocating for the Germanization of the Baltic region. Jodka was indoctrinated into these ideologies from a young age, attending German-run schools in Memel before joining the Hitler Youth in 1936.
In 1939, following the German annexation of the Memel Territory, Jodka enlisted in the Reich Labour Service (Reichsarbeitsdienst), where he performed auxiliary construction work for military operations since he couldn’t progress to military work due to his dim-witted nature. In 1941, after Operation Barbarossa commenced, he volunteered for the Schutzmannschaft auxiliary police units, which worked in tandem with the SS in occupied Soviet territories.
Military Career[]
Jodka was recruited into the Schutzmannschaft Battalion 118, a Baltic collaborationist unit composed of ethnic Germans, Lithuanians, Latvians, and Ukrainians. His unit was attached to the Dirlewanger Brigade, an SS formation under Oskar Dirlewanger, responsible for brutal counter-insurgency operations and mass atrocities. Jodka was involved in several anti-partisan operations in Belarus and Ukraine, participating in executions, village burnings, and deportations.
By early 1943, Jodka had been promoted to Unterscharführer (Junior Squad Leader) and under the command of Sturmbannführer Walter Stein in the 15th Einsatzkommando, took part in the Belarusian Perekhody Village Massacre. The massacre, executed under orders from Dirlewanger and Stein, involved the systematic extermination of villagers suspected of aiding partisans. Jodka became noted among his peers for his disturbing enthusiasm—he was seen repeatedly laughing as civilians, including the elderly and children, were burned alive inside a barn. He was known for being joyful at the sight of women being dragged off to be sexually violated, escapees from the barn being gunned down while still en flame, and men being slaughtered by the units own hands. He was also reportedly drinking a lot of liquor during the ordeal and dancing when the music came to drown out the noise.
As the war turned against Germany, Jodka continued to serve in various anti-partisan operations, participating in the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising in 1944 and the hasty retreat of Dirlewanger's forces from Poland into Slovakia and Hungary.
Capture and Demise[]
In early 1945, with the collapse of Nazi Germany imminent, Jodka attempted to flee westward to surrender to American forces but was captured by Soviet troops near Königsberg (Kaliningrad). He was swiftly identified due to his association with the massacre by a Belarusian guard and was transferred to Special Camp No. 7, a Soviet-run labor camp for war criminals in the Kaluga region.
Jodka refused to perform forced labor, declaring that he would not "work for subhuman Slavs." This defiance, along with his persistent mockery of Soviet guards and prisoners, made him a target of severe beatings. Despite repeated physical abuse, he reportedly continued laughing, even as he was dragged to forced labor assignments.
On March 17, 1946, after yet another incident of defiance, Jodka was violently beaten to death by Soviet guards and fellow Belarusian prisoners. Witnesses claim that he died laughing.