34th SS Volunteer Grenadier Division Landstorm Nederland - Concept and Formation

Concept and Formation

After the successful formation of the 4.SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier Brigade Nederland, it was decided that a second Dutch SS formation should be raised. The recruits were drawn mostly from the Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging (the Dutch Nazi Party). The NSB leader, Anton Mussert encouraged his followers to join the new formation.

In 1940 Arthur Seyss-Inquart, the Reichskommissar for the Netherlands, had approved the creation of an NSB paramilitary police formation named Landwacht Niederlande. The Landwacht served as an auxiliary police force and was involved in the rounding up of Jews, Communists and other groups deemed undesirable by the Seyss-Inquart and the NSB.

On 12 March 1943, the Waffen SS ordered the formation of a Dutch volunteer regiment, the SS-Grenadier Regiment 1 Landwacht Niederlande. Unlike the Nederland brigade, the Landwacht Niederlande was to be a territorial defence unit, and so recruits did not have to fear service on the Eastern Front. Recruits for the Landwacht Niederlande flowed in. Service in the regiment meant a job, money, food and an escape from forced labour in munitions factories. Added to this, the regiment was not officially a part of the SS, and so the SS runes were not present on the volunteers uniforms, with the traditional grenade of Landwacht units being worn in its place.
While many recruits were drawn from the paramilitary formation of the same name, a recruitment drive resulted in 130 Dutch veterans from the 5.SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Wiking and 11.SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Division Nordland transferring to the new formation. While these veterans provided the cadre of NCOs for the new formation, the formation was officered by German SS men, and no Dutchman was ever promoted to a higher rank than company commander.

On 16 October 1943, the regiment's title was changed to SS-Grenadier-Regiment 1 Landstorm Nederland. By this time the regiment numbered 2,400 men and was still growing. Mussert was pleased, and together with the Nederland Brigade, he saw the Dutch SS as the forerunners of a new Dutch army. However, Hanns Albin Rauter, head of the SS and Police for the Netherlands planned to firmly bring the NSB under SS control, and the Nederland and Landstorm formations were steps in this direction.