How many Armenians fought on Hitler's side in World War II?

Smokeylicious

Over five hundred thousand http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Participants_in_World_War_II#Armenia Dec 11 07, 3:52 AM

billythebrit

That's insane! That's about the same as the entire population as Washington DC or Manchester http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_dc http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester Dec 11 07, 2:44 PM

author

This is the number of people who fought for the allies. According to this article 'a few thousand' participated on the side of Nazi Germany, some of them had no choice if they were to survive. Quotes: The Armenian Legion (German: Armenische Legion) was the name given to the 812th Armenian Battalion which was a foreign unit comprised of several thousand men. It was conscripted into the German Wehrmacht, the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany, during World War II. (----) While 300,000 to 500,000 Soviet Armenians, as well as 20,000 Armenian Americans, fought against the Nazis during World War II, a Nazi-commanded "Armenische Legion" was formed to advance Nazi war ends in occupied Europe.[3] The majority of the soldiers were former Soviet Red Army POWs, who opted to fight for German forces rather than face the "genocidal conditions" of the Nazi POW camps. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenische_Legion Dec 11 07, 8:41 PM

author

This being said, there were also volunteers with Nazi sympathies hoping for an independent homeland in Armenia. This article may not be 'neutral', but I quote from it anyway: Quote: Early on, the total number of Armenian volunteers within the German Wehrmacht was approximately 8,000. Eventually, more than 30,000 Armenians troops were fighting in the Nazi military. These troops fought in Crimea, North Caucasus, served as police units for internal security duties in the occupied territories, and later on in Western Europe against the Allies. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drastamat_Kanayan Dec 11 07, 9:16 PM