SA-Gruppe Südmark Command School in Rogaška Slatina: Operation and role in military-political trainining of Wehrmannschaft Command Cadre

Authors

  • Daniel Siter Museum of Baroque Šmarje pri Jelšah
  • Peter Mikša University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts, Department of History, Aškerčeva 2, SI–1000 Ljubljana

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.51663/pnz.60.1.06

Keywords:

Rogaška Slatina, Lower Styria, SA Group School, Wehrmannschaft, military-political courses, 1941-1944

Abstract

Drawing on archival sources, official newspapers of occupying forces and pictorial material, authors are focusing on a specific topic from the period of World War II in Slovenia, in which they are comprehensively analyzing the operation of special SA Group School of Wehrmannschaft in Rogaška Slatina. The school was founded by SA Group Südmark in the mids of May 1941 for purposes of military-political education and training, as well as the ideological breeding of commanding cadre of the Lower Styrian and Upper Carniolan Wehrmannschaft. During its operation (1941-1944), the renowned officer's school arranged special military drills, combat exercises, sports competitions, and several weeks long practical and theoretical courses, where candidates under strict military discipline and in the spirit of the national-socialist worldview, trained as Wehrmann officers and under-officers. Its importance was not only crucial for Lower Styria, but also for the neighbouring German occupation provinces, from which the Wehrmanns were deployed to Rogaška Slatina, where during the occupation thousands of Wehrmannschaft officers and under-officers were successfully trained. With Hitler's Germany decisive military defeats and the turning of war balance in favour of the Allied coalition, the school at the spa gradually acquired the role of a transitional military institution, from which satisfactorily trained Wehrmanns were assigned to anti-partisan operational units in the field, and some even participated in the fighting on the front at the end of the war.

Author Biographies

  • Daniel Siter, Museum of Baroque Šmarje pri Jelšah

    Daniel Siter, mag. zgod. in dipl. geog., Ratanska vas 1A, SI-3250 Rogaška Slatina, daniel.siter@gmail.com

  • Peter Mikša, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts, Department of History, Aškerčeva 2, SI–1000 Ljubljana

    Peter Mikša, dr., docent, Univerza v Ljubljani, Filozofska fakulteta, Oddelek za zgodovino, Aškerčeva 2, SI–1000 Ljubljana, peter.miksa@ff.uni-lj.si

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Published

2020-06-12

Issue

Vol. 60 No. 1 (2020)

Section

Articles

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