At the other end of Europe , the Waffen-SS was dealing with the Warsaw Uprising . Between August and October 1944 , the Dirlewanger Brigade ( recruited from criminals and the mentally ill throughout Germany ) and the S.S. Sturmbrigade R.O.N.A. '' Russkaya Osvoboditelnaya Narodnaya Armiya ( Russian National Liberation Army ) '' , which was made up of ethnic Russian collaborators , were both sent to Warsaw to put down the uprising . During the battle , the '' Dirlewanger '' behaved atrociously , raping , looting , and killing citizens of Warsaw regardless of whether they belonged to the Polish resistance or not ; the unit commander SS - '' Oberführer '' Oskar Dirlewanger encouraged their excesses . The unit 's behaviour was reportedly so bestial and indiscriminate that Himmler was forced to send a battalion of SS military police to ensure the Dirlewanger convicts did not turn their aggressions against the leadership of the brigade or other nearby German units . At the same time , they were encouraged by Himmler to terrorise freely , take no prisoners , and generally indulge their perverse tendencies . Favoured tactics of the Dirlewanger men during the siege reportedly included the ubiquitous gang rape of female Poles , both women and children ; playing " bayonet catch " with live babies ; and torturing captives to death by hacking off their arms , dousing them with gasoline , and setting them alight to run armless and flaming down the street . The Dirlewanger brigade committed almost non-stop atrocities during this period , in particular the four-day Wola massacre
Wola massacre
Wola massacre
Waffen-SS