Mintauts Blosfeld’s Stormtrooper on the Eastern Front is his account of fighting in the German Waffen SS on the Eastern Front during the Second World War. His account consists of two elements; a memoir mainly covering the German invasion in the summer of 1941 until the end of 1944 and a diary of 1945.[1]
His memoir starts with a summary of his youth; he was born in Jelgava in Latvia in April 1924.[2] It then describes the German occupation from 1941 until Blosfelds ended up in the Waffen SS in early 1943. Blosfelds said that the German invaders were seen as ‘liberators’, ejecting the Soviet occupiers who had occupied Latvia in June 1940. During their brief dominance of Latvia, the Soviets killed and ‘disappeared’ large number of citizens.[3]
Blosfelds says that he was conscripted into the Latvian Legion that was a German created formation and part of the SS. He recalled that ‘punishment was threatened for those who did not’ follow their enlistment orders but he joined looking ‘forward to some adventure and a change in my life.’[4]
During 1943, he served as an instructor in various training camps. He appears to have been enthusiastic about his service complaining in November that the new joining the Legion ‘were quite different in character’ to those who had joined up with Blosfelds. He found that appeared to be unenthusiastic and some were ‘mentally unfit’. He felt ‘no common interests with these men’ and wanted the new recruits ‘to get a taste of the same disciplinary punishments which we ourselves had suffered while they had been living in peace’.[5]
In January 1944, he was placed on active service as an NCO and served mainly with the 32nd Latvian Regiment that was part of the 15th Waffen SS Grenadier Division. He fought throughout the year, was wounded three times and was awarded the Iron Cross. His service suggests that relationships Russian civilians were exploited by some members of the Latvian Legion. One Sergeant Major told Blofelds that life in his sector was ‘quite good’. They lived in a good house and it was ‘possible to trade or steal a few sheep from Russian civilians.’ The Sergeant Major had tried to ‘sleep’ with a woman ‘but she would not hear of it. The woman had even threatened him with notifying the partisans…and this had been the main reason why he had let her go. He did not want to make enemies with the partisans because until now they had let us live in peace’.[6] On several occasions, Blosfelds and colleagues stole food from peasants.[7]
However, Blosfelds appeared to have something of a conscience. At one stage, he was ordered to retreat and he and colleagues went to a nearby village to obtain a sled. They found one but ‘there was a snag; it was already loaded up by an elderly Russian couple in their house…They were so old that without it they would not get far, so we became soft hearted and returned home empty handed’.[8]
By November, Blosfelds had lost a lot of his initial enthusiasm for fighting for the Germans. When the Russians invaded Latvia, he did not want to return to his home country. To him, ‘it was obvious to me by now that the Germans were unable to stop the Russian advance and I had not wish to be killed or taken prisoner by the enemy. I had also passed beyond the heroic stage which I could have urged me to remain out of patriotism and sense of duty to fight to the end. All I wanted to was to preserve my life and get away from the constant threat of capture by the Russians’.[9]
The last few months of Blosfeld’s war are set out in his diary that runs from January to May 1945.[10] This describes daily life during the final months of the war as Blosfelds and other Latvians were used as a labour force to dig defences. He suffered significant hunger and during this period Blosfeld said that ‘our main concern was food…we even cooked and ate grass’.[11] In May 1945, he surrendered to the Americans. Two years after the war, Blosfelds emigrated to England and died in Yorkshire in 1987.
One level, this memoir is important as it gives the view of a Latvian SS combatant. There were around 100,000 Latvian men may have served with the Waffen SS and this account may be the only memoir in English.[12] The value of this account will depend on what interests the reader. For those who want descriptions of battle and action, they will not be disappointed. The account is full of combat recollections and maps are provided. However, for those who want to investigate emotions, political views and the human side of war, this is not the memoir for them. Blosfeld does not talk about the political dimension of the war, his comrades or his view of the war and what kept him fighting.
[1] Mintauts Blosfelds, Stormtrooper on the Eastern Front, (Barnsley, Yorkshire/UK: Pen & Sword 2019), pp.2-3.
[2] Ibid., pp.x-xi.
[3] Ibid., pp.51, 1
[4] Ibid., p.15.
[5] Ibid., p.36.
[6] Ibid., p.51.
[7] Ibid., pp.112, 117.
[8] Ibid., p.65.
[9] Ibid., p.136.
[10] Ibid, pp.148-186.
[11] Ibid., p.148.
[12] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latvian_Legion Accessed 26.9.22.