Wars are no place for the fainthearted. If there’s one place you’re going to get to see and hear about atrocities it’s a war zone. And if you’ve already got a bit of a penchant for sadism it’s going to come flooding out amongst the brutality you’ve been dropped into.

The competition for which war or which platoon carried out the worst war crimes is not one easily judged. Everyone remembers the hideous Rape of Nanking and it’ hard to see how things could have gotten much worse than that. At the end of the day, war is terrible, full stop. There’s little point comparing notes and numbers.

The 36th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, also known as the Dirlewanger were one of the most depraved military units to operate under Hitler. They were so hideous in their actions that even Nazi officers tried to set up a court to investigate and have the regiment disbanded, but senior Nazi officers always managed to protect them. The Dirlewanger’s main job was to crush political dissent within the countries they were stationed, and they completed this task with horrific and sadistic brutality.

Part of the blame for this disregard of life falls on their leader, Oskar Dirlewanger (above), who was an alcoholic, paedophilic, necrophilic sadist. Not the kind of person you want to be in charge of tooled up, war hungry youths.

It was during their occupation of Poland that the Dirlewanger’s brutality came to light. According to journalist and author, Matthew Cooper…

wherever the Dirlewanger unit operated, corruption and rape formed an every-day part of life and indiscriminate slaughter, beatings and looting were rife.

Senior SS leader Friedrich Wilhelm Krüger was so disturbed by their macabre performance he had them moved somewhere less visible – Belarus…