HIAG
Mutual Help Association of Former Waffen-SS Members (HIAG) (German: Hilfsgemeinschaft auf Gegenseitigkeit der Angehörigen der ehemaligen Waffen-SS e. V.) was an organization founded in 1951 by former members of the Waffen-SS in the struggle for elimination of defamation.
Defined objectives
The main aims of the organisation were to provide assistance to veterans, and campaign for the rehabilitation of their legal status with respect to veterans' pensions. Unlike soldiers of the regular Wehrmacht, pensions had been denied to members of the Waffen-SS as a result of that organisation having been declared criminal by the victor's justice[1] (German: Siegerjustiz) in the aftermath of World War II.
At its height in the 1960s around 8 % of the approximately 250,000 former Waffen-SS members living in West Germany were members of HIAG, and, including families and dependents, HIAG represented 2 million people around the world. During the 1980s, political antagonism towards the organisation grew.
The Federal Executive Board (Bundesvorstand) of HIAG had it's headquarters in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg. Rudolf Lehmann and the social work of the former Waffen SS had it's headquarters nearby, in Ettlingen. Paul Hausser and Sepp Dietrich lived in Ludwigsburg, Walter Harzer (HIAG historian), Paul Guhl, Johannes Göhler, Hans Schwarz van Berk and others lived in the Stuttgart area. The Stuttgart HIAG met every first Friday of the month in the hotel Tübinger Hof, otherwise in the forest restaurant Waldgasthof Glemstal, located near Stuttgart.
Disbandment
The HIAG was disbanded in 1992, because the goals were achieved and most of the members either aged or deceased.
See also
References
- ↑ The label "victor's justice" (German: Siegerjustiz) is a situation in which an entity partakes in carrying out "justice" on its own basis of applying different rules to judge what is right or wrong for their own forces and for those of the (former) enemy. Advocates generally charge that the difference in rules amounts to hypocrisy and leads to injustice. Closely related is vae victis behaviour, where victor unilaterally changes the agreed treaties or their interpretations and is seen as a form of victor's justice.
