Ethnic German Cavalry Regiment ‘Halbstadt’: A Mennonite Story

Abstract

In 1942 some 500 to 675 Mennonite young men from the historic Mennonite settlement of Molochna (renamed “Halbstadt District”) became members of the Ethnic German Cavalry Unit, which by April 1943 was absorbed into the SS (Schutzstaffel). The first section of this paper will introduce and offer background on the arrival of German forces in Ukraine in 1941. A second section traces the key steps in the cavalry’s creation, its establishment in the larger Halbstadt District, and its deployments, based on archival materials and military records. A third section documents the SS curriculum and pedagogy for ethnic German cavalry members in Ukraine, not only in ridership and combat skills, but also a catechesis and spiritual mentorship into the SS worldview. The scope of this paper will be the occupation period from the fall of 1941 to the evacuation of the ethnic German population from the Black Sea region in September 1943 and the regiment’s dismantling by April 1944.