Mutiny, Aftermath and Consequences

The Latvian 15th SS Division mutinied when ordered into ‘suicide positions’ in Mecklenburg as German lines collapsed in May 1945. Amid the chaos, SS men hanged a woman heard welcoming Hitler’s death. A Soviet-era police report blamed ‘Latvian SS’ – but why would they kill her on the war’s final day?

Refusing to die in futile positions resisting overwhelming Soviet armour, the Latvian officers led 4,500 largely unarmed supply troops west through the collapsing German lines.

Crowds of refugees, scattered Wehrmacht remnants, SS stragglers and concentration camp Death March prisoners moved chaotically across Mecklenburg as the front dissolved. For the Latvians, the aim was to reach the advancing Americans before the Red Army caught them. The consequences were death, or years in Siberia.

Just outside Schwerin, Marianne Grunthal, a retired teacher and now refugee was hanged for exclaiming ‘Thank God! Now this terrible war will be over’ when news spread of Hitler’s death. A 1946 police report in the town’s archives says the Latvians were responsible. But why would men racing for survival execute a defenceless woman when safety was so near? Were they blamed for political purposes in the new post-war world?

Through eyewitness accounts Mutiny, Aftermath and Consequences: the surrender of the Latvian 15th SS Division at Schwerin, 28 April – 2 May 1945 details their dramatic race to surrender, explores the tragic death of Marianne Grunthal, and traces the Latvians through initial captivity into their later lives.