Many Soviet citizens (Russians and other non-Russian ethnic minorities) joined the Wehrmacht forces as Hiwis (or Hilfswillige).[5] The Ukrainian collaborationist forces were composed of an estimated number of 180,000 volunteers serving with units scattered all over Europe.[6] Russian émigrés and defectors from the Soviet Union formed the Russian Liberation Army or fought as Hilfswillige within German units of the Wehrmacht primarily on the Eastern Front.[7] Non-Russians from the Soviet Union formed the Ostlegionen (literally "Eastern Legions"). The East Legions comprized a total of 175,000 personnel.[8] These units were all commanded by General Ernst August Köstring (1876−1953).[9] A lower estimate for the total number of foreign volunteers that served in the entire German armed forces (including the Waffen SS) is 350,000.[10]
These units were often under the command of German officers and some published their own propaganda newssheets.
^Ryszard Kaczmarek: Polacy w Wehrmachcie. Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków 2010. ISBN978-83-08-04488-9
^Wangel, Carl-Axel (1982). Sveriges militära beredskap 1939-1945 (in Swedish). Stockholm: Militärhistoriska Förlaget. ISBN978-91-85266-20-3.
^"Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin's War 1941-1945" Appendix 3
^Dermot Bradley, Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand, Markus Rövekamp: Die Generale des Heeres 1921–1945. Band 7: Knabe–Luz. Biblio Verlag, Bissendorf 2004, ISBN3-7648-2902-8.