Well two elite Czech soldiers, both of whom were decorated upon their homecoming by the Czech defence minister and chief of staff, evidently thought it a good idea to do so. Jan Cermak and Hynek Matonoha, members of a rapid reaction unit stationed up until recently in Logar province, sported for most of their deployment emblems of the 9th Waffen SS Panzer Division “Hohenstaufen” and 36th Waffen Grenadier Division Of The SS “Dirlewanger” respectively. Literally a brigade of criminals the latter were nefarious even by Nazi standards – rapes, corruption, robberies, indiscriminate murders, etc and major players in suppressing the Slovak National Uprising.
Commander of the Czech forces in the Logar province Petr Prochazka ordered the badges and any photos of them be burnt, but fortunately some survived. Fearing that the military would attempt to cover up the whole business members of the Czech police, who’d also been serving in Afghanistan, secretly passed details of the story over to one of the Czech Republic’s leading newspapers, Mladá fronta Dnes:
Report in English and Czech (translator may take a few seconds to load)
Cermak, who claimed it was a joke – he apparently being unaware that the badge he’d worn was associated with the Nazis (hmmm, could he not have czeched?) – his co-emblem wearer Matonoha, and “the cleaner” Prochazka have all been suspended today as a result. Bloody good job too, say I . . . .
