Editing Volkssturm (section)

==Role in atrocities==
On several occasions, members of the ''Volkssturm'' participated in atrocities. During January 1945, thousands of prisoners were evacuated and force-marched from several smaller [[Nazi concentration camps|concentration camps]]—which included Jesau, Seerappen, Schippenbeil, Gerdauen, and Helgenbeil—near [[Königsberg]], many dying along the way.{{sfn|Blatman|2011|pp=117–119}} Upon reaching [[Yantarny, Kaliningrad Oblast|Palmnicken]], some 2,500 to 3,000 prisoners of the 5,000 that originally began the journey were lodged in a factory.{{sfn|Blatman|2011|p=120}} Mayor and local Nazi party chief, Kurt Friedrichs wanted the SS to send these prisoners on their way since the Red Army was not far away. When local ''Volkssturm'' leader Hans Feyerabend was ordered to transport the suffering prisoners out of the town, he refused to carry out the order and was heard exclaiming that he would not permit a massacre like the one at [[Katyn massacre|Katyń forest]].{{sfn|Blatman|2011|pp=120–121}} Feyerabend even assigned ''Volkssturm'' guards to keep watch on the local Nazi party members, but this proved fruitless when Friedrich armed a group of Hitler Youth and likewise summoned the local [[Sicherheitsdienst|SD]] elements, whose leaders then commanded the ''Volkssturm'' to help evacuate the prisoners.{{sfn|Blatman|2011|pp=121–122}} On 30 January 1945, after the ''Volkssturm'' left with Friedrich in charge, Feyerabend committed suicide; then between 30 January and 1 February the prisoners were murdered by the remaining assemblage of SS guards, Hitler Youth, and the local ''Volkssturm'' unit.{{sfn|Blatman|2011|p=122}}

When prisoners fell sick with [[typhus]] in [[Reichsgau Steiermark]] during February–March 1945, SS men, Hitler Youth, and ''Volkssturm'' units systematically murdered them.{{sfn|Blatman|2011|p=219}} Under the orders of Loeben-district Kreisleiter, Otto Christandl, ''Volkssturm'' units in nearby Graz and Eisenerz assisted the Gestapo and Ukrainian ''Waffen-SS'' troops in evacuating between 6,000 and 8,000 prisoners—being marched towards [[Mauthausen concentration camp|Mauthausen]]—from their region, many of whom were murdered during the journey when they collapsed from exhaustion.{{sfn|Blatman|2011|p=228}} 

Beyond battlefield conduct, some ''Volkssturm'' formations were used to enforce curfews, assist in deportations, and guard prisoner-of-war or concentration camp transports.{{sfn|Yelton|2002|p=92}} Yelton notes that in many regions, particularly where the SS had strong influence, the ''Volkssturm'' was co-opted into auxiliary policing and punitive roles that blurred the line between civilian defense and participation in state terror.{{sfn|Yelton|2002|pp=92, 148}} These activities, though not always centrally coordinated, contributed to the postwar narrative that the ''Volkssturm'' was not merely a desperate militia but at times complicit in Nazi crimes.{{sfn|Yelton|2002|pp=148–149}} 

Sometime in early April 1945 as Allied forces approached the [[Mittelwerk]] facilities—where [[V-2 rocket|V2 rockets]] were being produced—the slave labourers from the [[Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp]] were force-marched from the western Harz by a collection of guards drawn from the military, the Hitler Youth, and the ''Volkssturm''.{{sfn|Stargardt|2015|p=516}} Approximately {{cvt|40|km}} north of [[Magdeburg]], in the village of [[Mieste]], this motley assemblage of guards locked a thousand of these prisoners in a barn and burned them alive at the instruction of a local Nazi Party leader; this event came to be known as the [[Gardelegen massacre]].{{sfn|Stargardt|2015|p=516}} Over 1,000 persons were murdered during this event.{{sfn|Yelton|2002|p=148}} At the town of [[Celle]] in Lower Saxony around the same time, members of the SS, SA, local police, Hitler Youth, and ''Volkssturm'' were aided by locals to "hunt down and shoot" prisoners who had fled into the local woodland after their transport train was bombed.{{sfn|Stargardt|2015|p=517}}