Belarusian Black Cats
| Michał Vituška | |
|---|---|
Michał Vituška
|
|
| Native name | Міхал Вітушка |
| Born |
5 November 1907 Nesvizh, Russian Empire |
| Died | 27 April 2006 (aged 98) |
| Allegiance |
 Belarusian Democratic Republic
|
| Rank | General |
| Commands held | Chorny Kot |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
General Michał Vituška (Belarusian: Міхал Вітушка; 5 November 1907 Nesvizh – 27 April 2006) was a Belarusian leader of the Black Cats, a unit of the SS-Jagdverbände, during World War II.
Michał Vituška was born in the city of Nesvizh (then part of the Russian Empire) and studied in Belarusian gymnasiums in Kletsk, Wilno. He graduated from a university in Prague and the Warsaw University of Technology. In Warsaw Vituška joined the Belarusian Student Movement. Between 1939 and 1940 he served under the Chief of Soviet Police in Nesvizh.
In 1939, after the Soviet invasion of Poland, the territories of West Belarus were annexed by the USSR. The local population remained disaffected towards the Soviet occupants, so when Germany invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, many people organized around the Belarusian Central Rada, a Belarusian representative council in the Nazi-occupied Belarus, Vituška among them. In August 1941 he became one of the commanders of the Belarusian Self-Defense units formed in the Western part of Belarus. He was also a chief organizer of the Belarusian Auxiliary Police in Minsk. From 1942 to 1943 he organized Belarusian forces in Bryansk, Smolensk and Mogilev. He also became a part of the Belarusian Self-Help and had the rank of a major in the Byelorussian Home Defence. He took part in the 2nd Belarusian congress and beginning in the late summer of 1944 was also the officer of the Dallwitz parachute battalion.
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