To make up for this, the Waffen-SS was expanded, and on 23 January 1943, Adolf Hitler gave his approval to Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler to form a Latvian Legion.

[2] Unlawful conscription of Latvians for military service by the Germans was based on Alfred Rosenberg's compulsory labor decree of 19 December 1941.

The 15th Waffen SS was swept up in the chaos of the collapse of the Eastern Front and lost much of its manpower fighting in districts surrounding Leningrad (Ostrov, Novosokolniki and Novgorod Oblast).

Part of the division, with a total of 824 men under Waffen-Standartenführer Vilis Janums, surrendered on 27 April 1945 to the advancing Americans at Güterglück near the Elbe River.

[4] On 22 January 1945, Red Army soldiers killed over 100 unarmed men of the 5th Battalion of the 1st Construction Regiment in the Dąbrówka Nowa Massacre after mistakenly assuming that they were armed.