It was formed by Georgian émigrés and prisoners of war; its declared aim was the eventual restoration of Georgia's independence from the Soviet Union under Nazi Party doctrine and supervision.

[3][4] The Nazi perception of Georgians, however, began to change for worse in light of a series of defections and Adolf Hitler's growing paranoia.

Those who survived were, on Moscow's orders, forcibly repatriated to the Soviet Union, where a small contingent of the group was convicted of collaboration and banished to Siberia with their families.

During the Second World War, the Wehrmacht's ethnic Georgian Legion was formed from émigrés living in Western Europe after the 1921 Soviet invasion of Georgia, combined with Soviet prisoners of war of Georgian origin who chose to fight for Germany rather than submit to often brutally poor living conditions in POW camps.

The Georgian military formations were commanded by Shalva Maglakelidze, Michel-Fridon Zulukidze, Col. Solomon Nicholas Zaldastani, and other officers formerly of the Democratic Republic of Georgia (1918–21).

In addition to this main legion, at the behest of German occupiers in Paris ensconced in the Hotel Lutetia from the spring of 1940, Michel Kedia and Akaki Chavgoulidze, owners of a yoghurt business, began forming units of Georgian emigres living in the French capital.

The men were told they were to assist Germany by conducting surveillance in German factories and performing other non-military tasks like driving trucks of supplies.

Odicharia's assistants included 33 Georgians, as well as 7 Russians, 3 Italians, 2 Corsicans, 2 Germans, 1 Alsatian, 1 Tunisian, 1 Portuguese, 1 Martinique resident, 2 Czechs, and 30 French citizens.

[9] As a result of Hitler's distrust of Osttruppen ("Eastern Troops"), some Georgian battalions were moved west to occupation duties in the Netherlands.

With the western allies driving into Germany, the 822 Georgian battalion, stationed on the Dutch island of Texel, rebelled against their German overlords.

The resulting battle, known as the Georgian uprising on Texel, continued from April 5, 1945, past the general German surrender, until May 20.