Henri Fenet

Henri Joseph Fenet (11 July 1919 – 14 September 2002) was a French collaborator who served in the Milice française before joining the Waffen-SS during World War II.

As the surviving battalion commander of SS Charlemagne, Fenet was part of the last defenders in the area of the Reich Chancellery and Hitler's Führerbunker in April-May 1945.

[3] On his return Fenet joined the newly formed collaborationist paramilitary Milice before volunteering in October 1943 for the Waffen-SS.

The Comité des Amis de la Waffen S.S. (Committee of the Friends of the Waffen-SS) was established by the minister and proceeded to actively recruit men who were between the ages of 20–25, "free of Jewish blood," and physically fit.

In September 1944, Fenet and his company were sent to Könitz, West Prussia, where they joined other French recruits to form a new brigade-sized formation, later known as the SS Division Charlemagne.

[5] Joining them were French collaborators fleeing the Allied advance in the west, as well as Frenchmen from the German Navy, the National Socialist Motor Corps (NSKK), the Organisation Todt and the detested Milice security police.

[7] The unit was sent to fight the Soviet Red Army in Poland, but by 25 February it was attacked at Hammerstein (present day Czarne) in Pomerania, by troops of the 1st Belorussian Front.

[11] Fenet, who was now wounded in the foot, withdrew with the battalion to the vicinity of the Reich Aviation Ministry in the central government district under the command of Wilhelm Mohnke.

[16] Fenet was handed over to the Soviet Red Army, who put him in a prisoner of war camp and then let him be treated for his foot wound at hospital.