Nugisex, Harald

On October 2, 1941, he became a soldier of the 185th Estonian Security Group (part of the Wehrmacht). His first military contract expired only in December 1942 .

In May 1943, he joined the Waffen-SS Legion. Trained in May and September at the school of SS non-commissioned officers in Lauenburg , at the end of which he received the rank of Unterscharführer . In 1943, the Nugisex in the 20th SS Grenadier Division participated in the battle of Nevel , where he was wounded. On December 21 of the same year, he received a black patch for his wounded and infantry assault badge. And for participating in the battles near Narva , February 27, 1944 , he was awarded the Iron Cross II class .

On March 1, 1944, Harald Nugiseks actively participated in battles on the Narva Front . According to the memoirs of Harald Nugisex:

The task was to recapture the bridgehead of Vaaz-Vepskyl from the enemy. At first, we had 30-40 people, but there was such a powerful shelling that half of the people were knocked out, and our officers Lumera and Ryymussaar were wounded. I was then the company commander. Ryymussaar called me to his place and said: there are 22 people here, and now I'm leaving. Ain Erwin Mere was the battalion commander; he already had a plan to withdraw the platoon back. And when he found out that Nugisex took command, he gave me an order: try again, if possible!
It was impossible not to try to attack, the order is an order, the soldier must obey the order. I took people back for a short while, we rested and stocked up with hand grenades. And then they went on the attack again and burst into the Russian trenches. There was only melee - the weapon was either a shovel, or a grenade, or a dagger. One German captain gave me a dagger, I still don’t know why. Harald Riypalu went with his people from the side of the Vaaz houses, and I attacked a heavily fortified enemy trench.

- From the memoirs of Harald Nugisex ^[1]

He was seriously injured in these battles. For heroism and courage, he was subsequently awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross . He became the second Estonian to be awarded this prize (the first is Alfons Rebane ).

Nugisex said that there were no special friendships between Estonian and German troops in the Estonian units. Once, Harald even removed one star from his buttonhole for standing up for Estonian women.

In the spring of 1945 , after the collapse of the front, Nugisex, along with fellow soldiers, tried to flee to the West. But the uniform issued him, in connection with which he was captured several times in the Czech Republic . Each time he was sentenced to be shot , but at the time of the air raids of the Soviet army he was able to escape every time. But in the end, he still was finally caught and handed over to the Russians.

The cavalier of the Knight's Cross in Russian captivity, most likely, would have expected imminent death, but Nugisex saved the case. After all, during the last arrest, he was arrested by a Czech who, when drunk, tore the cross from the neck of Nugisex and threw him into the mud. Apparently, he did not know what kind of a reward, otherwise he would have immediately sent Harald to death.

Subsequently, in December 1945, he was sent to a prisoner of war camp in Siberia . On November 10, 1946, Nugisex was temporarily released, but was soon again arrested on February 13, 1947 and sentenced to ten years in prison. He was released on September 17, 1953 under an amnesty , after which he initially settled in Siberia, and in 1958 returned to Estonia . In the 1970s, Nugisex built a house for himself.

Soon Nugisex regained his lost reward - the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was sent to him from Germany :

The Knight's Cross has such an order that if someone has disappeared, then another awarded person can give him his cross by will. Somehow, information spread in Germany that a cross was taken away from me in the “Czech Hell”. And one German cancer patient made a will, according to which his Knight's Cross should be delivered to Estonia and passed to me.

- From the memoirs of Harald Nugisex ^[1]

On February 21, 1994, the Estonian authorities awarded Harald Nugisex the rank of captain .

Last years he lived in Estonia. He was presented several times to various state awards, but each time he was deleted from the lists for submission. Nugisex linked this with the fact that the Estonian government is afraid of misunderstanding on the part of Western countries. He was awarded only the badge of honor Murtud Rukkilill (“Broken Cornflower”) from the hands of President Lennart Meri ^[2] .

Also, the 87-year-old veteran of the 20th SS division, Harald Nugiseks, was awarded the Medal of Thanks of the Estonian People. The initiators of the award were little-known non-governmental organizations “Club of Friends of Estonian Legionnaires” and “First Independent Column”, which collected about 54 thousand Estonian kroons (at that time - more than 5 thousand US dollars ) for the award. The award ceremony took place in the church of the village of Tori ^[3] .

Nugisex spoke rather critically about life in Estonia after declaring it an independent state in 1991 .

Life has improved, I do not argue with that. But there was no real Estonian power, there is none even now. I always supported the “Union of the Fatherland”, but Marta Laar said that although I was not a supporter of collective-farm and collective farms, it was impossible to liquidate them so quickly. Now again these dances are going on around wartime. There will be no peace until the last of us is buried.

- From the memoirs of Harald Nugisex ^[1]

Harald Nugisex died on January 2, 2014 in Tallinn . He was buried with military honors on January 10, 2014 at the military cemetery of the town of Tori ^[4] .

• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross ( 1944 )
• 1st Class Iron Cross
• 2nd Class Iron Cross ( 1944 )
• medal "For the winter campaign in the East 1941/42"
• Breast assault infantry badge ( 1943 )
• Broken cornflower sign ( Estonia )
• medal “Gratitude of the Estonian people” (public award, 2011)

• Harald Nugisex // REIBERT
• The award ceremony of Harald Nugisex with a knight's cross // Videoinet
• Soldiers of the 20th SS division A. Rebane, H. Nugiseks and H. Riipalu in the forest // Military album
• SS Legionnaire will be awarded the “medal of gratitude of the Estonian people” // Gospel
• Veteran SS was awarded a medal from the "grateful Estonian people" // NEWS.RU
• In Estonia, MPs congratulated the SS veteran on the anniversary // KM.RU
• Estonians began to play the Teutons // Pro100 News
• Estonia is grateful to SS veteran // Actual History
• Well well! SS Legionnaire will receive a medal of gratitude from the Estonian people // United Fatherland
• Estonia honors its SS veterans // Right news
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• Kill the dragon