Two members of the Ukrainian SS, known as Askaris, look at the bodies of women...

During WWII, the Germans used the nickname Askaris for the East European deserters or prisoners who switched sides and collaborated with the Nazis. Members of the Latvian Arajs Kommando and Lithuanian auxiliary militia Saugumas were also nicknamed Askaris during 1943-45. This term was also applied to the Ukrainian volunteer units like the Nachtigall Battalion, Schuma battalions, and the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, which was used in many operations during WWII. Most of them were either Red Army deserters or anti-communist peasants recruited from Ukrainian rural areas under German occupation. Russian volunteer soldiers under German command, such as the RONA units employed during the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, were also informally referred to as Askaris.