The Waffen-SS on the Eastern Front: A Photographic Record of the Waffen SS in the East
4.5/5
()
About this ebook
A photographic history of the notorious Nazi fighting force during Operation Barbarossa—from the Emmy Award-winning historian and author.
This is the illustrated history of the Waffen-SS—the armed political wing that grew out of the Schutzstaffel or Nazi party protection squads—on the Eastern Front. The life and death of the Waffen-SS can be traced in the surviving photographs, and the brooding saga of the decline from triumph into disaster is told through these powerful images which clearly document the reality of combat on the Russian Front.Bob Carruthers
Bob Carruthers is an Emmy Award winning author and historian, who has written extensively on the Great War. A graduate of Edinburgh University, Bob is the author of a number of military history titles including the Amazon best seller The Wehrmacht in Russia.
Read more from Bob Carruthers
Wolf Pack: The U-Boats at War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Official U-Boat Commanders Handbook: The Illustrated Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: Illustrated and Annotated Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hitler: A Life in Pictures: The Official Third Reich Publication Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGerman Tank Hunters: The Panzerjäger Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sturmgeschütze: Armoured Assault Guns Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The U-Boat War in the Atlantic, 1939–1941 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTiger Command!: A Novel Based on a True Story of Combat on the Russian Front Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEastern Front: Encirclement and Escape by German Forces Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Handbook on German Military Forces Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTen Years at Hitler's Side: The Testimony of Wilhelm Keitel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Gestapo on Trial: Evidence from Nuremberg Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMedieval Warfare Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tiger I: The Official Wartime Crew Manual Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGerman Artillery in Combat Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The U-Boat War in the Atlantic, 1942–1943 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe U-Boat War in the Atlantic, 1944–1945 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSS Grenadiers on The Russian Front Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Caesar's Conquest of Gaul: The Illustrated Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Crimean War Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Trench Warfare: Contemporary Combat Images from the Great War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Panther V in Combat: Guderian's Problem Child Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPanzer III: Germany's Medium Tank Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Into the Gates of Hell: Stug Command '41: A Novel Based on a True Story of Combat on the Russian Front Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Great War at Sea - The Opening Salvos: Contemporary Combat Images from the Great War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Panzers I & II: Germany's Light Tanks Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDer Adler: The Official Nazi Luftwaffe Magazine: The English Language Editions Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Waffen SS in the West: A Photographic Journal of the SS on Campaign Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWalking Into Hell: The Somme Through British and German Eyes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVoices from the Luftwaffe Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to The Waffen-SS on the Eastern Front
Titles in the series (100)
The Crushing of Poland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hitler's Defeat on the Eastern Front Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5D-Day Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Great War Fighter Aces, 1916–1918 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsArmoured Warfare in the North African Campaign Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Armoured Warfare in the Battle for Normandy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chiang Kai-shek Versus Mao Tse-tung: The Battle for China, 1946–1949 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Germans on the Somme Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5U-108 at War Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5B-17 Memphis Belle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blitzkrieg in the West Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Afrika-Korps Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Armoured Warfare on the Eastern Front Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Germans at Arras Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsArmoured Warfare in Northwest Europe, 1944–1945 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsArmoured Warfare in the Italian Campaign, 1943–1945 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Allied POWs in German Hands 1914–1918 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Joseph Stalin Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Adolf Hitler Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Battle for the Caucasus, 1942–1943 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Auschwitz Death Camp Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hitler's Mountain Troops, 1939–1945: The Gebirgsjager Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsArmoured Warfare and Hitler's Allies, 1941–1945 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5T-54/55: The Soviet Army's Cold War Main Battle Tank Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Royal Armoured Corps in the Cold War, 1946–1990 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Armoured Warfare in the Battle of the Bulge, 1944–1945 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGerman Guns of the Third Reich Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Hitler's Panzers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5T-34: The Red Army's Legendary Medium Tank Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/56th SS Mountain Division Nord at War, 1941–1945 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Related ebooks
SS Das Reich at War, 1939–1945: A History of the Division on the Western and Eastern Fronts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWaffen-SS on the Western Front, 1940–1945 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings5th SS Wiking at War, 1941–1945: A History of the Division Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5SS Polizei at War, 1940–1945: A History of the Division Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLeibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH) at War, 1939–1945: A History of the Division on the Western and Eastern Fronts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSS Panzer Divisions on the Eastern Front Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSS Specialist Units in Combat Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5SS Grenadiers on The Russian Front Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5SS-Leibstandarte: The History of the First SS Division, 1933–45 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHitler's Boy Soldiers: The Hitlerjugend Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5SS-Hitlerjugend: The History of the Twelfth SS Division, 1943–45 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Surrender Invites Death: Fighting the Waffen SS in Normandy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Waffen-SS in Combat Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Himmler: Hitler's Henchman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Armoured Warfare and the Waffen-SS, 1944–1945 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Waffen SS in the West: A Photographic Journal of the SS on Campaign Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSS-Wiking: The History of the Fifth SS Division 1941–46 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSS-Totenkopf: The History of the 'Death's Head' Division 1940–46 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Waffen-SS Dutch & Belgian Volunteers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe German Army on Campaign, 1914–1918 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHitler’s Last Levy in East Prussia: Volkssturm Einsatz Bataillon Goldap (25/235) 1944-45 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5SS Totenkopf at War: A History of the Division Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEastern Front: Encirclement and Escape by German Forces Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Waffen-SS on the Eastern Front, 1941–1945 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGerman Army on the Eastern Front—The Advance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hitler's Heavy Tiger Tank Battalions, 1942–1945 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsArmor Battles of the Waffen-SS: 1943–45 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings6th SS Mountain Division Nord at War, 1941–1945 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5From the Realm of a Dying Sun: Volume III: IV. SS-Panzerkorps from Budapest to Vienna, February–May 1945 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Crushing of Army Group North 1944–1945 on the Eastern Front Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
European History For You
The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 1]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dry: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mein Kampf: English Translation of Mein Kamphf - Mein Kampt - Mein Kamphf Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Oscar Wilde: The Unrepentant Years Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Putin's People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing England: The Brutal Struggle for American Independence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jane Austen: The Complete Novels Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England: 400 – 1066 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Quite Nice and Fairly Accurate Good Omens Script Book: The Script Book Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Violent Abuse of Women: In 17th and 18th Century Britain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith and Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Forgotten Highlander: An Incredible WWII Story of Survival in the Pacific Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Law Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Celtic Mythology: A Concise Guide to the Gods, Sagas and Beliefs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 2]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dark Queens: The Bloody Rivalry That Forged the Medieval World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of English Magic Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Victorian Lady's Guide to Fashion and Beauty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Very Secret Sex Lives of Medieval Women Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Psychedelic Gospels: The Secret History of Hallucinogens in Christianity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for The Waffen-SS on the Eastern Front
2 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
The Waffen-SS on the Eastern Front - Bob Carruthers
INTRODUCTION
Based on Waffen-SS are often hailed as an elite fighting force. However, while it is true that this force fought exceptionally well in military terms, in social and humanitarian terms the reputation of the Waffen-SS, the armed political wing which grew out of the Schutzstaffel or Nazi party protection squads, will always be tainted by the war crimes they committed in the East and West. Their litany of crimes in the Soviet Union included the killing of those the Nazis designated as untermenschen or sub humans – Slavs, Jews and Marxists.
The Waffen-SS was one of the weapons in the Nazi arsenal which was used to wage the unlooked for war which was to lead its architects to the courtroom at Nuremberg. These men you see here were the Nazi idealists who had bought into the Nazi creed of expansion to the east in search of Lebensraum.
The Lebensraum ideology proposed an aggressive expansion of Germany and the German people. The Nazis supported territorial expansionism to gain Lebensraum as being a law of nature. The Nazi creed espoused the idea that it was necessary for all healthy and vigorous peoples of superior races to displace people of inferior races; especially if the people of a superior race were facing overpopulation in their given territories. The hierarchy of the Nazi Party believed that Germany inevitably needed to territorially expand because it was indeed facing an overpopulation crisis which Adolf Hitler described as follows: We are overpopulated and cannot feed ourselves from our own resources.
It was on this basis that expansion eastwards was justified as an inevitable necessity for Germany. From 1939 to 1941, the Nazi regime gave the outward appearance of having discarded plans to annex Soviet territories, this deceptive stance was strengthened by the improved relations with the Soviet Union via the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, and the public claims that central Africa was where Germany sought to achieve Lebensraum. Hitler publicly claimed that Germany wanted to settle the Lebensraum issue peacefully through diplomatic negotiations that would require other powers to make concessions to Germany; at the same time however Germany prepared for war in the cause of Lebensraum, and the potential clash between the peoples of Germany and the Soviet Union.
In 1941, it was the stated policy of the Nazis to kill, deport, or enslave the Polish, Ukrainian, Russian, and other Slavic populations, whom they considered inferior, and to repopulate the land with Germanic people drawn primarily from the ranks of the Waffen-SS. The urban population was considered disposable and could potentially be exterminated by starvation, thus creating an agricultural surplus to feed Germany and allowing their replacement by the population of warrior farmers who were to be rewarded with grants of land in recognition for their service in the ranks of the Waffen-SS. The policy of Lebensraum implicitly assumed the superiority of Germans as members of an Aryan master race who by virtue of their superiority had the right to displace people deemed to be part of inferior races. The Nazis insisted that Lebensraum needed to be developed as racially homogeneous to avoid intermixing with peoples deemed to be part of inferior races, with its strict entry requirements the Waffen-SS was the prime instrument in Hitler’s vision The man who was to give concrete form was Heinrich Himmler and it was he who was the real driving force behind the Waffen-SS in practical terms. The vague rhetoric spouted by Hitler had to be translated into practicality by Himmler. Hitler, as always had no concrete plan, as a result, those peoples deemed to be inferior races living within territory selected for Lebensraum were subject to arbitrary expulsion, enslavement or destruction.
Hitler gave a speech to his Waffen-SS troops just three weeks before the start of Operation Barbarossa, the Nazi code name for the attack on the Soviet Union. He said, "This is an ideological battle and a struggle of races. Here stands a world as we conceived it – beautiful, decent, socially equal and full of culture; this is what our Germany is like. On the other side stands a population of 180,000,000, a mixture of races, whose very names are unpronounceable and whose physique is such that one can only shoot them down without mercy or compassion. When