Secure Your Copy Waffen SS: Hitlers Elite Guard At War, 1939 1945 Composed By George H. Stein Released Through Interactive EBook

a great book!. I really enjoyed it and looked forward to every reading session, Stein give you the entire history of the Waffen SS from inception in the thes as a german Political Guard, to the bitter end with dozens of formations claiming to be Waffen SS as a sort of antisoviet european legion, but failing miserably.
Along the way, you get Stein's wonderful academically withering eye on the whole proceedings, giving you a "warts and all" view, Stein covers the problems in leadership, with many officers being ethnically pure, but withth grade educations, He relates the strained relationship with the German Army that colours the later years of the SS, And he is very strong in linking the Waffen SS to their trail of Atrocities across Europe, This is NOT an SS apologist book, Stein's thesis seems to be that it was all true : the units were elite did fight well, but were also in the van of all the worst of the Nazi military behaviour.
That the two concepts were not separate but rather entwined in the history of the corps, This is book that any history student will enjoy, although wargamers/Modellers/military enthusiasts will have most to glean from its pages, Expertlyresearched and fascinating throughout. also recommend "Soldiers of destruction" just a great book Mielenkiintoinen kirja WaffenSSjoukoista, joissa taisteli myös suomalaisia, Tästä asiasta on kirjassa muistaakseni oma liitteensä tai kokonaan oma lukunsa, "Waffen SSHitler's Elite Guard at War," by George H, Stein is a fabulous work of historical literature, Many an author, popular and academic, has tackled the topic of the SS and Waffen SS but very few have done so in an objective fashion like Stein.
Far too many presentations of the Waffen SS have been from apologist and revisionist authors who fail to recognize and/or admit the complicity of portions of the Waffen SS in the atrocities committed in the name of the NSDAP and Adolf Hitler.
At the other end of the spectrum are those authors, again large in number, who simply paint ALL that served in the Waffen SS with broad strokes of guilt.
Stein captures a story that falls between the extremes and thus is more realistic and truthful, and thus more historically accurate with clear lack of hysterics.


Stein focuses on the development and overarching themes rather than focusing on individual battles that the SS took part in, This in no way detracts from the book instead, it gives the reader a deeper understanding of the difficulties and obstacles that surrounded the formation of this formation as well as shows some of the reasons for its successes on the battlefield.


"Waffen SS" begins with a historical perspective on the establishment of the SS initially the Allgemeine GeneralSS and formation of the earliest incarnations of the armed SS initially from the units such as the Leibstandarte SS "Adolf Hitler" Hitler's Chancellery Guard and the SSTotenkopfverbande Death's Head Units, early concentration camp guards, to organization of the Waffen SS as war approached.
This presentation provides considerable information that allows the reader to connect or disconnect as appropriate various components of Himmler's greater SS, This is critical to the process of a reader drawing objective conclusions about guilt of the Waffen SS in noncombatant war crimes,

Stein then spends considerable time discussing the military exploits of the Waffen SS, both early and oft strained integration into the Wehrmacht during the initial phases of the war up to the defeat of France and the AEF, as well as their later fierce and destructive battles fought east across the Soviet Union and their return west in defense.
Stein's prose does not fail to convey a picture of a fanatical and determined fighting force, Clearly the Waffen SS especially the early incarnations that were still volunteer and elite was an accomplished "army", Stein also discusses how the elite Waffen SS was in later years of the war converted through conscription mostly into a hodgepodge of a force that often was worth very little and sometimes more trouble than it was worth.


In the third major section of "Waffen SS" the author presents a clear and concise without simply rehashing particular atrocities covered in depth elsewhere description of crimes that can be connected to the Waffen SS, whether directly or indirectly.
While crimes can clearly be attributed to battle formations, both combatant and noncombatantrelated, it is also clear from Stein's presentation that a majority of Waffen SS units were not likely involved in such events.
This is not to say that Stein presents an apologist view, quite to the contrary he presents an honest assessment of guilt the Waffen SS was guilty but it is unfair to claim all units were simply butchers.
Yet

equally unfair would be a claim that the Waffen SS was simply an army free of guilt, When it comes to connections between the Waffen SS and the holocaust the story is one mostly of semantics, As Stein points out it is beyond doubt that the SS represented the system by which Hitler attempted and nearly succeeded to murder all of the European jews and other "Untermensch" subhumans.
It is also clear that many of the units involved were, at least on paper, part of the Waffen SS, Moreover, much of the concentration camp staff turn over was between the camps and the front lines, Yet it is not at all clear that fighting units of the Waffen SS were directly involved in these acts, Thus it becomes an issue of semantics because it depends upon how one defines "Waffen SS", Again this is not to say that Stein presents an apologist view or one of strict and total condemnation, In fact Stein presents a picture in which the facts are presented and the reader is free to define the culprits for themselves,

In the final section Stein gives a very concise and extremely well written summary, This section itself is worth the price of the book, I cannot recommend this book highly enough, Stein is liberal in his use of sources and yet it also becomes clear that Gerald Reitlinger's "SS: Alibi of a Nation" is one he favors and must feel captures much of the story of the SS although not in the concise manner in which Stein sets out to do as he states right up front.
Tarpeellinen, joskin hieman raskas luettava, Sodan alettua vauhti kiihtyi ja kuukausia kestänyt asemasotani päättyi menestyksekkäästi voittoon, Lopussa oli ilahduttavasti lyhyt koonti suomalaisten SSmiesten palveluksesta, A Reads like a text book, No personal accounts, just a mass overview of the whole SS, I wanted stories of their elite training and specifics on battles that gave them their reputation, Probably a great book if you are researching the SS, disappointing if you are a casual WWII reader looking for an interesting read,
I was surprised to find out that the SS as a whole was not as badass, "racially pure", or elite as I originally thought.
Seems like only a few divisions were like this, and therefore shaped the whole image of the SS, This landmark study, first published by Cornell University Press in, shows how Hitler's elite army grew from a praetorian guard of barely,men at the beginning of the Second World War to a combathardened army of more than,in.
George H. Stein examines in detail the structure and organization of the Waffen SS and describes the rigid personnel selection and intensive physical, military, and ideological training that helped to create the tough and dedicated cadre around which the larger force of the later war years was built.
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