Ulrich Graf, the early years and Hitlers old fighters

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Thanks for that info....exactly what I was wondering. The mindset and hostility that permeated those post war years created a broad umbrella of the 'guilt by association' factor no doubt. Whether or not Graf was a rabid Nazi or anti semite we may never know, only that he participated avidly as a caretaker or executor of an ideology. Even Leni Riefenstahl paid the price for her filmaking and could never shake the taint of having cooperated with the regime.

In this connection, the person with a strong interest in history can deepen themselves in the behavior of the "old fighters" in the epoch 1933-1945, in which their careers were, contrary to the myths and legends promulgated by the regime as propaganda, marked by organized grand theft, mobster like behavior, state terror and as much hatred of Jews as a single person of that epoch could muster. Ergo, my suggestion to read serious works about the time.
Denazification was hardly a perfect process, but none of you wants to suggest in some way that these people were free of taint. Our site is apolitical.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

The Eicke biography is especially a revelation in this connection, as an old fighter, who was an especially desperate and violent man, whose pre 1933 career gets lost in these spaces in favor of Waffen SS romanticism and apologia. I cannot recommend the book highly enough, and Andreas has read it, too, I think.

This work is of a species of new research on the SS, with a heavy piece on the Kampfzeit, which is really superb.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

The Bajohr and Selig books are also instructive to my point, as well. One treats Aryanization and the other corruption generally, whereby the cover pages shows Weber and Wagner in their humped up finery.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

No less compelling in the biographies of old fighters is the man who paid for the fight with his life in a spectacular way in the moment in which inherent violence of the project reached a new level in 1934 with the evolution of the SS at the expense of the SA. These images are from the summer of 1933.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Notice that the piping on his kepi is loose, a thing that would repel collectors decades hence with their dicta and dogmas.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

The more or less definitive account of American led denazification, as it applied to Bavaria, is this work from the Institute of Contemporary History, formerly in Munich.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

The compelling critique of denazification is in Kirst's 08/15, the final part of the triology which is well worth watching in its totality. Kirst was himself an NSFO, but he was also of the epoch in his critique.

08 15 1 Teil Part 1 7 - YouTube

[Nigel Lesgate]

Friedrich....great posts on a fascinating subject. 2 of my favorites " The Psychopathic God Adolf Hitler" by Robert G.L. Waite and "The Order of the Deaths Head by Heinz Hohne. The Hohne book really rattled my cage! The heinousness of this regime and, in particular, the SS, was so creepy. The psychological profile by Waite is a rollicking good read too....the pathology ie: 'hang ups' of the Weimar man (or generations of German men) exemplified in Hitler very entertaining. Great for holiday cocktail parties. Long out of print though.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Thanks. The two books you cite are those I grew up with, but the newer research is first rate and brings out much, much more detail and findings.
Waite also wrote a book on the Freikorps which is very good.

Here is a very good recent work on Munich in the Kampfzeit, das braune Haus and the men and women who resided therein.....


Das Braune Haus: Andreas Heusler: 9783421043528: Amazon.com: Books

[Nigel Lesgate]

I believe you can see Graf in this 1936 photograph of members of the Stosstrupp Adolf Hitler. It certainly looks like him peering in at the back behind Fiehler's nose. The group are wearing their special commemorative uniforms.
d'Alquen

Yes, what a cool shot of the old fighters with their old kepi's.