This monograph is new in Germany and it is very thorough and interesting research from the school of Sonke Neitzel.
Necessary reading for a lot who post here as to the reality of the Waffen SS versus the fan boy literature in its many generations.
Legend of the Waffen SS
This monograph is new in Germany and it is very thorough and interesting research from the school of Sonke Neitzel.
Necessary reading for a lot who post here as to the reality of the Waffen SS versus the fan boy literature in its many generations.
The author even analyzes the role of the SS uniform in the propaganda "narrative" and its role in the larger cosmos of mass persuasion in the III. Reich and, most important, how this phenomenon operated after 1945 and into the present.
This is a book of scholarship, not at all directed at collectors and so forth. Many of you, however, read serious books, while some of you don' read books at all, and
become enraged when we discuss them.
NS dictatorshipConcrete with legends
The historian Jan Erik Schulte on new research on the Waffen-SS
Moderation: Sigrid Brinkmann
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Heinrich Himmler (picture-alliance / dpa)
From mid-1940, Heinrich Himmler had been given the command over the Waffen-SS. From then on, the military unit was organisationally independent. (Picture-alliance / dpa)
Too little has the Waffen-SS been explored so far, the authors of the first scientific anthology on the military combat unit state. According to historians, the reputation of an elite unity can not be confirmed.
It is one of the most famous military formations of the 20th century. However, the historians would not know enough about the Waffen-SS, according to Jan Erik Schulte. Their complicated structure must be worked up.
The propaganda image, which the veterans used in the post-war period, was still very intact, for the National Socialist organization had only been investigated by a few older studies, and together with the other two editors Peter Lieb and Bernd Wegner, First scientific anthology on the history of the Waffen-SS.
The "black SS", the concentration camps, the Gestapo and the persecution of Jews were the focus of attention. The former members of the Waffen-SS were able to retreat from the "Himmler empire" in the 1950s and 1960s, and to act as "soldiers like others", who had served almost in a fourth part of the armed forces.
This had the handiest reason to secure retirement and survivor's pension after the war in the West of Germany. However, according to the three editors, recent research reveals the legends.
General SS and Waffen-SS were intertwined
Structurally, ideally and personnel, the military sub-organization had been intertwined with the protective "SS" guard, also with the staff of guard teams and commanders in the concentration camps.
Like science, today the old self-representation is in doubt that the Waffen-SS as a fire-brigade on the fronts in the East as in the West freed the defenses from difficult situations. However, military training, fighting power and efficiency from division to division were much too different for such achievements.
For another reason, the always cultivated reputation of an elite unit can not be confirmed. In the second half of the war, a heterogeneous organization, which included even non-German soldiers into their ranks, was drawn from the ideologically and racially hand-picked Waffen SS, which at best was fascist-colored nationalisms, at least in so far as these were voluntarily and not compulsorily conscripted.
Therefore, according to Jan Erik Schulte in the "Lesart", the motivation to enter the Waffen-SS was still an important field of research. Only now would it be recognized that a large number of women were employed as civilian workers or uniformed helpers.
Similarities between Waffen-SS and Wehrmacht
The boundaries between ideologically motivated genocide and participation in the Holocaust, between military security behind the front and war crimes were equally fluid in the conduct of Waffen-SS and Wehrmacht.
(Ferdinand Schöningh Verlag) Cover: "The Waffen-SS" by Jan Erik Schulte, Peter Lieb, Bernd Wegner (Hg.) (Ferdinand Schöningh Verlag)
Only on a selective basis - as in the case of partisan combats - could the editors report that units of the Waffen-SS had committed much more crimes than those of the Wehrmacht, especially in cases where women and children were among the victims and in whom ideological Attitudes played an essential role.
The anthology goes back to two conferences in 2010 and 2011, which were organized by the Hannah Arendt Institute in Dresden and by the German Committee for the History of the Second World War.
It presents the latest results and projects of research, formulates open, yet still to be worked questions. His subjects are the organizational history of the Waffen-SS, its recruitment practice, the self-portrait in Nazi propaganda, the crimes and the team-mates after the Second World War.
Jan Erik Schulte, Peter Lieb, Bernd Wegner (eds.): The Waffen-SS. New research
Ferdinand Schöningh Publisher Paderborn, 18 June 2014
446 pages, 39.90 euros
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I do not know what of this research has appeared in English. Maybe one of you does, indeed, know....
Such great literature acts as a good motivator for learning German.
I would say that fluency in both English and German is indeed pretty much essential for anybody with a serious interest in collecting Third Reich-era material.by Blitzvogel
I have always felt that you can't have a truly serious collecting interest without also being interested in the history behind the artifacts, as they didn't exist in a vacuum, and while the vast majority of secondary literature on uniforms, insignia, decorations and other militaria is in English, the best historical and biographical studies on the Third Reich - especially the newer ones - are in German.
Also, all the primary sources are (obviously) in German as well.
Of course, when it comes to the Nazi era in particular, a thorough and deep understanding of the Third Reich and all that it stood for is also quite a useful antidote against becoming too enamored with the - often outwardly attractive - material the collector handles, be it uniforms, decorations, artwork or photographs.
After all, if there is one thing the Nazis understood well, it was powerful symbolism, corporate design and propaganda.
Well said, Andreas, and since you are not only a human encyclopaedia, but also a genius translator, we are especially grateful for you here. I posted the book so that people
like yourself and others can read such a thing. At huge effort (and no Amazon...) I try to keep abreast of the most recent literature in the field, especially because it is my job in real life, but also because the effort has merit for collectors. Hurra! The book actually has mistakes about SS uniform, but so what, the rest of the book is superb.
Last edited by Friedrich-Berthold; 05-06-2017 at 07:39 PM.
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