Voices of the Waffen SS

VOICES OF THE WAFFEN SS Firsthand Accounts - Stories - Memories from the Men Who Were ThereBehind the photographs, uniforms, battles, and infamous insignia were individual men whose lives became entangled with one of the most controversial military organizations of the Second World War.In Voices of the Waffen SS, author Gerry Villani brings together personal accounts, recollections, interviews, documents, and historical material to examine the experiences of men who served in Waffen-SS formations during World War II.Their stories take the reader from recruitment and training to some of the most brutal battlefields in Europe. They describe combat on the Eastern and Western Fronts, the experiences of German and foreign volunteers, the final collapse of the Third Reich, and the memories carried by survivors long after the fighting ended.Among these pages are accounts connected with formations including Leibstandarte, Das Reich, Totenkopf, Wiking, Hohenstaufen, Hitlerjugend, Langemarck, Wallonien, Nederland, Maria Theresia, and others. The book also explores the development of the Waffen SS, its training and battlefield engagements, foreign volunteers and conscripts, wartime correspondence, and the experiences of individual veterans.But this is not a celebration of the Waffen SS or National Socialism.The history of the SS cannot be separated from Nazi ideology, persecution, atrocities, and war crimes. Voices of the Waffen SS addresses those subjects while also preserving firsthand testimony from individuals who experienced the war from within Waffen-SS formations. Their recollections are presented as historical testimony-not as an endorsement of the organization or the ideology under which it served.Some volunteered. Others were conscripted. They came from Germany and from countries across Europe. Some survived years of combat; countless others disappeared on battlefields from Russia to Western Europe.Decades later, those who survived were left with memories of comrades, fear, defeat, captivity, loss, and a war that continued to haunt many of them for the rest of their lives.History records armies, divisions, victories, defeats, and crimes. This book records the voices of the men who were there.VOICES OF THE WAFFEN SS Their accounts. Their memories. Their war.Gerry Villani