Waffen-SS

Matthias Schröder (1969) 2000-ben Münsterben védte meg a kötet alapját képező disszertációját, azóta mint szabadúszó történész és újságíró dolgozik ugyanott, jelentősebb munkája nem jelent meg. Figyelme még az egyetemen fordult a Vlaszov-mozgalom felé, ahol 1996-ban külön kutatócsoportot létesítettek a Friedrich Buchardt vezette „Sonderkommando Ost” vizsgálatára. Innen eredeztethető a balti németek iránti elfogultsága, mely  több helyütt szubjektív látásmódba csap át. Bár magam is a balti német elnevezést használtam (s a recenzióban végig ezt teszem), a szerző jelzi, nem helyes a szakirodalomban elterjedt „Baltendeutsche” (=balti német) elnevezés, hiszen az a náci Volksdeutsch (=népi német) eszmeiségből szármatik, ezért – amint azt a címben is olvashatjuk – ő tudatosan mindenütt a „Deuschbalten”-t alkalmazza, ami lefordítva meglehetősen magyartalan lenne. Ebből a rövid előjáróból is kiderülhetett már, hogy a könyv nem Vlaszovék körül forog, hanem választ keres a következő kérdésekre: milyen érdekérvényesítő ereje volt a balti német nácik kelet-politikájának, milyen szellemi kapcsolata volt ennek a náci kelet-politikával, végezetül pedig meddig töltött be katalizátor szerepet törekvéseikben maga Vlaszov tábornok?

Powieść historyczna, fikcja literacka oparta na prawdziwych wydarzenia z czasu II wojny światowej. Historia zamachu na Adolfa Hitlera z 8 listopada 1939 roku przeprowadzona w Monachium przez stolarza Georga Elsera. Alternatywna wersja wydarzeń - Janus - Dwie twarze Heinricha Himmlera.

W książce tej chciałbym przedstawić przebieg bitwy na południowym skrzydle frontu wschodniego w lutym-marcu 1943 r., toczącej się wokół Charkowa i w Donbasie. Rozwijająca się ofensywa zimowa Armii Czerwonej, rozpoczęta pod Stalingradem, osiągnęła wtedy etap, w którym los II wojny światowej mógł stać się zupełnie inny. Duża
część sił III Rzeszy na froncie wschodnim zagrożona została okrążeniem i zniszczeniem. Tematem tego opracowania jest sposób, w jaki Wehrmacht uniknął klęski na skalę znacznie większą niż Stalingrad.

Under okkupasjonen vokste det frem et nytt norsk politi etter tysk modell. Politiaspirantskolen på Kongsvinger var selve grunnsteinen i denne omdannelsen. Under rettsoppgjøret ble bare et mindretall av de som gikk på de såkalte ”kongsvingerkursene” straffet og flere fikk fortsette i politiet. Men hva lærte man egentlig på Kongsvinger? Og hva skulle politiminister Jonas Lie bruke ”det nye norske politi” til? Denne artikkelen tar for seg forholdet mellom okkupasjonstidens ”vanlige” norske ordenspolitifolk og deres beryktede tyske kolleger – Einsatzgruppenes bødler på Østfronten.

Translated by Katharina Straub (original German version available online: http://portal-militaergeschichte.de/toeppel_kurowski)
Franz Kurowski was one of the writers who shaped the popular image of the Wehrmacht. To this day, he is perceived as reliable "German historian," especially abroad. The fact is, however, that his works are not only biased but also partly based on falsified sources.

In de zomer van 1944 was Narva de meest oostelijk gelegen stad die Hitler-Duitsland nog in handen had. De Nederlandse soldaten van het SS-Freiwilligen Panzergrenadierregiment 48 ‘General Seyffardt’ ondergingen hier hun grootste nederlaag. Wie vandaag de dag het oude
slagveld bezoekt zal een totaal andere herdenkingssfeer aantreffen dan
in de West-Europese landen: Rusland wordt nog altijd beschouwd als de
grootste vijand van de Baltische staten.

La batalla de Kursk, también denominada Operación Ciudadela, da nombre a una serie de choques armados que tuvieron lugar entre julio y agosto de 1943 en la región de ese mismo nombre en Rusia en el contexto de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. En ella, las tropas del ejército alemán harían el último esfuerzo ofensivo en el frente del este, agrupando el grueso de sus fuerzas acorazadas y sus más modernas armas, pasando por las unidades más potentes y sus generales más prestigiosos, enfrentándose con tropas del Ejército Rojo de la Unión de Repúblicas Socialistas Soviéticas. La operación recibió el nombre en clave de Operación Zitadelle (Ciudadela). La fase de ofensiva soviética entre el 12 julio al 23 agosto de 1943 fue la primera vez que el Ejército Rojo derrotó a los alemanes en pleno verano. La Batalla de Kursk tiene tanta importancia porque significó el primer combate en que la ofensiva Blitzkrieg alemana fue derrotada antes de que pudiera romper las defensas enemigas y además fue un triunfo soviético en estrategia avanzada. El modelo de operación estratégica utilizado por los soviéticos en esta batalla ha obtenido un puesto en los planes de estudio de las escuelas militares.
Tras la victoria soviética en Stalingrado, el Ejército Rojo desencadenó una serie de ofensivas obligando a los alemanes a evacuar el grupo de Ejércitos A ubicado en el Cáucaso por temor a que fueran aislados (cosa que hubiera sido un desastre aún mayor que el de Stalingrado), quedando aislada la cabeza de puente de Kuban. Los soviéticos sobreexplotaron su victoria, llegando hasta más allá de Járkov, cerca del Cuartel General de Erich von Manstein en Zaporozhye, donde fueron rechazados por una bien dirigida contraofensiva de este mismo general. De esta manera los alemanes capturaron de nuevo la ciudad de Járkov, formándose un saliente soviético centrado en Kursk.
Hitler decidió destruir el saliente, seguro de contar con las fuerzas necesarias para que Alemania retomara la iniciativa. Los soviéticos descubrieron el plan alemán y mediante medidas defensivas en el saliente planearon desgastar el ataque alemán para después contraatacar a las fuerzas desgastadas. El desembarco aliado en Sicilia acabaría con las esperanzas alemanas y la operación Ciudadela sería suspendida. En Kursk, los alemanes quemaron casi todas sus reservas en cuanto a carros de combate se refiere. También se notó en las bajas humanas, dando lugar a la pérdida de muchos hombres en ambos bandos, que con dificultad Alemania podría reemplazar. Kursk marcó el inicio de un avance soviético que no mermaría hasta la toma de Berlín.

An evacuation of about 350,000 ethnic Germans from Nazi-occupied Ukraine to the Polish Warthegau occurred between late 1943 and mid-1944. In an improvised response to the Red Army's steady, westward advance, the SS began to integrate ethnic Germans into " Greater " Germany upon completion of racial screening at its Immigration Main Office in Lodz, which served as the Nazi equivalent of " Ellis Island " for all of Europe's ethnic Germans (the so-called Volksdeutsche). The " Long Trek " on foot or by wagon and train represented one part of a broader humanitarian crisis that afflicted Central and Eastern Europe under both the Nazis and Soviet Communists, including above all Hitler's Holocaust (1941-1945) and Stalin's mass deportation of thirteen nationality groups (including ethnic Germans) to remote special settlements in the east (1938-1951). One distinguishing feature of the ethnic German experience in Ukraine was that this minority group found itself caught between two powerful rival ideologies and thus twice endured forced mass-population transfers. The fate of ethnic Germans in Nazi-held Poland also highlighted the stark racial dichotomy of Hitler's New Order. The SS in Lodz processed ethnic Germans into the Third Reich just as that city's Jewish population, Europe's last major Ghetto, faced liquidation. About 20,000-25,000 of Ukraine's ethnic Germans died on the trek west. After the war, more than 200,000 Soviet citizens of German nationality under Allied agreements suffered repatriation from occupied Germany to Soviet Siberia and Central Asia. Roughly 30,000 out of the 75,000 permitted to remain in postwar West Germany chose to leave Europe after 1948 as Displaced Persons (DP's) for destinations in the Western Hemisphere and Australia. Jews, Poles, and ethnic German minorities comprised the three primary DP groups during this time. Consequently, the years of upheaval, repression and even mass murder diminished Eastern Europe's ethnic diversity and longstanding historical communities.

1940–2020: 80 Jahre ist es her, seit die Vorgänge der Südtiroler Option ihren dramatischen Höhepunkt erreicht haben. Aus diesem Anlass thematisiert die Publikation bislang völlig unbekanntes nationalsozialistisches Propagandamaterial, das für die geschlossene Abwanderung der Südtiroler Bevölkerung in das Großdeutsche Reich warb. Die Entwürfe stammen aus dem Nachlass des Südtiroler SS-Mitglieds Josef Dorfmann (1921–1944) und waren an den „Volksgruppenführer“ Peter Hofer adressiert. In ihnen kommen verstärkt visuelle Aspekte zum Tragen, die bisher noch kaum in den Blick geraten sind. Die apologetischen Artefakte richteten sich bevorzugt an jugendliche Eliten, die sich im Völkischen Kampfring Südtirols (VKS) oder in seinem pronazistischen Umfeld formierten. Die Propagandazeichnungen stammen von unterschiedlichen Händen, die nur teilweise zugewiesen werden können. Aufgrund von Dorfmanns Gesamtregie bilden sie aber ein eindrucksvolles Gesamtdokument des völkischen Totalitarismus. Obwohl die Entwürfe für die geschlossene Abwanderung in das Deutsche Reich warben, geben sie auch ambivalente Momente der Beharrung zu erkennen. Diese sind nur vor dem Hintergrund widersprüchlicher Emotionen zu erschließen.

Ottanta anni fa il drammatico percorso che portava alle Opzioni sudtirolesi giungeva al culmine. La monografia presenta materiali della propaganda nazionalsocialista di cui prima d’ora si ignorava l’esistenza, ideati per promuovere l’emigrazione compatta della popolazione sudtirolese nel grande Reich germanico. I bozzetti provengono dal lascito di Josef Dorfmann (1921-1944), un membro sudtirolese delle SS, ed erano indirizzati al Volksgruppenführer Peter Hofer. In essi vengono valorizzati con forza aspetti visuali a cui prima d’ora non si era prestata nessuna attenzione. Gli artefatti apologetici si rivolgevano soprattutto alle élite giovanili che si andavano costituendo nel Völkischer Kampfring Südtirols (VKS – Fronte patriottico sudtirolese) o negli ambienti filonazisti che ruotavano attorno a esso. I bozzetti propagandistici sono di diverse mani, solo parzialmente identificabili. Tuttavia, la regia d’insieme di Dorfmann li ha trasformati in un impressionante documento d’insieme del totalitarismo völkisch. Pur promuovendo l’emigrazione compatta nel Reich germanico, i bozzetti evidenziano anche gli aspetti ambivalenti di questa cocciuta insistenza, che possono essere colti soltanto tenendo a mente che esistevano stati d’animo profondamente contraddittori.

Sieben Wochen lang hatten die deutschen und ungarischen Verteidiger im eingeschlossenen Budapest den Angriffen sowjetischer und rumänischer Verbände standgehalten. Doch schließlich wurden sie im westlichen Stadtteil Buda auf engem Raum zusammengedrängt und litten unter Verpflegungs-und Munitionsmangel. Bis zuletzt hatte sie vor allem die Hoffnung aufrechterhalten, sie würden durch deutsche Kräfte von außen befreit. Erst, als die Lage vollkommen aussichtslos war, wagten die Verteidiger einen Ausbruchsversuch - doch dieser endete in einem Desaster.

Book abstract: This is the first systematic pan-European study of the hundreds of thousands of non-Germans who fought - either voluntarily or under different kinds of pressures - for the Waffen-SS (or auxiliary police formations operating in the occupied East). Building on the findings of regional studies by other scholars - many of them included in this volume - The Waffen-SS aims to arrive at a fuller picture of those non-German citizens (from Eastern as well as Western Europe) who served under the SS flag. Where did the non-Germans in the SS come from (socially, geographically, and culturally)? What motivated them? What do we know about the practicalities of international collaboration in war and genocide, in terms of everyday life, language, and ideological training? Did a common transnational identity emerge as a result of shared ideological convictions or experiences of extreme violence? In order to address these questions (and others), The Waffen-SS adopts an approach that does justice to the complexity of the subject, adding a more nuanced, empirically sound understanding of collaboration in Europe during World War II, while also seeking to push the methodological boundaries of the historiographical genre of perpetrator studies by adopting a transnational approach.
See: https://www.academia.edu/29804117/B%C3%B6hler_Jochen_Gerwarth_Robert_Eds._2016_The_Waffen-SS._A_European_History._Oxford_Oxford_University_Press

Although Hitler may have had much cause for concern after Germany's horrific defeat at Stalingrad, he was by no means ready to give up his struggle against the Soviet Union. After all, the defeat of communism and the supposedly subhuman Slavic peoples of the Soviet Union had always been a central goal of Nazi ideology. Hitler had, moreover, faced considerable adversity in the past, but in the end he had always triumphed over any difficulties. As a young man, he had been wounded during Germany's ill-fated attempt to defeat the Allies in World War I; in the political sphere, his first major offensive -the so-called Beer Hall Putsch of 1923 in Munich - had ended with a jail sentence. Now, two decades later, Hitler faced bleak prospects once again. Furthermore, the magnitude of the disaster at Stalingrad, where what was left of the encircled German 6th Army surrendered to the Soviet Red Army on 2 February 1943, was, of course, far greater than the setback he had suffered years earlier in his attempt to seize power in Munich.

Documents showing the Nazi-engagement of the "Deutsche Volksgruppe in Rumänein" in the year 1944.

This is the fifth series of documents concerning the history of the Nazi "Deutsche Volksgruppe in Rumänien" in the year 1944; the year 1945 will follow.

Le Waffen-SS parteciparono a quasi tutte le battaglie della seconda guerra mondiale; i suoi soldati diedero prova di combattività, efficienza e forte motivazione ideologica al punto che, da una parte, esse si macchiarono di efferati episodi di violenza sommaria contro civili e prigionieri di guerra e, dall'altra, sovente dimostrarono un ingiustificabile disprezzo del pericolo.

Wim Sassen never lost contact with his former SS Kriegberichter comrades. After the war they maintained contacted and most of them resumed their career as correspondents or editors of daily's and magazines. Out of this group many were recruted by the German Intelligence Service, the BND.

The French Resistance to German occupation during World War Two lacks a comprehensive study that evaluates how effective it was.  This paper evaluates the military effectiveness of the French Resistance as a guerrilla movement, tracing it's development from it's origins in 1940 through the liberation of France in 1944.

My doctoral dissertation examines the experiences of the Italian volunteers in the Waffen-SS troops using in-depth interviews with former volunteers as the main primary source. This phenomenon, even if significant in size (depending on the source, some 15 000-20 000 Italian men volunteered in the Waffen-SS), has been hitherto largely unknown to historical research. The available literature on the Italian volunteers, mainly written by military history enthusiast journalists and methodologically weak, concentrates mainly on the combat operations and military organization, and offers a rather stereotypical profile of the volunteers.

My dissertation does not aim to reconstruct the military history of the different divisions of the Waffen-SS in which Italian volunteers operated but instead to examine the subjective, private and intimate experience of the volunteers in order to understand the motivations, attitudes, beliefs and cultural and family background, as well as their political ideas. The main objective of my doctoral dissertation is to discover the ideological precepts of the volunteers’ political credo. As the last phase of fascism and its ideology, often defined as the “Germanisation” or “Nazification” of fascism, is still the object of wide academic debate, a better understanding of the volunteers’ ideology also contributes to deepening overall knowledge of the nature of this last phase.

The theoretical frame of my dissertation lies in oral history, in particular in the postmodernist approach to oral history, through which I reconstruct the volunteers’ ideology. In-depth interviews with former volunteers are the main primary source, but multiple data collection methods have been adopted. Phone interviews and correspondence with the volunteers have also been considered as primary sources. In addition to interviews and correspondence, family archives consisting of diaries, correspondence with the volunteers’ relatives and photographic material have also been collected and examined. An ethnographic observation of the volunteers’ domestic spaces has been conducted during the in-depth interviews, and photo self-elicitation techniques have been used in cases where the volunteers were willing to share their photographs.

An exhaustive portrait of the ideological structure of the volunteers has been obtained, as well as of the cultural and social origins of the values that contributed to the rise and adoption of this ideology. Further, the volunteers’ motivations to enlist have been clearly reconstructed, together with their cultural, political, social and military backgrounds. The results of the research are particularly relevant both for comprehension of the Italian phenomenon of volunteering in the Waffen-SS and for the reconstruction of the ideological dynamics of the last phase of fascism. The volunteers’ political and ideological system, which can be defined as the Italian SS-fascist ideology, disagrees strongly with the vaguely described ideological profile offered by previous studies that describe volunteers as generically “super-fascist”. The research also offers the opportunity for a deeper understanding of the final fascist ideological trajectory, currently defined, not without a certain level of approximation, as the “Germanisation” or “Nazification” of fascist ideology.