The SS - Gordon Williamson

Initially a handful of men raised to be Adolf Hitler's personal bodyguard, the SS - meaning protection squad - eventually became a multi-headed beast with many responsibilities. It ran internal security with ruthless efficiency; it implemented the Nazi racial policy and ran the concentration camps; it was an important, and in the end solely reliable, part of the Reich's intelligence services; and it developed its own combat units. Numbering over 900,000 soldiers by the end of 1944, the Waffen-SS (Armed SS) campaigned in Poland, western Europe, the Balkans and the Soviet Union, fighting to the end in the ruins of Berlin.The SS: Hitler's Instrument of Terror is an authoritative account of Hitler's private army. Every aspect of the SS is examined in full: its units and their battles, the foreign legions, the various non-military departments, and the key figures who led formations in the field and oversaw internal affairs within Nazi Germany, such as Heinrich Himmler, 'Sepp' Dietrich and Kurt Meyer. In addition, the questions of atrocities committed against prisoners and civilians, and the SS's role in the concentration camp system, are addressed in full. The appendix includes biographies of some of the more notorious SS members, such as Adolf Eichmann, and Reinhard Heydrich.Ranging from its post-World War I origins to the fall of Berlin, the book will be of interest to both the student of military history and the general reader. Illustrated with 270 colour and black and white photographs, many from private collections and seldom seen, as well as 25 colour artworks, The SS: Hitler's Instrument of Terror is the definitive account of Nazi Germany's most notorious organization.