Wegbereiter der Shoah

Refutes the belief that the men of the Waffen-SS were "ordinary soldiers". They were, in fact, political soldiers; almost all had volunteered for the SS and identified with Nazi ideology. Already in 1939-40 in Poland they took part in massacres and deportations. In preparation for the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Himmler established the Kommandostab, with control over two infantry and two cavalry regiments, as an instrument for carrying out his racial policy. These regiments, moving through Belarus, the Pripet Marshes, and Ukraine, had orders to "cleanse" the rear of all hostile elements (i.e. partisans) and the Jews who allegedly supported them. Commanders were meant to interpret these orders as applying to Jews of all ages and both sexes; those who failed to do so were sharply reprimanded or transferred. Generally, both officers and men carried out the orders enthusiastically. When Himmler saw the success of the Waffen-SS, he extended the orders to the Einsatzgruppen and the Ordnungspolizei, who had previously killed mainly Jewish men of military age. They, together with the Wehrmacht, gradually took over the functions of the Waffen-SS. Later, they rounded up Jews in hiding and destroyed ghettos. They also took a leading part in "Aktion Reinhard" in Poland and in suppression of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. After the war, they resumed life as ordinary citizens. Only in the 1960s did German state attorneys begin investigation of the war crimes of some of the officers; but after lengthy proceedings most of these petered out, and the Waffen-SS veterans' organization constructed the myth of "ordinary soldiers". (From the Bibliography of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)