From their humble beginnings as a small, select band responsible for
protecting the leader of the Nazi Party, to its million members and 38
divisions by the end of World War II, the SS achieved some of the most
stunning victories in the annals of warfare, while also committing a
catalogue of war crimes. Including 500 photographs, many seldom seen
outside the personal archives of former soldiers, Waffen-SS: Hitler's
Elite in Photographs contains all the battles and campaigns that the
Waffen-SS fought, including Poland, France and on the Eastern Front. The
book charts the growth of the Panzer divisions, their battlefield
tactics, recruitment and organization of units, and an examination of
the weapons and equipment. Leading figures, such as 'Sepp' Dietrich,
Felix Steiner and Joachim Peiper, are also featured. But the Waffen-SS
were not just highly-trained troops. From the beginning the
black-uniformed men of the armed Schutzstaffel (Protection Squad) were
ideological warriors, selected on the basis of rigid racial and physical
standards, who viewed with contempt the members of those races classed
by National Socialist ideology as being sub-human. This book does not
shy away from their atrocities. Waffen-SS: Hitler's Elite in
Photographs is a full pictorial record of the development, combat
actions and criminal activity of Hitler's Praetorian Guard, before and
during World War II.
