Soldiers of Destruction: The SS Death's Head Division, 1933-1945

[Larry deZeng]

Hi Rolf -

As you might imagine, finding a fair and balanced account of anything concerning the Waffen-SS (or anything, for that matter) is a bit difficult. The available literature tends to either detract or to support. Here is a list of books on the Division, but I'll let others express their opinions and make recommendations because I am not a specialist on the Waffen-SS:


Massimiliano Afiero - Totenkopf: la divisione 'Testa di morto' della Waffen SS
Roger Hunt - Death’s Head: Combat record of the SS Totenkopf Division in France, 1940 (translation of a book published 1942)
Cyril Jolly - The vengeance of Private Pooley
Chris Mann - SS-Totenkopf: The History of the 'Death's Head' Division 1940-45
Charles W. Sydnor - Soldiers of Destruction: The SS Death's Head Division, 1933-1945
Charles Trang - Totenkopf
Karl Ullrich - Like a Cliff in the Ocean: The History of the 3. SS-Panzer-Division "Totenkopf"
Karl Ullrich - Wie ein Fels im Meer: Bildband
Vopersal - Soldaten, Kämpfer, Kameraden (9 vol)

--Larry

[Bobwirtz]

What about ORDER OF THE DEATH'S HEAD? I read it so many years ago I forgot if it was only about the camps, or did it extend into the Waffen-SS division?

Bob

[Larry deZeng]

What about ORDER OF THE DEATH'S HEAD? I read it so many years ago I forgot if it was only about the camps, or did it extend into the Waffen-SS division?
Bob

By (Hans?) Höhne? The book was a wide-ranging overview of the entire SS organization, IIRC, and did not focus on the divisions. Only a few of them were mentioned in passing.

--Larry

[Mark C. Yerger]

Vopersal is best by far

I haven't seen Trang's book but friends told me its loaded with errors that will hopefully be corrected in the next edition due (I think) in 2008.

Ullrich's is as good as a single volume can be from a general overall view. Remember LAH and DAS REICH both needed 5 or more books for their official history.

The 2 I mentioned regards 3SS related battles by George Nipe are:

Decision in the Ukraine
and
Kharkov

The only senior commanders of "Totenkopf" I met and became close with were Baum and Ullrich, but both were very kind and assisted me in a lot of ways.

Mark

[Mikhealc]

Totenkopf

I would like those that say the book is full of errors to really document the errors. By the way, getting a decoration wrong doesn't mean the book is without merit. It would be interesting if the errors were not based on controversy but are clearly errors. I think it is one of the finest books I ever read that shows that the Waffen SS was not quite as innocent of the SS atrorcities as they proclaimed. It was interesting the people like Stroop, of Warsaw infamy, put their combat time in the 3rd SS. Eicke was certainly a chaismatic leader but he was definitely a dyed in wool Nazi whom even the Nazis at times couldn't tolerate. So please tell me what the glaring errors of the book were besides misstating an award. Mike Custer

[DaveNZ]

Professor Charles Sydnor went on to greater glory too, becoming an "expert" witness for the Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations (OSI) in deportation hearings back in the late 1980s and through the 1990s.

Off the top of my head and without the book infront of me: is he the guy that put out the "Encyclopedia of the Third Reich?

that was a horrible book: one big anti nazi rant and rave and certainly not an objective overview of the nazi era.

but i might have the names mixed up

[Larry deZeng]

DaveNZ wrote:

Off the top of my head and without the book infront of me: is he the guy that put out the "Encyclopedia of the Third Reich?

No, that was by someone else. Charles S. Sydnor has written four books. The other three all deal with American politics and political figures in the period during and following the Revolutionary War, roughly 1776-1846.

He never went back to the Third Reich/Waffen-SS theme, evidently.

--Larry

[Mikhealc]

Imo

I personally would like to see more scholarly works like Sydnor's as opposed to books with pictures, without indexes or bibliographies that recount the same old information that has been heard a thousand times. The only other author I read of Syndor's quality on the Waffen SS are the books by Michael Reynolds. Mike Custer

[Larry deZeng]

I personally would like to see more scholarly works like Sydnor's as opposed to books with pictures, without indexes or bibliographies that recount the same old information that has been heard a thousand times. The only other author I read of Syndor's quality on the Waffen SS are the books by Michael Reynolds. Mike Custer

Hi Mike -

SOLUTION: stop reading books about Third Reich subjects in English and start reading the ones in German. Scholarly German language titles are usually filled with footnotes and bibliographic citations. We still see a few in English published by the university presses, but they are becoming fewer and fewer. The long-term outlook is not good as the publishing industry continues to regress.

--Larry

[Terry OToole]

i bought this book in 1980 it was marketed as a rare American import , think i paid £40 which was a lot of money , i ve read it a few times and found it a good read and really probably read it again , not being an ss scholar i think i ll judge the book on the whole , i like it anyway

[Mikhealc]

German books

Larry,

I agree German books are one solution. However, it is nice to see some books in English that actually take a scholarly approach to an interesting subject. But I've written enough on this already. Mike

[behblc]

I was looking at a thread on another board a few nights ago - photos of the Waffen SS - occasionally a new photo was seen but more often than not photos lifted from general studies - the same photos we have all seen over and over again.
Photographic records are fine but they are only an aspect and are far from a history, at best a feel for what was.

Well written and informative books , they are out there if you look for them - generally speaking publisher and author are a good guide .
(eg Mark Yerger / RJ Bender).

[John P. Moore]

There are some relevant examples of Sydnor's shortcomings on this thread on the AHF forum. These examples raise doubt over Sydnor's understanding of the German language and his inability to distinguish between a platoon leader and Battalion/Abteilung commmander.

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtop...106387&start=0

John

[John Pic]

I just read a book written by a German..Uwe Timm..the book is called "In my Brother's Shadow, A life and Death in the SS". The book is about the Authors brother who served in the TK division and was killed in battle..the author tries to make sense of the stories of attrocities and looks at his brothers letters home and how his parents tried hard to ignore the issues that came up after the war was over. Very interesting reading although if youre a sympathizer this book may not be for you.

[ramon]

Charles Sydnor's Soldiers of Destruction was the revision of his PhD dissertation.

I would suggest also reading James J. Weingartner's work on the LAH Adolf Hitler. This title also was the revision of Weingartner's PhD dissertation.


Cheers,

Ramon